信息中心表示，丁搪村廟是去年由二十七村一千名佛教信眾捐錢十五萬元人民幣修建，可容納一千人。由於當地很窮村民平均年收入才五百元人民幣，所以建造此廟極不容易。不過，今年八月該縣開展「整治非法宗教活動」，該廟被列為「非法宗教場所」要拆除，引起信眾強烈反感。十月二十八日，一百名公安及縣民族宗教局幹部到場拆遷，但遇到上千名信眾包圍阻止，衝突中推土機壞掉而停止拆遷，但上週當局仍將該廟完全拆除。
信息中心又說，當局從今年八月至今，在該縣關閉了三十一間廟宇，其中五間已被拆除。
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美聯社：湖南拆廟警民衝突
Rights activists report clash as authorities demolish Buddhist temple in southern China
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer
374 words
18 November 2003
17:47
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2003. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Police in southern China clashed with hundreds of villagers protesting the destruction of a Buddhist temple labeled an "illegal house of worship," a human rights monitoring organization reported Tuesday.
No injuries or arrests were reported in the Oct. 28 fracas in Hunan province's Longhui County, although a bulldozer being used to destroy the temple was damaged, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. Authorities later returned to complete the destruction, the Hong Kong-based center said.
The report comes amid widespread demolition of temples and churches in several provinces as part of a campaign to rein in unauthorized religious activities.
China's communist dictatorship maintains tight controls over all religious activities, and Buddhist temples and their priests are closely monitored to ensure they profess loyalty to the Communist Party and its policies.
A Longhui county religious affairs official confirmed the demolition and said police had removed several of the temple's backers who staged a protest, but denied any large-scale clash.
Administrator Xie Yuanhua said that in December 2002, a court ordered the destruction of the temple and another one that had also been built without authorization from his department. Local officials had appealed several times to temple administrators to abandon them but were rejected, he said.
"The county government was carrying out a legal, authorized forced demolition," Xie said.
The Hong Kong center said 31 temples had been shut in Longhui, and a total of five had been destroyed.
It said the temple demolished in Longhui's Yushan township had been built at a cost of 150,000 yuan (about US$18,000) raised by donations from the residents of 27 nearby villagers in the poor inland area.
Xie confirmed the county was in the middle of a campaign to "rectify illegal religious activities," but he gave no details.
Recent large scale demolitions of unregistered religious halls have also been reported in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
During the past two years, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns have been made homeless by the destruction of a temple complex at Serthar in the western province of Sichuan.
