Local time Monday 7:53 AM | Province Sichuan | |
 | ||
Weather -10°C, Wind S at 8 km/h, 94% Humidity | ||
Larung Gar (Tibetan: བླ་རུང་སྒར་, Wylie: bla rung sgar) or the Larung Valley is a town in Sêrtar County of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan, China. The population of over 40,000 comprises primarily monks and nuns making it possibly the largest religious institute in the world, and is based around the Serthar Institute founded by Jigme Phuntsok.
Contents
- Map of Luoruoxiang Sertar Garze Sichuan China
- Horxi Samyang Lonp Buddhist Institute
- Demolition
- References
Map of Luoruoxiang, Sertar, Garze, Sichuan, China
In June 2016, Chinese authorities ordered a reduction of the resident population to no more than 3,500 nuns and 1,500 monks, which was implemented by housing demolition. Lamas Khenpo Sodargye and Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö Rinpoche reportedly instructed their followers not to oppose the demolition, which echoed a similar action in 2001.
The Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy is a Buddhist academy located in the Larung Gar.
It was founded in 1980 in the uninhabited valley by Jigme Phuntsok, a lama of the Nyingma tradition. The academy has grown substantially since: as of 2015, it is home to over 40,000 monks and nuns. Nuns and monks are segregated by age and sex. Housing for monks and nuns are divided by a winding road that divides the city. TVs are prohibited.
Horxi Samyang Lonpê Buddhist Institute
The Larung Horxi Samyang Lonpê Buddhist Institute (Tibetan: བླ་རུང་ཧོར་ཤིལ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་བློ་འཕེལ་ནང་བསྟན་སློབ་གླིང་།, ZYPY: Larung Horxi Jamyang Lonpê nangdän lobling, Chinese: 喇榮霍西文殊增慧佛學院; pinyin: Larong Huoxi wenshu zenghui foxueyuan) is a Buddhist institute 20 kilometers from the Ngarig Buddhist Institute at Larung, 40 kilometers from the central town of Sêrtar County. It's not located in Larung Valley but has been renamed to its current name by Cüchim Lozhö (ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བློ་གྲོས།), Känbo of the Ngarig Buddhist Institute.
Demolition
In 2016, reports emerged from Tibet that there was mass demolition drive by the People's Republic of China and huge violation of human rights of ethnic Tibetans and even the cancellation of the annual Larung gar festival of Tibetans. It follows an order last month by the local authorities to cut the number of Larung Gar residents by half to 5,000 and a reward offer to ethnic dwellers if they move. On 6 December 2016, Tibetan government-in-exile urged UN to intervene on the issue. On 15 December 2016, European Parliament passed a resolution against Chinese autocracies and condemned dismantling of Larung Gar.