News

Chinese authorities have announced the appointment of Chinese Communist Party members to key positions at Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Institute to exercise direct control over the management and day to day operations of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institute in Larung valley in Tibet’s Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The move follows a yearlong campaign started in July 2016 that saw the demolition of thousands of monastic quarters and eviction of monks and nuns from the institute. Beginning May this year, Chinese government began building roads and other amenities for the benefit …

A Tibetan monk was released from prison last month after serving two years sentence for storing pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for sharing the same on social media. Gomar Choephel, 48, was released in the second week of July from Haomen Prison located in Haomen Township in Semnyi (Ch: Menyuan) Hui Autonomous County, Tsojang (Ch: Haibei) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. It is the same prison where the prominent Tibetan blogger Drukar Gyal aka Shokjang is imprisoned. Gomar Choephel is a monk at Rongwo Monastery in Rebkong (Ch: Tongren) County, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) …

A suicide note left by a Tibetan nun last year following the demolition of her shelter by Chinese authorities at Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Institute has finally become public. The nun named Tsering Dolma hanged herself on 19 July 2016 at her quarter located in the Pema Khando Nuns’ Residence, the nuns’ district in Larung Gar. As reported earlier by TCHRD, Dolma had committed the suicide along with another nun called Semgha who also died by hanging the same day. The demolition was carried out on 20 July and continued until early May 2017. In her suicide note, Dolma wrote, …