Chinese authorities destroy ‘over 300’ Tibetan houses and shops in Tibet
October 26, 2015
Radio Free Asia, October 21, 2015 – Authorities in northwestern China’s Qinghai province moved against a lakeside Tibetan village this week, tearing down over 300 private homes and shops and beating and detaining area residents who resisted the demolition work, according to a local source.
The assault on Trelnak village in Chabcha (in Chinese, Gonghe) county in the Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture began on Oct. 16 and has continued for the last five days, the source told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Tuesday.
“So far about 300 houses owned by Tibetans have been destroyed, and the demolition is still going on,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“In the commotion, five Tibetan nomads were detained and beaten, but were later released,” he said, naming two married couples who had tried to recover personal property from the ruins of their homes and an elderly man who was threatened at gunpoint by police and taken into custody.
“On Oct. 19, Lhachen Kyab and his wife Dobe, and Yangmo Kyab and her husband Jampel, went back to collect their belongings, but the police would not allow them to do this,” he said.
“Instead, they were severely beaten and held for two hours before being released.”
Police then threatened another Tibetan—Luthar Kyab, 60—by pointing a rifle in his face before taking him away, RFA’s source said.
“He was later found in a hospital,” he said.
‘Pollution, crowding’
The demolition in Trelnak began on Oct. 16 and 17, “when a group of Chinese officials and police arrived and tore down 30 structures built by the Tibetans as dwellings and places of business around Qinghai Lake,” the source said.
The structures had been financed by personal loans and were constructed with iron sheets, with the shops set up to cater to tourists and pilgrims visiting the lake, he said.
“The authorities accused the Tibetans of polluting and crowding the area around the lake, and therefore took action to tear down the shops and homes,” he said, adding, “Now the owners are left without any source of supplemental income.”
The reported number of destroyed dwellings and shops could not be independently confirmed, and calls seeking comment from local police authorities rang unanswered Wednesday.
The campaign against Trelnak followed similar incidents in May in which temporary dwellings deemed “illegal” by authorities were torn down in villages in Chabcha and Mangra (Guinan), another Tsolho county, sources said in earlier reports.
Tibetans living in China frequently complain of political, economic, and religious discrimination as well as human rights abuses.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 143 Tibetans to date setting themselves ablaze to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Chinese officials in Tibet to step up efforts ‘against separatism’, says party chief
October 26, 2015
The Guardian, October 22, 2015 – Communist party officials in Tibet must be a “fortress” against separatism and work to ensure that the Chinese regime’s monopoly on information is maintained, the regional boss has warned.
Tibet party boss Chen Quanguo, writing in the official People’s Daily, said there was “nothing more harmful than chaos”, and China’s stability as a whole rests on the stability and security of Tibet.
A central element of this was to train and promote a core of high-calibre Tibetan and Han Chinese officials who will be based in every county and village across the region, Chen said.
“Build up grassroots party organisations which serve the masses and promote development and are a staunch combat fortress to maintain stability and oppose separatism,” Chen wrote.
The “ideological security” of Tibet needs the party to control public opinion, the media and the internet, and every house in every village must be able to watch the television or listen to the radio, he said.
“Work hard to build the same spiritual home for all ethnic groups, focus on building a strong positive force for a united, beautiful, harmonious and happy socialist Tibet,” Chen said.
It is 50 years since China established what it calls the Tibet autonomous region. Beijing says it “peacefully liberated” Tibet in 1950 and that its rule has brought prosperity and equality to a once-backward region.
However, rights groups and exiles say China governs with an iron fist and represses Tibet’s Buddhist people which leads to periodic outbreaks of violence and anti-Chinese protests.
China blames exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for unrest in Tibetan parts of the country, including a wave of self-immolations. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama denies Chinese charges he wants Tibetan independence or that he promotes violence, saying only that he wants genuine autonomy for Tibet.
Unusually, Chen made no direct mention of the Dalai Lama, saying only that the “struggle against separatism has been noticeably stepped up”.

China state visit: Is Tibet silence the price for UK-China ties?
Three years ago, China froze all high-level contact with the UK when Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama, the Spiritual leader of Tibet.
But relations between the two countries thawed significantly after Mr Cameron said he had no plans to meet him again.
