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.
Chinese authorities have intensified crackdown on solo Tibetan protesters as information from Tibet confirms the sentencing of two monks and detention of two others in Ngaba County in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in Amdo Province. According to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Gedun Phuntsok and Lobsang Kelsang, both monks…
On 2 July 2015, a 20-year-old Tibetan woman was arbitrarily detained by local Chinese police in connection with the 80th birthday celebration of the Dalai Lama in Meuruma Township in Amdo Province of Tibet.
Tashi Kyi, a Tibetan nomad, was taken to Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. There is no information on the exact location of her detention.
Tashi Kyi grew up with her nomad parents, Monu and Tsering Kyi – never attended formal schooling and was raised a nomad. At the time of her detention, she was living with her parents.
Sources in Tibet believe that the detention was related to some activities that took place at the 80th birthday celebration of the Dalai Lama in Meuruma Township. It remains unclear what she did on 21 June, the 80th birthday of the Tibetan spiritual leader, according the Tibetan calendar.
Photos like this of Tibetans celebrating Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday in Tibet have been shared on microblogging sites and voice messaging services.
Almost two weeks before the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday on 6 July, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has started preventing public celebrations and detaining people for sharing photos online. Tsering Dondrub, 25, was detained for posting images of the Tibetan flag and the Dalai Lama on WeChat. It is unknown where he is being detained or how he is being treated. The secret detention of Tibetans arrested for exercising their human rights is common and family members only learn about the specifics of the case and see their imprisoned relatives at their trial, if it is ever held.
The detention of Tsering Dondrub, follows established patterns of human rights violations in Tibet. WeChat is closely watched by the PRC and Tibetans can be arrested and given severe prison sentences for sharing material on WeChat. In the weeks leading up to the Dalai Lama’s birthday PRC officials are tightening already existing restrictions in Tibet. Tibetans in Tsering Dondrub’s village in Rebgong (Ch: Tongren) County in Malho (Ch: Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province were prevented from participating in a variety of events on 21 June to commemorate the Dalai Lama’s birth year. (According to Tibetan lunar calendar, the Dalai Lama turned 80 on 21 June.) The public was also banned from attending events at monasteries and could have their phones confiscated and searched. The detention of Tsering Dondrub may well be the tip of the iceberg, and more Tibetans may have been detained or are in danger of getting detained since it has increasingly become a standard practice for the local Chinese authorities to punish Tibetans when the world is not watching.
SWAT team with full riot gear performs drills to intimidate local Tibetans
A Tibetan man from Khangsar township in Tawu (Ch: (Daofu) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, passed away after his peaceful solo self-immolation protest to challenge the continuous and yet intensified repression in the region and Tibet at large.
As per the information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), at around 8:00 pm on 20 May 2015, Tenzin Gyatso, 34, died after setting himself ablaze near a bridge close to a Chinese government office. Soon after his self-immolation, armed police arrived at the scene and started to beat the Tibetans who had gathered near the site and were shouting slogans, and also arrested a few of them.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Mandela in 1996 in South Africa. (Photo: ANC Archives)
On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Vester Prison. He spent 27 years in prison. Initially, Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison for leaving South Africa without a passport and inciting people to go on strike. He left South Africa to attend the Conference of the Pan-African Movement for East and Central Africa, he did not apply for a passport because he knew he would not be granted one by Apartheid South Africa. He later received a life sentence for sabotage.
Cover of the memoir “Raising the Tibetan National Flag in Rebkong”. Inside cover shows a photo of the author.
TCHRD is pleased to announce the launch of a memoir of a former Tibetan political prisoner in Tibetan titled “Raising the Tibetan National Flag in Rebkong”.
The memoir, authored by Tenzin Nyima, is a personal account of his peaceful protest against the Chinese government by raising the banned Tibetan National Flag in his hometown of Rebkong in Tibetan province of Amdo and the subsequent arrest and torture he suffered at the hands of Chinese security forces.
Unable to bear the constant harassment of Chinese police after his release from prison, Tenzin Nyima escaped into exile in India.
Senior Tibetan Buddhist scholar Tenzin Lhundrup arrested and disappeared in May 2014.
