Document 1
Approval and Forwarding
of
the Report on Religious
Work
and Suggestions for the Future
by United Front Work
Department, CCP Qinghai Provincial Committee
Tsadam Work Committee, Xining Municipal
Party Committee,
Party Committees of all Prefectures and
Counties,
cc United Front Work Department of
CCP Central Committee:
The Report on Religious Work and Suggestions for
the Future by the United Front Work Department is approved by the
Provincial Party Committee and hereby forwarded to you.
In current religious work, religious believers
must be fully mobilized, the Speaking Bitterness campaign must be conducted
extensively, the reactionary crimes and ugly features of religious circles must
be completely exposed in public, counter-revolutionaries must be firmly
suppressed, and temples’ feudal privileges and exploitative system must be
abolished. On top of this, the masses’ political awareness must be
further raised, making them understand that the essence of religion is to serve
the exploiting class, so as to reform the systems that violate laws and
regulations issued by the state, that go against socialism, against national
unity, against the prosperity and development of their own nationality. At the
same time, propaganda about freedom of religious belief can be conducted in an
all-round way. In this way, a self-liberation movement by the
labouring people of minority nationalities to free themselves from the
political oppression, economic exploitation and spiritual control of the temples
can be formed. This will achieve the effect of destroying the feudal rule of
temples, creating a social atmosphere of naturally changing customs and
traditions, while winning and uniting the majority of the masses, completely
rendering us the initiative, thus facilitating the struggle with temples. On
the contrary, if we ignore the key issues in religious work, side-tracking
ourselves with small and unimportant issues instead of doing arduous and
meticulous work with the masses, it is like putting the cart before the horse,
and the movement will surely be “half-cooked” , damaging our efforts in
religious work. It is our hope that party committees at all levels should take
note of this.
To United Front Work Department of
Central Committee, please give instructions on any defects in the above views.
Qinghai Provincial Committee
September 27, 1958.
Original Report Attached
Report on
Religious Work and Suggestions for the Future
I. Starting from this year, socialist
revolution in pastoral areas in our province has reached a new stage of
comprehensive development. Class struggle in agricultural regions has reached
the highest level; in a certain period of time and to a certain extent, the
struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road has manifested
itself as a friend-and-foe struggle. In this sharp and intense struggle,
temples are used by counter-revolutionaries as major means to carry out
anti-revolutionary activities. In conspiracy with imperialists and
reactionaries in (central) Tibet, counter-revolutionaries in the ruling
(literally ‘herd-leader’) class, focussing on religion and using temples as
strongholds and the reactionary upper strata as backbone, have instigated
counter-revolutionary armed rebellion by deceiving and threatening the masses.
While cracking down on the rebellion, we mobilized the masses to ‘speak
bitterness’ (recount the misery of the old society). In the struggle against
the exploiting class and its remnants, a struggle against the reactionary
religious upper strata in collusion with the exploiting class must also be
carried out. A large scale struggle is conducted in religious circles, based on
mobilizing the masses, to purge reactionaries and evildoers and counter-attack
the rightists. In the struggle, the black curtain of the religious upper strata
and temples is largely opened up to expose the essence of religion as a tool to
serve the exploiting class, thus greatly raising the class consciousness of the
working class and their enthusiasm for socialism, while greatly weakening the
spiritual hold of religion on the masses. The reactionary nature of religion
and a large number of crimes (in religious circles) have been exposed, as
follows:
(1) Betraying the motherland and conspiring to
split the big family of nationalities. In collusion with imperialism and the
reactionary clique in Tibet, Lamaism carried out counter-revolutionary armed
rebellion with the intention to split the motherland and to create an
“Independent Kingdom of Great Tibet”. The counter-revolutionary Arotsang[1] confessed
that the United States and Great Britain were behind the “Independent Kingdom
of Great Tibet”, the strongholds of activities were Calcutta and Kalimpong in
India. Dalai would be the king and the governor of the Tibet province of the
Independent Kingdom, Xiaritsang[2] would
be governor of Qinghai province, and Gungtangtsang[3] would
be the governor of Gansu province. Appointments had already been made to all
positions (in this proposed government), down to governor of each prefecture
and county. Reactionary Imams refused to recognize The People’s
Republic of China as their motherland, saying something like “the Hui fight for
religion instead of country”, and “All Hui are one family”. They tore up our
national flag, and hung Turkish national flags in mosques. Reactionary upper
strata in both Lamaism and Islam are hostile to the Party and the People’s
Government, and they both claim that “Communist Party is our enemy”.
(2) Conspiring with the Guo Min Dang clique and
counter-revolutionaries and dreaming of the return of the Jiang (Kai-shek) and
Ma (Bu-fang) bandit gangs. Some temples secretly set up radio transmitters and
maintain direct contact with Taiwan bandits. Arotsang kept frequent
correspondence with the Guo Min Dang spy Zhang Jia.[4] They
treated photographs of Chiang Kai-shek and Ma Bu-fang as treasures, wrapping
them up with silk, but poked holes in the eyes of Chairman Mao’s photograph,
hung iron chains on it, even used it as a shooting target. Han Yinu, the rebel
leader of Xunhua, hid inside Wendu Temple for as long as 6 years. Ma Wenkui hid
a counter-revolutionary in the cellar of his home for 18 months. Mai Chenzhang
always spread rumours, saying: “Weather is not good, times are going to
change, niu pu (meaning Ma Bu-fang) will be back soon.” They
just cling to the memory of Chiang Kai-shek and Ma Bu-fang.
(3) Spreading rumors and causing trouble. They
dreamt of “Non cooperation, overthrow the Communist Party”. Using Sutra
chanting as a disguise, Arotsang dissolved seven pastoral
cooperatives in a single religious ceremony. They spread rumours, saying (that
under Communism): “There won’t be the freedom to ride a horse, eat meat or
drink milk.“ Many temples stock up large amounts of grain, letting them rot,
while screaming that they don’t have enough food.
(4) Temples are butcheries and the religious
upper strata are killers. Temples have butcher’s knives stained with the blood
of the working people and a variety of torture instruments used to punish the
masses. They fill the clay Buddha statues with human blood, using women’s thigh
bones as cursing wands and children’s skulls as rattles. Human flesh and heads
were discovered in Xin temple of Hainan, and human heads and hands were found
in Xiangride temple in Haixi as well. Numerous people were beaten to deformity,
blinded, lashed, fined and locked up by temples.
(5) Heavy and ruthless extortion and
exploitation of the masses. After Liberation, exploiting the masses through
compulsory contributions and donations, Arotsang collected 100 million yuan. In
1955 alone he extorted 600,000 yuan, and created a private storehouse in
Saizong temple. In 1956 Xiaritsang raised 400,000 in one alms collecting tour
in the areas around Tongren (Reb gong rdzong). Some religious figures, when
seeing people wearing good clothes or riding good horses, would use divination
to cheat them, saying: “If you don’t give to the temple, disaster will befall
to you.” In this way, they snatched it for themselves. Using Sutra chanting as
means of treating diseases, some of them extort money and property, and
sabotage production. Compared with Lamaism, Islam goes even further. According
to investigations in Xining, Minghe and Xunhua, religious exploitation normally
takes up to 20-40% of people’s total income.
(6) Disgusting behavior inside temples and among
religious figures. Upper strata regularly rape women. Some Huo Fo-s and Imams
mistakenly wore women’s fur jackets and pants. Huo Fo-s raping Akas (monks),
Imams raping Mullahs, old Akas raping young Akas, homosexual behavior goes on
in every temple. Obscene photographs and pictures of women,
embroidered shoes, clothes, hair dress, earrings and make-up were discovered in
the residences of many famous Huo Fo-s. An Aka over 30 years old in Datong
(gSer khog rdzong) locked five 11 to 12 year-old girls in his room
and raped them for several days. Even more detestable, a counter-revolutionary
Imam in Hualong (Ba yan rdzong) treated people’s diseases with the
water he used to wash his sexual organ after raping women, which he called “du
wa water”.
Exposing such crimes greatly weakened the
masses’ superstitious belief in religion, raised people’s class consciousness
and distinguished between enemies and the people. For example, in Gangcha
County (rKang tsha rdzong), while struggling (Thab ’dzing) against Ketsai the
counter-revolutionary Huo Fo, the masses immediately threw themselves on him,
tearing up his robe, and demanded that the government execute this criminal
right away. In Dulan County (Tu’u lan rdzong) , after the “black curtain” of
Xiangride temple (where the 9th Panchen Lama stayed in exile)
was raised, the masses smashed the clay Buddha statues into pieces and used the
dust as fertilizer. They took the Ga’u (amulet boxes) from their necks,
throwing them on the ground, and saying: “Never will I believe this deceiving
religion again.” In many places, after exposing the ugly faces of the temples,
people shouted “We do not want Huo Fo, we want the leadership of the Communist
Party.” The Hui people themselves wrote slogans such as “Do away with
superstition, study science” on the gates of mosques. Actions like knocking
down Buddha statues and burning scriptures happened everywhere. In many places,
religious personnel are no longer as popular as before. They have become
objects of people’s loathing.
After crushing rebellions in pastoral areas,
through mobilizing the masses to speak bitterness, cracking down on
counter-revolutionaries and evildoers and exposing the deceitful nature of
religion, people’s political awareness has been greatly raised and the
spiritual shackles of religion imposed on people have been greatly loosened. At
the present time, a large number of temples have disbanded, and a large number
of religious personnel have joined productive work. According to statistics, in
pastoral areas, 223 temples, 51.98% of the total, have disbanded; 17,685
religious personnel, 36.56% of the total, have returned to lay life. Among
these, 97% of temples in Huangnan have disbanded, and 55.1% of religious
personnel have returned to lay life. Adding those arrested and detained for
political education, they make up to around 95% of total religious
personnel. In Hainan 91.8% temples have disbanded, and 87.9% religious
personnel have returned to lay life. In Haibei and Haixi, more than 80% temples
have disbanded, and more than 70% religious personnel have returned to lay
life. This new situation shows that religion is now on the edge of complete
collapse.
