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Ethiopian and Allied Forces Looted 3000 Vellum Books and 300 Crosses from Waldebba Monastery of Tigray

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A prominent Tigrayan Orthodox monastery in Tselemti (ፀለምቲ) of North Western Tigray has been destroyed and looted by the genocidal forces of Ethiopian, Amhara and Eritrean forces.

The area has been liberated by the Tigrayan forces and Dimtsi Weyane has a chance to speak to some of the monks that have returned to it after fleeing for their lives to different areas of Tigray following the attacks on the monastery in March 2021.

The monks say more than 3000 vellum books, and more than 300 gold, silver and wooden crosses have been looted. They also said they buried more than 13 killed monks and they still don’t know where the multitudes of the monks are. There were more than 800 monks in the monastery before the war.

When the Tigrayan monks were attacked, they fled to different parts of Tigray including Shire and Aksum [see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] . They said the allied forces hunted them even in Aksum and Shire.

Early on, having understood that one of the intent of the genocidal forces was to destroy and loot Tigray’s cultural heritage, we published an article warning about Tigray’s heritage being at risk.

Tigray heritage at risk due to the War on Tigray

Also see Tigray’s people and their heritage urgently need protecting

Unfortunately, our warnings didn’t save Tigray heritage. Recently, Geez vellum books, crosses and other cultural artefacts flooded online markets like Ebay [See indepedent, the times, and Eritrea Hub]. The Geez books, crosses and cultural artefacts started to appear on Ebay after the Ethiopian diaspora went to Ethiopia in response to the homecoming call by the Abiy regime. Dimsti Weyane reported that its source in the Ethiopian customs authority informed it that the heritages were taken out of the country by the Ethiopian diaspora.

They monks also said their yearly stored food of niger seed (ኒሁግ), linseed(እንጣጢዕ), Sesame (ሰሊጥ), quarf (a special food of the monastery’s monks) have also largely been taken and the rest and sweet potatoes were poisoned with the intent to kill them when the monks come back . But a large population of monkeys and apes ate the poisoned food and they died there.

Skeleton of monkeys and apes that died from eating poisoned food.

Waldebba Monastery (ገዳም ዋልድባ) is big and prominent Orthodox Christian monastery in Tselemti, North Western Tigray. The monastery was founded by Aba Samuel, who came from Aksum. The monastery has served as center of religious thought and a sanctuary for thousands of monks for centuries. The monastery has been targeted by Amhara politicians for a long time [1].

Dimtsi Weyane made three documentary programs (in Tigrinya) of the monastery titled ጕዕዞ ዋልድባ (Journey to Walddeba): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

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1 Comment

  1. Stop KIlling people of Tigray, Oromia, Kimant,Agew etc

    March 16, 2022 at 2:43 pm

    The People of Tigray are targeted for annihilation based on their ethnicity for the past 1 year, 4 months, 1 week, and 5 days
    Which is equivalent to:42,940,800 seconds,715,680 minutes,11,928 hours,497 days
    71 weeks and the world is still no showing a sign of mercy and accountability.

    Quite the reverse, the international experts seem to be busy gathering information(data) and speculating the effeciviness of their gadgets and others pick up what took their interest- habitually egoist and racist world leadership.
    If you are a “peripheral nation”, a small developing country, the chances of receiving international coverage are very low, unless something extraordinary happens.’
    Do we have to, loose more than half a million Tegaru , to make the international world feel that something extraordinary happens in Tigray or that savage country -Ethiopia ?
    We have no historical ties,with any country in the western world if historical ties mean being colonized or having colonial ties(=historical ties is used Euphemistically to mean past colonial history.
    https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/india-uk-relations
    https://www.thediplomaticdragon.com/articles/2022-french-withdrawal-from-mali
    Tegaru helped ethiopia to be the uncolonized country in Africa.
    Black-on-black violence in Africa seems to hold little interest to the Western world, according to western journalists explanatin as to why western world don’t give atoss to the massacre of people in Tigray, and Afric at large. It looks that TDF is the only force that could liberate Tigray and seed peace and stability in our sacred land-Tigray!Stop Killing, burning and torturing people of Tigray whereever they may live and stop killing innocent civilians regardless of their religion, ethnicity and personal views!!Tigray prevail!!!!!!!

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    ብሠራዊት ኤርትራን ኢትዮጵያን ፥በላዕቲ ሥጋ፡ሰብ ፍኖ ፥ምሊሻ አምሓሩን፥ዝፍፀም ዘሎ ግፍዒ፥ምሳሌ አልቦ ኰይኑሎ፥፥ፀላዕትና ከምዝ
    ተመነይዎን ከምዝ ነደፍዎ ንሕዝብና ከፅንትዎ አይከዓሉን፥፥እዝኹሉ ሳላ ጀጋኑ አቦታትና አዴታትናን መንዕሰያት ደቅናን፥እዩ፥፥ብሠለሥተ ወርሂ ክንደይ ሰብ አብ ሩዋንዳ ከምተጨፍጨፈ ኸሉ ዝዝክሮ እዩ ፥፥ሕዝብ ትግራይ ፬፱፯መዓልትታት ብጥምየትን ብጥይትን ንክኸልቕ ተፈሪድዎ ብዘይ ፍታሕ አብፀልማት ይነብር አሎ፥፥
    ፬፱፯መዓልትታት ብኻልዕ አገላልፃ ፩ ዓመት፣ ፬ አዋርህ፣ ፩ ሰሙን፣ ፭ መዓልትታት ይኸውን፥፥ብዚ አብ ሕዝብና ብመንነቱ ዝተአወጀ ጃምላዊ ሕልቒት ዝተሰሰዉዓ ትግራዋይ ትግራወይት ንዝተረፉ ዜጋታትና ኩሉ ቤዛ ሕይወት ቤዛ ድህነት እዩ ኢለ የአምን፥፥ግድን አብ ሠራዊት ተፀምቢሩ ክቃለስ ከሎ ዝተሰውዓ ጥራይ አይኮነን፥፥ኹሎም ቤዛ ሕዝብና ቤተሰብና እዮም ፥፥ብሃይማኖት ብኩሉ ነገር ከይፈላለይና ኲልና ተጋሩ ሀደ ኢና፥፥ንሕዝብና ክቡር ሕዝብ ትግራይ ቤዛ ሕይወቱ ዝኾኑ ስውዓት አቦታትና፥አዴታትናን መንዕሰያት ደቕና መንግሥተ ሰማያት የዋርሶም፥፥ትግራይ ትሥዕር፥አሜን፥፥፥፥፥፥፥፥

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