Dharamshala, 14th December: According to RFA, a Tibetan monk was sentenced to five years in prison by a court in western China’s Sichuan province for spreading books and teachings by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Lobsang Thinley had defied official warnings to stop sharing teachings from the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
According to RFA’s Tibetan sources, Lobsang Thinley, a monk in his early twenties from Kirti monastery, was arrested on July 1 by authorities in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county, and his family was kept in the dark about his location for several months after his incarceration.
According to RFA, Kyisar Lhudup, a Tibetan living in exile in Paris said, “he was charged with distributing Dalai Lama teachings and circulating literature about him,” claiming contacts in the Ngaba region.
“In September, it was discovered that he is currently being imprisoned at the Mianyang Prison in Sichuan and that authorities notified his family in a letter that he had been sentenced to five years in prison,” Lhudup stated.
“They were also informed they could visit him and bring him food,” Lhudup added, noting that no family members or legal counsel had attended Thinley’s trial.
Thinley had previously been into difficulties with the authorities for disseminating Dalai Lama teachings and had been jailed and freed multiple times, according to Lhudup. “This caused significant anxiety among his family and other relatives, but he was undaunted by police warnings and maintained his activities right up to his arrest in July,” he said.
According to Lhudup, the current five-year sentence comes as Chinese authorities intensify their political crackdown in Ngaba.
“His relatives have kept quiet about Thinley’s sentencing for fear of vengeance. As a result, information about it took a long time to reach outside contacts, making it difficult to determine the present situation in Ngaba,” he concluded.
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