II. The reason for the rapid development of
religious work with such great achievements in pastoral areas is due to correct
implementation of Party policies as well as full and complete mobilization of
the masses. Experience demonstrated that putting great effort in mass
mobilization is the key method to bring down the reactionary religious upper
strata and expose the darkness of religion. Only after the masses
are completely mobilized, the counter-revolutionaries totally denounced and isolated
from the people, can we strike hard at them and at the right point. While
mobilizing the masses, arousing the poor religious personnel should never be
neglected. We must reinforce our work with them, cultivating
activists among them to form a core group. In this way, a high-powered people’s
revolutionary campaign with masses inside and outside the temples can be
created. To widely display various evidence of the criminal
activities of religious upper strata and temples is a significant and realistic
method to educate the masses. For example, in Hainan
Prefecture, displaying documents , photos of cruelty against the
masses and cadres and of the torture devices kept in temples by the reactionary
religious upper strata were a great eye-opener for the people. Poor herdsmen
and victims were all gnashing their teeth in anger and hatred. Besides, using
those figures in the religious upper strata who are willing to admit their
guilt and to confess to the masses their tricks of cheating people through
religion will further increase people’s understanding and uncover the true face
of religion. In this way, the masses can be educated from all sides,
resulting in a massive anti-feudalist current, and the victory of the struggle
against religion can be guaranteed.
In order to uproot religion completely in its
political, economical and ideological aspects, attention should be paid to the
following points:
1. Continue to mobilize the masses widely and
extensively and continue the struggle of Speaking Bitterness. In areas where
Speaking Bitterness has already been carried out, achievements should be
consolidated through strengthening political and ideological education, solving
all sorts of remaining issues and eliminating the “half-cooked”
phenomenon. In areas where Speaking Bitterness has not started or is
under way, great effort should be put into mobilizing the masses, exposing the
reactionary religious leaders resolutely once and for all, showing them to be
ugly and stinking, stripping them of all political capital, so as to help the
masses understand the reactionary essence of religion as serving the exploiting
classes, and thus raise the people’s class consciousness. In the
process of mobilizing the masses, let all the counter-revolutionary elements
and evildoers be caught and religious temples disbanded so as to liberate
productive forces completely and establish absolute political superiority of
the working people.
2. A wide-ranging and extensive movement should
be carried out to spread propaganda and education on communism and
science. We should lead people to hold debates between materialism
and idealism using easy-to-understand methods through their own experience in
the class struggle and struggle for productivity, as a way to expose the
various tricks religion used to cheat the masses, (helping people) to
understand that the essence of religion is to serve the exploiting class, and
to increase people’s communist consciousness as well as knowledge in culture
and science. This is the way to enable the masses to correctly understand
various natural and social phenomena, so as to free themselves from the
religious bind in terms of ideology and establish a scientific and communist
world view. Continuously advancing the development of productivity will
eradicate the foundation that religion relies on for its existence.
3. Carrying out and propagating the freedom of
religious belief policy in an all-around way, (stressing) that the
state protects people who believe in religion as well as people who do not
believe, making sure that every family, every person knows this policy.
Wherever there are elements that force the masses to accept religion or force
people to conduct religious activities, the masses should immediately be
alerted. After struggles, (concerned persons) should be properly dealt with
according to the seriousness of their cases. However, in order to
win over and unite the masses, we should not interfere with people’s voluntary
religious activities.
4. Religious system should be
differentiated from masses’ customs and folkways. While motivating
people to speak bitterness, smash feudalism and reform the religious system,
customs connected with religion but presenting little or no obstacle to
productivity and socialist construction should be preserved or altered
depending on people’s wishes, so as to prevent misunderstanding among the
masses that may cause people’s enthusiasm for struggle to languish.
5. After a large number of temples are destroyed
and large number of religious personnel returned to lay life, (party
committees) of all regions must quickly carry out reform of the religious
system in the purposely preserved temples. Tools used to rule people for
hundreds and thousands of years, mountains on top of people’s heads must be
completely eradicated in order to rapidly liberate minority peoples from the
binding of religion, so that they will be free from religious oppression
forever and the roots of poverty and backwardness removed. The remaining
temples must be held by the progressive elements, and completely under the
control of the party leadership.
III. In agricultural areas, masses have been
mobilized to conduct Speaking Bitterness meetings, religious privileges have
been greatly weakened, and (a movement to) disband temples and return monks to
lay life and join productive work has come into being. However, as a
broad mass movement has not been formed, the struggle is not deep and complete
enough. From now on, combining other critical tasks, a
mass movement should be launched to expand and deepen speaking bitterness, to
struggle against the religious upper strata until they become ugly and stinking
in the eyes of the people,[5] to completely clear out all the counter-revolutionaries and
evil-doers, and resolutely change the religious system that impedes
productivity, socialist construction and national development, so as to destroy
religion’s rule on the masses from political, economic and ideological front.
Without mobilizing the masses extensively, the problem cannot be eliminated
from the root.
As for the reform of Islamic system, each county has paid great attention and has made certain achievements. However, due to the fact that policies were not propagated thoroughly and deeply and the masses were not completely mobilized, instead of grasping the fundamental questions, attention had been focused on dealing with minor issues, such as merging mosques, turning mosques into kindergartens and midwifery stations, making people raise pigs, making women take off the hijab, even enticing people to eat pork, etc. (Things like these) have caused some unnecessary misgivings and temporary ideological confusion among the masses. Counter-revolutionaries took the opportunity to spread rumours saying “Communists will kill the Hui and eradicate religion”, “The Gong Guan Grand Mosque has become a food company”, “Communists want Hui to eat pork”, some of them incited the people by saying “In every dynasty we Hui had the guts to rebel. We will rebel as long as we want to. We will kill as long as we want to.” Floating of such rumors has deceived people who do not know the truth. Some of them have been deceived, and do not have their minds on productive labour, gravely affecting social order.
Based on the above situation, in order to reduce
obstacles to our work and to eradicate loopholes in our work that may be used
by counter-revolutionaries to create rumours, it is correct for the Provincial
Committee not to publicly raise the slogan of reforming the religious system,
but to raise such slogans as purging counter-revolutionaries, abolishing the feudal
system of oppression and exploitation, and abolishing feudal
privileges. To reach the goal of reforming the religious system, the
following aspects should be worked out: (1) We must closely integrate all the
core tasks, gather up all forces, all party members pitch in, all
persons mobilized, striving to bring the reform into depth and thoroughness,
reaching the goal of destroying religion’s rule over the people in political,
economic and ideological aspects. (2) Mobilize the masses extensively to uncover
ugly facts within Islam, making people understand the inside story and
reactionary essence of Islam. In the process of getting people to conduct
Speaking Bitterness, it should start from telling the bitterness of extortion,
oppression and exploitation by reactionary Imams, leading step by step toward
telling the bitterness of oppression and exploitation by the religious system
so as to match the Speaking Bitterness movement with the masses’ thoughts and
knowledge, going from the easy to the difficult and complicated, from near to
far from concrete to
abstract, gradually raising to
a higher level. (3) As for the work procedure, it should first start
from within the party, then outside (the party), straighten the thoughts of the
cadres first. After that (we should) gain experience within the masses through
experiment in specific places, and apply it to other areas. Do not try to reach
the goal in one move and rush the work through. (4) Separate reform of the
religious system from habits and customs of the masses. Anything in the
religious system that violates state law and regulations, obstructs productive
labour and cultural and scientific development must be resolutely reformed;
whether to preserve or change anything that belongs to lifestyle and customs
should be in accord with people’s wishes. We should welcome those who have
already made reforms or those who are asking for reform, do not throw cold
water on them. Do not impose reform on those who are not willing to do
so. It is important that we should not discriminate against them so
as to avoid causing unnecessary anxiety and misgivings.
If there is nothing inappropriate, it is
requested that the above be approved and transmitted to all the localities for
implementation.
Department of United Front
Work,
CPC Qinghai
Provincial Committee
September 17, 1958
Document 2
Speech by Comrade Wang
Feng to the
Forum on the Question of
Lamaism
(October 7, 1958)[6]
Comrades,
The Forum on the Question of
Lamaism organized by the United Front Work Department of CPC Central
Committee is going to finish soon. This forum is a meeting of cadres from
several minority regions where Lamaism is practised. It is a meeting for party
members. The main purpose of the meeting is for comrades from various regions
to report on the work with Lamaism, to exchange experiences, and to discuss
problems encountered during this period. Comrades coming from
various regions brought forward many valuable opinions in general meetings as
well as group meetings. These opinions will greatly help the work of reforming
Lamaism in the future.
Now I would like to bring up
some personal ideas on the questions discussed in the meetings as reference for
comrades coming from various regions. Work on Lamaism must continue to take
instructions from party committees in all regions, and act according to the
opinions of party committees. During the meeting, the Central Secretariat
(of the Communist Party of China) asked me to report the questions brought
forward in the meeting. Comrades in the Secretariat had issued important
directives and instructions on principles and content of the reform of the
Lamaist system.
I. Status of Lamaism
In our country, followers of Lamaism include
Mongolians, Tibetans, Qiang, Tu and Yugu, with a population of about four
million. Total number of temples, large and small, is over 5000. The number of
professional practitioners is 450,000. Among those, Tibet has over three
thousand temples and 250,000 Lamas. Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang have 20,000
Lamas. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan together have over 2,300 temples and
170,000 Lamas. In Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, Lamas form more than 13%
of the Tibetan population. In specific regions, for instance, counties such as
Ganzi and Litang in Sichuan, the percentage of Lamas in the local Tibetan
population is as high as 30, and up to 50% of the male population.
The past few years since
Liberation did see a decline of Lamaism in some areas, however, in other areas
it is expanding. For instance, in Inner Mongolia the number of Lamas has
decreased 78 percent (from 80,000 down to 17,000). As for religious influence
on the people, the privileges of temples have been abolished in the majority of
areas except the prefecture of Alxa League. The majority of the Lamas obey the
law and participate in productive labour. The religious burden on
the people has greatly reduced. The number of Lamas in Xinjiang has reduced by
half. The religious burden on the people is less than it was before Liberation.
In some agricultural areas in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Yunnan, the temples’
privileges and exploitation have been weakened, but in most areas they remain
untouched. Not only that, the majority of the temples have directly
or indirectly joined the rebellion. In a few areas, temples and
Lamas have even increased. For example, the pastoral areas of Qinghai have 120
more temples and 12,000 more Lamas than before Liberation.
In Tibet, privileges of
temples and their exploitation of the people remain untouched.
Lamaism, especially Lamaism in
Tibetan regions, ruthlessly exploits and oppresses labouring people. It is a
big mountain on top of the masses, and a serious obstacle on the road of
socialist construction as well as nationality development.
On the economic front, temples hold
large amounts of land, cattle, forest, pasture and commercial capital. For
example, in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, 18% of land and 72% of
private commercial capital in the whole prefecture belongs to Lamaist temples.
In Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, 34% of land owned by Tibetans belongs
to Lamaist temples. Through land lease, cattle lease, corvee, usury, illegal
commercial activities and other religious methods, temples ruthlessly exploit
the masses. In general, land lease is above 50%, and in some areas even as high
as 70% and above. Interest through money lending is also very high. Annual
interest normally is more than one third of the principal, and only payment of
interest, not principal, is allowed. The burden of religion on the masses is
very heavy, taking up to 80% of annual income. Ruthless exploitation by temples
in those areas seriously hampers the growth of production and improvement of
the people’s life.
