Call for Independent and Impartial Investigations into the Suspicious Death and Secret Cremation of Tibetan Tulku Hungkar Dorje in Vietnam
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), along with Vietnamese Advocates for Change (VAC), FORUM-ASIA, and the Asia Democracy Network (ADN), expresses grave concern and outrage over the suspicious death and the subsequent secret cremation of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, a prominent Tibetan Buddhist leader and philanthropist in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The unanswered and blanketed nature of the situation calls for an immediate impartial and transparent investigation.
On 20 April, Vietnamese authorities in collaboration with Chinese officials, carried out a hasty, unauthorised cremation of his body at 1:00 AM at the Sakya Buddhist Temple in Vietnam, denying his monastic community the opportunity to perform proper Buddhist rites and without the knowledge or consent of his followers and family members. The unclear circumstances surrounding his disappearance, detention, death and cremation raises serious concerns of state collusion, enforced disappearance, and extra judicial killing, and demand an independent, transparent, and impartial investigation. Failure to do so threatens to set a deeply dangerous precedent for international impunity and transnational human right abuses.
We urge the governments of Vietnam and China to immediately allow an independent investigation into the events surrounding Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s untimely death in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. The continued cover-up and secrecy not only violates international human right norms but also causes profound psychological trauma upon the Tibetan religious and secular community.
Tulku Hungkar Dorje was the abbot of the Lung Ngon Thubten Choekor Ling monastery in Gade (Ch: Gande) county in the Golok (Ch: Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province. Revered for his spiritual leadership and humanitarian work, Rinpoche established the Hungkar Dorje Vocational Training Center in 2007, offering free education to over a thousand students, as well as founding the Hungkar Compassion Medical Clinic and community libraries. His initiatives supported Tibetans for all walks of life, including the elderly and the underprivileged. As a graduate of China’s College for Tibetan Buddhist Lamas, he also served as vice chair of the Gade County People’s Congress Standing Committee and president of the local Buddhist Association of China (BAC) branch. His refusal to comply with Chinese state imposed religious directives, notably his refusal to endorse Gyaltsen Norbu, Chinese appointed Panchen Lama during a state visit to Golok in July 2024, subjected him to intensified government scrutiny.
He was subjected to interrogations by the Qinghi Public Security Bureau officers and disappeared in late September 2024. Facing escalating pressure and threats from Chinese authorities, Tulku Hungkar Dorje was compelled to flee to Vietnam. His whereabouts remained unknown until March 2025, when it was revealed that he had been residing in Ho Chi Minh City. On 25 March, he was arbitrarily detained in a joint operation involving Chinese and Vietnamese police forces. Three days later, on 28 March, he reportedly died in custody under suspicious and unexplained circumstances.
On 1 April, the Administrative Office of the Lungngon Monastery showed a death certificate of Tulku Hungkar Dorje but under strict conditions- they were neither allowed to retain a copy nor permitted to photograph the document. On 5 April, five monks from the monastery accompanied by the Chinese government officials traveled to Vietnam to retrieve his body. During the trip, a closed-door meeting was held at the Chinese Embassy, from which the Tibetan monks were explicitly excluded. Tulku’s body was initially kept in custody at the Vinmec Central Park International Hospital and later transferred to a military hospital in the same city before being cremated without any religious rites.
“The case of Tulku Hungkar Dorje is emblematic of the Chinese government’s escalating campaign of transnational repression targeting Tibetan communities beyond its borders. In recent years, Chinese authorities have expanded their reach through extraterritorial surveillance, intimidation, forced deportations, and covert operations, often with the cooperation or complicity of host countries, said Tenzin Dawa, executive director of Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. The secret detention and death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, followed by his unauthorized cremation, suggest a disturbing level of collusion between Chinese and Vietnamese authorities aimed at suppressing dissent and erasing high-profile Tibetan figures.”
Furthermore, it is crucial to emphasize that the death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje is not an isolated incident but rather an example of transnational repression—an alarming trend of sovereignty infringement and human rights violations perpetrated by authoritarian governments globally, including those in Vietnam and China. For instance, in 2017, the Vietnamese government kidnapped Trinh Xuan Thanh, a politician seeking asylum, from Berlin, Germany. Later, they abducted two Vietnamese bloggers in exile from Thailand, namely Truong Duy Nhat in 2019 and Duong Van Thai in 2023. In addition, in 2022, they also abducted Dong Guangping, a Chinese human rights defender who fled to Vietnam to escape persecution from the Chinese government. The Vietnamese government failed to respond to UN Human Rights Experts’ inquiry about his disappearance. These cases represent just a fraction of the victims of transnational repression.
We call upon the international community, including the United Nations, governments and civil society to demand an immediate, impartial investigation into the death and secret cremation of Tulku Hungkar Dorje and hold both China and Vietnam accountable for their roles in violating international human rights obligations. Consequently, we call for the international community’s urgent attention and support to combat the pervasive human rights violations that endanger not only the Tibetan people but all individuals living in Asia and beyond.
Signatories
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD)
Vietnamese Advocates for Change (VAC)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)