...police in the Lhasa region detained hundreds of Tibetans who burned incense, said prayers, or threw tsampa (roasted barley) into the air in defiance of an order banning celebration of the Dalai Lama`s birthday. Some twenty Tibetans were arrested or sentenced in 2001 for "splittist" activities.... Authorities cut back the number of nuns and monks from 8,000 to 1,400 at the Buddhist Study Center Larung Gar near Serthar in Sichuan province, destroying their housing as they left....
(The full reports can be read on the Human Rights Watch website http://www.hrw.org )
So much for religious freedom...
Rahul Basu
Professor of Physics
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Chennai 600113 rahul@imsc.res.in