30 September 1998
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Concern for Drapchi prisoners
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500 monks and nuns forced to leave
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Lhabrang Tashi Kyil Monastery visited by work teams
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Ala Jamyang Gyatso disappearance
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Three monks arrested / disappeared
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Work-team in Sog Tsendhen monastery
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Profile:
Another Death due to Prison Beatings
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Monks and nuns expelled from reincarnate lama's hermitage
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There is grave concern for the well-being of two Drapchi prisoners who have been
denied visitors since May of this year. Sources believe that Jigme Gyalpo
and Bhu-khog, arrested in 1995 for independence activities, may have been
involved in the violently suppressed demonstrations in Drapchi in early
May which have thus far resulted in the known deaths of 11 prisoners.
Jigme Gyalpo
(26) and
Bhu-khog
(24),
both from Tsa-shod in Meldro Gongkar County,
were arrested in May 1995. One night in April 1995, the two men
pasted three posters in front of the township government office. The posters
included slogans such as "Tibet is independent" and "Chinese quit Tibet"
and drawings of a snow lion and snow-capped mountains resembling the Tibetan
national flag. On the same night, the two men were also reported to have
destroyed the main gate of the township government office and to have taken
down the Chinese national flag and dumped it in the garbage.
After one month of investigation, Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials from
Meldro Gongkar took the two men into custody. Bhu-khog was arrested in
Kongpo region, in the south-east of Tibet. Jigme Gyalpo was later taken
from his house. More than 15 PSB officials in two trucks were reported
to have stormed his house at around 3 a.m. without any arrest warrant.
Bhu-khog and Jigme were both taken to the county detention centre of Meldro Gongkar.
Jigme was interrogated and beaten severely, causing his ribs to be broken.
During his five months" detention in Meldro Gongkar Detention Centre,
Jigme was forbidden from receiving any visitors and it was only when he
was transferred to Gutsa Detention Centre, Lhasa, in October 1995 that
he was able to inform his relatives of his injury.
Later when his relatives were able to visit him in Gutsa and give him a change
of clothes, Jigme gave them his old clothes and they saw that they were
all smeared with blood. Many people in Tsa-shod township had seen Jigme
being taken to the County People's Hospital when he was injured with his
broken ribs.
After another series of interrogations in Gutsa, Jigme was sentenced to six years
imprisonment and was shifted to Drapchi Prison, also in Lhasa. Bhu-khog
was also sentenced to six years.
Up until May of this year, Jigme and Bhu-khog were permitted visitors in Drapchi.
However, in an unprecedented display of violence on May 1 and 4, prison
and police officials opened fire on prisoners staging peaceful demonstrations
in Drapchi. Prison visits have subsequently been denied to Jigme and Bhu-khog,
although it is reported that other prisoners are able to continue receiving
visitors. Sources believe that restrictions on Jigme and Bhu-khog may be
linked to the two prisoners' involvement in the Drapchi demonstrations
in May. They said there was great concern for the well-being of Jigme and
Bhu-khog.
Jigme Gyalpo attended a township primary school for four years from the age of
eight. At age 12 he left school to help at home with farming work. When
he was 22 he went to Lhasa and stayed there for several years, and it was
after that period that he began carrying out political activities. Jigme
Gyalpo is described as a religious person. His elder brother was also involved
in the Lhasa demonstration of the late 1980's.
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Work-team members visited Drigong Sha Lhagang Monastery on March 7, 1998.
After conducting the "patriotic re-education" campaign,
all the 500 monks and nuns in the
monastery were compelled to leave the monastery. They were threatened
and told that the spiritual head of the monastery would be arrested
unless they left.
Ngawang Sangmo (her ordained name) entered the monastery in 1997 at which time
there were 300 nuns and 200 monks, including about 80 novice monks and
nuns below the age of 18. She was one of almost 500 nuns and monks forced
to leave the monastery when ordered to denounce their highest spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama.
Ngawang reported that on March 7, 1998, an eight-member "work-team" from Meldro
Gongkar County and Lhasa came to the monastery to conduct "patriotic re-education"
sessions there. On the same day the work-team convened a meeting to be
attended by all the monks and nuns at which they lectured and distributed
leaflets and booklets. None of the monks and nuns agreed to the work team's
"principles", rejecting in particular the denouncement of the Dalai Lama.
