Tag: monk

  Early this month, two Tibetan monks were arbitrarily arrested for carrying out lone protests on different dates in Ngaba County in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Their current whereabouts remains unknown. Local security forces took Dorjee Rabten, 23, away on 5 September when he staged protest in Ngaba County town. It is not known…

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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…

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Venerable Tenzin Lhundup
Venerable Tenzin Lhundup

A senior Tibetan monk has been sentenced to twelve years of rigorous imprisonment Diru (Ch: Biru) county, Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Venerable Tenzin Lhundup, an accomplished Buddhist scholar at Gom Gongsar Monastery in Lenchu(Ch: Liangqu) township of Diru County, was sentenced in May 2015, according to reliable information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Venerable Tenzin Lhundup was sentenced after a year of his arbitrary detention in May 2014. For almost a year, he had been detained in Lhasa and the police did not provide any information to his family and friends about his whereabouts or condition. The news of his sentencing was the only confirmation his family had about his status in over a year, that he had somehow survived the beatings and torture in detention.

TCHRD earlier reported in July 2014 on the arbitrary detention of the Buddhist scholar in May 2014 when he was addressing a public gathering about the on the “status of Tibetan language and nationality” (Tib. mi rigs dang skad yig ki gnas bab skor) to villagers of Shagchu (Ch: Xiaqu) Diru County as requested by the local Tibetans on one of his visits to the area.[i] Immediately, a group of Chinese police arrived at the spot and took him away. He was detained on a Wednesday – the Dalai Lama’s ‘soul day’. A source told TCHRD that on every Wednesday, which is observed 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.

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Two Tibetans in Tibet Autonomous Region were sentenced to five and seven years in prison for pictures they shared on WeChat

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) translated a copy (below) of the verdict of Jamyang Wangtso, a 32-year old monk and Namgyal Wangchuk, a 43-year old monk, both from Wuran Village. The verdict was translated from a Chinese government website and can be accessed here.

Due to the difficulty of getting information out of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), not much is known about the circumstance of Jamyang Wangtso and Namgyal Wangchuk’s case beyond what is in the verdict. They received long prison sentences for adding text to a photo that they shared with 15 people on WeChat, a popular instant messaging service. The photo was of two people wearing fur chupas. The additional text was designed to shame the people in the photos.

The number of Tibetans wearing animal fur chupas has greatly decreased since 2006 when Tibetans burned fur clothing to protect the endangered wildlife in Tibet after the Dalai Lama issued a public call against using animal fur and skin. The pictures were shared with other WeChat groups and sparked the “2. 02 Incident.” There is no record in either English or Chinese of what happened during the “2.02 Incident.”

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Kunga Tsayang acknowledges local Tibetans gathered to receive him in his hometown in Chikdril County.
Kunga Tsayang acknowledges local Tibetans gathered to receive him in his hometown in Chikdril County.

Writer, essayist, blogger, chronicler, environmentalist and amateur photographer Kunga Tsayang has been released after serving almost five years’ of imprisonment for allegedly writing political essays criticizing Chinese policies in Tibet.

According to reliable information received by TCHRD, Kunga Tsayang, who is also a monk from Labrang Tashikyil Monastery and wrote under a pen name “Sun of Snowland” (Tibetan: Gang Nyi) was released at around 8.30 am on 12 January 2014 from a prison in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province.

A source with contacts in Tibet told TCHRD that after release, Kunga Tsayang went to Labrang Monastery and from there on 14 January 2014, he returned to his hometown in Chikdril County in Golok (Ch: Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, where a grand ceremony was held to celebrate his release. Local Tibetans, both young and old, came in droves bearing ceremonial scarves, as they burned juniper leaves and scattered ‘windhorse prayer flags’ (Tib: lungta) in the air to celebrate his release.

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Chinese authorities have detained a monk from Kirti Monastery on the eve of the 54th anniversary of Tibetan uprising day in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

According to reliable information received by TCHRD, Tsepak, 29, was detained at around midnight on 9 March from his aunt’s home in the eastern part of Kirti Monastery in Ngaba County. Tsepak had been staying there for some time taking care of his sick aunt.

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According to confirmed information received by TCHRD, on 2 February, at around 6 am, a monk named Lobsang Namgyal, 37, from Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County committed self-immolation near the Public Security Bureau office in Dzoege (Ch: Ru’ergai) County in Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.

The monk, who died on the spot, was seen with running towards the police station, his body in flames, shouting slogans such as ‘May the Dalai Lama live for tens of thousands of years,’ sources told TCHRD.

Lobsang Namgyal 01
Lobsang Namgyal in an undated photograph

Later, the Chinese police found a bag on the site of self-immolation, in which they found the monk’s identity card and a letter, which confirmed the identity of the monk as Lobsang Namgyal hailing from Kirti Monastery. 

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Yonten Gyatso
Yonten Gyatso

A senior Tibetan monk who went missing for eight months since his arbitrary arrest last October has been sentenced to seven years in prison for ‘sharing pictures of nun Tenzin Wangmo and information related to her self-immolation protest with outsider’ by an Intermediate People’s Court in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

The sentence was passed on 18 June 2012 by an Intermediate People’s Court in Ngaba Prefecture.
The charges leveled against Yonten Gyatso, 37, a monk who had held various official posts at his Khashi Monastery in Ngaba County also included “sharing information since 2008 about political events in Tibet by attempting to make telephone calls to human rights mechanisms of the UN”, a source tells TCHRD.

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Sources to Tibet report that yet another monk self-immolated in Kandze County, Sichuan Province today (25 October 2011). At around 9.30 a.m Tibet local time, the fifth incident of self-immolation this month, monk Dawa Tsering, poured petrol on his body and set himself afire during the annual religious Cham dance ceremony in Kandze.

While on fire, monk Dawa Tsering raised slogans demanding the return of H.H the Dalai Lama, equality, and freedom in Tibet. Other monks who were gathered there for the religious ceremony tried to extinguish the flames and then immediately took the injured monk to Kandze People’s Hospital in the monastery car.

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A Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Prefecture Court today sentenced Tsundue (Ch: Drungdru), a Tibetan monk, to 11 years imprisonment term charging him of ‘intentional homicide’ for hiding Phuntsog and preventing him from getting medical treatment after he set himself on fire, State news agency Xinhua reported on 29 August 2011.

On 28 August the same State news agency (Xinhua) said that three Tibetan monks charged with ‘intentional homicide’ for the immolation of Phuntsog will be tried on 29th and 30th of August. The other two monks are to be sentenced tomorrow.

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