Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09CHENGDU228
2009-10-15 09:20:00
SECRET
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

TIBETAN MONKS SAY VOA BROADCASTS ARE INFORMATION LIFELINE

Tags:  PHUM SOCI VOA CH 
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RR RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0228/01 2880920
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 150920Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3456
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 4150
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000228 

SIPDIS

STATE PASS BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2034
TAGS: PHUM SOCI VOA CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN MONKS SAY VOA BROADCASTS ARE INFORMATION LIFELINE

REF: (A)CHENGDU 117 (B) 08 CHENGDU 189 (C) 08 CHENGDU 30 (D) FBS2008121931718

CHENGDU 00000228 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000228

SIPDIS

STATE PASS BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2034
TAGS: PHUM SOCI VOA CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN MONKS SAY VOA BROADCASTS ARE INFORMATION LIFELINE

REF: (A)CHENGDU 117 (B) 08 CHENGDU 189 (C) 08 CHENGDU 30 (D) FBS2008121931718

CHENGDU 00000228 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (d)

1. (S) Summary: Chengdu ethnic Tibetan LES (strictly protect)
in early October spent a week at Labrang Monastery in Gansu
Province, visiting family and senior monks -- including the
chief religious tutor to the Beijing-recognized 11th Panchen
Lama. The tutor did not have a picture of the young Panchen
Lama among his large collection of photos of prominent monks,
which included the Dalai Lama -- a clear sign that he does not
think the Panchen Lama is legitimate. One monk said that
earlier this year, a group of young monks destroyed the Chinese
government-installed cable TV system in order to allow monks to
install their own satellite dishes to watch Voice of America
(VOA) television and access VOA and RFA audio channels on the
satellite. The government and the monastery democratic
management committee have decided not to intervene for now.
Labrang monks invited to villages to chant prayers sometimes
help villagers reorient their satellite dishes so they can watch
VOA, the monks said. End Summary.




2. (S) In early October, Chengdu ethnic Tibetan LES visited
Labrang Monastery in southern Gansu Province. Labrang is home
to 1,200 registered monks and 2,000 unregistered monks of the
Dalai Lama's Gelug school, and is the largest Gelug monastery in
the Amdo region of traditional Tibet (Note: Amdo now consists of
most of Qinghai Province, as well as portions of Gansu and
Sichuan Provinces. End Note.). Chengdu LES was educated at
Labrang as a lay student for nine years before attending Chinese
schools. The monastery, because of its size and perhaps also
because of the influence of its abbot, Jamyang Shepa, has
preserved a greater margin of autonomy than medium and small
monasteries in the Tibetan areas of China.



A Visit with the Beijing Panchen Lama's Religious Tutor

-------------- --------------




3. (S) Chengdu LES visited Jamyang Gyamtso, religious (tantric)
tutor to the 11th (Beijing-recognized) Panchen Lama, at Labrang

Monastery in early October. Gyamtso spends most of his time at
the monastery and goes to Beijing only on special occasions.
Gyamtso's own room and chapel are filled with pictures of other
distinguished lamas, including a small picture of the Dalai
Lama. Remarkably, although the Panchen Lama is the second most
important lama in Tibetan Buddhism, there is no picture of his
student, the Beijing-recognized Panchen Lama -- a clear sign
that he does not think the Panchen Lama is legitimate. Gyamtso
said that all the monks have a strong wish for the Dalai Lama to
return. Gyantso said he stays well informed on the Dalai Lama
and Dharamsala through visitors who have been to India and from
what other monks tell him about what they have heard on VOA.
When Chengdu LES told Gyamtso that he works at the U.S.
Consulate in Chengdu, the lama said, "Your work is very
important -- you must be dedicated and not allow yourself to be
distracted."




4. (S) In a separate conversation with one of the leading monks
in the monastery, Palden Gyamtso, tutor to the Seventh Gontang
Tsang, the latest in a line of Gansu Tibetan re-incarnated
lamas, told Chengdu LES that the statements of Chinese officials
are not trustworthy and nobody can understand how they think.



