Followers of Which Religion in Central Asia Suffered Brutal Persecution When China Invaded Tibet?
By reading the title, you may have an idea of what this blog is about. People often wonder about the religious group that faced brutal persecution when China invaded Tibet and we are here to address this question. Universal Translation Services aims to provide all the crucial information which is necessary to figure out the followers that faced injustice just because of their religion.
Central Asia is a diverse land of different ethnic groups, languages, religions, and tribes. The nations that make Central Asia are five of the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. They have a total population of about 72 million. The different Central Asian countries belong to different cultures, traditions, and religions, that date back 1500 years ago. Some of these religious groups include such as Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Ismaili Islam, Tengriism, and Syriac Christianity. Buddhism, however, was introduced to Central Asia over 2,200 years ago, and Zoroastrianism, over 2,500 years ago.
To know more about the ethnic group of brutal persecution, we are listing the description of the history of Central Asia, the Chinese lifestyle, and life in the Tibet region. So, let’s begin!
History of Central Asia
The ancestry of modern Central Asian populations is significantly inherent from the Indo-Iranian and Turkic expansions. Most modern populations are similar with either Indo-Iranian or Turkic descent, with ancestry corresponding well with ethnic boundaries. The rise and dawn of Jews in Central Asia dates back centuries, where Jews lived in the Soviet Republics. Since the beginning, the main religion of this region was Islam. And among Islamic groups, Sunni is the most common religious group in Central Asia.
Before the introduction of Islam, the main religions of the oasis belt were Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Manichaeism. According to consensus, approximately 1.3 million people belong to the Sunni Islam religion. The second most widely seen practiced religion is Buddhism.
Chinese Civilization
The civilization of ancient China first developed in the Yellow River region of northern China. It occurred in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. It is a very fertile region but it still needs irrigation to make the crops grow. The majority of the people were peasant farmers. People respect them because they provide for the rest of the Chinese. They lived tough lives. The typical farmer lived in a small village of around 100 families.
They worked on small family farms. Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism were the three main philosophies and religions of ancient China. They have individually and collectively influenced ancient and modern Chinese society. Later on, Buddhism also joined this ladder and became a prominent religion in China.
An important factor of Chinese religion irrespective of the ethnic group is that of hygiene schools. In them, people took guidance on how to take care of themselves to live longer lives. They even achieve the stages of immortality. For many thousands of years, the ancient Chinese believed in many gods, goddesses, magical beings, dragons, and ghosts.
They prayed to gods for help and safety. They also prayed to their ancestors to protect them from harm. The kitchen god was important. Very few people had actual religious freedom. The Central Chinese government has its particular religious regulations intended to boost national security. They also protect against the spread of extremism and foreign infiltration.
Ethnic Group that Faced Brutal Persecution
China has witnessed a religious revival over the past four decades, in particular with a significant increase in Christian believers. The number of Chinese Protestants has grown by an average of 10 percent annually since 1979. By some estimates, China is on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians by 2030. The Chinese government has long carried out repressive policies against the Turkic Muslim peoples in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
These efforts have been dramatically scaled up since late 2016 when Communist Party Secretary Chen Quango relocated from the Tibet Autonomous Region to assume leadership of Xinjiang. Not many places have the freedom of religion. Many indigenous people faced deaths and injustice in East Asia.
During the investigation from the Chinese officials were investigating the abuse they did to the civilians of Tibet, they said that abuses have occurred; instead, they characterize these camps as ‘vocational education and employment training centers’ for ‘criminals involved in minor offenses.’ However, they permit no independent monitoring of these facilities from the UN, human rights organizations, or the media. Authorities have sought to justify harsh treatment in the name of maintaining stability and security in Xinjiang, and they strike against those deemed terrorists and extremists horribly. The officials claim the root of these problems is the ‘problematic ideas’ of Turkic Muslims.
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibet is an autonomous region on the Northern side of China. The main religion in Tibetan has been Buddhism since its outspread in the 8th century AD. The historical region of Tibet is mostly comprised of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and partly by the provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan. Tibetan Buddhism is a religion in exile, forced from its homeland when Tibet was conquered by the Chinese. It combines the essential teachings of Mahayana Buddhism with Tantric and Shamanic, and material from an ancient Tibetan religion called Bon. The oppression of Tibetan Buddhists is marked in history. You might be interested to know the top 10 facts about the Sinhala language.
In 2009, it was reported by the NGO International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) that around 156 Tibetans set them on fire in protest against what they said was the occupation of Tibet and abuses of Tibetans’ religion and culture under PRC rule. The condition of many other people belonging to the group of Tibetan Buddhism detained in 2018 remained unknown including Karma, a village leader in the TAR who refused to allow local authorities to conduct mining activities near the sacred Sebra Zagyen Mountain.
While diplomatic access to the TAR remained tightly controlled, officials from the U.S. embassy and consulate general in Chengdu made five visits there during the year in which they met with both government and religious leaders. Outside the TAR, the official census data shows Tibetan constitutes 24.4 percent of the total population in Qinghai Province, 2.1 percent in Sichuan Province, 1.8 percent in Gansu Province, and 0.3 percent in Yunnan Province.
Reasons for Brutal Persecution
Many ethnic groups suffered brutal persecution due to various reasons. The motivation behind the 1984 assimilation campaign is unclear; however, some experts believe the disproportionately high birth rate of the Turks and the lower birth rate of the Bulgarians were major factors. The TAR CCP committee and the government required major monasteries to display prominently the Chinese flag and the portraits of the five CCP chairmen, from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.
The Buddhist institute in Sichuan Province went under political indoctrination at detention centers in their home countries in the TAR. U.S. officials said that decisions on the succession of the Dalai Lama should be made solely by faith leaders and also raised concerns about the continued disappearance of the Panchen Lama.
The environment of Eastern Europe was much more polluted than that of Western Europe. At local levels, party leaders and branches of the UFWD, SARA, and the BAC should coordinate the implementation of religious policies in monasteries. Indigenous Buddhist people suffered oppression and they didn’t receive justice for decades. A similar crisis can be seen now on Uyghur Muslims who are suffering from abusive treatment in Chinese society. These situations indicate that life has become very harsh for Chinese Muslims. But due to protests of religious figures, the condition is still better than before.
