Dharamshala, India — Reports from Tibet Times, carried by ANI on April 29, say authorities in Drago County, Tibet, are facing criticism after religious sites and institutions were reportedly altered or demolished. According to the accounts, a 99-foot Maitreya Buddha and dozens of Mani prayer wheels near Gaden Rabten Namgyal Ling Monastery were taken down in late 2021 amid tight surveillance and movement restrictions. The statue is said to have been relocated into a monastery assembly hall while its former outdoor site was converted into a large horse-racing circuit.
The Maitreya statue had been erected in 2015 with local government approval and community donations and was described as spiritually significant to residents. In a separate incident in October, local officials allegedly ordered the abrupt closure of the Geden Buddhist School, giving administrators three days to comply; the school was subsequently demolished and two sizeable new buildings were erected on the plot, their purpose not publicly clarified. Reports also say a 46-foot statue of Guru Rinpoche at a nearby monastery was destroyed on official orders.
More than a dozen people, including monks, were reportedly detained for sharing information externally. Many detainees are said to have been sent to a political re-education facility, with little confirmed information on their condition. Some detained monks were reportedly pressured to sign statements accepting responsibility for the removal of religious artefacts.
Observers quoted by Tibet Times compared the measures to earlier campaigns that evoke memories of the Cultural Revolution. The controversy has drawn renewed attention to local leadership after the unclear 2024 death of former county party secretary Wang Dongsheng, who previously oversaw large-scale demolitions at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, where thousands of monastic dwellings were removed and residents expelled, according to the report.
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