A senior Tibetan monk who is an accomplished Buddhist scholar was arbitrarily arrested and disappeared in May 2014 while he was giving a lecture on the “status of Tibetan language and nationality” (Tib. mi rigs dang skad yig ki gnas bab skor) to villagers of Shagchu (Ch: Xiaqu) Town[i] in the restive Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), in the traditional Tibetan province of Kham.
According to a reliable source, the Chinese police arrested the senior Buddhist scholar Tenzin Lhundrup on Wednesday, the Dalai Lama’s ‘soul day’, from Gom Gonsar Monastery at Lenchu Township in Diru County. It is still unknown on which Wednesday in May he was arrested. The source told TCHRD that at the time of his arrest, the senior Buddhist scholar was giving a lecture on the status of Tibetan language and nationality to the residents of Shagchu Town on the latter’s invitation.
The source added that on every Wednesday, which is celebrated in many parts of Tibet as Lhakar or the ‘soul day’ of the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Lhundrup used to give Buddhist teachings to the local Tibetans, help arbitrate disputes, and advocate vegetarianism. He is known also for zealously advocating the need to preserve Tibetan identity. All of these initiatives had earned him much respect and admiration from the local Tibetans.
Tenzin Lhundrup had been under the radar of Chinese security forces ever since he spearheaded the local opposition to Chinese mining activities at the sacred Naglha Dzamba Mountain in the area last year.[ii] “He regularly gave speeches to the local Tibetans to protect the sacred mountain from Chinese miners, and once he publicly offered scarves to the members of a local committee set up to protect the mountain as mark of respect and appreciation for their resistance against mining,” said the source.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Mandela in 1996 in South Africa. (Photo: ANC Archives)
Nelson Mandela passed away on 5 December 2013. His state funeral on Sunday, 15 December is a time for the world to gather and remember Mandela’s life and legacy. Mandela will be forever remembered as the first black president of South Africa and a champion of non-violence who was instrumental not only in ending apartheid but also for uniting South Africa behind the rule of law, constitutionalism, and racial reconciliation after decades of minority rule by a racist regime. This legacy and the success of the “freedom struggle” against apartheid is an inspiration for Tibetans who live under a discriminatory regime that exists above the law and imposes its will through the heavy-handed use of force.
Armed police making their way down to beat, teargas and shoot Tibetans who had come to celebrate Dalai Lama’s birthday.
China has launched a crackdown on local Tibetans who had organised a religious ceremony to observe the birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama last month in Tawu (Ch: Dawu/Daofu) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Kham.
On 6 July 2013, China’s People’s Armed Police (PAP) beat and fired teargas and live ammunition on hundreds of Tibetans who had gathered near Machen Pomra Mountain in Tawu to offer the ritual of incense-burning to celebrate the birthday of the Dalai Lama. At least 14 known Tibetans were injured in the firing and others were detained.
Since then, local authorities in Tawu have intensified surveillance and monitoring of local Tibetans and announced strict punitive measures against local officials and cadres for failing to ‘maintain stability’. Local authorities have vowed to crack down on any signs of ‘separatist’ sentiments and activities by implementing five major ‘stability maintenance’ measures in Tawu County, according to a report published in the official Ganzi Daily newspaper. (Also click here for related report in Chinese language)
New measures to control Buddhist monastic teachers were approved during the second session of the eighth council of Buddhist Association of China on 25 November 2012.
In the past weeks, there has been persistent speculation on ‘experimental’ moves by the Chinese authorities to overturn some of its decades-old vilification campaign against the Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A handful of Tibetan monasteries in the Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham, located respectively in present-day Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, were given verbal permission to display portraits of the Dalai Lama and worship him as a religious, and not as a political figure. According to these verbal orders, monks and nuns are no longer required to denounce the Dalai Lama, which is an essential component in political education classes in Tibet’s monastic institutions. Major international media outlets heralded this as a change in China’s Tibet policy.
Only a few days later on 28 June 2013, China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), the highest official body that regulates all recognised religions in the People’s Republic of China, denied any reversal of its long-standing policy on the Dalai Lama.
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.
