Red Guards carrying a propaganda poster and spades on their shoulders, marches through the streets of Lhasa. The illustration on the poster shows a stoic man holding a young monk from behind while another monk appears to be hiding, as several hands point towards the two monks, supposedly representing the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Lama.
The Jokhang Temple was decimated under the slogan, “smash the four olds” by the Red Guards of Lhasa. The destroyed statues, artifacts and other religious objects piled up in the courtyard are said to have been ransacked from the main chapel and thrown down.
The Jokhang Temple was decimated under the slogan, “smash the four olds” by the Red Guards of Lhasa. The destroyed statues, artifacts and other religious objects piled up in the courtyard are said to have been ransacked from the main chapel and thrown down.
Red Guards raise the portrait of Mao atop the Jokhang Temple after decimating the temple. The religious wheel, the two deer’s facing each other on the rooftop and several other religious icons and structures were also demolished by the Red Guards.
Red Guards consisting of students and villagers burn religious scriptures and prayer flags. Wooden prayer flag-poles atop houses were cut down and used as firewood to burn these religious articles.
The wheel-like object being pushed towards a raging fire by the Red Guards are the sacred roll of religious texts that were taken down from the second floor of Jokhang Temple.
Numerous religious scriptures and religious texts are engulfed in flame near Jokhang Temple, Lhasa. These scriptures are sacred Buddhist texts and commentaries that were once part of the sacred and priceless literature collection of the monasteries of Tibet.