On the political front,
temples enjoy all kinds of privileges. The religious upper class is in tight
league with local lords and chiefs, acting in collusion to impose barbarous
rule and oppression on the masses. Big temples set up their own prisons and
courts, and stock all types of torture instruments, punishing people at
will. With the practice of such cruel punishments as imprisonment,
whipping, skinning, cutting tendons, cutting off tongues, noses and ears,
blinding, branding and so on, temples are demonic killing nests. Many victims
can be found in the ‘speak bitterness’ struggle meetings. The past few years
since Liberation, the religious upper class has been retaliating against various policies and measures issued by the government.
From democratic reform to collectivization, building irrigation projects, the
campaign against the four pests, training nationality cadres and establishing
schools, there is nothing they don’t oppose. Since 1956, the
majority of the temples in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan have colluded
with imperialists, the Jiang Kai-shek bandit gang and reactionary Tibetan upper
class, using temples as strongholds and the religious upper class as
(commanding) core, to incite many armed rebellions. Normally, over
50% of Lamas participated in the rebellion. They publicly raised the white flag
(of counter-revolution), killing cadres and masses, shouting reactionary
slogans such as “eliminate the communist party”, “do not take the socialist
road”, “establish an independent Tibet” , so on and so forth, completely
exposing themselves to be a gang of anti-party, anti-socialism, anti-people counter-revolutionary
elements hidden under the cloak of religion, aiming to undermine national unity
and betray the motherland.
The religious upper class
leads an extremely corrupt way of life. Rape is common among Huo Fo-s (Tib:
sPrul sku, incarnate Lamas) , some of them have raped more than 1000 women, and
even taken many nude photos of the women they raped. In the temples, there is
homosexual behavior, with high ranking Lamas raping young Lamas, and Lamas
having sex with each other has almost become a legally accepted system. Huo
Fo-s and Lamas put on a prim and solemn manner, but in fact all of them are a
bunch of hypocrites, capable of committing all kinds of crimes and ugly deeds.
Religion-related waste in temples is astonishingly high. For example, in the
past few years when grain has been in high demand, some temples burned up
thousands of Jin of grain and large amounts of butter as ‘smoke offering’ (Tib:
bSang mchod, Ch. wei sang, burning of dried cypress leaves with barley flour
and butter). Some temples stock up enough noodles, grain and
cloth to last for several years.
In order to exploit and
oppress people and to live a rotten life, the religious upper class makes the
best use of religion to dupe people, forcing the labouring masses under
theocracy, promoting ignorance and backwardness among the people.
In short, just as the Tibetan
masses themselves say, Lamaism represents “much misery, deep injustice, huge
hatred”.
All the above shows that
Lamaism has seriously hampered social productive forces in Tibetan areas, it is
the main reason why the Tibetan population cannot grow and the main obstacle to
the advancement of the Tibetan nation. Without a complete reform of
the Lamaist system, it is impossible to liberate social productive forces of
the Tibetan people as well as other minority peoples who believe in Lamaism, to
truly consolidate our work in those areas and to conduct socialist construction
in economy and culture. Therefore no development and prosperity will be
possible for these nationalities. In order to change this situation, the
Lamaist system must be completely reformed.
In the past, due to the fact
that religion remained untouched, our democratic reform in Tibetan agricultural
areas was quite incomplete. Tibetan masses in Sichuan complained
that “they only freed themselves halfway”. Therefore, now when we completely
reform the Lamaist system, it is essentially another democratic revolution. It
is the urgent request of the masses. The masses have clearly stated that “as
long as the Communist Party leads us, we have the courage to carry the struggle
to the end”. In recent months in Qinghai and Gansu, together with suppressing
the rebellion, and through ‘speaking bitterness’, resolute struggle against
rebellious elements, feudal privilege and exploitation in temples has been
conducted. Not only did the masses have the courage to struggle
against the rebellious elements, they truly have the courage to struggle
against the religious system and counter-revolutionary Huo Fo-s. They even
knocked down Buddha statues and dismantled Mani houses (a structure in which a
large prayer wheel is housed). This gigantic campaign is still running high
right now. It is a movement of the masses to fight against oppression and
exploitation. The heavier the oppression is, the stronger the oppositional
force.
In the struggle, it is clear
that class contradictions also exist within Lamaism itself, as a handful of the
religious upper class oppress large numbers of poor Lamas. When the masses’
campaign gets going, Lamas from poor backgrounds become the inner force,
launching struggles against the religious upper class. In the past, some people
thought religion is untouchable, like a tiger’s backside, but this is merely a
problem of thinking. (They) fail to see the contradiction within religion
created by hierarchy. As a result of ‘speaking bitterness’ in Qinghai pastoral
areas, by September 10th, over 52% of Lamas returned to secular
life, and over 50% of temples disbanded. The struggle is still going on. It is
the same in Gannan.
In the early stage of the democratic reform in
Tibetan areas, there was a period of time when we purposely made many
concessions to Lamaist temples, so as to reduce resistance and systematically
carry out the reform according to plan. It was necessary to make those
concessions. However, the counter-revolutionary Lamaist upper class thought
that it was a sign of our weakness. They continued to conduct all kinds of
sabotage, up to open rebellion, and thus completely revealed their
counter-revolutionary nature and ugly faces, causing people to stand up and
wage an active struggle against them, reducing them to isolation. This put us
in a correct and advantageous position in our struggle against Lamaism. In
areas where the majority of the population is Tibetan (temporarily excluding
Tibet), the time is ripe to completely abolish the privileges and exploitation
by Lamaist temples, to eliminate counter-revolutionary elements, to resolutely
oppose bad people and bad deeds within Lamaism, and to reform the Lamaist
system. We must strongly support and lead the masses to carry out this
struggle, and there is no doubt that we shall win victory.
II. Guidelines, content and methods of reforming
the Lamaist system
Based on the situation discussed above, thus set
the guidelines for our current work in religion: protect freedom of religious
belief, fully mobilise the masses, completely crack down on
counter-revolutionaries in religion, abolish feudal privileges and exploitation,
and firmly struggle against evildoers and evil deeds; meanwhile continue to
unite, educate and reform all patriotic and law-abiding religious persons.
Why do we put forward the
protection of religious freedom as a guideline? This cannot be thrown out. It
is prescribed in the constitution of our country. Having this guideline
prevents counter-revolutionaries from accusing us of annihilating religion,
thus we will hold the initiative. By continuing to unite, educate and reform
patriotic and law-abiding religious persons, it will facilitate the work of
isolating and cracking down on religious persons who are
counter-revolutionaries and evildoers, and abolish religious privileges and
exploitation.
Our work with all the
nationalities (Tibet is temporarily excluded) in the whole country is based on
these guidelines.
It is not necessary to make
must-follow rules about what is to be reformed in the Lamaist system. No need
to make too many regulations either. Each region can take action suitable to
local circumstances. However, the religious system should be differentiated
from religious faith, so as to reflect the policy of freedom in religious
belief.
In accord with opinions put
forward by comrades from various regions, I think the following five aspects of
the religious system need to be reformed:
(1). Abolish all the privileges, for example,
private courts, prisons and punishment, intervention in civil affairs,
unauthorized appointment of tribal chiefs, illegal possession of firearms,
organizing armed forces and meddling in cultural and educational activities.
(2). Abolish the ownership of productive means
and the exploitative system, such as usury and corvee. Ban illegal commerce (all commercial activities by temples are illegal. When commercial
activity is stopped, their economic foundation is destroyed.)
(3). Forbid temples from extorting property from
the masses. Religious activities cannot stand in the way of productive work,
nor can they go against policies and regulations issued by the state.
(4). Temples cannot force people to become
monks. Monks have the freedom to return to secular life.
(5). Abolish feudal rule inside temples (for
instance the stewardship, hierarchy among Lamas, punishment, and subordinate
system (where a major monastery has a number of smaller temples subordinate to
it) and so on. Religious personnel must take part in productive labour and
fulfill citizenship duties.
Do not mention the reform of
those activities that belong to the masses’ religious beliefs, mainly the
following three aspects:
(1). Masses’ voluntary sutra chanting and
prostration
(2). Masses’ voluntary alms giving
(3). Legitimate sutra chanting by religious
personnel
The method of reform is to boldly arouse the
masses. Under slogans such as cracking down on counter-revolutionary elements,
against evildoers and evil deeds, against religious privilege and exploitation
(no need to use the slogan of reforming the religious system), mobilise the
masses outside temples and the poor Lamas inside temples at the same time,
attacking from both inside and outside, forming a gigantic mass campaign to
reform the religious system. As for the counter-revolutionaries and the upper
class, just arrest the ones that should be arrested on the strength of popular
indignation, and detain those who should be detained for closed-door training.[7] The
“lid must be lifted” (i.e., the situation must be tackled) without hesitation.
In regions where Lamaism has been largely
weakened (for example, most areas of Inner Mongolia), consultation method can
still be used to step through the economic reform of temples and remould the
ideology of Lamas. Meanwhile, attention should be paid to fully agitate and
educate the masses, to conduct socialist and communist education as well as
education in science and culture, so as to further diminish religion’s
influence among the masses.
In Sichuan, the Central
Committee once adopted the policy not to touch the temples for the time being.
The main purpose of that policy was to stabilize the situation in Tibet, plus
it facilitates the work of dividing and splitting the feudal class and
isolating tu si, chiefs and landlords. The policy was necessary at
that time. However, conditions are different now. Nationalities in
the whole country are joining in the Great Leap Forward, Tibetans in
Sichuan also want to leap forward, but the Lamaist system has become the most
prominent obstacle stopping the people of Tibetan areas from marching
forward. No forward march is possible without clearing away this
obstacle. In the past we did make many concessions, yet they broke their
promises anyway, going in for rebellion and sabotage. To struggle against them
now, we are in a completely rightful and advantageous
position. However, we need to be fully prepared, conduct more
investigation and come up with a full indictment of their counter-revolutionary
activities. When we strike, the blow should be hard and complete. As for the
influence on Tibet, now it is clear to us that even if we don’t touch temples,
they will rebel anyway. In fact, the rebellion in Gansu and Qinghai was incited
by them. The more they rebel, the better it is. When rebellion starts, we can
turn bad things into good things. You don’t do it, they will do it anyway, but
if you do it completely they may not able to do it anymore. When we handle
(i.e., deal with/ do away with) the temples completely in Gansu and Qinghai, it
is advantageous to solving the Tibetan problem. Of course, we still have to pay
some attention to the impact on Tibet. However, by separating system from faith,
and properly handling methods and concrete issues, we can take care of the
impact on Tibet. Our way of handling this is more secure (i.e., causing less or
no turmoil), and will be more favourable to influencing the Tibetan people, to
winning over the Tibetan upper class and to fight the Tibetan upper class in a
rightful and advantageous way.
