TCHRD’s special report, ‘Gulags of Tibet’ examines the history and evolution of RTL, analyzes the current RTL laws, in addition to examining how RTL violates the international prohibitions of arbitrary detention, forced labor,…
In the year 2012, the human rights situation in Tibet hit a new low even as Tibet remained closed to independent media, UN monitors, international fact-finding delegations or visitors. The Chinese government effectively blocked communication channels and prevented information about human rights abuses from going out of Tibet. Despite heavy surveillance and restrictions, individual Tibetans continued to let the world know about the real situation in Tibet often at great personal risk. As the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food told the Human Rights Council session in March 2012: “We know that regularly the communication systems: Internet, the phones, SMS’s are blocked and Tibet is completely closed to independent observers, including the media.”
Religious Repression in Tibet 2012 by
Annual Report – TCHRD – 2012 by
Annual Report – TCHRD – Tibetan – 2012 by
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Beyond the Numbers: a Human Perspective on Tibet’s Self-immolations from Katie Lin on Vimeo.
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.