Two similar sessions were subsequently held but the monks and nuns continued
to reject the work-team's demands.
After a third session, four staff members from the monastery and one novice monk
were forcibly taken to the township of Nyima-Chagra. They were forced to
put their thumb print to a document denouncing the Dalai Lama. They were
threatened with imprisonment if they refused to sign the documents. Two
days after the staff and the novice monk returned from the township, the
work-team visited the monastery again and convened another meeting. This
time the monks were ordered to strictly abide by the principles of the
work-teams or to leave the monastery for their respective homes. They were
told that any failure to comply with the orders wouls result in the arrest
of their spiritual head (Lama Rinzin Gyurmey Thupten Gyatso).
Finally, with the exception of five monks, a lama and his attendant, everyone in
the monastery left the monastery that day to return to their home towns.
Two days later, Lama Rinzin Gyurmey Thupten Gyatso was arrested and held
in Lhasa for two days before being sent to his hometown in Aazom, an area
incorporated by China into Sichuan Province.
At present there are only five monks remaining in Drigong Sha Lhagang Monastery.
Drigong Sha Lhagang Monastery is located in Nyima Chagra township in the
County of Meldro Gongkar, east of Lhasa. The monastery belongs to the Nyima
sect of Tibetan Buddhism and both monks and nuns live and study there.
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a large portion of the monastery was destroyed
and in the early 1980s Lama Rinzin Gyurmey Thupten Gyatso and some local
Tibetans worked together on the renovation of the monastery. Since
the renovation many monks and nuns, mostly from Kham Province in
south-east Tibet, joined the monastery.
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Lhabrang Tashi Kyil Monastery has the largest number of monks of any monastery
in Amdo Province (Tib.), and it is also one of the largest monasteries in the
Chinese Province of Qinghai. Many monks from different provinces come to
Lhabrang Monastery to study religion as it has several learned teachers
that help the monk students to understand the scriptures. Approximately
3,000 monks live at the monastery.
"Work-team" members came to Lhabrang Monastery in March 1998 and stayed there for three
months conducting "re-education" sessions and instructing the monks to
oppose "splittists" and to denounce the Dalai Lama. There were generally
15 to 20 work-team members and sometimes as many as 30 to 40.
The work-team imposed a ban in the monastery of all pictures of the Dalai
Lama, and sent home all monks who had come to Lhabrang Monastery to study scriptures.
All monks below the age of 18 were expelled. Nine hundred cards were issued
to those monks who were allowed to stay on in the monastery. It is believed
that the other monks will eventually be expelled on the basis that they
have an "unclear political standpoint".
At present, the work-team holds meetings twice every week which all the monks
are expected to attend. The monks are given political instruction during
the meetings and are instructed to oppose the Dalai Lama which many monks
find it difficut to comply.
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Ala Jamyang Gyatso
was a high monk teacher in Lhabrang Monastery who
is considered very learned. He was reportedly called to Beijing last year
by Chinese authorities to teach the Chinese-appointed Panchen
Lama but he refused to go.
However in March 1998, he was unwillingly and forcibly taken to China to be a teacher
to the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama.
Since then no one in Lhabrang Monastery has had any news of his whereabouts and
the monks are all concerned about him.
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Recent reports from Tibet indicate the mysterious disappearance of three monks
from Rabten Monastery who reportedly pasted independence posters, distributed
leaflets and shouted independence slogans in the market area in Tse-Drang
Shang in the autumn of 1997.
When the local Chinese police came to arrest them, they fled to a nearby mountain
and hid there in a herdsman's house. The Lhasa PSB again learned of their
whereabouts and arrested them after a long search and fight.
Later on, the three monks were taken to Lhasa and beaten severely. Since then,
there has been no news of them and not even their families know where they
are. Local Tibetans reportedly suspect that the monks may have died
due to severe beatings by police. Our source did not know the monks' names.
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Before the arrival of an eight member Chinese work-team to Sog Tsendhen Monastery
in the autumn of 1997, there were 250 monks in the Monastery.
The work-team stayed in the monastery for two months and instructed monks to
oppose the Dalai Lama and "splittist" activities in the monastery.
They forcibly collected all the monks" pictures of the Dalai Lama
and examined the monks on their political views.
The work-team allowed 150 monks to stay in the monastery and provided them
with passes. The remaining 100 monks were not allowed to remain in the
monastery.