Now, with President Xi Jinping in the UK for a state visit, what do people in Tibet make of Britain’s strengthening ties with China?
Beijing correspondent John Sudworth reports from Aba.
Longer piece – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34578324
The first thing that strikes you about the monasteries clinging to the side of the mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau is their beauty.
Small, isolated communities of a few hundred monks, seemingly unperturbed with their white and gold stupas and prayer flags set against the almost impossible blue sky.
But anyone who stops to ask a few questions (although they are the kind of questions the busloads of Chinese tourists will never ask) notices something else too.
Fear.
We are winding our way up the long road from the central city of Chengdu to the Aba Tibetan region in north-west Sichuan Province.
Seen as part of “greater Tibet” by exile groups, it is an area that lies just outside the borders of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and so, in theory at least, foreign journalists do not need special permission to be here.
But many a reporter has been turned away in the past and we are moving quickly, trying not to linger too long in any place.
With the gantries bristling with video cameras it is clear that a careful watch is being kept on these monasteries.
So the introductions need to be brief and the questions direct. But we find that many monks, despite the risks, are keen to talk – although not on camera.
“What do you think of the Dalai Lama?” I ask one elderly monk.
His response is typical; a hesitation, a glance round, and then, in hushed tones: “He is always close to our hearts.”
“Is it dangerous to talk about him?”
“It is, it is,” he replies. “I’d be taken away like this,” and he gestures by crossing his hands to show me where the handcuffs would go.
He speaks of his resentment over the restrictions on his religious freedom, about how – despite reports that China has been relaxing the penalties for carrying or displaying portraits of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader – they have to worship him in secret.
And then he bends down and briefly kisses my translator’s hand. “I’ve been here for 20 years and I’ve never spoken to a foreigner,” he says.
“These things have been burning inside of me, just to say it is enough.”
These are sentiments we hear repeated time and again.
A Chinese state visit to Britain might not seem like an obvious premise for a reporting trip to this country’s remote Tibetan regions.
With President Xi Jinping 8,000km (4,970 miles) away and talking of common ground and closer economic ties, his officials would likely see our attempt to gather testimony here as the usual foreign media mischief-making.
But while the tight control of coverage of Tibet domestically is nothing new, we wanted to ask Tibetans what they thought of Beijing’s recent efforts to keep it off the diplomatic agenda too, the shadow of which looms large over the pomp and ceremony in London.
The deep displeasure over the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s May 2012 meeting with the Dalai Lama, a man China considers a dangerous separatist, was made abundantly clear.
UK-China relations were only put back on track after a great deal of fence-mending, bridge-building, and a statement from the PM’s office that he had no plans to meet the Dalai Lama again.
He has so far kept his word on that promise, and many critics see a dangerous precedent in Britain’s readiness to allow the Chinese Communist Party to demand a foreign policy price in exchange for economic grace and favour.
We eventually pass unnoticed through the checkpoints on the edge of Aba County, some 10 hours drive from Chengdu, and reach our ultimate destination, Kirti Monastery.
One of the most important centres in Tibetan Buddhism, Kirti has also been at the centre of one of the biggest challenges to Chinese authority in decades.
The Tibet-wide rioting of 2008 began here, and many of the more than 140 gruesome self-immolations have taken place in or around Aba.
The recent one-man protests, with monks carrying portraits of the Dalai Lama through the centre of Aba along what they now call “Heroes Street”, have been met with a heavy response.
The punishment for such defiance can be up to four years in prison.
During our visit, the whole town of Aba was undergoing one of its periodic internet blackouts – completely cut off since early last month – and the monks told us that people had been taken away for simply forwarding prayers and messages from the Dalai Lama.
China has long been trying in vain to force people here to turn their backs on their spiritual leader.
So what do they think of the attempts to force foreign governments to do the same?
Remarkably, in a quiet corner, outside the monastery walls and at great risk to themselves, some of the monks agree to talk to us on camera, providing we disguise their identities.
Some of the monks agree to talk to the BBC’s John Sudworth on camera “The Dalai Lama is the biggest living Buddha for all Tibetans, and he is the only master in our heart,” one of them tells me.
“He is like the sun to us,” another adds. “All the Tibetan people think the same.”
