Chinese police have violently quashed celebrations by Buddhist monks in Tibet for the conferral of the Gold Medal award by the US Congress on the Dalai Lama.A group of Tibetans in exile in India have denounced the episode.
According to their reports, police arrested scores of monks and Tibetan activists, over four days in Lhasa last week.
The clashes were centred at the Drepung and Nechung monasteries in Lhasa which were sealed to keep the thousands of monks inside and away from the public.
The initial clashes began after police questioned monks who were ceremonially whitewashing the walls of Drepung monastery a ritual which expresses “joy and purification”.
The exile sources said internet services in Lhasa were cut on October 17, the day the award was presented and reports of the clashes filtered out slowly.
Beijing said the award by President George W. Bush had “gravely undermined” US-China relations, defining the religious leader “a dangerous activist for independence”.
The Dalai Lama has been out of China since 1959 when he fled Tibet following a failed attempt at a revolt against the Chinese army who had invaded the region nine years before.
Following the flight he settled in Dharamsala, northern India, where the exiled government and parliament also have established themselves.
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