[Reader-list] Creeping clampdown on Christianity in Bhutan

[Patrice Riemens]

bwo Multitudes-infos list/ Harsh Kapoor

A creeping clampdown on Christianity in Bhutan poses the serious
question of whether the kingdom has really set itself on the path to
secular democracy.

http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/01/creeping-clampdown-on-christianity-in.html
-- 

January 03, 2011
Creeping clampdown on Christianity in Bhutan

Kagyupa only

by I P Adhikari

(in: Himal South Asian, January 2011)

A creeping clampdown on Christianity in Bhutan poses the serious question
of whether the kingdom has really set itself on the path to secular
democracy.

Centuries of theological guidance by a strong clergy has had a tremendous
influence in shaping Bhutanese society. Propelled by the principles of
Buddhism as generally understood, one would think that this would have led
to abiding religious tolerance, allowing for the co-existence of multiple
faiths. Yet in recent years, a series of incidents have indicated a
continued resolve – indeed, some would say an official hardening of
position – by the Thimphu establishment not only to continue to support
the state-backed version of Buddhism above all others, but to actively
work to stamp out ‘competing’ or emerging religious schools. Some of the
starkest examples can be seen in the clear anti-Christian bent on the part
of the government.

In principle, the Constitution of 2008 guarantees religious freedoms. To a
certain extent this, coupled with the evolution of two-party politics, has
given significant leverage to religious minorities in Bhutan, including
Hindus in their significant numbers, in seeking international attention
for their rights. The Constitution states that a Bhutanese citizen is
guaranteed ‘the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’ and
that no one can be compelled to belong to another faith. Further, the
National Security Act (NSA) prohibits any word ‘spoken or written’ that
promotes ‘hatred’ between different groups, including on the basis of
religion. Violating the NSA is punishable by up to three years’
imprisonment.

Declaring Buddhism as the state religion is not necessarily a problem, but
a demonisation of other religions and sects is a worrying sign in the
context of Bhutan as an emerging democracy. Indeed, for many people other
faiths are looked upon as posing an active threat to the state’s version
of Buddhism. The state seems to find it difficult to accept religious
heterogeneity in the country, regarding the largest minority of Hindus as
well as the other sects of Buddhism. However, it is in the treatment of
the small community of Christians that this intolerance is breaking to the
surface and provides an indication of the state’s proclivities.

Religious intolerance in the kingdom was vividly highlighted some years
ago when a burial site was denied for Father William Joseph Mackey when he
died in 1995. The missionary is recognised as having helped to establish
the modern education system in the country, starting with its first high
school. As a Jesuit priest, Fr Mackey moved to Bhutan from Darjeeling in
1963. He proceeded to dedicate the following three decades to building up
and strengthening the national education system. In recognition, he was
granted Bhutanese citizenship in 1985, and even the title Son of Bhutan.
Yet he could not be buried in Druk Yul for being Christian. He was finally
interred in Darjeeling.

‘Mentoring’ minorities

Historically, the Bhutanese state has used all means available to
eliminate religious minorities, though the ruling elite themselves are
mostly descended from those who fled religious oppression in Tibet at
different times. The oppressed minorities in Bhutan include other Buddhist
schools, with everyone forced to follow the Drukpa Kagyu form of Mahayana
Buddhism that has strengthened through powerful political pressure over
the past couple of centuries. Over time, those of other sects – including
the Barawa, Kadampa, Chazampa and Bon – were attacked or forced to convert
to Kagyu. Places of worship were either demolished or brought under Kagyu
‘mentoring’. For the most part, these religious communities, present when
Bhutan was evolving as a nation state, no longer exist today. There are no
official figures available on how many people belong to the various
Buddhist faiths in Bhutan, but Kagyu followers far outnumber the others.

The followers of Buddhism in Bhutan, including the dominant Kagyu, follow
the larger Mahayana line, as opposed to Theravada, as found in Sri Lanka
and Thailand. The increasing penetration of Theravada, the oldest
surviving school of Buddhism, in India and Nepal in recent years is
certain to influence the Kagyu community of Bhutan. As such, the Kagyu
clergy is making increasingly concerted efforts to ensure that Theravada
does not deplete the strength of their school.

Government support, financial or legal, has never been allowed to go to
any other religious institution due to anxieties over ‘national harmony’.
During the last two decades, Bhutan has banned or demolished many Hindu
places of worship in order to minimise the perceived threat that Nepali
speakers, most of whom profess Hinduism, would become increasingly
dominant – ‘as in Sikkim’, goes the common refrain. Sanskrit pathshalas
have also been closed. Since the mid-1980s, a group of Buddhist lamas has
been ordered to oversee religious functions in the south, where the
Nepali-speaking Lothshampa are concentrated. There, Nepali-speakers have
been compelled and, in certain situations, ordered to hire lamas to
perform rituals during deaths, births or marriages. After decades of such
attempts to weaken Hinduism, however, by the late 1990s the government
largely scaled back this effort.

At the same time, Thimphu seems to have decided to turn its attention on
the country’s tiny Christian population. One estimate puts Christians in
Bhutan at about 12,000, of whom about half are from the south. Overall,
the number of non-Buddhist, non-Hindu population is thought to be upwards
of 65,000. The dominant Buddhist community, meanwhile, makes up close to
three-fourths of the population and the Nepali-speaking Hindus are thought
to make up less than 20 percent (though no official figures are
available). There has, however, never been a census to determine the
numbers with any accuracy, while the state’s attitude towards religious
minorities would cast suspicion on official figures anyway. During the
mid-1990s census, Bhutanese were asked to indicate their religion, but the
census forms offered only two choices – Buddhist or Hindu. At the time, it
was reported that those who wanted to put down an alternative were kept
from being registered in the Home Ministry’s official records. By and
large, government papers still do not allow Christians to note their
religious affiliation.