“When China tells foreign governments not to meet him, should they listen?” I ask.
“They should meet him,” the monks insist.
And then that fear again, palpable and real.
“If the government knows [we’re talking to you] they’ll arrest us. It happened before.”
“Some of us tried to contact reporters overseas online and talk about the Chinese government’s control over Tibet. As soon as the government finds out, they’ll make the arrest.”
After just a few short minutes, they melt away.
There’s so much more I’d like to ask them but, fleeting as it is, it is at least real testimony, real voices from one of the most closed and controlled places on the planet.
And it is proof that 50 years in exile have done nothing to diminish the Dalai Lama’s popularity and authority here.
It is that popularity perhaps that lies at the heart of China’s continual preoccupation with a man who has spent over five decades in exile, and why it tries so hard to limit his influence on the global stage.
The more foreign governments comply, critics say, the more the human rights abuses here slip from international view – and the more isolated Tibet’s fearful monks become.

Tibetan Prisoner in Failing Health Three Years Into 10-Year Term
2015-08-26
A Tibetan man jailed three years ago for preventing Chinese police from seizing the body of a self-immolation protester is in failing health in prison and has been refused family visits from his aging parents, sources said.
Washul Dortruk, age unknown, was handed a ten-year term in December 2012 after returning the body of Lobsang Gendun to his monastery in Qinghai province’s Pema (in Chinese, Banma) county, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.
“Since then, he has been serving his sentence in a prison located in the eastern part of [provincial capital] Xining,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He has completed almost three years, and has another seven years to serve,” he said.
Lobsang Gendun, 29, set himself ablaze on Dec. 3 to protest China’s rule in Tibetan areas and walked about 300 steps with his hands folded in prayer, shouting slogans, before he collapsed and died, sources said in earlier reports.
Though Chinese police arrived quickly at the scene to remove his remains, local Tibetans struggled with them for possession of the body and took it to Pema county’s Penak monastery, where Gendun had lived before staging his fiery protest, sources said.
Failing health
Dortruk, one of those who returned the dead monk’s body to his home, is now in poor health in prison, RFA’s source said.
“His parents were allowed to meet with him some years back, but they are now in their 80s and have been refused permission to see him again,” he said.
When other family members were allowed to visit him this year, they could see and speak to him only through a glass partition, the source said.
“At that time, they saw that he was very weak, and he appeared to have suffered a serious injury to his leg while in detention.”
“His family has appealed for a commutation of his sentence, but the authorities have not responded positively to their request,” he said.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 142 Tibetans to date setting themselves on fire to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the Dalai Lama’s return.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibetans protest new uranium mine citing religious and environmental concerns
August 24, 2015
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, August 24, 2015 – Chinese authorities have used intimidation and threats of force to block attempts by local Tibetans to save a sacred mountain from uranium mining at Dringwa (Ch: Zhanwa) Township in Dzoege (Ch: Ruo’ergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
According to reliable information received by TCHRD, on August 10 a mining team sent by the Chinese government proceeded to start mining at Drak Dzong, a sacred mountain in Dringwa. Just then a large number of Tibetans gathered at the site to stop the miners, with Tibetans explaining to the Chinese miners that it was inauspicious to mine at the sacred site and that mining would have disastrous consequences on the environmental stability of the region. In response, the miners threatened to call the police for obstructing their work. Despite protests from Tibetans, the mining team has already made preparations to start mining uranium; mining machines and equipment have been brought to the site.
Uranium was initially mined mainly for producing nuclear weapons and since the 1960s, for manufacture into nuclear reactor fuel. Being both radioactive and a toxic heavy metal, uranium mining can contaminate air, soil and water.
Drak Dzong is a sacred mountain considered as the dwelling place of Amnye Drak Dzong, the principle deity revered by local Tibetans in Dringwa. The mountain has two sacred caves that receive a continuous chain of pilgrims throughout the year. The locals believe that excavation at this site would bring catastrophes such as epidemics and droughts in the region. Owing to the local belief system, Tibetans have protected this site since time immemorial without even putting a spade on it. The plan to mine this sacred mountain has plunged local Tibetans deep into worry, fear and uncertainty.
