The streets of Chabcha county in western Qinghai province were quiet on Saturday as Tibetan monks marked the Dalai Lama’s birthday in their homes, wary that any public celebration could endanger a tentative softening by Chinese authorities.
Tibetans in China have always had to steer clear of public ceremonies revering their 78-year-old exiled spiritual leader who Beijing has denounced as a “wolf in monk’s robes.”
But in the run-up to this year’s anniversary, authorities in Qinghai had discussed proposals to ease restrictions including allowing Tibetans to openly display photographs of the Dalai Lama, the International Campaign for Tibet said.
On Saturday, however, there was no sign of any celebration with many ordinary Tibetans not even aware it was his birthday.
At the Kumbum monastery close to Qinghai’s capital, Xining, monks prayed in a room next to another that was built as a shrine to the Dalai Lama, whose photograph was displayed.
Officials had also discussed the possibility of ending the practice of forcing Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama and to reduce the police presence at monasteries, the International Campaign for Tibet said last week.
The report triggered speculation that the authorities are contemplating looser religious restrictions in the Tibetan regions of China.
Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a violent separatist. The Dalai Lama, who is based in India, says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.
Still, the timing of these possible policy shifts suggests that the Chinese Communist Party hopes to defuse tensions that have mounted since 2008, after riots that broke out in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan parts of China led to a government crackdown.