VOA/RFA Broadcasts Widely Listened to in Tibetan Areas

-------------- --------------




5. (SBU) Time and again (refs A and B),Tibetan contacts have
told us that they frequently listen to VOA and Radio Free Asia
(RFA). The proliferation of inexpensive satellite dishes and
receivers across China has made access to these broadcasts
easier, although in some areas, such as Sichuan Province's Ganzi
Prefecture, the local government has erected tall towers in an
effort to jam satellite signals. Such jamming works in the case
of satellite dishes, however, only for dishes within a few miles
of and below the level of the jamming transmitters on the
towers.




6. (S) The broadcasts are of particular importance at Labrang.

CHENGDU 00000228 002.2 OF 002


Two monks discussed with Chengdu LES how earlier this year a
group of monks objected to the government's destruction in
October 2008 of satellite dishes monks used to watch VOA and
Indian television programs. This was part of a two year old
national campaign to remove many private satellite dishes and
replace them with government-controlled cable systems (refs C
and D). The group of monks completely destroyed the new
satellite/cable TV system that the government had installed at
the monastery. The group of monks then posted notices around the
monastery saying that the government's action was intolerable
and that they would "fight to the death" to prevent the
re-installation of the government's cable TV system in the
monastery. Many monks re-installed their own satellite dishes.




7. (S) The local government met with the Labrang Monastery
Democratic Management Committee (DMC) to try to resolve the
situation, but concluded that the DMC could not control the
situation and so decided to take no action for now. One of the
monks told Chengdu LES that there was an unconfirmed rumor that
there was an organization among the monks named Danshe Tsugpa,
which can be translated variously as "die for religion" or
"forever dead." The two monks said that monks invited to pray
at villages in religious ceremonies also sometimes helped
villagers reorient their dishes and adjust their receivers so as
to keep them constantly tuned to VOA.




8. (C) Over ten other monks whom Chengdu LES visited at Labrang
showed him the satellite connections to their computers which
allowing them to receive VOA TV and radio. The great majority
of Labrang monks have such access, the monks said. They also
have software installed on their computers that enables them to
defeat the Great Red Firewall and access websites blocked by the
Chinese government and to listen to access online radio and TV
broadcasts.



Information Gulf Widens Town-Monastery Political Divide

-------------- --------------




9. (S) The two monks said that the Tibetan language broadcasts
of VOA were the most important source of information for
Labrang's monks about the outside world. Chengdu LES noticed
the monks had very recent information -- for example during his
week-long stay, Tibetan monks were discussing President Obama's
Nobel Peace Prize and the award of the Lantos Prize to the Dalai
Lama. The two monks said that sometimes Tibetan cadres from the
township government would visit friends at the monastery to get
information about the outside world and the Tibetan
government-in-exile not available from the Chinese media. Some
monks say they listen to VOA so often that they understand the
Lhasa dialect of Tibetan much better now. The two monks
commented that the gap is widening between the township, which
gets its information from Chinese Central Television on one
side, and Labrang Monastery (and rural Tibetans who stand
together with the monks),who get their information via VOA.
Much more than before, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan situation
are discussed at Labrang. While the differences between the
monks at Labrang and the Tibetan cadres in the nearby township
used to be merely differences between their respective religious
and bureaucratic cultures, today the differences between the two
are much more political, said the two monks.



Influential Broadcasts, Volatile Situation: Accuracy Essential

-------------- --------------




10. (C) Comment: Given the high credibility of VOA broadcasts
among Tibetans and the unique information source these
broadcasts provide, the extent to which Tibetans are willing to
go to access the broadcasts, and the volatility of the Tibetan
situation, it is essential that VOA broadcasts maintain the high
standards of balance and accuracy they have shown to date. End
Comment.




11. (U) This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Beijing.
BROWN