Each and every local area in Tibet has its own sacred mountain. Tibetans believe that deities, who provide protection to the local area and people, inhabit these sacred mountains. On top of these mountains, Tibetans perform frequent rituals meant to propitiate these sacred deities. These rituals include burning sang (burning junipers), throwing lungta (paper prayer leaflets) and putting up dharchok (prayer flags). Tibetans think that acts that harm the nature such as digging sacred mountains, cutting forests, and hunting animals will bring disasters, such as epidemics, upon their livestock. Therefore, protecting these sacred mountains have become the religious custom and cultural practice of the Tibetan people for centuries, proving very effective in protecting Tibetan environment, including Tibetan flora and fauna. China’s mining of the sacred mountains, therefore, destroys not just the natural environment of Tibet, but also violates the religious belief and cultural practices of the Tibetan people.
Between 1960 and 1995, in a span of 35 years, a coalition of three mining teams bearing the pseudonyms “792”,”405″ and “407′ based in Kyangtsa (Ch: Jiangzha) and Thewo (Ch: Diebu) executed a series of mining activities at Dringwa township. Kyangtsa Township is located in Dzoege County while Thewo County is located in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. These mining activities have wrought immense harm and destruction on the local Tibetans such as deaths of a large number of livestock in this region. In Dringwa, for the past 35 years Chinese miners have mined 34 different types of metals and minerals such as gold. The environment monitoring bureau of Sichuan Province reported on its website that in June 2014, a team of mining inspectors visited Dzoege County in connection with the mining of uranium ore in the area.
A 1992 report published by the exile Tibetan government stated that the Chinese had discovered some 200 uranium deposits by 1990 in Tibet. [1] Likewise, it was reported in early 1980s that the area around Lhasa contained arguably the world’s largest deposits of uranium. [2] However, the report published by the exile Tibetan government pointed out that the Gya Tseseda mine, located 86 kms away from Thewo town, was at the time the largest Chinese uranium mine.
Already in the early 1990s, local Tibetans in Kyangtsa had reported suffering from the harm done by uranium mining in their region. In September 1992, the now-defunct Tibet Information Network reported that the residents of Guru village in Kyangtsa Township had reported illnesses from 1980. Local Tibetans recounted how the forest near the village had started to dry up and it became harder to get plants to grow. The victims died within a few hours of developing a fever, followed by a distinctive form of diarrhoea. At least 35 people out of the village population of 500 died between 1989 and 1992.
TCHRD calls on Chinese authorities to act responsibly and with restraint when dealing with peaceful Tibetan protesters, who harbor legitimate grievances against the excesses of local authorities and the miners that they support. The resistance of local Tibetans in Dringwa against mining on the sacred mountain demonstrates that neither the miners nor the local authorities have obtained free, prior and informed consent from local Tibetans who have owned and nurtured the land sustainably for thousands of years. TCHRD calls on the Chinese authorities to respect Tibetan cultural sensitivities and belief system, and refrain from implementing mining projects that could harm Tibetans and the land that they inhabit.
Endnotes:
1. Tibetan Environment and Development issues 1992, Dept. Of Information and International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India.).
2. Richard Pascoe, “Uranium rich Tibet still awaits steam; ” South China Morning Post; 24 Aug. 1982.)
WTN -24th August 2015

Clampdown Amid Questions Over Death of Tibetan Monk in Custody
2015-08-12
Authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province have launched a clampdown in the home county of a popular Tibetan monk who died last month amid unexplained circumstances in a Chinese prison, deploying security personnel and restricting communications, a Tibetan source in exile said Wednesday.
Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, 65, died on July 12 in the 13th year of a life sentence imposed for what rights groups and supporters have described as a wrongful conviction on a bombing charge. He was widely respected among Tibetans for his efforts to protect Tibetan culture and the environment.
In recent weeks, authorities in Rinpoche’s Nyagchuka (in Chinese, Yajiang) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have ordered residents to stop discussing the circumstances surrounding his death, Lobsang Yonten, a Tibetan exile living in south India, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“After his death, the Chinese authorities started conducting political re-education activities in the area, instructing people not to talk about it, saying it could lead to riots,” Yonten said, noting that many local residents are affiliated with Rinpoche’s Kham Nalanda Thekchen Jangchub Choling monastery.
