Report: Buddhist monastery in Lhasa, Tibet, to reopen
BEIJING—Authorities opened a Buddhist monastery in Tibet's capital to tourists and followers this week for the first time since last month's deadly riots, state media reported Tuesday.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the Sera Monastery opened its doors on Monday and other monasteries will also be reopened soon. They were closed following anti-government riots in Lhasa on March 14.
"Monks have been taught legal knowledge in recent days and the monastery has resumed normal religious activities," Tenzin Namgyal, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying.
Chinese authorities have stepped up patriotic education classes on the monasteries, which require monks to do ritual denunciations of their spiritual leader, the exiled Dalai Lama, accept the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama and pledge allegiance to Beijing.
China has said that 22 people died in the riots while Tibetan exile groups say many times that number were killed in the violence and the ensuing crackdown.
Tibet and the surrounding provinces where protests broke out have been closed to foreigners since the unrest. Foreign visitors remain banned but domestic tour groups have been allowed into Tibet.
The protests, initially led by Buddhist monks, started peacefully on March 10, the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. They became violent four days later as Tibetans attacked cars and shops runs by Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group.
Police and armed troops had surrounded Lhasa's three main monasteries -- Sera, Drepung and Ganden -- along with the sacred Jokhang temple during the demonstrations and closed them off in the wake of the unrest to investigate which monks had been involved.