In Tibet (i.e., TAR), in
accord with the “six-year-no-reform” principle passed by the Central Committee,
reform of the Lamaist system has been temporarily put on hold. However, if
Tibetan counter-revolutionaries dare to launch a full scale rebellion, it is
possible that both social reform and reform of the Lamaist system in Tibet will
begin ahead of schedule, thus fully liberating the Tibetan people.
III. (no subtitle)
Reforming the Lamaist system is a very sharp,
very complicated class struggle. To achieve victory in this struggle, a lot of
work needs to be done. Based on the conditions and opinions reported by
comrades, I think the following points require special attention:
(1) Firmly uphold the mass line, fully arouse
the masses, and implement our work based on the consciousness and free
will of the masses. Our experiences demonstrate: “To return a large number of
Lamas to secular life and dismantle temples, the key is to mobilise the
masses.” Only after mobilising the masses outside the temple and poor Lamas
inside, an assault from within and without, can the bigger result be achieved.
Recent struggle against the Islamic counter-revolutionary upper class in
Ningxia and Gansu also proved this. In short, in places where the masses are
fully mobilised and relied on, the struggle is done better; on the contrary, in
places where the masses are not fully mobilised and relied on, the struggle
cannot be carried out smoothly. We should trust the masses of minority
nationalities. The masses of minority nationalities are trustworthy. For
example, the Hui and Dongxiang counter-revolutionary rebels of Guanghe and
Dongxiang Autonomous County in Gansu are more afraid of the militia of their
own nationalities than of the People’s Liberation Army.
Attention should be paid to
mobilising backward people. This is particularly significant to reform of the
Lamaist system. Backward people gaining consciousness is a sign that the masses
have been fully aroused. This is true of both Islam and Lamaism. We
mobilised all the people around (the struggle against) Ma Zhenwu,[8] and
this made our struggle against him more powerful.
Special attention should be
paid to organize the (section of the) masses who suffered most deeply from
religious persecution in the struggle against the reactionary upper class. In
this way the struggle will be deeper and more exhaustive, and it is more
helpful in mobilising and educating the masses and raising their class
consciousness as well.
Completely exposing the rotten
private lives of the reactionary upper class has very strong political
significance, because by exposing their hypocrisy, it is easier to
arouse people’s anger and hatred. For example, in Qinghai, the display of Tu Guan
Huo Fo’s female nude pictures in public aroused great anger from the masses.[9] When
Ma Zhenwu’s dirt was exposed, even his former faithful followers said “how can
we continue to call a man like this master?”
(2). Rightist conservative
ideas, religious sentiment and protective feeling (toward
religion) among cadres must be overcome. Only so can we completely knock
down the reactionary upper class and implement the work of religious system
reform; again, only so can we effectively mobilise and firmly rely on the
masses, it is necessary to clarify the significance of religious system reform
and implement atheist education among cadres. Inside the party, a line between
religion and communism must be firmly drawn. For those who keep religious
belief, but do not violate party rules and are willing to accept party education
even though they still retain some religious belief, the party will keep on
educating them, wait for them for a while, help them to raise their
consciousness and will not subject them to organizational sanctions. On the
other hand, if a party member still refuses to change his religious standpoint
after repeated education and holds on to the sentiment of defending religion, a
person like this no longer meets the requirement of a communist party member.
20% of minority party members in Qinghai uphold the sentiment of defending
religion. One county CPC secretary even released a person belonging
to the counter-revolutionary religious upper class without approval, and told
him: “Lucky that you met me, otherwise you wouldn’t be released.” This kind of
person cannot be kept in the party.
We need to make the cadres
understand that not cutting themselves off from the masses does not mean to
fall behind the masses. Now that the masses have raised their consciousness and
marched forward, if we stand on the same spot, we will fall behind the masses
and separate ourselves from them. Take Han and Hui intermarriage as an example:
in the past it was correct to restrict Han cadres from being in love with Hui
women, but if we continue to emphasize such a restriction, we lag behind the
situation and sink into the mud pit of narrow nationalism. Of course we should
not advocate intermarriage between Hui and Han. Just keep one eye open, the
other eye closed. The right attitude is to recognize development, to distinguish
the direction of wind, to know the overall situation, standing in the frontline
of the movement instead of lagging behind the masses; in other words, be
pushers, not draggers.
On the other hand, after the masses have been
aroused, leaders should watch and prevent the trend of cadres wanting to
overthrow everything. Going to excess should be prevented.
(3). Enhance vigilance and be combat ready. To
touch a tiger’s backside, one has to take precautions against being
bitten. Since religious system reform is a sharp class struggle, we
must prepare ourselves for a rebellion launched by the reactionary upper class,
and never take that lightly. However, don’t be afraid of rebellion. Should it
happen, just firmly crack down, turning the bad into good. Some comrades follow
the old rules and regulations. When rebellion is on the way they still try
peaceful means first before resorting to force, putting themselves at a
disadvantage as a result. The key to prevent rebellion still lies in fully
mobilising the masses. This is the most essential step. In the struggle against
Ma Zhenwu, when attention was paid to mobilising the masses and working well
with them, there was no rebellion, but some problems occurred when the masses
were not fully mobilised. To facilitate the process of mobilising the masses,
to prevent and crack down on rebellion quickly, an effective measure is to
arrest a number of evildoers promptly, confiscate firearms from evildoers and
temples and distribute them to the reliable masses. Experience from various
places has proved that this should be done and must be done.
(4). United Front work with the upper circle
must be carried on. Our principle is: continue to unite and reform all
patriotic and law-abiding religious personnel, and firmly crack down on
evildoers and evil deeds in religion. Therefore we must do more United Front
work and do it better, win the majority of the religious upper class over to
the masses’ side to support the people’s wish to reform the religious system,
and isolate reactionaries and evildoers. In areas where the masses have been
mobilised, doing better United Front work with the upper circle has more
significance. In the process of reforming religion, their study, work and life
must be given overall consideration. Proper care should be given to
religious personnel living a difficult life due to disability. Thinking from
the angle of nationality work, this will not harm national sentiment, it will
help national unity, and at the same time make a good impression on foreign
countries.
(5). Continue to publicise the freedom of
religious belief policy. Freedom of religion is written in the
constitution. We are reforming the religious system, not eliminating religion.
It has to be made clear that as Marxists, we will never take interfering
measures to deal with ideological problems. However, we are firmly against
counter-revolutionaries, privilege and exploitation, evildoers and evil deeds
in religious circles. Only so can we counter rumours and sabotage created by
counter-revolutionaries and win over the majority of the masses.
(6). (Religious system reform) must be united
with current productive labour and with the socialist-communist education
movement. The purpose of reforming religion is to free people’s minds and emancipate
productive forces. Besides that, reforming the religious system and confronting
evildoers in religious circles also serves as real life atheist propaganda and
education. In essence, it is part of socialist- communist education. Because of
this, the movement should be united with the socialist-communist education
movement, there is no need to take several steps and implement them separately.
(7). To consolidate achievements already
made, meticulous work must be done continuously and persistently. We should
understand that religious ideas cannot be cleared out of people’s minds with
one movement or one struggle. Lamas who returned to secular life
during the high tide of the movement cannot have done so 100% voluntarily. At
the same time, imperialists and counter-revolutionaries using religion for
sabotage will certainly be more concealed and devious. Therefore, after the
religious system is reformed, the struggle with religion will still be a sharp
and long-term one. Counter-revolutionaries and evildoers in religion must be
cleared away persistently; supervision, education and remoulding of Lamas in
temples and those who have returned to lay life must be strengthened. A better
job should be done in political and ideological education of the masses, concrete
problems emerging in the movement should be handled promptly and properly.
To better implement the religious
system reform guidelines, some concrete issues should be seriously studied and
carefully handled.
1. Take note that a certain number of temples
should be deliberately preserved. Once the masses are aroused, it is
only natural that they want to “shave the head bald”, want to knock down all
the temples. But we should understand that not all Lamas will drop their faith
after one campaign. Some Lamas who returned to lay life and went back home
under the circumstances of mass struggle, will still maintain a certain level
of religious faith. Work with this type of people should be stepped up in order
to stabilize their adaptation to secular life. Some Lamas will be unwilling to
return to lay life, but have no temple available to house them, and it is not
to our advantage to scatter them among the masses. It is better to assemble
them together in one or several temples, making education and supervision
easier. Besides that, in order to show consideration for the masses’ religious
faith, and to prevent internal and external counter-revolutionaries from
spreading rumours and fomenting discord, it is necessary to preserve a certain
number of temples. It is not appropriate to preserve too many, but too few is
also disadvantageous. The proper number of temples to be preserved
in each area needs to be considered by the local party committee. Do not
establish happiness homes (homes for the elderly) for old and helpless Lamas, just let them live in the temple, and figure out proper ways to
help them.
2. Lamas who ask to return to lay life should be
supported and encouraged. Old, disabled and homeless Lamas should be
collectively allowed to live in the temple and organized to do some suitable
work. Proper relief can be given to ease their difficulty. We can even consider
just supporting them (without making them work for their living).
Some law-abiding Lamas who are unwilling to return to lay life can live together
with them. This will be very helpful in winning over the masses, and removing
people’s concerns (fears over the elimination of religion), it will also help
us to supervise and educate them.
3. During the struggle, the reactionary upper
class elements who defect and commit meritorious deeds should be
differentiated from the die-hard counter-revolutionaries. The former can be
given lenient treatment as appropriate and provided an opportunity to mend
their ways. Proper places can be found for those who defect and make
contributions. Che Ben Gyal[10] in Qinghai can serve as a living example to educate others. Just
like Ma Zhenwu, proper arrangements can be made for him. If the local level has
difficulty to find him a place, he can be placed at higher levels. To do this
helps to unite the majority, and to isolate and divide enemies.
4. Customs and folkways that do not hinder
production and construction too much should not be changed right
away. Let the masses act on their own will. When necessary, some
work can be done to speed up the process and to inspire them into
consciousness. To extend the scope too much goes against the reform of the
religious system.
In the end, let me repeat
again, this speech is personal opinion, only as a reference to comrades from
different areas. After the meeting, we will ask the Central Committee for
instructions based on what we discussed about the reform of the Lamaist system.
Before receiving instructions from the Central Committee, work on Lamaism
should continue in accord with the party committee’s opinion for each region.