“The authorities also tried to impress upon the public that Rinpoche had died a natural death and had received all possible medical treatment,” he said.
According to Yonten, young men in the county have been “forced to engage in military training and exercises,” while those who do not comply are “detained for several days” and subjected to re-education.
Local Tibetan devotees who wanted to attend a ritual prayer for Rinpoche at the Kham Nalanda Thekchen Jangchub Choling monastery were not permitted to do so, he said, adding that residents are required to obtain special permission from authorities before they can even go near the site.
“A large contingent of security forces is still deployed in the area and Rinpoche’s monastery is also surrounded by police and armed paramilitary units,” he said.
Sister and niece
On July 30, authorities freed the sister and niece of Rinpoche after holding the two women in custody in a secret location for nearly two weeks, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said last week. No charges were filed against them, the group said.
Dolkar Lhamo, 55, and Nyima Lhamo, aged about 25, had been detained in Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu on July 17 on suspicion of having shared information related to the death of Rinpoche with contacts outside the area.
TCHRD said that family and friends living outside Tibet feared the two women had been subjected to beatings, intimidation and possibly torture during their detention.
Yonten said Wednesday that they have been under police monitor since their release.
“Although the sister and her daughter were released, they are confined in their home without a phone, which the authorities took away,” he said.
“They were told not to meet or talk with their relatives and friends, nor are they permitted to travel away from their house.”
Call for investigation
Before being detained, Dolkar Lhamo had appealed to authorities for an explanation of the circumstances surrounding Rinpoche’s death, also submitting abstracts from China’s constitution on required procedures following the death of a prisoner belonging to a minority national group, one source told RFA in an earlier report.
“But the authorities refused to accept those representations,” the source said.
In its statement last week, TCHRD called for an “independent and impartial investigation” into the death of the widely respected monk, saying the Chinese government has a legal obligation to determine whether his death was caused intentionally or by negligence.
Despite protests from his family, Rinpoche’s remains were cremated by prison authorities on July 16.
Reported by Sonam Wangdu for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Dalai Lama to join fellow Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta at peace conference in Indonesia
August 10, 2015
Coconuts Jakarta, August 6, 2015 – The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, will be making his way to Java early next month to speak at the 1st Annual Malang Peace Conference.
The conference, which will take place from September 6-9, aims to promote tolerance and world peace.
The Dalai Lama will be speaking on the first day of the conference, along with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of East Timor José Ramos-Horta, Minister of Religion Lukman Hakim and President Joko Widodo.
The conference was organized the Raden Rahmat Islamic University of Malang. The head of the conference committee, Dimas Iqbal Romadhon, told CNN Indonesia that Malang was a perfect place for such an event as it is the home of numerous religious organizations that all coexist in harmony.
Dimas confirmed that the Dalai Lama was coming to the event, but said they were still taking care of his visa. He also said that the Dalai Lama was planning to visit Borobudur in Magelang while he was in Indonesia.
For more information on the the 1st Annual Malang Peace Conference go to: http://amipec.org/

Tibetan Political Prisoner Dies After 14 Months in Custody
2015-07-23
UPDATED at 6:35 a.m. EST on 2015-07-24
A Tibetan village chief being held in prison for his role in protests against a Chinese gold mine died in a Lhasa hospital, a Tibetan source living in exile told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Lobsang Yeshi, a father of eight in his 60s, died on July 19 at Lhasa Hospital, where he had been taken after his health deteriorated in Ngulchul prison in Lhasa, the source told RFA.
The cause of the man’s death was not immediately clear. But the website of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the Tibetan exile government in India, said he had been tortured since his detention in May 2014 after a protest in his village.
“Due to severe beating in the prison, Lobsang Yeshi sustained grievous injuries and suffered dizziness as a result of poor health,” said the CTA report.
Lobsang Yeshi, who was the head of Gewar village in (In Chinese, Changdu) prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, near where a Chinese mine was being built, and two other village men were sentenced to two years in jail for their roles in protests that rocked the village a year earlier.
On May 7, 2014, Gewar village resident Phakpa Gyaltsen died in a solitary protest after stabbing himself and jumping from a building in Tongbar town to oppose Chinese plans to mine gold in an area of Dzogang (Zuogang) near Madok Tso called Ache Jema, according to Tibetan sources at the time.
