Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Protecting Tibetan Rights and Freedoms
A Tibetan father of one who self-immolated in protest against the Chinese government early this month is being treated in a hospital in Lanzhou city, capital of Gansu Province, according to reliable information received by TCHRD.
Sungdue Kyap, 29, set himself on fire at around 3 pm (local time) on 2 December on highway no. 213 near Bora Monastery in Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. [Read more...]
Official crackdown on Bora Monastery continues with the detention of five monks this month in Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province.
Gedun Gyatso
TCHRD has learned from reliable sources that on 3 December 2012, Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers from Amchok (Ch: Amuqu) County along with Bora Township government officials detained five monks – Gedun Gyatso, 47, Lobsang Phagpa, 34, Jamyang Soepa, 25, Jamyang Lodoe, about 20, and Jamyang Gyatso, about 20, from their monastic quarters. [Read more...]
An undated photograph of Sungrab Gyatso (left) and Yeshi Sangpo
Three Tibetan monks have ‘disappeared’ since their detention this month by local police in Chabcha (Ch: Gonghe) town of Serchen County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
According to information received by TCHRD, local police detained three monks from Khyamru Monastery in Serchen County for sharing information about the mass student protest that broke out on 26 November in Chabcha.
On 1 December, local Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers detained Sungrab Gyatso, 36, and since then no one including his family members and friends has received any information about his whereabouts and condition. [Read more...]
TCHRD has translated a letter written by a Tibetan monk, teacher and an activist in Tibet.
Written in August 2012, the letter, sent anonymously from Tibet, was addressed to the Special Meeting held in September 2012 in India. The letter raises important issues about the Tibetan freedom struggle and reveals important details about oppression and resistance in Tibet.
“Therefore, the path the Chinese have laid for us to walk in the meantime is like an ‘invisible dagger,’ Against which we are presumed to have not many alternative strategies.”
Despite being a truly Tibetan voice, in some measure, it is reminiscent of Frantz Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’ for its power to awaken the consciousness of both the oppressed and the oppressor, which only highlights the universality of human resistance. In one sense, the letter also reflects the Tibetan Buddhist liberation theology, the idea that that freedom is possible through understanding the true meaning of Tibetan Buddhism. [Read more...]
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) released today a short documentary film on Tibetan immolations that have captured the conscience of many around the world.
Since 2009 in Tibet, 95 Tibetans have burned their bodies to protest against increasing oppression under Chinese rule, calling for the return of their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. They also called for religious freedom, language rights, equality and freedom in Tibet. Some died at mining sites protesting resource extraction, desecration of sacred land and undermining Tibetan spiritual traditions and belief system. Pema Dorjee, the 93rd Tibetan who died of protest self-immolation called for Tibetan land to be governed by Tibetans. [Read more...]
Today is the 64th International Human Rights Day, the day the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) the highest form of human aspirations for freedom and human rights.
This year’s theme for Human Rights Day celebrates the rights of all people to freedom of opinion and expression, to peaceful assembly and association, and to participate in official decision-making process.
These rights have been denied to people in Tibet for over six decades. Peaceful protests have been suppressed by force by the law enforcement agencies of the Chinese government as it happened in January 2012 when armed police fired upon unarmed Tibetan protesters in Drango, Serthar and Dzamthang counties in Sichuan Province, killing five known Tibetans and injuring scores of others. [Read more...]
Kunchok Phelgye
According to information received by TCHRD, two Tibetan men, a monk and a layman, have died after they burned themselves alive in separate incidents in the Tibetan province of Amdo in Tibet.
The day of the burning protests coincided with Ganden Ngamchoe (Festival of Lights), which commemorates the birth and death of the great Tibetan Buddhist master, Je Tsongkhapa.
Pema Dorjee, 23, died after setting himself on fire in Luchu (Ch: Luqu) County of Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province. [Read more...]
An unknown number of detentions related to protest self-immolations is being reported from areas where Tibetans have carried out continued protest self-immolations, according to reliable information received by TCHRD.
Many of those detained in the aftermath of a protest self-immolation are family members and relatives of the self-immolators, a source with close contacts in Kanlho Prefecture told TCHRD. [Read more...]
An undated picture of Kunchok Kyap
A Tibetan father of two who was forcibly taken away by police after his protest self-immolation on 30 November has died at a government hospital in Barkham (Ch: Ma’erkang), capital of Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Kunchok Kyap, 29, self-immolated in protest against the Chinese government at a gas station 10 km away from Shagdom Township in Zoege (Ch: Ruo’ergai) County in Ngaba Prefecture. [Read more...]