Document 3
Qinghai Provincial CPC
Committee
Comments and
Instructions on “Report on Religious System Reform Work” submitted by CPC
Committee of Hualong County[11]
Hualong County Committee:
The report on religious system reform has been read. The Provincial Committee agrees with your comments for future work. You have gained certain achievements in the work of religious system reform. However, the work of mobilising the masses is not complete, as a large proportion of the county still belongs to Category II and III Areas. You should closely integrate other core work to fully mobilise the masses, bring the ‘speaking bitterness’ struggle to a more extensive level, expose the ugly and foul nature of counter-revolutionary religious upper strata by publicly criticizing and denouncing them, and resolutely abolish the oppressive and exploiting systems and feudal privileges of religious institutions in their entirety, so the working people will be completely liberated. At the same time, atheist education should be conducted among the masses in order to raise their political consciousness. While working hard with the masses, educational work should be done first with cadres, especially minority cadres. Using the methods of free airing of views, great debates and big-character posters to conduct proletarian nationality viewpoint and atheist education with them, help them clear religious superstition out of their mind, and build a correct viewpoint in terms of the nationality question.
The report on religious system reform has been read. The Provincial Committee agrees with your comments for future work. You have gained certain achievements in the work of religious system reform. However, the work of mobilising the masses is not complete, as a large proportion of the county still belongs to Category II and III Areas. You should closely integrate other core work to fully mobilise the masses, bring the ‘speaking bitterness’ struggle to a more extensive level, expose the ugly and foul nature of counter-revolutionary religious upper strata by publicly criticizing and denouncing them, and resolutely abolish the oppressive and exploiting systems and feudal privileges of religious institutions in their entirety, so the working people will be completely liberated. At the same time, atheist education should be conducted among the masses in order to raise their political consciousness. While working hard with the masses, educational work should be done first with cadres, especially minority cadres. Using the methods of free airing of views, great debates and big-character posters to conduct proletarian nationality viewpoint and atheist education with them, help them clear religious superstition out of their mind, and build a correct viewpoint in terms of the nationality question.
As for the handling of temple
buildings, in general they should not be demolished. Based on people’s wishes,
they can be adapted to other uses. If the masses do not want to alter and reuse
them, do not force them.
On the question of arresting
people, please discuss and make your own decision. When necessary, you can
discuss with the Provincial Committee’s United Front Work Department and Public
Security Bureau.
Qinghai Provincial
Committee of CPC
December 3, 1958
Report on the Religious
System Reform Work
in Hualong County
I. Just as other localities in the whole
province and the entire country, our county is currently in a new period of
great change when “one year equals twenty years”. Particularly after
the anti-rightist movement and rectification movement among the populace of the
entire country, socialist revolution has achieved great success on the
political and ideological front. Peoples’ spiritual state has undergone
profound changes. Immediately following that, the Party issued the General
Line of Building Socialism with Greater, Faster, Better and More Economic
Results. Under the glorious light of the General Line, an allround movement of
Great Leap Forward occurred in industry, agriculture, commerce, culture,
education and public health as well as transportation and communication. At the
same time, the whole county has achieved communalization, productivity has
achieved bigger development, and production relations have undergone
substantial changes. In such circumstances, the working people have displayed
greater enthusiasm for work, and their resolution to follow the socialist road
is stronger. However, whenever the historical wheels of revolution are rolling
rapidly forward, those who would “rather die with a granite head than accept
changes” will always try every way to put up a struggle from their deathbed,
and desperately oppose the Communist Party and socialism. Because of this, the
struggle between capitalism and socialism appears to be very sharp. In this
sharp and fierce class struggle, religious institutions serve as a major
reactionary instrument for counter-revolutionaries. They centred around
religion, using temples as their stronghold and reactionary nationality and
religious upper strata as their backbone to organize counter-revolutionary
armed rebellion by cheating and coercing the masses. In the movement to crush
the rebellion and to reform the religious system, we mobilised the masses to
carry out the struggle against the reactionary middle and upper power-holding
religious elements who are in collusion with the exploiting class. In April
this year, we conducted a wide-range movement in religious circles to purge
reactionaries and evil-doers. An anti-rightist struggle was carried out as
well. During the struggle, the dark inside stories of religious upper strata
and temples were largely uncovered, laying bare the reactionary essence of
religion serving the exploiting class. The far-reaching and extensive Speaking
Bitterness movement has greatly raised the class consciousness of people of all
nationalities and their enthusiasm for socialism. Reactionary essence of
religion has been exposed and a large number of crimes committed by religious
institutions has been reported:
1. Organizing counter-revolutionary groups and
launching armed rebellion under the disguise of religion. In the whole county,
16 relatively big counter-revolutionary cases have been cracked. Among them, 8
cases were organized using religion as nucleus, temples as strongholds and
counter-revolutionary religious upper strata as backbone. For
instance, the cases like the “Association for Opposing Communism and
Promoting Religion”, “Nationalist Communist Party”, “Long Qian Armed
Rebellion”, etc. were organized respectively by counter-revolutionary religious
chiefs Bai Yuzheng, Zhi yi Siha, Han Liu Shi Jiu, Ye Deyuan and Maxi
Lazhi[12] through
conspiracy. At the same time, they raised such counter-revolutionary
slogans as “Rely on the Hui, unite the Han and Tibetans. Long live Islam. A
long, long life to Islam”. They created an organizational structure with levels
such as regiment, company, platoon and squad. They gathered people to burn
incense and prayed to Allah for help, took vows through scripture-chanting and
plotted rebellion. Their common goal was to “drive out the Communist Party”,
“murder leading cadres”, “resist socialist transformation” and “protect
religion with one’s life”.
2. Spreading rumors to incite the masses and
undermine Party policies. Of all the policies we carried out, there
is not a single one to which they didn’t’ object. We conducted land reform,
they said “Land reform is hai la mu (Haram, or sin). It
cannot be done.” We promoted communization, they called it “pork
mixed with mutton.” We combatted drought; they said “to combat drought is to
combat Allah.” We wanted to implement a marriage law, they said “it
goes against scripture”. They even went so far as to clamour
for “amending the marriage law”. When we were
establishing communes, they said these were “investment of women and children”.
We wanted to eliminate the four pests, they said that was “murderous and
slaughter”. We carried out religious reform, they spread rumours that it was
“killing the Hui and eliminating religion”, “banning chanting,
banning the veil”, and “we will have to raise pigs and eat pork”. We mobilised
people to invest their money; they took the opportunity to stir up trouble,
saying “those who take other people’s property have no Imam”. In a word, they
objected to everything we do, and even arrogantly declared that “policy must be
in accord with scriptures”.
(3) Hiding, protecting and collaborating with
counter-revolutionaries. All those belonging to the religious upper class
maintain close relations with landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries,
evil-doers and rightists. They share the same mind, and sit in the same boat.
Ma Nanxiang, an Imam and Sheikh, consistently hid bandits and spies. Ma
Qishisan, an Imam, took despotic landlord Hanga Chuma into
hiding. Bian Ma Tan Mosque even kept Bai Yuzheng, head of the
“Association for Opposing Communism and Promoting Religion”, for a few years
without reporting him to the authorities. Tupten, a Tibetan spy, travels
frequently to and from Xia Qiong monastery[13],
conducting his business. Deyang[14] consistently
protected and hid him.
After rebellion broke out in Xunhua county[15] and
in nomadic areas, Deyang, Lobsang, Nian Zhihua and Ma Nanxiang rushed to Haixi,
Haibei, Jianca and thereabouts, networking actively, attempting to participate
in the rebellion and collude with each other.
4. Storing fire arms and illegally selling
weapons. This is very common in Lamaist temples. According to firearms
confiscated, every single one of the 27 temples possessed weapons. Kha Ang
Temple has only 24 monks, but 15 of them sold fire arms, taking up to 62.5%.
Reactionary temple chiefs consistently stock up large amounts of firearms, and
resist confiscation. Over 6,700 bullets and 11 rifles were
discovered inside the grain store, under the beams and walls in the Gabang
residence of Xia Qiong temple alone. In the household of Gendong in Tsetsa
temple, one machine gun, one rifle, one six-barreled revolver and 347 bullets
were found. Those weapons are capital for them to organize armed rebellion.
5. Undermining national unity, creating dissension
between religious sects. Nine years after the Liberation, dissension, hostility
and a competitive scramble for power and profit between Islamic sects
happened one after another, culminating with the struggle between the New
Sect and the Old Sect of Islam. In 1956, the New Sect and the Old Sect in
Heicheng Xiang[16] staged
a near fatal fight over the invitation of an Imam, involving guns and clubs.
Counter-revolutionaries often used scripture-teaching as an excuse to undermine
national unity and make people distrust each other. During a
scripture teaching, Ma Nanxiang said: “This party or that party of yours, only
our Hui is the biggest party.” He cursed the Han as “stupid Han”, and Tibetans
as “barbarians”. In September, when the county held a public meeting and
executed rebel chiefs Ye Erli, Ye Wanlin and Ye Deyuan,[17] he
spread rumours saying “this is killing Hui and eliminating religion”, “the Han
are killing the Hui”. Incited by such rumours, for a period of time there was
serious distrust between nationalities in areas where rebellion occurred.
Obviously, counter-revolutionaries are plotting to divert class struggle into
national struggle.
6. Countless cases of distortion and
exploitation by usury. Using religious superstition to cheat working people,
and to extort money and property is the main method for temples to maintain
their parasitic way of life. According to initial investigations conducted in 8
communes of Zhaba Xiang,[18] heavy
religious burdens took over 30% of the Hui commune members’ income earned from
agricultural and sideline production. In 1957, Xia Qiong monastery
extorted up to 74,554 Yuan, and up to 14,730 Jin of grain through soliciting
alms and sutra chanting. In addition, it carried on commercial activities in
Tibet, speculating and profiteering. This did not include the small amount of
income from tea and butter. Deyang goes to nomadic areas once a year, swindling
500 sheep, over 40 horses, about 1000 Jin of butter and over 1000 silver
dollars. The Imams’ vicious means of exploitation even surpass those of
Lamaism. La Gan (Islamic
religious title ?) Han Qishisan used the
method of “small sheng[19] out,
large sheng in”, lending one sheng of salt
and getting five sheng of vegetable seeds back in
autumn. Such cruel religious exploitation greatly undermined the
improvement of material life for minority people. In communes with mixed
nationalities, the Han commune members accumulate more wealth than the Hui for
the same amount of work.
7. Stockpiling grain and letting it mildew and
rot, sabotaging (food) policy. They yelled and screamed outside the temple that
they had no food, making trouble for no reason, but inside the temple they
stocked up large amounts of grain. Over 30,000 Jin of grain and flour were
stocked up in the Weishi and Deyang households alone, some of it already rotten
and mildewed.
