Dharamshala, 16th October: A Tibetan writer who was arrested two years ago on unclear allegations has been sentenced to four years in prison by a Chinese court, with no word from authorities on when his sentence was issued or where he is now being imprisoned, according to RFA.
Lobsang Lhundup, also known as Dhi Lhaden, was convicted for producing a book criticizing Chinese control in Tibetan areas and for “inciting public disorder,” according to RFA’s sources in Tibet who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security concerns. His family has been barred from meeting with him or providing him with clothing or food since his detention, and his present health status is unknown, according to the sources. As per RFA, the Sources also informed in an earlier report that Lhundup was apprehended in June 2019 while working at a private cultural education facility in Chengdu, the capital of western China’s Sichuan province.
Lhundup was born in the Pema region of Sichuan’s Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in 1980. He became a monk at the age of 11 and studied at Sichuan’s Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Academy, which was later evicted by Chinese authorities, along with thousands of other monks and nuns. Lhundup traveled widely across Tibet in his late 20s after teaching Buddhism at Drepung and Sera monasteries in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa. He then wrote and published books about region-wide protests in 2008 against Beijing’s policies and governance in Tibetan areas.
Lhundup has a wife and a child. Lhundup’s family was summoned by Chinese authorities on Dec. 4, 2020, to discuss his situation, but they only discovered that his trial was still ongoing and that they were not permitted to visit with him.
Following the demonstrations that swept Tibet and Tibetan parts of China in 2008, Chinese authorities routinely jailed writers, musicians, and artists promoting Tibetan national identity and culture, with many receiving lengthy prison sentences. In recent years, Tibetan efforts to assert national identity have focused on language rights, with informally formed language schools being designated “illegal associations” and professors susceptible to detention and prosecution.
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