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Maltreatment of prisoners in the form of torture and severe
beatings, intended either as a summary punishment or in an attempt to
extract a confession, is commonplace in prisons in Tibet. Further,
denying prisoners urgently required medical attention until they
are literally on death's doorstep is also very common.
Many Tibetan political prisoners who have been physically abused
after they were taken into custody have subsequently fallen ill
and died. One such victim is
Tsamla,
a 39-year-old woman, who died on August 25, 1991.
Tsamla was 39 years old when she died. She was from ėKhangsarî House, on south
Gyalkha Lam (Victory Road) in Lhasa City. She was married to Nyima Ngodrup
and had two children, a son and a daughter. Her husband worked in a mechanic's
garage.
Tsamla worked for a construction company as an unskilled manual labourer
until the mid-1980"s. After that she started running a small stall in the
Barkhor (Central Market).
On October 1, 1987, she participated in a peaceful demonstration for Tibetan
independence in Lhasa City but was not arrested. Then on March 5, 1988,
she participated in another demonstration. She was again fortunate and
escaped arrest.
On December 10, 1988, on International Human Rights Day, she is reported to
have saved the lives of several Tibetan demonstrators by hitting a Chinese
People's Armed Police (PAP) officer on the arm with an iron rod. The PAP
officer had been shooting indiscriminately at unarmed protestors in front
of the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. PSB officials who saw her doing this
arrested her.
Immediately after her arrest, she was taken to Sangyip Detention Centre. Then, two
to three months later she was transferred to Gutsa Detention Centre. According
to reports from Tibet at that time, she was inhumanely beaten when the
Chinese officials tried to make her confess.
She continued to receive severe beatings and torture at the hands of the Chinese
officials for a long time which eventually led to severe internal injuries.
A fellow inmate who is now in exile believes that she probably had a malignant
tumour.
While in Gutsa, she was sentenced to two years "re-education through labour".
Despite her critical condition, she was left unattended and uncared for
during four months. It was reported that even when she was critically ill
she was compelled to perform labour-intensive work.
Just six months before the completion of her sentence she was finally allowed
to visit the hospital. By that time, she had already spent one and a half
years in Gutsa and her health had deteriorated considerably. She visited
Lhasa People's Hospital where she underwent surgery and was then admitted
for about two months.
Despite being hospitalised, her health never improved. A few months later, on August
25, 1991, Tsamla passed away.
[ top ]
Drupa Tharchin is a 25 year-old incarnate Lama who meditated for 2 years in the
north of Namtso, Nagchu Region and gave religious teachings to the local
people. In 1994, he built a hermitage in Namtso valley where about 30 to
40 hermits, both nuns and monks, lived. In the summer of 1996, all the
hermits were expelled as the Chinese authorities branded the hermitage
"illegal".
Drupa Tharchin was involved in offering long life prayers to His Holiness the
Dalai Lama and other prayers related to world peace. In the summer
of 1996, he went to Nagchu Palgon County and Ao Bhu County to collect donations
to conduct prayers the following winter.
The Chinese authorities learned of his activity and, on his return to Namtso,
he was arrested and detained for seven days in Phalgon County Prison. He
was questioned regarding his teachings and the authorities confiscated
all the donations he had collected: amounting to about 70,000 yuan.
Moreover, the authorities forbade the performance of religious ceremonies that were
usually conducted at the hermitage on the basis that the building did not
have the necessary prior approval. All the hermits were expelled and sent
back to their homes except for two caretakers. Fearing further repression
and arrest, Drupa Tharchin fled Tibet on May 7, 1998. Now in exile, he
is continuing his religious practices. Recently, in exile, he received
news about the arrest of Norsang, his principal aide in Tibet. Norsang
was charged with involvement in Drupa Tharchin's activities and also in
his plans to flee Tibet. Norsang was sentenced to three years and taken
to Drapchi Prison. He was arrested in Nagchu Pango County. Information
from the same source also reported that three nuns who used to live at
the hermitage, namely Gyaltsen Chupar, Phagchog and Tsundue Tharchin,
were detained and subjected to severe interrogation. Reportedly, Tsundue
Tharchin fell unconscious several times while she was being interrogated.
It was also officially announced in the County that Drupa Tharchin is a "traitor"
and that anybody who assists with his arrest will be handsomely rewarded.
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