Eight Tibetans Detained in Sichuan Province Questioned About Fur-Burning Campaign

Chinese officials in Sichuan province detained eight Tibetan "youths" whom they suspected of involvement in a February campaign to burn wild animal fur used to trim traditional Tibetan garments, according to a February 21 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Authorities suspect that a "foreign influence" sparked the campaign; Chinese officials usually use this term to refer to the Dalai Lama. The Chinese leadership refuses to acknowledge the Dalai Lama's role as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and authorities are wary of Tibetan devotion to him.

The wave of fur-burning began in early February in Qinghai province and spread to other Tibetan areas, including the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, where the detainees live. The Dalai Lama conducted an important Buddhist teaching (the Kalachakra) in India in January, calling on Tibetans to stop using animal fur, including fur from rare and endangered species, to embellish their outerwear. He told the gathering, which included thousands of Tibetans from China, “I am ashamed and don’t feel like living when I see all those pictures of people decorating themselves with skins and furs,” according to a January 17 Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) report. "When you go back to your respective places, remember what I had said earlier. Neither use, sell, or buy wild animals, their products, or derivatives." The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) also reported the Dalai Lama's remarks in a February 9 news release.

According to the RFA account, which does not name the individuals or provide their date of detention, authorities held the detainees in an Aba county Public Security Bureau (PSB) detention center and subjected them to "intense interrogation." A source told RFA that relatives whom authorities permitted to visit their detained family members reported no signs of beating or torture. The eight Tibetans "started activities at Kirti Monastery," according to an RFA source, but the article neither says whether the Tibetans are monks nor explains how the Tibetans carried out their alleged campaign. Kirti is the largest monastery in Aba county and follows the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism headed by the Dalai Lama. According to information available in the CECC Political Prisoner Database (PPD), 59 Tibetans (excluding the unnamed eight detainees reported by RFA) have been detained or imprisoned in Aba prefecture since the current period of Tibetan political activism began in 1987. About 60 percent of those detained or imprisoned are monks. All but 1 of the 10 persons known or believed to remain imprisoned or detained are monks.

Incidents of organized fur and pelt-burning began in Tongren county (Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province) after the January 29 lunar new year, according to a February 10 TibetInfoNet report that described the acts as an apparent response to the Dalai Lama's appeal. Two Tibetan villagers, Tseten Gyal and Gonpo Gyal, displayed valuable wildlife furs in the main courtyard of Rongbo Gonchen Monastery on February 7, and rendered the furs worthless by partially burning them. Rongbo Gonchen Monastery, like Kirti in Aba, is large, influential, and follows the Gelug tradition. Tseten Gyal and Gonpo Gyal announced their intention to burn the furs completely on February 12 (a Buddhist holy day), and invited other Tibetans to join in. According to a source cited in the RFA report, an estimated 500-600 Tibetans gathered that day to participate or be onlookers, and created a pyre of tiger, leopard, otter, and fox pelts and fur. Officials from the State Security Bureau (SSB) and Public Security Bureau reportedly took Tseten Gyal into custody that night and interrogated him at a PSB office, asking him repeatedly if he had "political motives" for his campaign, according to an RFA source. Officials advised him to burn his furs at his own residence if his motivation was to protect wildlife and the environment, and released him after interrogation, the source reported. Tseten Gyal subsequently took the furs to his village and burned them on the main road.

TibetInfoNet reported on February 14 that Tongren authorities banned burning any furs in the Rongbo Gonchen courtyard, and that the situation was tense as "troops and police" patrolled area streets. Meanwhile, Tibetans in Aba burned more than 250 pelts, according to RFA, and a source told RFA that Tibetans would step up their campaign after the Tibetan lunar new year, which is observed on February 28 this year.

See Section III(d) - "Freedom of Religion," Religious Freedom for Tibetan Buddhists, and Section VI - "Tibet," Tibetan Culture and Human Rights, of the CECC 2005 Annual Report for more information on Chinese government policy toward the Dalai Lama and Tibetan devotion him.