8. Cursing the Communist Party, holding on to
delusionary hopes about the Jiang (Kai-shek) and Ma (Bufang) bandit gangs. A
large amount of instruments used for casting spells were kept in Lamaist
temples. In Chitsa temple[20] alone
five sets (of such instruments) were found. They bitterly opposed reform of the
religious system, casting curses such as “those who harm our religious interest
are the enemies of our religion”, “gouging out brain marrow, sucking out hot
blood from the heart, let human heads pile up like a mountain and blood flow
like a river”. Majority of the temples kept photographs of Jiang Kai-shek, Ma
Bufang, Ma Jiyuan and Sun Zhonglian, treating them as treasures, but making all
kinds of insults to Chairman Mao’s photograph, such as crossing out the eyes.
Besides that, every temple kept counterfeit currency,[21] letters
of appointment, contracts and debt agreements, dreaming that “another sun would
rise”, and attempting to restore the old order. They clung to the memory of the
Jiang (kai-shek) and the Ma (Bufang) bandit gangs. Ma Baike even planned to
leave for Turkey, to act as Ma Bufang’s running dog and betray the motherland.
9. Temples are slaughter grounds for killing
people, and the power holders are killers. Inside the temple, the relationship
between the power holders and the poor monks is a complete copy of relations
between slave owners and slaves. Power holders have the privilege to beat and
punish monks and the masses at will, and own clubs, shackles and handcuffs used
to beat and punish the masses. From October 1957 to June 1958 alone,
the steward Guanju, and Jiantso (the landlord) of upper Chitsa temple beat and
punished 87 people. Among them 43 were heavily wounded, some even crippled.
Human heads and legs were discovered in Gando temple, walls were stained with
dots of blood. Human skulls were used as cursing tools and eating bowls, but
nobody felt strange about this. It truly is “hell on earth”. Nangtso Choegyal
of Sanshe (current deputy head of county) kept shackles and handcuffs in his
home. He instigated the murderer Chen Mingde to murder the family of Wang Zaxi,
killing all 3 people in the family for property, treating life as dirt.
10. Rape is common and homosexuality is popular
in temples. “Imams in day time, whore seekers at night time”. Ma Nanxiang alone
has raped seven Mullahs. Chentsa Huo Fo of Tehenlong temple forcibly took his
own sister as wife, forbade her to marry anyone else, and has two children with
her. Large amounts of women’s clothes, shoes and socks, all kinds of jewelry
and bronze Buddha statues, naked and in sexual intercourse, were discovered in
the households of many Huo Fo-s. In Lamaist temples, homosexual behaviour has
become systematic, Huo Fo-s have sex with stewards, and stewards have sex with
Akhas[22] who
in turn have sex with Wandes[23].
It is truly stinky and disgusting. What is even more loathsome is that in the
Egg Rolling Sect (a sect in Islam) religion is used to narcotize the masses,
raping women during evening services. They call the dirty water they use to
wash their private parts “Du Wa”, saying that it could cure disease and let the
masses drink it.
When all these criminal facts were laid
bare among the masses, they greatly raised people’s class consciousness, and
helped them to see clearly the reactionary and criminal essence of religion and
its power holders. After the Speaking Bitterness struggle and
purging of counter-revolutionaries, evil-doers and rightists in the religious
circle, a large number of monks demanded liberation, returned home and took up
secular life. The masses deliberately brought their sons home, no longer
letting them stay as monks and Mullahs. Instead they wanted their sons to go to
school, participate in productive labour, and follow a bright path. After being
publicly criticized and struggled by the masses, the religious middle and upper
strata found themselves isolated. Temples have disbanded one by one. By the end
of September, all the 205 mosques, 27 Lamaist temples, 86 Mani Khang
and 8 Qubbats in the whole county had closed down. Of the 4,090
so-called religious personnel (440 Imams, 888 Mullahs and 2,762 Lamas), aside
from the 286 who were still studying in the province and the
county, the 300 arrested as counter-revolutionaries, evil-doers and
rightists, and 2 who committed suicide (includes 55 at Ganba level or higher,[24] making
26%, 88 below Ganba level, making 3%, 81 Imams, or 33.8%, 54 Xuedong,[25] or
22%, and 51 Mullahs, or 13%),[26] all
the rest have returned to secular life. Altogether 203 firearms of
all types, 22,190 bullets, 1 machine gun, 6 binoculars, 4 hand grenades, 1
antitank grenade, a rifle grenade, 1 set of parachute ropes and 1,280
counter-revolutionary identification papers have been confiscated. The
value of confiscated counter-revolutionary property amounted to 150,000 Yuan.
The feudal fortress weighing on the people for thousands of years is falling
apart; feudal privilege and the religious reactionary system have been
completely smashed.
II The main reason for our
ability to make the above-mentioned achievements is due to correct
implementation of the instructions issued by the Provincial Committee to
mobilise the masses and adopting the method of working within the party first
before working outside the party, working with cadres first before working with
the masses. Experience demonstrated that as long as the masses were fully
mobilised, the reactionary inside story of religion will be completely exposed.
As long as the power holders in religion are publicly criticized and denounced,
their reputation ruined and the feudal privilege and feudal exploitation system
smashed, the religious consciousness of the masses would be greatly weakened
and a new atmosphere of great ideological liberation would appear. However,
since this is a new undertaking, there is no ready experience on which all
those involved can draw. Besides, in some areas the comrades in
charge lack sharpness in their understanding of the difficulty and complexity
of the work. Instead of working arduously and meticulously to arouse the masses
over a certain period of time, they became impetuous and took a simple
approach, rushing to clamp down on temples, busy reforming habits and customs
such as removing veils and cutting braids,[27] but
putting less effort into arousing the masses to wage a struggle against
religious rule and exploitation, or into conducting Speaking Bitterness and
debate sessions.[28] Even
though these things were difficult to avoid, they did cause unnecessary
misgivings among the masses, leading our work on a roundabout
course. Because of this, generally speaking the development of the
movement is quite uneven. Roughly it can be divided into three categories.
Details are as follows:
Category I Areas: Areas where the
masses were mobilised quite well. Free airing of views and great debates were
conducted first inside then outside the party. Arrangements were made in
successive stages to clarify the significance of religious reform, and to unify
action and ideology. Then the masses were guided into the struggle
with religious upper strata and Speaking Bitterness on religious exploitation
and oppression. (We) let the masses themselves state the contents of reform and
raise the slogans of abolishing the religious exploiting system and religious
privilege. After that, complete reform was carried out. Areas like
this are approximately 30 percent. In all areas where the movement was
conducted like this, the masses were extremely enthusiastic. They clearly
understood that “religion is the opium of the people”, that it is a tool for
the ruling clique to exploit the working people. The reactionary and ugly
features of the counter-revolutionaries using the disguise of religion to
oppose the Communist Party and socialism were further exposed, directly
exciting the class hatred of the broad masses, and thus agitating an allround
and extensive socialist revolutionary movement of anti-feudalism and Speaking
Bitterness.
For example, in Wo Li Ga village, Chengxi Xiang,
940 big-character posters were put out within five days, that impassionedly
exposed reactionary inside stories of counter-revolutionaries in the religious
circle and religious middle and upper strata, including raping women, forcibly
seizing property, murdering a family, exploitation through usury and extortion,
hiding counter-revolutionaries, creating rumours and stockpiling fire arms.
Through debate and Speaking Bitterness, the masses prevalently reflected that “Zakat, poll tax, funerals and
land rent are four mountains on top of the Hui people”, and “Imams said every
fine word and did every foul deed”. They used figurative expressions to refer
to the Imams’ exploitation: “The Han eat pork without hair, Imams eat it even
with hair”. In Speaking Bitterness and the debate between theism and atheism,
the masses used their own experiences to speak from
objection to abstraction. For
instance, Han Youlu said: “Imams always said that poverty and wealth were given
by Allah. Before Liberation I worked as a long-term farmhand, but was poor all
my life. After Liberation I was given land. Two years later I sold 2000 Jin of
surplus grain to the state. In the third year I sold 4000 Jin. All these were
given by the Communist Party. Could they possibly have
been given by Allah?“ “Imams told people that they were not allowed to touch
objects bearing images. Banknotes have images. Silver dollars have images.
Imams love them more than anyone else.” Lathang, a Tibetan, said: “Huo Fo
(incarnate Lamas) are raised by humans. Buddha statues are made of clay. In the
past, they cheated people, saying that if one touched (the statues) one would
get a headache or become blind. Now they have been struggled against and
smashed, but nothing happened. I sleep better at night.” After speaking
bitterness and debate, the masses feel proud and elated, and even more enthusiastic in
productive labour. Monks returned to secular life one after another. People
sent petitions with joint signatures to shut down mosques and temples. The
masses pulled down Buddha statues with their own hands. Temples were turned
into storehouses, some of them were dismantled, and the tiles and
timbers used to build houses.
Category II Areas: (Areas in this category) are
approximately 50 percent. , Even though the masses in areas of this category
were mobilised, the work was not strong enough, especially with the elderly and
adults. Debate and Speaking Bitterness were confined to generalization, with
cadres and activists speaking more than the masses. Debates had ups and downs;
the elderly had many misgivings, particularly regarding the two different types
of contradictions,[29] unable
to understand clearly. They hated what the individual Imam or Huo Fo did, but
did not understand that religious personnel used religion as a tool to rule and
exploit working people. They mistakenly believed that “Religion is correct,
Imams are wrong”, were not clear about what to love and what to hate, and Speaking
Bitterness was not powerful enough.
Category III Areas: (Areas in this category) are
around 30 percent. The masses in areas in this category were hardly aroused
except for Party and Youth League members and activists. The leaders’ thinking
was not clear. They were only interested in closing temples and banning veils,
oversimplifying the arduous and meticulous work with the masses. To this day,
some leaders’ thoughts are still ambiguous. Some said: “As far as I am
concerned, religious reform has been achieved when temples are taken out, veils
lifted and robes shortened.” In the masses’ assembly, some said: “Imams
becoming counter-revolutionaries are individual cases…” The masses were still
unable to differentiate nationality from religion, nationality from
counter-revolution. On the whole the Speak Bitterness movement has not been
carried out, remaining at a standstill. Temples were clamped down formally, but
the problem in the masses’ ideology was not solved. People (mostly the elderly)
went to temples or worshipped at home as usual, asking cadres “Can we
chant Bang in service?”; some said “We are doing this for the
afterlife, services must be done.” Some of the mosques had been turned into
dining halls or storage, but some people were still saying “This is the place
of saints, it can’t be used in this way”. Still others felt that “reform or
not, it is none of my business”, staying away from the movement.
