The Guru Rinpoche statue behind the stupa (closeup).

Tibetans Attempt to Save Buddhist Padmasambhava Statue from Demolition

International Campaign for Tibet
November 1, 2007

New eyewitness accounts have revealed that local Tibetans attempted to prevent the demolition of a statue of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) near Mount Kailash in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) on September 28, 2007. Approximately 20 Tibetans were seen forming a human shield around the two-meter high statue before they were dispersed and the statue demolished by armed security personnel.

The risk taken by the Tibetans in trying to protect the statue indicates the distress and resentment among Tibetans at the demolition of a significant representation of their religious culture. There has been a trend towards the tightening of control over religion in Tibet, and the destruction of the statue at Darchen, at the beginning of the pilgrimage route around Asia's most sacred mountain, Kailash, is a further example of the aggressive enforcement of wide-ranging new regulatory measures introduced in the TAR in January 2007.

The Guru Rinpoche statue behind the stupa.

After demolition of the statue, nothing is left but a scar on the hill.

A tourist who witnessed this rare attempt by Tibetans to protect the statue told ICT: "We heard a rumor that the army was going to destroy a large Buddha at the edge of town. From our vantage point it was clear that a group of perhaps 20 people were in fact in place around the Buddha [the Guru Rinpoche statue] forming a human shield. The mood was tense. [Later] a Tibetan woman pulled me aside. In broken English and with tears running down her face she said that the Chinese were no good—that they were going to destroy the Buddha—and that I should take pictures and get them to the Dalai Lama." The same Western tourist said that security police later stopped his tour group and accused them of taking pictures of the protest around the statue, and demanded to check the group's cameras.

After demolition of the statue (closeup).