A Tibetan writer and advocate for the preservation of the Tibetan language who is serving a nearly 4.5-year jail sentence for engaging in separatist acts and social disorder, is being treated at a hospital for a serious illness, two Tibetan sources said.
Thupten Lodoe, also known by his pen name Sabuche, is in his 30s and hails from Seshul county, called Shiqu in Chinese, part of the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province.
He was arrested in October 2021 and detained for six months before being sentenced to four years and five months in prison in June 2022 for writing articles deemed a threat to national security and unity.
Lodoe has been detained in a prison in Dartsedo, or Kangding in Chinese, where he has endured harsh conditions, including hard labor, inadequate food and poor living conditions, said the sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
Authorities said Lodoe is receiving medical treatment, but they did not disclose his illness or the hospital’s location, the sources said.
Lodoe’s arrest was part of a larger crackdown on Tibetan writers, intellectuals and cultural figures arbitrarily imprisoned in undisclosed locations, usually for long periods and with no disclosure of their whereabouts. Most were arrested after sharing their views or information about conditions in ethnic Tibetan areas under Chinese government rule.
Following his sentencing, his family was harassed by Chinese authorities, and his two children were barred from attending school.
Fluent in Tibetan, Chinese and English, Lodoe studied at a school established by the Panchen Lama, whose Buddhist spiritual authority is second only to that of the Dalai Lama, in Sichuan province.
Despite a job offer from the Chinese government, he chose to work independently as an author, writing extensively about the Tibetan language — which Beijing has sought to repress along with Tibetan religion and culture — and translating the American national anthem and poems by an ancient Persian poet into Tibetan.
Chinese police previously warned him to stop writing such articles, but he kept doing so, a friend of Lodoe told Radio Free Asia in an earlier report.
Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.