“At that time, the Tibetans, led by some elderly Tibetans including Lobsang Yeshi who was head of the village, protested at Dzogang county center. The protest continued even after threatening warnings given by Chamdo and Dzogang police,” the exiled Tibetan source told RFA.
“The leader and others continued with frequent protests and refused to budge under the threat. The tension was eased when the county level officials tried to mediate between the police and the protestors and allowed the Tibetans to go home without any action,” the source added.
Later, however, Lobsang Yeshi was one of seven Tibetans taken into custody by the authorities and detained in Dzogang county for almost one year, he said.
Tibetan areas of China have become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and mining operations have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.
“None of the relatives and friends of Lobsang Yeshi was allowed to see his body. Only a monk was finally allowed in to see his body and conduct prayer,” the exile source said.
Lobsang Yeshi’s body was cremated on July 21, with two of his brothers attending the cremation, the source said.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that Ngulchul prison is in Chamdo, instead of Lhasa

Congressman McGovern Statement on Death of Tibetan Activist Tenzin Delek Rinpoche
Jul 20, 2015
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02), a senior House Democrat and Co-Chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, released the following statement on the death of Tibetan activist Tenzin Delek Rinpoche:
“Last week I was deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of the well-known Tibetan monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. Tenzin Delek was serving a life sentence under very harsh conditions for allegedly ‘causing explosions’ and ‘inciting separatism,’ charges against which he steadfastly maintained his innocence. Just last April, I had written to the U.S. State Department to encourage our government officials to prioritize Tenzin Delek’s release on medical parole, because he was reported to be suffering from serious health problems. In late June, the State Department assured me the message had been transmitted, but now we see that China turned a callous blind eye to my pleas and those of many others. The Chinese authorities bear direct responsibility for Tenzin Delek’s unnecessary death.
“But the barbarity of the story does not end there. Tenzin Delek’s family asked the Chinese government to return his body to them, so that they could carry out funeral rites in accordance with Tibetan tradition. This very basic, very human request was supported by Tibetan religious leaders and many others around the world. Instead, Chinese authorities cremated the body at a secret prison outside Chengdu, returning only ashes to his distraught family and community. The authorities’ only humane gesture, which was minimal and under pressure, was to permit several monks and family members, including two sisters, to view the body before the cremation. The monks were able to wash and dress the body, and carry out prayers, as was the family. But let me be clear: the authorities’ actions after Tenzin Delek’s death display the same utter contempt for their own laws, and for religious traditions, that characterized their treatment of this spiritual leader during his life.
“We do not know the cause of Tenzin Delek’s death. He died while family members were waiting to see him, in what would have been only his second family visit in 13 years. His sisters, after seeing the body, report that his lips and fingernails had turned black; they believe he was murdered. At a minimum, it was the height of cruelty to have allowed a prisoner who was tortured, suffering from medical problems, and had been denied medical treatment, to die in prison.
“I do not believe that we can expect the Chinese government to tell the world the truth about Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s death. For this reason, today I am calling for an immediate independent international investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death, with the participation of forensic and human rights experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. I also call on the Chinese government to allow a visit and investigation by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, in light of the allegations of torture against Tenzin Delek, and China’s upcoming review this fall under the Convention Against Torture.
“Frankly, these independent investigations would be in China’s best interests. Given their treatment of the man before his death, and of his body afterwards, authorities’ statements have little credibility.
“Tenzin Delek’s death is being felt very strongly in Tibetan communities – we’ve already seen reports of police firing into the air to disperse the crowds that gathered to demand the return of the body to his home in Sichuan. I am concerned for the safety of the members of Tenzin Delek’s family and I have received very disturbing reports that his sister, Dolkar Lhamo, and her daughter, Nyima Lhamo, have been detained by the police. Please be assured that my voice will be heard if they are harmed or their rights are violated in any way.
“My heart goes out to the family of Tenzin Delek, to his religious followers, and to the communities he served. He was an outstanding human being who defended his culture and his people, and paid dearly for it. He will not be forgotten.”

