On September 28, 2007, the Chinese People’s Armed Police removed a 6 ft. statue of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava). Previously in May of the same year, a 30 ft. statue of Guru Rinpoche was also removed from a different monastery. Approximately twenty Tibetans unsuccessfully attempted to protect this statue from demolition by forming a human shield around it. This statue was located in Darchen, at the beginning point of a pilgrimage route around the sacred Mt. Kailash in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).