[Buddha-l] The Tantric challenge

[Dan Lusthaus]

Drepung and Sera monasteries are surrounded.
Dan
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tibet14mar14,1,3987687.story

Forces surround 2 Tibet monasteries
>From the Associated Press
March 14, 2008


BEIJING -- Soldiers and police have been deployed around two Buddhist
monasteries in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where monks launched protests
against Chinese rule this week, witnesses and residents said.

A man who answered the phone Thursday at the Sera monastery said monks had
been confined inside and were relying on dwindling food supplies.

The monastery was "surrounded by many people," said the man, who refused to
identify himself or say whether he was a monk.

Another Lhasa resident, who also refused to be identified, said the Drepung
monastery was encircled by "three layers" of army personnel and that the
Sera monastery had been surrounded by more than 2,000 police officers.

A Foreign Ministry official in Beijing had no immediate comment late
Thursday.

It is difficult to get independent verification of events in Tibet because
China maintains rigid control over it.