Dharamshala: According to recent reports from Tibet, China has deployed significant military forces at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, the largest Tibetan Buddhist study centre in the world, located in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County, Karze, Tibet’s traditional Kham province, which has been incorporated into Sichuan Province.
Approximately 400 Chinese military personnel from Drakgo (Ch: Luhuo) and neighbouring counties in Karze (Ch: Ganzi) arrived at Larung Gar on 20 December 2024. The deployment is accompanied by helicopter surveillance, signalling an intensification of monitoring activities at the religious site.
Reliable sources reveal plans for stringent new regulations starting 2025. These policies will reportedly limit residency at Larung Gar to a maximum of 15 years and require registration of all monks and nuns. Moreover, authorities plan to reduce the number of religious practitioners at the institution. Chinese students are reportedly being asked to leave, suggesting a targeted approach to reducing the monastery’s population.
This development follows a pattern of systematic restrictions at Larung Gar. It previously endured major crackdowns in 2001 and 2016-2017, during which thousands of residential structures were demolished, and numerous practitioners were forcibly evicted.
Larung Gar is said to be the biggest Tibetan Buddhist institute in the world. The academy and monastery, founded in 1980, sprawls over a mountainside in Serthar county in eastern Tibet, and attracts thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns who wish to study there. The demolition of this renowned institute started on 20 July 2016 and continued till early May 2017. The population of Larung Gar has nearly halved in the past years from its original population of approximately 10,000.
The latest measures represent an escalation in China’s broader campaign to restrict religious freedom in Tibet, where traditional Buddhist institutions have faced increasing pressure under state policies aimed at controlling religious practice and education.
-Filed by the UN, EU, and the Human Rights Desk, Tibet Advocacy Section, DIIR
