Every morning, when the glow of the sun rise has not spread to the ground yet, the worshiping crowds on Barkhor Street are already moving around the Jokhang Temple amid the rising mist to pray one round after another. A Chinese flag is waving in the wind on the golden roof of the Jokhang Temple. In the domicile, the monks rise up early to enshrine pure water at the statue of the Buddha, light up the Dipamkara and the incenses, and listen to the radio while having breakfast. After breakfast, they chant sutras in the Great Sutras Hall. In the Great Sutras Hall of the Jokhang Temple, the eye-catching portraits of four national leaders, which take about one square meters of space, hang in the front. The monks then sit upright on their cushions to start their day of studying the sutras. At 9:30 a.m., the newspaper delivery vehicle from the Lhasa Postal Bureau arrives at the gate to deliver Lhasa Evening News (Tibetan language), Tibet Daily (Tibetan language), and People’s Daily (Tibetan language) for the Jokhang Temple. After learning the sutras together, some of the monks go to the square land of the temple to debate the scriptures, some go back to their domiciles to watch TV or listen to the radio, and others go to the study room of the temple to read their favorite books or the daily delivered newspapers for information both in and outside the country.

Over a long period of time, for geological and historical reasons, numerous temples in Tibet found it hard to read newspapers and books, listen to the radios, watch movies or TV, which virtually left the monks in a life of seclusion. In order to improve the public service system for the temples, to share the achievements of the development with all the people, to bring the concerns of the central party and the government to the monks of the temple, and to bring them the warmth of the great family of our nation, the Tibetan Autonomous Region decided to promote the six cultural activities focusing on radio and TV, movie, newspaper, study room, the leaders’ portraits, and the national flag, which are representative of advanced culture, to the monasteries as a first step in its further move to promote such activities in all the monasteries of the autonomous region.

Lobzangchopel, a monk from the Jokhang Temple, said ‘nowadays life in the temple is no longer about learning sutras or debates; monks could also hang around in the temple in their spare time to read books or newspapers.’ Lobzangchopel has spent 23 years of his life learning sutras in the temple. Today he is given a new batch of books. He holds the books back to his domicile with a smiling face. It is obvious that he is excited and happy wholeheartedly.

The Sera Monastery, one of the three largest monasteries in Tibet, is renowned for its miscellaneous books in its study room. The monastery used to be the Sera Library. According to Awangcering, the lama of the monastery who also serves as the librarian, there are more than 60,000 books in the study room of the Sera Monastery. The collection covers more than ten categories of books, including religion, literature, history, art, memoirs, computer, and health. Awangcering takes out a thick register book that records the book lending status in the temple, saying that though monks in the monasteries have a heavy workload studying the sutras, they come to the study room to borrow books to read in their spare time, and that all the books are lent for free. Basically, monks can borrow all the books they are interested in. If there are no such books available, the study room will buy the books for them in a short time, so that the scarcity won’t happen again.

Now, 60 TV channels and 11 radio programs are available through cable network at the Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery, and Jokhang Monastery, whereas 51 TV channels and 9 radio channels are available through direct broadcasting satellite at monasteries of the agricultural and pastoral areas. Meanwhile, Lhasa has also included the monasteries into its movie projection programs at the agricultural and pastoral areas. Movies are projected at the monasteries one after another through counties to townships, while some monasteries also established their own movie projection teams.

The campaign of promoting advanced culture in monasteries has received strong support and acceptance among the monks. Specifically, both the staff of the monastery organization committee and the monks is all willing to offer their help transporting and installing the radio and TV equipments, as well as carrying bookshelves and books no matter how remote they are located. Some also offer water and khata for the workers. For monks who are located in very distant monasteries, they would contact the technicians at the radio and television bureau and offer their help transporting the equipments and books, while asking for details of the maintenance of the equipments. Buddhist nuns from the Khayulo Monastery also put all their effort out to help carry the equipments from the bottom to the top of the mountain before installing the equipments together. They also cook meals for the workers, which demonstrated their great hospitality and kindness. At monasteries like the Zhikongti Monastery, monks would go for the heads of the monastery organization committee directly, proposing to hang the four portraits of the national leaders at their monasteries, which manifested their dedication and sincerity. Tenzinlanjie, monk and member of the monastery organizational committee of the Kangma Monastery at Dangxiong county, said, “The campaign of promoting advanced culture in the monasteries has provided access for the monks to TVs, movies, radios, books and newspapers, which allows us to be more informed of both the national and international news, the national laws and regulations, as well as scientific and cultural knowledge. It also broadens our mind, improves our abilities, and makes our spiritual and cultural life more diversified. This life is only available under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system. In the future, we will definitely cherish our life, strive to establish our monastery as the harmonious model, and do our best to be patriotic, law-abiding and advanced monks.”