Thimpu’s anxieties over Christianity’s inroad are visible in many
contexts. In recent years, isolated cases of family disputes and suicides
have even been officially explained as the results of Christian
‘infiltration’ into Bhutanese society. A man who committed suicide in 2009
in Samchi due to a family dispute was projected by government officials as
resulting somehow from Christianity coming to Bhutan – the man was not
even Christian, though the rest of his family members were. In 2006, two
Bhutanese men were tried on charges of proselytising after villagers of
Nagu, in Paro, reported the two for preaching and screening movies on
Christianity. They were later released under pressure from Christian
institutions in the West. In October 2010, a court in Gelegphug, in the
south, sentenced a Christian man for three years on charges of creating
‘civil unrest’ by screening movies on Jesus Christ; other similar
incidents could have gone unreported. Two Christians are currently being
sought by the police, also accused of proselytising.

Such moves have caught international attention. In 2007, Open Doors, a
British charity on behalf of ‘persecuted Christians’, listed Bhutan as the
fifth most-notorious country in terms of anti-Christian discrimination.
(By 2010, that ranking had dropped to 12th, while the fifth spot is now
taken by the Maldives.) In early 2008, even as the process of promulgating
the Constitution was going forward, two Christian preachers were forced to
leave the country, while their followers were warned to stop following the
religion. According to Open Doors, in July 2010 a church was attacked by a
gang of youths, who stoned the building and threatened to burn it down if
religious services were not discontinued.

Inducement and coercion

While Christianity is not a new faith in Bhutan, there has been a sharp
rise in the number of faithful in recent years. Partly, this seems to be
due to the perception that the rights of Christians are better looked
after at the international level. This has recently been corroborated by
interviews conducted by this reporter with some Christians in southern
Bhutan. These individuals said that they felt it was better to convert to
Christianity because organisations in Western countries were able to
quickly attempt to defend persecuted Christians.

There seems to be an attempt by some persecuted Lothshampa, Hindu castes
or semi-Hindu ethnicities to seek protection by taking refuge in
Christianty. The past two decades have seen a sharp rise in the number of
Christians in southern Bhutan, the vast majority of whom follow their
faith in private. Today, Samtse district, in the southwest, is thought to
have the largest number of Christians in the country, while other places –
Mongar, for instance, in the centre – have few or none. According to
personal communications with local journalists in Thimphu, urban areas
such as Paro, Thimphu, Punakha and Trongsa have all registered fresh
converts in recent years.

Overall, the challenge to the Christians of Bhutan mainly comes from
within the clan, the community and the state-backed Buddhist clergy, which
has a strong influence over society. Both Hindus and Buddhists in Bhutan
are strong believers in their respective faiths, and conversion is seen by
many as a significant betrayal. In large families, members who choose to
become Christian typically face harassment and pressure from relatives to
reverse the decision. Kagyu monks, who are to a great extent part of the
state machinery, encourage community members to restrict religions other
than Buddhism.

According to Dorji Tshering, member-secretary of the Chhoedey Lhentshog,
the government agency in charge of monitoring religious institutions, the
state considers any preaching of Christianity to be proselytising. In
turn, this sets up an official assumption that all converts have been
coerced, induced or attracted by some incentive. Interestingly, according
to the Bhutanese definition, the conversion of Buddhists to any other
faith constitutes proselytising, but not if others become Buddhist.
Although under the new Constitution this too would now be officially
considered proselytising, in reality such incidents are never reported or
acted upon.

There have also been interesting intra-Buddhist conversion issues at play
in modern Bhutan. In the east of the country, the Sarchop community have
been compelled to surrender their Nyingma Buddhism in favour of Drukpa
Kagyu, which resulted in confrontation during the mid-1990s. There are
broader political repercussions here as well. Unlike Theravada, which is
more individualistic in its motivation, Mahayana Buddhism involves an
aspiration to achieve enlightenment not only for one’s own sake but for
that of all sentient beings. It is this aspiration that has given rise to
the Bhutan government’s well-known national philosophy, Gross National
Happiness. Contradictorily, though, a state which seeks to privilege if
not foist its brand of religion would be one that works towards lowering
the happiness quotient of the non-Kagyu faithful within the population.

Given this situation, what is the way forward? First off, Bhutan’s
religious minorities have not been given adequate platform on which to
table their issues. Of the 16 religious organisations registered with
Chhoedey Lhentshog, only one is Hindu. This is clearly unfair in a
democracy, and needs to change, particularly given the governments
constitutional pretensions to religious pluralism. However, the October
incident involving the sentencing of a man to three years in prison for
screening Christian films has drawn global attention, and the Chhoedey
Lhentshog is set to sit in the near future to see how it can adjust to the
higher profile of Christians in the country. There are possibilities that
a Christian organisation will be given the chance to register officially.

One way or another, ‘Buddhist’ Bhutan looks set to change the course that
has carried it for centuries. In the near future, hopefully, Bhutanese
citizens will be able to choose their faith based on informed choice, not
on state prescription.

--I P Adhikari is president of the Bhutanese Association of Press Freedom
Activists (APFA) and chief editor of Bhutan News Service (BNS). He is
currently based in Adelaide.
Posted by c-info at Monday, January 03, 2011
Labels: Bhutan, minorities, Religion, state