In general, great achievements have been made in
our work to reform the religious system. As far as existing problems are
concerned, the main problem is that in some areas the masses have not been
fully mobilised, and some local cadres are blindly optimistic, thinking that as
long as temples have been clamped down, the work is accomplished. Regarding
Imams and monks resuming secular life, the situation is quite different. Some
of them quit on their own when the religious reform started. Those people
already understood the trend and urgently demanded to return to secular
life. Another group of people voluntarily asked to return to secular
life after raising their understanding through study and rectification. Still
others returned to secular life carried by the general trend. Even though they
have left the temples, they miss the parasitic life and are work shy. This
group of people definitely will bring their religious consciousness to the
countryside, fussing about gods and devils. In the minds of quite a number of
people among the masses (particularly the elderly), poisonous religious
consciousness remains strong and deep-rooted. Therefore, it still
requires long and complex work to strengthen ideological education and lay out
the ideological foundation of atheism for them, thus freeing them completely
from the binds of religious thinking.
III. In order to purge counter-revolutionaries,
evil-doers and rightists hidden inside the religious circle wholly, completely
and thoroughly, to smash the feudal system of exploitation and
oppression, to do away with superstitions and emancipate people’s minds
and to win an overall victory in religious reform, the following work must be
done well hereafter:
1. Fully mobilise the masses for the Speak
Bitterness movement, forming a large-scale campaign of anti-feudalism. All the
areas where the masses have not been fully mobilised must make up for this
missed lesson. In terms of methodology, the methods of leading from superficial
to indepth, from near to far, from people to things should be mastered, making
full use of free airing of views, great debates, big-character posters,
cartoons, blackboard newspaper, local broadcasting and amateur theatrical
troupes to expose the reactionary insides of religion, and lay bare the facts
about the counter-revolutionary religious circle for the masses. All kinds of
meetings should be held and all kinds of ways should be used to mobilise the
masses. Country (local) newspapers and broadcasting stations should explain and
propagate policies to the masses with special columns and programs. The
Speaking Bitterness struggle, focusing on “purging counter-revolutionaries”,
“abolishing the feudal exploitation system” and “abolishing feudal privileges”,
should be carried out extensively.
2. Attention should be paid to integrate the
Speak Bitterness movement with current production and construction. In the
Speak Bitterness movement, special attention should be paid to organizing
“face-to-face” struggle. This is not only the best method to
mobilise the masses, it is also the easiest way to excite people’s fighting
spirit and class hatred, in order to bring down and smash the
counter-revolutionaries and evil-doers.
Debate should begin with the struggle against
the counter-revolutionaries and evil-doers, and be guided on to exposing and
Speaking Bitterness on religion, and after that, based on the success of the
struggle, a debate between theism and atheism should be carried out.
3. Hold exhibitions of counter-revolutionary
evidence. According to the plan, starting from the last third of October,
exhibits will be on display in all the 14 xiangs in the county
in a planned way.
4. Vigorously propagate national unity and the
policy of religious freedom, stating clearly that socialism is the common
foundation of national unity, criticize and debunk fallacies like “all the Hui
are one family”, “there are no good Hui”, “the Hui are rebellious”, “the Han
are killing Hui” as well as the psychology of mutual suspicion between
nationalities throughout history. Propagate the policy that one has the freedom
to believe in religion, and the freedom not to believe in religion. One also
has the freedom to believe in religion today, and disbelieve tomorrow; the
freedom to believe in this religion and freedom to believe in that religion.
This policy must be known to every family and every person. Those who force the
masses to believe in religion and to conduct religious activities should be
properly handled.
5. As for the “double
teaching” personnel assembling in the province and county for study, we
plan to arrest an additional 518 (280 in Islam, 238 in Lamaism) persons based
on records we already have. As for the Lamas returned to secular life, we
should pay attention to their political progress, strengthen political and
ideological education with them and take care of their life. Poor
Lamas in their old age and physically unable to work should be settled
as householders enjoying the five guarantees.[30] Wande
(child monks) and young Huo Fo-s who have no homes to return to and are under
nobody’s care should be sent to schools or kindergartens and be put under
mandated care. Regarding young Lamas, the main thing is to help solve their
marriage problem. Lamas with artistic skills should be sent to a nationalities
institute to study or helped to find work appropriate to their talents.
All the Lamas and Imams who have returned to
secular life must participate in the debate in order to raise their political
consciousness.
6. Temples and mosques should be handled in
accord with local circumstances, turned into factories, schools, storage and so
on, or used for other public purposes. Those that have artistic value and can
be used by communes can organize and persuade some commune members to move in.
Temples in locations difficult to reach and in rugged spots, the masses should
be mobilised to dismantle, to prevent them being damaged by evil-doers or used
by counter-revolutionaries as strongholds for their activities.
Please indicate whether the Provincial Committee
considers the above views sound or not.
Hualong County
Committee
October 24, 1958.
Document 4
Approval and Forwarding
of
the Report on Current
Work in Islam and Lamaism
Submitted by the Leading
Party Members’ Group of
Central Nationalities
Affairs Commission
Shanghai Bureau, Provincial and Autonomous
Region Party Committees,
Ministries and Commissions of the CPC Central
Committee, Leading Party Members’ Groups in State Organs, People’s
Organizations and Central Communist Youth League:
The report on current work in Islam and Lamaism
by Leading Party Members’ Group of Nationalities Affairs Commission is hereby
transmitted to you. The Central Committee regards this report to be a very good
one. Please consider implementation in accord with the concrete conditions of
your area (Tibet excluded). Abolition of the ruthless oppression and
exploitation imposed on the masses by Islam and Lamaism, as well as abolition
of all privileges, and clearing away and suppressing counter-revolutionaries in
these religions constitute an anti-Feudal struggle, and a movement that will
lead to the complete liberation of the masses of the nationalities concerned.
However, the fact that those feudal oppressors and exploiters hide behind the
mask of religion, using religion as a weapon, and the masses of the concerned
nationalities have deep superstitious belief in religion makes this struggle a
particularly complex one. During the process of mobilising and leading people
in the struggle, please do make sure to differentiate issues related to
religious faith from oppressive religious systems; differentiate monks’ general
religious activities from their evil behaviour such as extortion and brutality
towards the masses; differentiate counter-revolutionaries who joined the
rebellion and have engaged in active sabotage from those who are
counter-revolutionary in ideology but have taken no action; and differentiate
elements who have committed all kinds of evil and incurred the wrath of the
masses from those who incurred no wrath or little wrath among the masses. Areas
where rebellion occurred should also be differentiated from areas where
rebellion did not occur. In addition to these, during the process of mobilising
and leading people in the above-mentioned struggle, attention must be paid to
conducting United Front work with the religious upper class as well, in order
to isolate the reactionaries among them. To crack down on counter-revolutionaries
and other evildoers in religion, the main way is to arouse a mass struggle, and
completely destroy their reputation (literally: ‘make them stink’). Also take
notice that other than arresting those who must be arrested, do not arrest too
many, especially do not carry out execution too easily (literally: ‘do not kill easily’); executions must be approved by
the Central Committee.
This is an extremely arduous and complex
struggle. Party committees must make diligent efforts to ensure leadership. Policies
must be explicitly explained to cadres. Masses must be fully
aroused. Be serious and cautious when encountering problems, there
must be absolutely no carelessness and negligence, or hasty action. [31]
The Central Committee
December, 1958
Conditions, Issues and
Opinions on the current work
in Islam and
Lamaism
To the Central Committee:
Among the minority
nationalities of our country, ten nationalities, including Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh,
Khalkha, Uzbekh, Tartar, Tadjik, Dongxiang, Sala and Baoan, follow Islam; 5
nationalities, including Mongolian, Tibetan, Tu, Qiang and Yugu, follow
Lamaism. The combined population of these fifteen nationalities is over
14,000,000, forming more than one third of the total minority
population. With the progressive victory of socialist revolution and
construction, the contradiction between religion and socialism has become more
and more pronounced. Religious restrictions, particularly oppression through
religious privileges and economic exploitation, have become the worst
impediment to national development. To solve this problem, with
approval from the Central Committee, the United Front Work Department of the
CPC Central Committee organized two forums in May and September this year, on
the problems of Islam among the Hui, and of Lamaism respectively. According
to materials brought to the meetings by comrades, there are over 30,000
mosques, about 100,000 Imams and Mullahs; over 50,000 Lamaist temples, and
about 450,000 Huo fo-s and Lamas in the whole country. Since
Liberation, these two religions have undergone large scale decline in many
regions, but in some regions the decline is either insignificant or only
slight. In the latter case (such as Hui areas in the northwest and Tibetan
areas in Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan), the feudal privileges of and exploitation
by religion remain untouched. The burden of religion on the Hui
people normally takes more than 20%, and on the Tibetan people over 40%, of
their total income. Reactionary religious upper strata act against the
leadership of the party, resist socialist transformation, and incite rebellion
repeatedly. Of the rebellions that occurred in the Hui and Tibetan
areas in Gansu and Qinghai this year, reactionary religious upper strata
incited and took part in plotting all of them. It was the same with the rebellions
in Tibetan areas of Sichuan in 1956. The masses have expressed strong anger and
hatred toward the oppressive religious privileges, economic exploitation and
counter-revolutionary activities committed by reactionary upper strata. The
masses urgently demand the abolition of feudal privilege and exploitation by
religion and reform of the religious system. Masses of the Hui nationality
said: “Going to heaven is false, being exploited is true!” Masses of the
Tibetan nationality expressed that what Lamaism gave them is “much
misery, deep injustice, huge hatred”. Sichuan Tibetans think that in the
1956 democratic reform, they were “only half liberated”. Both the Hui and the
Tibetan masses said that “as long as the communist party leads us, we will have
the courage to fight the reactionary religious upper strata to the end.” We
must fully support such demands from the masses; otherwise we may cut ourselves
off from them. However, religion and religious upper strata still have strong
influence on people, and it should also be noted that Islam and Lamaism not
only have many followers among minority nationalities inside the country, but
also command a large number of followers outside the country, mainly in a
considerable number of nationalist countries in Asia and Africa. Therefore,
when we proceed with our work in religion, attention must be paid to how much
the masses have been aroused and the level of their political awareness. A
certain level of attention should be given to international impact as well.
As for the principles of current
work in Islam and Lamaism, we consider these should be: continue to
protect freedom of religious belief; unite, educate and reform all
patriotic and law-abiding religious persons; fully mobilize the masses to root
out counter-revolutionaries, fight against rightists and evildoers in religious
circles; and completely abolish feudal privileges and exploitation by religion.
Other than Tibet, which is temporarily excluded because of the need to act on
the ‘six year no reform’ policy, all the minority nationalities that follow
Islam and Lamaism should be prepared to follow these principles in due time.
