Under the situation that traditional beliefs have remained basically unchanged while the social economy has developed and population mobility has increased, with the trend of an in-creasing diversity in beliefs, and an increasing number of religious followers and temples, the management of religious affairs has become more difficult. In ethnic areas, the speed of moderniza-tion has accelerated, ethnic interactions are fre-quent, and the beneficial conflict or cultural con-flict among various ethnic groups has become nor-mal; the impact of modernity, ways of life, the value and ideals of the temples’ traditional culture and educational model brings new social pressure for the monks who are adapting to modernization, and making a leap in development while safeguard-ing traditional rituals, culture, religious education and development. The number of criminal cases involving monks has increased, which brings a strong negative influence to the religious followers in Tibetan areas. All these factors are directly in-fluencing the stability and harmonious development of the Tibetan areas. As the second-largest Tibetan area, the geo-graphical location of Sichuan’s Tibetan areas is u-nique. In ancient times, the policy of “keeping the Tibetan areas stable means keeping Kham sta-ble at first” had been an important measure for the central government to manage all of the Tibetan ar-eas. From the Qing dynasty to the present times, it still has a practical use, and even has special val-ue in the process of safeguarding the “long-term stability of Sichuan”, especially when the people have but a hazy understanding of the relationship between the freedom of faith and managing reli-gious affairs according to the law in Tibetan areas, and one needs to have a legal response to it. Hence, “keeping Kham stable” needs to depend on the law, and legal means should be taken to safeguard the harmony and stability of the Tibetan areas in Sichuan. Management of the religious affairs according to the law is an inevitable requirement for China to promote the goal of ruling the country by law, com-prehensively deepen reform, and promote the mod-ernization of the country’s governance system and capability. Based on an active response to the guidance principle of strengthening the manage-ment of religious affairs according to the law pro-posed by the Central Government, and the Sichuan Provincial Government, we should standardize reli-gious activities and affairs, insist on a combination of legal management and policy guidance, adopt various measures, search for a practicable path to realize the significant goal of managing the religious affairs according to the law in Tibetan areas of Si-chuan. This article proposes some methods of man-aging the religious affairs according to the law as follows:1 ) To insist on the CPC’s leadership in reli-gious work and management of religious affairs;2 ) to actively and reliably promote the systematic con-
struction of the legalization of religious affairs;3 ) to insist on the combination of legal management and policy guidance;4 ) to encourage the public to manage religious affairs according to law; 5 ) to standardize the scale and number of monks by u-sing new methods of management;6 ) to strengthen the role of the “four troops” ( Party and Govern-ment leading cadres,ethnic religious work cadres, ethnic minority cadres and talents, and religious believers ) , especially religious believers; 7 ) to make full use of the regulatory framework of the Buddhist community; 8 ) to create conditions for those monks who wish to return to secular life;9 ) to distinguish the boundary between normal and il-legal religious activities, between folk custom and extreme religious concepts; 10 ) to identify and distinguish between “monks and lay people”, and“ordinary cases and religious cases”. At present, there are four foundations for managing religious affairs according to the law:1 ) the idea that freedom of faith is not only one’s right, but also one’s duty has gradually enjoyed popular support;2 ) there is a good policy base for managing religious affairs according to the law;3 ) there is a relatively strong theoretical basis for managing religious affairs according to the law;4 ) there exists good legal support for managing reli-gious affairs according to the law.