Dharamshala — Chinese authorities in northern Tibet destroyed large numbers of Mani stone piles (Dobang), prayer flags, and Lung-Ta (wind horses), which embody a spiritual tradition of carving mantras on stones and inscribing sacred mantras on colored cloth. This act not only violates religious freedom but also constitutes psychological torture for Tibetans who have long followed the custom of circumambulating Mani piles to accumulate merit and perform good deeds.
In Tibetan Buddhism, a Mani pile (known locally as a “Dobang”) is a sacred pile or stone wall constructed from rocks, stone slabs, and pebbles. It is carefully carved or painted with the six-syllable mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum,” Buddhist scriptures, or auspicious symbols, and is intended to serve as a continuous prayer and devotional offering. Prayer flags, known in Tibetan as “Lung-ta” (meaning “wind horse”), are colorful strips of cloth printed with Tibetan Buddhist symbols and sacred mantras; people hang them outdoors to pray for peace, compassion, strength, and good fortune.
According to the sources from Tibet, Chinese new leader so-called Xiong Yuanlai, the Communist Party Secretary of the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai (Tso-ngon) province, northen Tibet, crack down freedom of religion in Chabcha Town in Shechen County (Kungho), Trika county, Mangra, Bazong (County), and Dragkar county, from April, 2026.
Chinese authorities in the aforementioned counties destroyed and buried hundreds of Mani stone piles, removed the flagpoles in front of every Tibetan household, burned prayer flags and Lung-ta, and forced residents to hang the Chinese national flag on their homes, replacing the Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and Lung-ta. At the same time, the authorities also required residents to study and understand “Xi Jinping’s thoughts.
The Chinese authorities in occupied Tibet are not content with destroying Mani stone piles and prayer flags in northern Tibet; they are also destroying them in eastern Tibet, in the Kham region. In 2025, the authorities burned a large number of prayer flags in Golog, in northeastern Tibet. They also put an end to a centuries-old religious practice of burning juniper branches during Sangsol prayer rituals, an act intended to bring good fortune and ward off misfortune.
China-Tibet: The one-thing you need to know:
Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.
The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans -- as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.
