A Tibetan Buddhist monk jailed in 2021 is serving a three-year prison sentence for leading prayer ceremonies during the COVID-19 lockdown and refusing to hoist the Chinese flag at his monastery, three sources told Radio Free Asia.
Lobsang Tashi, 43, the former chant master of Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county in southwest China’s Sichuan province, was also sentenced for making offerings on behalf of those who died during the pandemic to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and the India-based abbot of his monastery, said the sources, who asked not to be named for safety reasons.
Chinese authorities arrested Tashi on June 10, 2021 and detained him for a few months, during which a secret trial was held, the sources told RFA. One of the sources is from inside Tibet and the remaining two, who now live outside China, were formerly based in Ngaba.
The exact date of the secret trial or its venue could not be ascertained, the sources said.
Chinese authorities consider it illegal for Tibetans to make prayer offerings to the Dalai Lama or even to keep images of the spiritual leader, who fled to India about 65 years ago and has been living in Dharamsala, India, ever since.
Beijing considers him a separatist seeking to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet. However, the Dalai Lama advocates a “Middle Way” approach that accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms.
Tashi, who is from Ngaba and was most recently the monastic administrative head of the Dharma center at Kirti Monastery, is serving his sentence in Menyang Prison near Sichuan’s Chengdu city, the sources said.
He is expected to be released later this year, they added.
Tashi joined Kirti Monastery when he was a boy and eventually assumed the duties of a chant master. He also served in monastic administrative roles and as a monk vocalist.
In 2021, Chinese authorities arrested two Tibetan Buddhist monks from Kirti along with the sister of one of the monks for allegedly sending money for prayer offerings to the Dalai Lama and the head of the monastery based in Dharamsala.
One of the monks, Sonam Gyatso, was freed in June 2023 after serving a two-year sentence, and returned to Kirti in poor health because of torture and maltreatment in prison, people in Tibet with knowledge of situation told RFA at the time.
The second monk, Rachung Gendrun, is still serving a 3.5-year prison term after being sentenced in July 2022. He had also vocally opposed the Chinese government’s “patriotic education” campaign in which Chinese and trusted Tibetan officials forced Buddhist monks and nuns to accept the concept of the unity of China and Tibet, sources said at the time.
Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting them to imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Translated by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.