On 29 March 2008, the Chinese Communist Party’s military police surrounded Kyidi Temple, the largest temple in the Aba autonomous region in Sichuan Province.
According to Mr. Sonam Dorje, Secretary General of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama, the police broke into the temple in the early morning of 30 March and confiscated knives, swords, and arrows.
Mr. Sonam Dorje said, “In the morning on March 30, military police broke into the Temple and searched every monk’s room. Afterwards, the police went to the Guardian Temple and confiscated exquisite divine instruments such as Tibetan knives, swords and arrows. These objects had been donated by the followers, but were taken as ‘evidence.’”
Desecration of Guardian Temple
“The Guardian Temple is an important part of the Tibetan Buddhist Temple. That’s where every temple enshrines and worships its guardians. Normally people are not allowed to enter this secret holy place. In this place lay the finest guardian instruments donated by the followers, such as Tibetan knives, swords, and arrows,” continued Mr. Sonam Dorje, “These divine instruments in the guardian’s hands are used to protect their beliefs and you can see them in all guardian temples. The followers painstakingly made these instruments and brought them to the guardians. The CCP’s soldiers had not the slightest idea about this and neither did they respect the Tibetans’ religious customs. They took these sacred objects away, meaning to turn them into evidence of Tibetan monks fighting for the [Tibetan] Liberation Army!”
Sonam Dorje added, “Many of the monks the soldiers arrested on March 25 and 26 were forcibly put on trains and will be detained in other locations.”
