Last week, Nepal police detained 41 Tibetan pilgrims at the Nepal-India border for travelling without valid documents. The Tibetans were apprehended at Dhangadi, 10 km from the India border while they were on their way to attend a major religious teaching in India. After being detained by the Nepal government authorities including the Department of Immigration for three days, they were released. Among them, 39 had travelled from Tibet on Chinese passports and two were India-based Tibetan refugees.
A growing number of rural Tibetans are increasingly deprived of their means of livelihood and pushed into poverty as Chinese government pursues an aggressive development policy that ignores basic livelihood needs and security of rural communities located mostly in remote, resource-rich yet ecologically fragile regions in Tibet.
On 12 November, a Tibetan monk named Lobsang Sangyal was released from Mianyang prison near the provincial capital of Chengdu, Sichuan Province in People’s Republic of China. Lobsang Sangyal was a monk at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Chinese authorities restricted the monk’s family members from receiving him outside…
A senior Tibetan monk who spoke on camera about how he was tortured in detention by Chinese police was released this week after serving five years’ imprisonment.
Jigme Gyatso, a former monastic official at Labrang Tashikyil Monastery, was released in the evening after dusk on 26 October from the maximum security Lanzhou Prison located in Chengguan District of Lanzhou City, capital of Gansu Province.
On 24 October 2016, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the sixth plenum, an annual meeting of senior members of the CCP that shapes policy. The last three plenums since Xi Jinping became president have produced some human rights reforms that fail to address the structural problems in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In practice, these reforms have done little to protect human rights or the rule of law. Two weeks before this year’s plenum, an opinion on reforming criminal procedure was released. Similar to reforms from previous plenums, the opinion will not produce real reforms to protect or respect human rights.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is deeply concerned about the fate of two monks who remain ‘disappeared’ two months after their detention by Chinese security personnel. Lobsang Sherab and Gendun Dakpa, both monks at Thangkor Socktsang Monastery, were arbitrarily detained at Thangkor (Ch: Tangke) Town in Dzoege (Ch: Ruoergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) strongly condemns the excessive force used against a peaceful Tibetan protester by local Chinese police in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.
A Tibetan monk named Lobsang Tsultrim, age unknown, was hospitalised after police subjected him to severe beatings early this week. Tsultrim, a monk from the local Kirti Monastery, was severely beaten while being detained for staging a solo protest at around 1 pm local time on 17 October in Ngaba County town. He is believed to be in critical condition.
The ongoing demolition of monastic dwellings and eviction of monks and nuns at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, one of the leading centres for Buddhist scholarship and practice in Tibet, demonstrate that religious freedom remains a distant reality for religious believers in Tibet.
Since 20 July, Chinese government-employed demolition squads have torn down more than half of the targeted 1000 monastic residences at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The target will be achieved by the end of this year. The demolition order issued early this year also requires the eviction of thousands of monks and nuns from the institute. The ceiling requirement of 5000 monastics – 2000 monks and 3000 nuns – has necessitated the eviction of the rest of the residents. The total number of monastics, apart from lay and foreign practitioners, at the institute hovered around 10,000 before the demolition began.
Two Tibetan singers imprisoned for four years for releasing a music album were released on 3 October from Mianyang Prison and received a warm welcome from friends and well-wishers including former political prisoners in Meuruma Town in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.