In the process of
implementing these principles, a distinction should be made between religious
faith and the oppressive and exploitative religious system, and between
reactionaries who have joined the rebellion and religious upper strata that are
reactionary in ideology but have committed no counter-revolutionary activities.
We must abolish oppressive and exploitative systems and combat
counter-revolutionaries in religious disguise, while continuing to uphold the
policy of religious freedom and protecting people’s freedom to practise
religion.
The Following Aspects of
Religious Systems must be Abolished
(1) Abolish all feudal privileges in religion,
including private courts, prisons and punishment, interference in civil
lawsuits, unauthorized appointment of tribal chiefs and Imams, illegal
possession of firearms, interference with freedom of marriage, oppression of
and discrimination against women, and interference in cultural and educational
work.
(2) Abolish ownership of productive means and
systems of exploitation in Lamaist temples and mosques, such as usury and
unpaid labour, and ban illegal commerce. However, in handling temple property,
a certain amount of land, cattle and other property can be retained by those we
decide to preserve, so that the religious personnel allowed to stay there can
take part in productive labour and earn their living.
(3) Extortion is forbidden. Religious activities
must not hinder productive work, and must not violate policies and laws issued
by the state. Voluntary alms giving should not be banned.
(4) Forced monkhood is prohibited. Forcing
people to fast, forcing children to learn scriptures and to become Mullahs is
prohibited. Monks have the freedom to return to lay life, but do not forcibly
prohibit people who have chosen to be monks or Mullahs voluntarily.
(5) Abolish the feudal managerial system,
including stewardship, hierarchy, punishment and affiliation system between
temples. Generally speaking, all the religious personnel who are able to work
should take part in productive labor, and fulfill citizenship duties. After the
managerial system is abolished, new managing bodies can be established, but
must be under the leadership (of the party).
Religious system reform undoubtedly will
be a complex struggle with the reactionary powers in religious circles, a
struggle that must be carried out resolutely but cautiously. It must
be conducted under the leadership of party committees at all levels, carry out
the mass line, fully mobilize the masses, work meticulously and
thoroughly. Masses inside and outside temples must be mobilized at
the same time to create an attack from both sides. This work should be carried
out under the slogans of purging counter-revolutionaries, against rightists and
evildoers, abolishing feudal privileges and exploitation; there is no need to
raise the slogan of religious system reform in public.
In areas where rebellions occurred and where
religion has not been weakened, arresting counter-revolutionaries who have
committed criminal offences and evildoers who have incurred public wrath should
be done during the process of mobilizing the masses. Obstacles must be firmly
cleared away so as to ease peoples’ concern and fear.
In areas where religion has undergone major
decline, (cadres) can continue the method of arousing and relying on the masses
while consulting with the upper strata, achieving reform in the
temples’ ownership of productive means, and political as well as ideological
transformation of religious personnel step by step. Mobilize the masses while
steadily reducing religious influence.
In the past few months, great achievements have
been accomplished in Tibetan and Hui regions of Gansu and Qinghai by combining
the crackdown on rebellion, mobilizing the masses and reforming the religious
system. At the present time, in all the areas where the masses have been
mobilized, the reactionary religious upper class has been overthrown and
temples have disbanded. Not only that, but feudal religious privileges and
exploitation have been completely abolished, and it made a strong impact on the
masses’ belief in superstition as well. Many people have reduced their
superstitious belief in religion. As a result of economic, political and
ideological liberation, the Hui and Tibetan people have been taking a very
active role in suppressing rebels. Their enthusiasm for production is
rising to unprecedented heights, industry, agriculture and animal husbandry are
all leaping forward and communization has been accomplished in a short period
of time. It is obvious that the Hui and Tibetan masses of Gansu and Qinghai
have indeed been mobilized; a people’s campaign to reform religious systems has
been created quickly. The following are the reasons why this campaign is
developing rapidly: (1) After 8 to 9 years of work, the masses have raised
political awareness; meanwhile divisions in the upper strata have occurred (2) Reactionary
religious upper strata have completely exposed their ugly features by setting
themselves against the people (3) Religious exploitation is much too heavy (4)
Anti-rebellion, anti-privilege, anti-exploitation, purging
counter-revolutionaries, anti-rightists and evildoers are clear-cut slogans
that render us the political initiative. There is no doubt that this
campaign should be carried out to the end until complete victory is achieved.
Great achievements were also accomplished in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture
and in Hui regions of Shandong, Henan and Hebei where religious system reform
began from a campaign against evildoers and evil deeds. Practical work in
Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and other provinces and regions has proved that
reforming religious system is not only absolutely necessary, but is also
possible.
The following aspects should be given proper
attention and be well handled in order to implement the aforementioned
religious work principles correctly, and carry out the work of religious system
reform in a stable manner
(1) Continue to unite and grant positions to all
the upper elements that were given proper positions in the past, as long as
they did not take part in the rebellion and have not committed any new crimes.
Reactionaries who repent sincerely during the campaign or have made
contributions should be treated with a certain degree of leniency. Those who
have made major contributions can be given proper positions.
(2) It is necessary to preserve a certain
number of temples in order to show consideration for the masses’ religious
faith, to prevent internal and external counter-revolutionaries from
spreading rumours and fomenting discord, and to assemble and supervise Lamas
who have not returned to lay life. As for exactly how many are to be preserved,
an investigation of all the temples should be conducted based on their
influence and people’s opinion. In principle, the number (of preserved temples)
should not be too low. The crucial issue is to mobilize the masses and to raise
people’s political awareness. In terms of preserving temples, at the current
stage it is better to keep more than to keep less.
(3) About the title and status of Huo Fo: the
titles of all reactionaries who joined the rebellion are to be cancelled without
exception. No “reincarnation” is allowed. Those who did not join the rebellion
and ask to return to lay life can give up their title and status on their own.
Those who are unwilling to return to lay life and those whose positions require
such status should be allowed to keep it.
(4) Customs and folkways should be treated case
by case. Customs that are good for national development and
production should be protected and carried forward, those that have little
impact on national development and production can be left alone. The masses’
demands for reform of the customs that are not good for national development
and production should be supported. These kind of matters should be handled
according to the free will of believers and masses of various nationalities.
Serious attention should be paid to prevent coercion and command.
If the above opinion is considered feasible,
please approve and transmit to concerned regions for reference and
implementation.
Leading Party Members’ Group of Nationalities
Affairs Commission
Ulanfu, Wang Feng
November, 1958
[1] The 3rd Arotsang
Rinpoche: founder and abbot of Saitzong (Brag dkar sprel rdzong) monastery in
Xinghai County (rTsi gor thang rdzong), Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,
Qinghai. He was elected as a member of Qinghai Provincial Political
Consultative Conference in October 1950. He participated in the first
conference of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference in 1955. In 1958 he was accused of committing
“counter-revolutionary crimes” and arrested. He died in jail on December 12,
1958. He was rehabilitated in June 1981.
[2] The 7th Xiaricang
Hutuktu/Shartsang Kalden Trinley Lungtok Gyatso (1916-1978), abbot of Rongwo
Gonchen, arrested in 1958 on the charge of orchestrating the uprising that
year, he died in jail.
[3] The 6th Gungtang
Tsang Rinpoche Tenpe Wangchuk (1926-2000), arrested in May(?) 1958 and released
in April 1979.
[4] Zhang
Jia Hutuktu ( lCang skya ho thog thu) fled
to Taiwan and died there, dates unknown.
[5] The text
literally reads ‘struggle against the religious upper strata into ugliness and
stink’, which means depriving them of all sanctity, so that they will lose the
respect of the masses, people will not listen to them and will avoid them in
daily life (I have personal experience of this method of struggle – JL).
[6] Source: Collection
of documents on Nationality and Religion Work 1949-1959. Compiled and published
by Department of United Front Work, Qinghai Provincial Party Committee,
November 1959. (Note on spine: ‘Party Documents, careful preservation
required’).
[7] (Ch. Ji xun,
‘collective training’. Normally it means a type of study or training class for
a designated period of time. In the second half of the 1950s, many high Lamas
and chiefs in Tibetan areas were called for such “closed-door trainings” and were
taken to jail from there or died mysteriously during the “training” - JL).
[8] Ma Zhenwu
1895-1961, master of the Zhehelinye sect of Sufism in Chinese Islam, persecuted
in the 1958 Anti-Rightist movement, rehabilitated in 1984.
[9] 7th Tuken Hutuktu Kesang Damcho Nyima 1895-1959, arrested in 1958, died in jail on Jan. 2nd 1959.
[10] Chief of Ahgur,
tribe in today’s Xinghai County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
[11] Hualong Hui
Autonomous County (Ba yan rdzong) is in Haidong Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
The county seat is about 75 km from the Prefecture administration at Pingan
(Tsong kha mkhar). Residents of the county belong to 12 ethnic
minorities, the largest ethnic groups being Hui, Salar, Tibetan and Han. Of the
19 townships, five are Tibetan.
[12] Judging by the
names, these people seem to be from Salar and Hui nationalities.
[13] Bya khyung dgon,
the largest monastery in Hualong county.
[14] One of the four
main Lamas of Xia Qiong Monastery.
[15] Ya dzi rdzong.
[16] He trin shang.
[17] All three belong
to the Hui nationality.
[18] Tsa ba shang.
[19] A traditional
Chinese measurement, 1 Sheng equals about 2 kilograms.
[20] Dhi tsha dgon
[21] Currency used in
the period of National Government, prior to the Communist takeover.
[22] Amdo Tibetan: A
ka, meaning monk.
[23] Amdo Tibetan: Ban
de, meaning child monk.
[24] Tibetan: rGan
ba, meaning monks
working in the monastery administration, with certain responsibilities.
Literally it means "elders".
[25] A person elected
by believers to manage the mosque’s finances and donations.
[26] Numbers do not
seem to match in the original text.
[27] Amdo Tibetan
women usually wear many long braids. In 1958 cadres in Qinghai province forbade
Tibetan women to keep their hair long, forcing them either to cut their hair
short or wear two plaits like Han women.
[28] The original text
does not clarify what the debate was, but debates between theism and atheism
were conducted as part of the ‘religious system reform’ movement.
[29] Namely
contradictions among the people, and contradictions between the people and the
enemy.
[30]Childless and infirm old persons who are guaranteed food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses.
[31] A
short excerpt from this report to the central committee was published in Ganzi
Zhouzhi (Ganzi zhou zhi bian zuan wei yuan
hui/ dKar mdzes khur gyi lo
rgyus deb ther, Chengdu: Sichuan ren min chu ban she 1998 Vol.
3, p. 2334-2335).
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