Tibetans enjoy religious freedom

The year 2014 marks the beginning of the Year of the Horse in China and the "Year of the Wooden Horse" in the lunar calendar of Tibetan people. The Year of the Horse is also the "recurrent birth year" of Gang Rinpoche (or Mount Kailash), a holy mountain in west Tibet. Since circling Gang Rinpoche in the Year of the Horse is a scared tradition among Tibetan Buddhists, this year has seen an endless stream of people flocking to the region to perform pilgrimage.

The Tibetan people's freedom of worship has been respected and protected in the Tibet autonomous region and other areas inhabited by Tibetan people since the region's peaceful liberation, especially since the adoption of reform and opening-up.

Tibet has more than 1,700 temples and other places of worship, and over 46,000 monks and nuns. The other areas inhabited by Tibetan people in the country have about 1,800 temples and nearly 100,000 monks. In total, China has about 360,000 religious clergies, with more than one-third of them being Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns.