424 klaus sagaster
and of “purifying” the religion, an inter-Mongolian countermovement
arose. Its success, however, was very soon thwarted by the victory of
Chinese communism.^189
- The People’s Republic of China and
Communist Religious Policy
Like all other religions in the People’s Republic of China, Tibetan-
Mongolian Buddhism was also sacri ced by the communist religious
policy. Especially during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) monks
were forced to return to lay life; a large number of monasteries were
destroyed or used for non-religious purposes.^190 In 1976, however, a
favourable turn occurred: It was again allowed to take the religious
vows. Everywhere in the country monasteries were restored or newly
built. In the monasteries, printing religious literature was allowed once
more, and even governmental publishing houses published religious and
religio-historical works on a great scale. The tenth Pa-chen Rin-po-che
Chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan (1938–1989) was released from prison and lived
in Beijing as neighbour of Deng Xiaoping. His monastery there
was the “Yellow Temple” (Sira Süme/Huangsi), in which he founded
an academy for Higher Tibetan Buddhist studies.^191 The presence of
Pa-chen Rin-poche in Beijing was of great importance for Mongols
and Tibetans. Every week he received worshippers in his residence,
and on his travels through the country he even visited the Oirat in the
remote Tianshan region. That the communist religious policy had not
changed, however, became evident from the problems that occurred on
the occasion of the discovery of the reincarnation of the tenth Pa-
chen Rin-po-che, when the candidate acknowledged by the Dalai Lama
was not recognised by the Chinese Government.^192 Tibetan-Mongolian
Buddhism has not recovered from the consequences of the Cultural
Revolution up to the present.
In 1948, the sixth lCang-skya Qututu ed to Taiwan together with
the national Chinese government. He died there in 1954. The com-
munist government apparently did not consider it to be opportune to
(^189) Jagchid 1980, pp. 235–239.
(^190) Jagchid 1980, p. 238.
(^191) Tib. Krung-go bod-brgyud mtho-rim nang-bstan slob-gling; Chin. Zhongguo
zangyu xigaoji foxueyuan.
(^192) The dramatic events are discussed in Barnett 1996, pp. 32–35.