Communist China's unlikely Catholic outpost: Tibetans

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Communist China's unlikely Catholic outpost: Tibetans


Baihanluo (China) (AFP) - Opening the church door in Baihanluo reveals a large portrait of Pope Francis -- something of a paradox in an ethnicallyTibetan area of Communist China.


The village is only reachable on foot or by horse, and surrounded by snow-capped Himalayan peaks.

But despite its remoteness French missionariesbuilt the church -- with a curved, Chinese-style roof -- at the end of the 19th century.

Pope Gregory XVI assigned Tibet to the Foreign Missions Society of Paris, shortly after China was forced to open its doors following its defeat in the First Opium War.

Heading up the river valleys into the hills, cut off by snows in winter, they established "lost missions" in a still largely traditional and theocratic society.

At times it was a bloody cause, with evangelists martyred by monks opposed to Christ invading their Buddhist territory.

Parishioners pray during a religious gathering at the Nidadang Catholic Church near Bingzhongluo, a …
"It was China's far west. In Chinese, the Nu river was nicknamed the Valley of Death. The saying was you had to sell your wife before going because you didn't know whether you'd come back," said Constantin de Slizewicz, author of The Forgotten Peoples of Tibet.

After the Communist victory in China's civil war in 1949, foreign missionaries were arrested as "agents of imperialism", maltreated and expelled.



- Decades without priests -



"The churches were closed, or converted into schools or barns. Christians could be jailed for having religious objects, and those who had important roles were persecuted or taken for re-education," de Slizewicz told AFP.

But Catholicism persisted among the rural peasantry, their fervour as enduring as their poverty.


The Baihanluo Catholic Church, near Bingzhongluo, a Tibetan area in southwest China's Yunnan pro …
"Tibetans are mad about God. They dedicate their lives to their faith. Tibetan Catholics don't convert by half," said de Slizewicz.

"In nearly 50 years without priests or sacraments they did not lose a single word of a century of the fathers' teachings."

The mayhem of Mao's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution brought with it another round of destruction.

But as well as maintaining the missionaries' tombs, the Tibetans have continued to recite the catechism -- some in Latin -- and celebrate Easter and Christmas, replacing the donkey and ox of the stable with a mule and a yak.

Now, in a less intolerant climate, as many as 500 parishioners gather for festivals in Baihanluo, perched on a mountain spur in the southwestern province of Yunnan, and recall the Nu patriarch Zachary, who died around a decade ago aged more than 100.


Father Han Sheng (L) stands behind parishioners during a religious gathering at the Nidadang Catholi …
He escaped the Communist purges by fleeing to Taiwan, but returned after 30 years of exile to join in the local Catholic revival.

"Zachary put holy water from Lourdes, diluted in spring water, in every church in the neighbourhood," said Zha Xi, 32, baptised Joseph. "One drop was given to a sick believer, and three days later he was virtually cured."

A Baihanluo native called to the priesthood, Joseph has studied at seminaries in Kunming and Chengdu, and is now preparing for the ministry.

There are 16 churches in the area and farmer Yu Xiulian, 75, said: "There are more and more Catholics here. We ordinary people want to make the churches bigger but there isn't the money."



- Dalai Lama -

The Baihanluo Catholic Church, near Bingzhongluo, a Tibetan area in southwest China's Yunnan pro …


Parish priest Han Sheng, 39 -- known as Father Francis -- says there are more than 10,000 Catholics in Tibetan areas of China, half of them in Gongshan district, which includes Baihanluo.

China's Communist authorities require religion to be supervised by the state -- in the case of Catholics, by the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which oversees the churches of Gongshan.

A separate "underground" Chinese church recognises the authority of the Pope.

The vast majority of religious Tibetans are Buddhists, more than 130 of whom have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest at Chinese rule, most of them dying.

Beijing accuses the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of separatism and has called him "a wolf in monk's robes", accusing the Nobel laureate last month of backing "ethnic cleansing".

He was denied a meeting with the Pope when he visited Rome in December, apparently as the Vatican sought to avoid upsetting Beijing.

Father Francis echoes the official line on the issue. "Speaking of the Dalai Lama, we regard him highly as a religious leader," he told AFP. "But we don't want him to carry out separatist activities."

He attributes the growing number of faithful to the missionaries' historical legacy, rather than a contest of beliefs between Buddhism, Catholicism and Communism.

At night, an icy draught blew through one of the district churches as women and children sat on one side of the aisle, men on the other.

Simply dressed, their skin tanned by altitude and field work, they knelt one by one to whisper confessions of their sins to a priest by the altar.

"If we follow Your Words, we will go to Heaven," the congregation chanted tirelessly.

 

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Xi Jinping hopes traditional faiths can fill moral void in China: sources
BEIJING | BY BENJAMIN KANG LIM AND BEN BLANCHARD

Worshippers burn incense to pray for wealth on the fifth day of Chinese Lunar New Year, which is believed to be the day for welcoming the God of Wealth into households, at the Guiyuan Buddhist Temple in Wuhan, Hubei province in this February 14, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/DARLEY SHEN/FILES

President Xi Jinping believes China is losing its moral compass and he wants the ruling Communist Party to be more tolerant of traditional faiths in the hope these will help fill a vacuum created by the country's breakneck growth and rush to get rich, sources said.

Xi, who grew up in Mao's puritan China, is troubled by what he sees as the country's moral decline and obsession with money, said three independent sources with ties to the leadership.

