Authorities have begun relocating a 19th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery in China that’s anticipated to be submerged below water after the completion of the world’s tallest 3D-printed hydropower dam, two sources from the area informed Radio Free Asia.
The growth of the Yangqu hydropower station on the Yellow River – often known as the Machu River among the many Tibetans – in Qinghai province was began in 2022 and shall be accomplished later this yr.
For the previous two years, monks from Atsok Gon Dechen Choekhorling Monastery in Dragkar county, or Xinghai in Chinese language, have petitioned authorities to rescind relocation orders issued by China’s Nationwide Improvement and Reform Fee, or NDRC, a Tibetan supply stated, insisting on not being recognized to guard his security.
However in April 2023 the federal government’s Division of Nationwide Heritage declared that the artifacts and murals contained in the monastery had been of “no important worth or significance” and that its relocation would proceed, he stated.
Chinese language authorities have introduced to native residents that they may fund the prices of dismantling and reconstructing the monastery, and performing ceremonies and rituals on the relocated space, the sources stated.
Nevertheless, lots of the murals and surrounding stupas can’t be bodily moved and so shall be destroyed.
Tibetans additionally consider that the place is sacred: That it has been made holier over 135 years of prayers and observe by generations in the identical venue.
Disregard for cultural heritage
The dam’s development, Tibetans say, is yet one more instance of Beijing’s disregard for his or her tradition, faith and surroundings.
Movies obtained by RFA confirmed a relocation ceremony being held earlier this month outdoors Atsok Monastery whereas authorities addressed native residents from a stage flanked by vans and cranes on either side.
“The resettlement work may start with the federal government’s approval and the assist of the native inhabitants,” an area Chinese language official will be heard saying in a single video.
Different footage obtained by RFA present scores of Tibetan residents praying and prostrating themselves on the street and within the fields earlier than stupas close to Atsok Monastery in what sources stated was their method of “bidding farewell to this historical monastery that has been their place of devotion for generations of Tibetans.”
The monastery, based in 1889 and named after its founder Atsok Choktrul Konchog Choedar, is dwelling to greater than 160 monks. In 2021, the federal government issued an order forbidding monks below the age of 18 from enrolling or finding out and residing within the monastery.
And whereas authorities have introduced that the monks and residents of close by villages shall be relocated to Khokar Naglo, close to Palkha township, no different housing has been constructed for the monks, the sources stated.
Seizing land
Tibetans usually accuse Chinese language corporations and officers of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of native individuals, generally leading to standoffs which can be violently suppressed.
In February, police arrested greater than 1,000 Tibetans, together with monks, who had been protesting the development of a dam in Dege county in Sichuan’s Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, that might submerge at the least six monasteries and power a number of villages to be moved.
The NDRC stated the Yangqu dam will power the relocation of 15,555 individuals – almost all ethnic Tibetans – residing in 24 cities and villages in three counties — Dragkar, Kawasumdo and Mangra. Dragkar county sits in Tsolho, or Hainan in Chinese language, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture within the historic Amdo area of Tibet.
They warned the top of the monastery and residents that they “shall be punished for any disturbance prompted,” the sources stated.
The Yangqu hydroelectric plant — anticipated to generate about 5 billion kilowatts of energy yearly to Henan province — is an growth of the Yangqu Dam that was first inbuilt 2010 and commenced working in 2016 as a 1,200-megawatt hydropower station.
The expanded hydropower dam is anticipated to be the world’s tallest construction constructed with 3D printing, as detailed by scientists within the Journal of Tsinghua College.
The primary part of the dam, stated to be over 150 meters (about 500 ft) tall, is scheduled to turn into operational this yr, and all the venture operational the next yr.
Translated by Dolma Lhamo for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
