According to written and image posts on Chinese social media, there has been a large scale drive by Chinese authorities acting under orders from the communist party's United Front Work Department to prevent Tibetans from travelling to India to attend the Kalachakra teachings by the Dalai Lama in January.
Officials are said to have systematically visited individuals who hold passports and given them a deadline of December 16 for turning in their passports or face the risk of their passports being made invalid.
People were also informed that those who are discovered to have gone to India and attended the Dalai Lama's 'unlawful religious gathering,' will not only have have their passports invalidated but that their national identification cards would also be confiscated, be put on a 'black list', and 'punished severely according to Chinese law.' Officials also threatened those who attend the Dalai Lama's teachings with having their children disqualified from attending school, suffer pay cuts if they are state employees, and be permanently banned from travel outside their area.
All comments on social media such as Weibo related to the travel ban and official threats have been deleted in the last few days, including comments from Tibetans saying that, 'the Chinese issue and take back their passport to Tibetans like a child playing games.'