Tibet's holiest Buddhist temple reopens 2 months after violent uprising

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Tibet's holiest Buddhist temple reopened Friday, state-run media reported, two months after a violent uprising in Tibetan areas throughout China led the government to close off several of the region's most important monasteries. The Jokhang Temple in the heart of Lhasa had been under heavy security after initially peaceful protests by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 10 spread and turned violent four days later. Police and armed troops quickly surrounded the Jokhang Temple and Lhasa's three main monasteries - Sera, Drepung and Ganden - as authorities investigated which monks had been involved in the unrest. Angry monks later disrupted a government-led media tour at the Jokhang, shouting that all 117 monks had been shut inside the temple since the day the protests began and that the guards were only removed when the foreign journalists arrived.