Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Around 2500 monasteries existed in Tibet in 1959. By 1962 only 70 remained.
John Avedon's In Exile from the Land of Snows is largely an account of the Tibetan com-
munity in Dharamsala, and is an excellent and informative read.
The Cultural Revolution
Among the writings of Mao Zedong is a piece entitled 'On Going Too Far'. It is a subject
on which he was particularly well qualified to write. What started as a power struggle
between Mao and Liu Shaoqi in 1965 had morphed by August 1966 into the Great Prolet-
arian Cultural Revolution, an anarchic movement that was to shake China to its core,
trample its traditions underfoot, cause countless deaths and turn the running of the country
over to rival mobs of Red Guards. All of China suffered in Mao's bold experiment in cre-
ating a new socialist paradise, but Tibet suffered more than most.
The first Red Guards arrived in Lhasa in July 1966. Two months later, the first rally was
organised and Chinese-educated Tibetan youths raided the Jokhang, smashing statues and
burning thangkas. It was the beginning of the large-scale destruction of virtually every re-
ligious monument in Tibet, and was carried out in the spirit of destroying the 'Four Olds':
old thinking, old culture, old habits and old customs. Images of Chairman Mao were
plastered over those of Buddha, as Buddhist mantras were replaced by communist slogans.
The Buddha himself was accused of being a 'reactionary'.
Tibetan farmers were forced to collectivise into communes and were told what to grow
and when to grow it. Anyone who objected was arrested and subjected to struggle ses-
sions, during which Tibetans were forced to denounce the Dalai Lama as a parasite and
traitor.
Cultural Revolution-Era Ruins
Jampaling Kumbum, Tsangpo Valley
Thöling Monastery, Zanda
 
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