evidence: In the same year, the Tengdro community constructed an open-air statue of the 8th century Buddhist saint Guru Rinpoche, known as Padmasambhava in Sanskrit, and his two consorts. The statue overlooks the valley from a prominent position on the mountainside near the monastery. The erection of religious statues is illegal without prior government permission and a partially constructed giant statue of Guru Rinpoche in the same form—known as "overwhelming the conditioned world with splendor"—was demolished by officials at the Samye monastery, Lhokha municipality, TAR, in May 2007.[5] A similar statue in Darchen, Ngari prefecture, TAR, was removed by officials in September that year.[6] However, local government officials carried out inspections of the statue at Tengdro prior to the 2019 raid and, according to sources interviewed by Human Rights Watch, had given approval for the construction of the statue.