Information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) indicates that local authorities have subjected several known Tibetans including family members, relatives and eyewitnesses to arbitrary detention and severe interrogation following the self-immolation protest staged by Tashi Rabten on 8 December in Machu (Ch: Maqu) County, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.
Tashi Rabten is a Tibetan writer and poet in the Tibetan province of Amdo, present-day Sichuan Province. He was released last year in March after serving a four-year sentence at Mianyang Prison in Sichuan. He was a student at the North-West University for Nationalities and wrote for the now-banned Tibetan language journal Shar Dungri (‘Eastern Conch Mountain’) and also published Trag-yig (‘Blood Letters’), a compilation of his poems, notes and writings on the situation in Tibet following the 2008 protests.
In a recent conversation that is being circulated on various social media sites, Tashi Rabten talks about his experiences as a university student and political prisoner, and his newfound faith in the power of poetry.
“For the values of democracy and equality, many great men and women gave up their lives. On this earth beneath the vast sky, although freedom and democracy belong to the entire humanity, they will never belong to those who oppress by practicing dictatorship.”
~ Tashi Rabten aka Theurang
![Tiananmen protest on 4 June 1989 [Photo: theviewspaper.net]](https://tchrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/tiananmen-massacre.jpg)
[Photo: theviewspaper.net]
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) welcomes the release of writer Tashi Rabten, also known as Theurang, who served four years at Mianyang Prison in Sichuan Province. He was sentenced on charges of “inciting activities to split the nation” by the Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Intermediate People’s Court on 2 June 2011.
Tashi Rabten was a student at the Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. He went missing on 26 July 2009, when the university closed for summer vacation. His whereabouts remained unknown until 6 April 2010 when he was traced to a detention center in Ngaba’s Barkham County.
The sentencing of Tashi Rabten violated, among others, article 19 of the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which calls for the protection of freedom of expression. China signed the ICCPR in 1998 and since then it has dragged its feet on ratifying the covenant despite numerous recommendations from UN member states during China’s first and second Universal Periodic Review in 2009 and 2013 respectively.
Tashi Rabten (pen name: Theurang) is a Tibetan writer, poet and editor who is serving a four-year sentence in Mianyang Prison, Sichuan Province. He graduated from North-West University for Nationalities and edited the now-banned Tibetan language journal “Shar Dungri” and also published “Written in Blood”, a compilation of his poems, notes and writings on the situation in Tibet following the 2008 protests.
In this essay, translated by TCHRD, the writer condemns the cultural insensitivity of Chinese tourists and the commercialization of Tibetan culture as the number of Chinese tourists continues to rise, exerting immense pressure on the fragile ecology and landscape of the Tibetan Plateau.
They treat us like animals
By Theurang
During the summer, my homeland is filled with swarms of Chinese tourists. The rush of tourists means that elderly Tibetans are having
Tashi Rabten (pen name: Theurang) is a Tibetan writer and poet who is serving a four-year sentence in Mianyang Prison, Sichuan Province. He graduated from North-West University for Nationalities and wrote for the now-banned Tibetan language journal “Shar Dungri” and also published “Written in Blood”, a compilation of his poems, notes and writings on the situation in Tibet following the 2008 protests.
On the fifth anniversary of 14 March 2008 protest in Lhasa, TCHRD has translated and edited one of Theurang’s essays written before his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in 2009. The essay was republished in exile in the book “Reflections on 2008 Protests: a Collection of Essays by Tibetan Intellectuals in Tibet”, by Domey Editorial Committee, Dharamsala, India.
The year 2008 marked the largest series of protests against Chinese rule in Tibet since 1959. A vibrant literary and cultural resurgence has emerged in Tibet in the wake of the 2008 Uprising, and feelings of Tibetan nationalism have perhaps never been so strong. Courageous Tibetans are gradually rising to share their views of life under Chinese rule. Communist Party…