Tibetan monk released from prison with health problems after serving a two-year sentence

A Tibetan Buddhist monk who was serving a prison sentence for “sending money for prayer offerings” to the Dalai Lama and the abbot of his monastery has been released from jail and returned to the monastery, people in Tibet who are familiar with the situation said.

Authorities arrested Sonam Gyatso on April 3, 2021, while he was on vacation in Chengdu. On Tuesday, he was released from Menyang prison near the city of Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan province after completing his two-year sentence, the sources said.

On Thursday, he returned to Kirti Monastery in Sichuan’s Ngaba county with health problems due to torture and ill-treatment in prison, they said.

Chinese authorities arrested Gyatso, his sister Tsering Lhamo and another monk from Kirti Monastery, Rachung Gendun, for allegedly sending money for prayer offerings to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and head of the monastery through Lobsang Thokmey, the administrator of the monastery. — all of whom live in exile in Dharamsala, India.

Chinese authorities consider it illegal for Tibetans to contact other Tibetans living in exile and are especially sensitive to any contact with the Dalai Lama, who fled to India 74 years ago and has lived in Dharamsala ever since. Beijing views him as a separatist seeking to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for Tibetan independence.

The three were sentenced to different prison terms, although Lhamo was released this April. After his release, he sought medical treatment at a Chengdu hospital because she was weak, said one of the sources who declined to be named for security reasons.

Gendrun is still serving a 3.5-year sentence after being sentenced in July 2022. He also strongly opposed the Chinese government’s “patriotic education” campaign in which trusted Chinese and Tibetan officials coerced Buddhist monks and nuns to accept the concept of the unity of China. and Tibet, a source with knowledge of the situation previously told RFA.

Gyatso became a monk at an early age and studied Buddhism at Kirti Monastery, earning the Geshe degree, a higher academic degree in Buddhist philosophy. He later worked in the monastic department and became a mentor to others at Kirti Monastery, where he frequently experienced problems with the local Chinese authorities.

China maintains firm control of the troubled Tibet Autonomous Region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity as Buddhists. Tibetans frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by the authorities, as well as policies they say are aimed at erasing their national and cultural identity.

Translated by Rigdhen Dolma. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.