Kunchok Tenpa and Tsundue Gyamtso are from Sichuan Province in eastern Tibet. The monks reside at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery located in Dzoge (Ch: Zoige) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibet Autonomous Prefecture ("TAP"), Sichuan Province. In 2004, they were sentence to three years imprisonment for alleged pasting of pro-independence on the walls near the monastery. They are currently incarcerated in a prison located in Mong County, Sichuan.

According to the information received, the posters were pasted between 2002 and 2003. The first was a pro-independence poster; the second was critical of the corrupt practices prevalent among the higher Chinese officials; and the third poster called for Tibetans to boycott shops and restaurants owned by Hui Hui Chinese Muslims.

One early morning in January 2003, 20 Public Security Bureau Officers (PSB) officers from Dzoge County, raided Kirti Monastery to search for incriminating political materials in Kunchok Tenpa's room. During the search, the officers came across some drafts related to new poster designs. Tenpa was immediately arrested at gunpoint and taken to Dzogey Police Station, which is about a two hour journey from the monastery.

Tsundue Gyamtso secretly fled to Lhasa after Tenpa's arrest. He planned to escape to India, but could not do so because of financial problems. After staying in Lhasa for a month, he went underground in Meru-Nyin-sip Village, Junan County, Kansu Province, for several months. Later, he shifted his hideout to Omey Khog (Tib: Dokday), a nomadic area, near Dzogey County. The Dzogey PSB officers came to know about his hideout after nearly a year of disappearance and he was arrested in mid 2004.

Kunchok Tenpa (ordained name), 24 years old, is originally from Phentsu Village, Lhamo Township, Dzogey County. Tenpa was studying Buddhist Dialectics in the monastery. Tsuendue Gyamtso (ordained name), 23 years old, is from Dhongkha Village, Dzogey County. He too was studying Buddhist Dialectics in the monastery.

The conditions of the two are still unknown to their family members. The authorities have not provided visiting rights to their families as of May 2005. TCHRD is gravely concerned about their well-being and health condition.

In recent years, Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery has fallen under the Chinese authorities' heavy surveillance and control. In 2002, Kirti monastery faced the danger of being closed by Chinese authorities when the local populace appealed to the authorities to allow the exiled-based Kirti Rinpoche, in Dharamsala, India to visit his hometown in Tibet. The appeal was rejected and Kirti Rinpoche was labeled as a "reactionary". On 29 July 2003, the Chinese authorities closed down a branch school of Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery, named Kirti Monastic School, (Tib translit: kirti' nang bstan slob gling) and the monastery's benefactor, Soepa Nagur, (Tib translit: bzod pa sna sgur) disappeared 31 July 2003.

For more information on Kirti Monastery please visit, http://www/tchrd.org/press/2002/20020722.html