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by Tashi Dhargey
Shigatse, 26 September. The monasteries were quiet, the incense was lit, and the newly installed Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region arrived to check whether the Buddha had finally learned to quote Xi Jinping Thought verbatim.
Hu Changsheng, new to the job and eager to demonstrate zeal, toured Sakya and Tashilhunpo with the solemn air of a man inspecting fire extinguishers for signs of separatism. The monks explained centuries of scholarship; Hu explained the “Sinicization of religion,” which in practice means that even statues should ideally face Beijing.
At Tashilhunpo, Hu met the man the CCP calls the Panchen Lama—Choekyi Gyalpo—whose official biography is so polished that one almost forgets the real Panchen Lama, recognized by t...
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