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China jails 42 monks in Tibet, many more tortured

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File photo of monks of Drepung Monastery marching towards Lhasa, Tibet, in March 2008.File photo/TCHRD/Tibet

China has jailed 42 monks of Drepung Monastery with terms ranging from 2 to 15 years, a report published on the website of the Tibetan government-in-exile: tibet.net said.

Citing sources in Tibet, the website said that a monk named Ngawang Choenyi from Lhasa received a 15-year sentence.

The sources provided the names of those who are jailed, but didn’t have details of the corresponding prison terms.

Monks from Drepung Monastery, which is 5 kilometres west of Lhasa, protested against the Chinese government on the Tibetan uprising day on 10 March 2008 . The protests, which turned violent in Lhasa, spread to the whole of Tibet in the following days, which was clamped down with force by China.

The violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters left 219 Tibetans dead, 1294 injured, 5,600 people arrested or detained and more than 1000 still missing, the report says.

Chinese officials from the United Front Work Department visited Drepung Monastery on 8 January to mobilise patriotic re-education to the monks as a measure to maintain stability in the monastery.

“The monks are forced to denounce their supreme spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, during the patriotic education sessions,” the report says.

The monastery has remained closed to the public since 10 March 2008, and the normal functioning of religious studies and related activities have suffered severely.

Novices from Amdo and Kham provinces in eastern Tibet studying at Drepung Monastery were forced to return to their homes. Sources said that Ven Kunchok Nyima, a teacher at the monastery, was forcibly sent back to his native town in Amdo.

In another case, severe beatings left Ven Lobsang Wangchuk from Lhasa virtually blind. He is currently in a prison at an unknown location in the capital.

Ven Ngawang Dondham from Toelung county is not able to hold a bowl in his hands as a result of severe torture, the report says.

The report also gave details of a Tibetan man from Karze (Ch: Ganzi) in Kham, being released after severe torture while in prison. Guru Dorje, 49, was released on medical parole on 2 January 2009. He was originally serving a three-year prison sentence, handed to him following his protests in March 2008.

Dorje is currently undergoing treatment at his home and could not visit hospital on his own due to his very poor health.

Chinese authorities have denied permission to hold an annual debate in Kirti Monastery in Amdo, north-eastern Tibet. Religious discourses by Lamas and Geshes (doctorate equivalent in Buddhist philosophy) at the monastery have been reportedly banned.

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