He hopes China's "traditional cultures" or faiths - Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism - will help fill a void that has allowed corruption to flourish, the sources said.

Skeptics see it as a cynical move to try to curb rising social unrest and perpetuate one-party rule.

During the early years under Communism, China's crime rate was low and corruption rare. By contrast, between 2008 and 2012 about 143,000 government officials - or an average of 78 a day - were convicted of graft or dereliction of duty, according to a Supreme Court report to parliament in March.

Xi intensified an anti-corruption campaign when he became party and military chief in November, but experts say only deep and difficult political reforms will make a difference.

Meanwhile, barely a day goes by without soul-searching on the Internet over what some see as a moral numbness in China - whether it's over graft, the rampant sale of adulterated food or incidents such as when a woman gouged out the eyes of her six-year-old nephew this month for unknown reasons.

"Xi understands that the anti-corruption (drive) can only cure symptoms and that reform of the political system and faiths are needed to cure the disease of corruption," one of the sources told Reuters, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for discussing elite politics.

Government agencies would moderate policies towards Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in the hope these faiths would also help placate the disaffected who cannot afford homes, education and medical treatment, the sources said.

"The influence of religions will expand, albeit subtly," a second source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Traditional cultures will not be comprehensively popularized, but attacks on them will be avoided."

Skeptics described such tactics as a ploy to divert blame away from the party for the many problems that anger ordinary Chinese, from corruption to land grabs.

"Buddhists accept their destiny and blame their predicament on the bad deeds they did in their previous lives," said Hu Jia, an AIDS activist and Buddhist who has been intermittently under house arrest since his release in 2011 after serving 42 months in prison for subversion.

GENUINE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?

Religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution but the officially atheist Communist Party has no qualms about crushing those who challenge its rule. The party is paranoid and would remain vigilant against cults and feudal superstition, the sources added.

China banned Falun Gong as a cult and has jailed hundreds, if not thousands, of adherents since 1999. Former president Jiang Zemin also defrocked and put under house arrest a six-year-old boy anointed by the Dalai Lama as the second holiest figure in Tibetan Buddhism in 1995.

"Relaxation and suppression go hand in hand," said Nicholas Bequelin, of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"In China, religion must serve the state," Bequelin said. "There is greater religious freedom in China ... but to what extent is the party ready to allow genuine religious freedom?"

Washington will also need convincing.

In its 2012 report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department said Chinese officials and security organs scrutinized and restricted the activities of registered and unregistered religious and spiritual groups.

The government harassed, detained, arrested or sentenced to prison a number of adherents for activities reportedly related to their religious beliefs and practice, it said.

Indeed, conservatives in the party still frown on what they see as "religious infiltration". Zhu Weiqun, a vice chairman of the top advisory body to parliament, warned in an interview with China Newsweek magazine in June that party members should not even practice any religion.

Others think change is in the air.

"This is for real," Lin Chong-Pin, a Taipei-based veteran China watcher and former government policymaker, said by telephone. "To save the party and the state from the current crises, Xi must fill the spiritual void."

A "SPIRITUAL CIVILISATION"

In a sign of the changes Xi wants, Zhang Lebin, deputy director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs, wrote a commentary in July in the party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, that said "treating religions well should become a common consensus ... and the right to practice religions should be protected".

The following month, Xi called for building both a "material and spiritual civilization" - Communist jargon for growth and morality.

Back in February, Xi met Taiwan's top Buddhist monk, Hsing Yun, in Beijing along with a delegation of dignitaries from the self-ruled island which Beijing claims as its own.

Meetings between top Chinese and religious leaders are rare.

Hsing Yun was banned from China in the early 1990s for giving sanctuary to a senior Chinese official at his temple in the United States after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. He is now a bestselling author in China.

"President Xi and his family have feelings for Buddhism," said Xiao Wunan, executive vice chairman of the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, a Beijing-backed non-governmental organization.

In yet another sign, Yu Zhengsheng, ranked fourth in the Communist hierarchy, visited five temples in Tibetan areas in July and August and a mosque in western Xinjiang province in May - unprecedented for such a senior leader in terms of frequency.

MAO PURGED CONFUCIUS, POSTHUMOUSLY

China estimates it has 50 million practitioners of Buddhism and Taoism, 23 million Protestants, 21 million Muslims and 5.5 million Catholics,

Independent experts put the number of practitioners of Buddhism, Taoism and folk religions at between 100-300 million.

Chinese emperors embraced Confucianism for centuries, encouraging the philosopher's teachings of filial piety and respect for teachers and authority. Mao then posthumously purged Confucius in the early 1970s.

Confucianism has since made a comeback, although not a smooth one.

A 9.5-metre (30-foot), 17-tonne statue of Confucius was erected in 2011 outside a Beijing museum adjacent to Tiananmen Square, not far from a portrait of Mao which overlooks the area. It vanished weeks later with no official reason given. Conservatives celebrated its removal, which came on the heels of an online uproar about the statue's location.

Buddhism was virtually wiped out during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when temples were shut and Buddhist statues smashed.

It has crept back although China maintains tight control in Tibet where monks and nuns have been jailed for their loyalty to the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule.

About 120 Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest against Chinese rule since 2009. Most have died.

Taoism, or Daoism, a philosophy-turned-religion preaches living in harmony with nature and simplicity.

Nevertheless, despite the emphasis on fostering more openness for traditional faiths, one thing in the world's second biggest economy will remain the same.

"Economic development is still the No. 1 (priority). Moral development is No. 2," the third source said.