Chinese authorities, on August 20, 2017, announced the appointment of Chinese Communist Party members to key positions at Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Institute to exercise direct control over the management and day to day operations of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institute in Larung valley in Tibet’s Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. On August 20, the Kardze Prefectural authorities announced the appointment of six ethnic Tibetan Party members. Three of the appointees have been given charge of the Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy (Tib: Ngarig Nangten Lobling). The other three will head the Larung Gar Monastery Management Committee. Dakpa, currently Deputy Director of Kardze Prefecture Public Security Bureau, has been appointed Party Secretary of the Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy (Tib: Ngarig Nangten Lobling)  as well as its President. Dhondup Tashi, the incumbent Deputy Secretary of the Gyesur (Ch: Jiulong) County United Front Work Department and Chairman of the County Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, has been appointed Deputy Party Secretary of the Academy and Vice President of the Academy. Lokhang Pun, a Prefecture Government Researcher in Tibetan studies and Section Officer for the Prefecture Government’s Library and Translation Department has been named Deputy Party Secretary of the Academy and Vice President of the Academy. 

Dargye Tashi Tsering, Sonam Choephel and Sonam Yangzom will take charge of the Larung Gar Monastery Management Committee (MMC). Sonam Choephel, who has held the post of Deputy Party Secretary of Serthar County since September 2016 has been named Party Secretary of the MMC and Director of the Monastery. Dargye Tashi Tsering, the incumbent Deputy Party Secretary of the Politics and Law Committee of Dabpa (Ch: Daocheng) County has been appointed the Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Monastery. Sonam Yangzom, the only female appointee, who is also the incumbent Party Secretary of Tsosum (Ch: Liantang) Township in Lithang County, has been appointed the MMC’s Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Monastery.

(Comment: The appointment of Party members is a part of the overall measures announced in the eight-point document issued last year and which provided detailed instructions on dismantling monastic housing and reducing monastic population to the government-set ceiling of 5000. Citing decisions taken at the Sixth Tibet Work Forum Conference and the Second National Work Conference on Religion, the final point in the document had announced that a Monastery Management Committee consisting of Party and Government officials would be established to run the institute. It had also called for the implementation of “social management” and provision of social services within the Larung Gar community.)