Chinese Cremate Body of Revered Tibetan Monk, Ignoring Pleas
By ANDREW JACOBSJULY 16, 2015
BEIJING — Authorities in southwest China on Thursday cremated the body of a prominent Tibetan monk who died in prison last week, ignoring the pleas of relatives, religious leaders and thousands of supporters who had demanded that they be allowed to carry out funeral rites integral to Tibetan Buddhism.
Relatives of the monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, 65, said prison officials in Sichuan Province had brushed aside their requests and hastily cremated his body early Thursday, a move likely to exacerbate protests that have already turned violent in recent days.
“I think they were afraid people would see the body and know that it was not a natural death,” a cousin, Geshe Jamyang Nyima, said in a Skype interview.
Rights advocates have been calling for an investigation into the death of Tenzin Delek, a revered community leader who had been serving a life sentence on charges of terrorism and incitement of separatism. During his 13 years in prison, Tenzin Delek repeatedly maintained his innocence, saying accusations that he had orchestrated a series of bomb blasts in 2002 were fabricated by officials unhappy with his growing public stature.
Alarmed by accounts of his failing health, family members in recent years had been petitioning Beijing to grant Tenzin Delek medical parole, a campaign that drew support from Tibetan exile groups, Western governments and thousands of his followers in China. This week, the State Department and the European Union called on the Chinese government to release his body.
Prison officials in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, could not be reached for comment on Thursday but relatives say they have repeatedly declined to give a cause of death.
Family members say Tenzin Delek was in good health before his arrest, but that he had developed a heart ailment they attribute to the abuse they say he suffered while in custody.
“From their earliest efforts at harassing him, all the way through to their disposal of his body, Chinese authorities’ treatment of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche has demonstrated utter contempt for their own laws and for religious traditions,” said Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch. “To have allowed someone who had been tortured and denied medical care to die in detention is the height of cruelty.”
Tenzin Delek was one of China’s most high-profile political prisoners, and his death and hasty cremation are likely to aggravate tensions in a region already bristling with anti-government sentiment.
On Monday, the police were said to have fired tear gas and live ammunition into a crowd of more than a thousand people who had gathered outside government offices in Nyagchuka, a largely Tibetan town in Sichuan where Tenzin Delek had once lived. More than a dozen people were wounded, according to Students for a Free Tibet, an overseas advocacy group that reported the confrontation.
In recent days, nearly 100 people, including two of Tenzin Delek’s, have been staging a sit-in outside the prison in Chengdu where he is thought to have been held. Many had traveled nearly 400 miles from his hometown in Lithang, in western Sichuan, despite warnings from authorities that those caught traveling to Chengdu would face long prison terms.
Geshe Jamyang Nyima, the cousin, said prison officials had allowed Tenzin Delek’s sisters to view his body Thursday morning shortly before it was cremated at a secret prison outside Chengdu. “They found that his lips and his fingernails had turned black,” said the cousin, who lives in exile in India and is in frequent phone contact with one of the sisters. “To us, it is clear he has been murdered.”
Tenzin Delek was a revered figure among Tibetans in Sichuan, where he helped build medical clinics, schools and monasteries. He was also known as an environmentalist who opposed mining and deforestation.
But his promotion of Tibetan language and culture — and his devoted following among local residents — made Chinese officials uncomfortable, according to Padma Dolma, campaigns director for Students for a Free Tibet. “He wasn’t involved in political activities, which is why it was such a shock when he was arrested and charged with conspiring to plant a bomb,” she said. “It’s because of his message of nonviolence that Tibetans were so dedicated to him.”
Following his arrest — and a secret trial — Tenzin Delek’s notoriety spread beyond Sichuan. After international rights advocates campaigned for his release, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison, though a co-defendant was executed in 2003.
Robert Barnett, director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University, said the Chinese government had been quietly granting medical parole to ill Tibetan prisoners, including 17 over the past two years. But given Tenzin Delek’s popularity, he said, the authorities may have feared public celebrations over his release.
“Like so much of China’s Tibet policies, they were trapped in a cul-de-sac with no exit,” he said. “Still, that he was allowed to die in prison is really quite extraordinary. It’s something that is going to be very strongly felt in Tibetan communities.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/world/asia/china-cremates-body-of-revered-tibetan-monk-tenzin-delek-rinpoche.html?_r=0