
Geshe Rachung Gendun in an undated photo.
Dharamshala: Geshe Rachung Gendun was released from prison on 16 November 2024 after serving three and a half years, though his physical condition has become extremely poor, according to a reliable source. Moreover, on 10 June this year, his elderly mother due to various forms of harassment from the Chinese government, was unable to receive proper medical treatment and passed away at 85 without being able to meet her son one final time.
Geshe Rachung was abruptly arrested on the night of 1 April 2021 from his quarters at Kirti Monastery, in Ngaba County, and his whereabouts remained unknown for several months. Additionally, his family members were denied access to information and visitation. It was not until around July 2022 that it became publicly known that he had been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the alleged sending of money abroad as offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kirti Rinpoche, the abbot of Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, India. When he was first arrested, his family was unaware of the length of his sentence, and had hoped that he would return home soon.
Political activities and arrests in the past
It was not his first imprisonment, as in May 1998, when the “Patriotic Education Campaign” was launched at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, Prefectural and County-level Chinese officials were deployed in Kirti Monastery and imposed various restrictions under the guise of “purifying monastery’s system and Buddha’s teachings.” Such restrictions include expelling “illegal” residents from monastery; evicting monks under 18 years of age; mandating monastery to keep identification cards of every monk; limiting number of monks residing in monastery to 1,500 (down from over 2,800 to 2,900); banning the display of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s photographs, and prohibiting the following of Kirti Rinpoche’s instructions. Through various meetings of different durations, these restrictions made it uncomfortable for most monks to remain at the monastery.
In response, many monks stood up during meetings and shouted in protest by showing various signs of dissent in front of Chinese government officials, including walking out and Tibetan independence slogans and flags appeared throughout the monastery and town. There were more protests in December 1998 when over 50 Chinese officials again attempted to forcefully continue the so-called “Patriotic Education and Love for Religion” campaign in Kirti Monastery, and many monks, including Geshe Rachung Gendun, were arrested. The details of this period are recorded in the book “Wounds of Three Generations” published by Kirti Monastery in exile in 2010.
During a period when self-immolation incidents were occurring in Ngaba County, Chinese officials and police suddenly jumped onto the roof of Geshe Rachung Gendun’s residence compound. They searched his residence, forcibly confiscated photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and subjected him to multiple rounds of detention and interrogation.
Monastic Life
Geshe Rachung Gendun, son of the late Rachung Kuye and mother Norpo from Meruma’s Third Division of Ngaba County, in Tibet’s traditional province of Amdo, joined Kirti Monastery’s Geden Lekshay Ling from a young age. He studied under great spiritual teachers including Geshe Jorge Aku Chozin and Aku Loye (Rako’s Lobsang Sonam), and Geshe Lobsang Tashi, focusing on monastery rituals and practices.
In particular, from the Five Great Canonical Texts (bka’ pod lnga), he not only completed comprehensive study through teaching and learning of the Abhisamayālaṅkāra (mngon rtogs rgyan), Madhyamakāvatāra (dbu ma ‘jug pa), Pramāṇavārttika root text (rnam ‘grel rtsa ba), Essence of Good Explanations on Definitive and Interpretable Meanings (drang nges legs bshad snying po), Clear Meaning Commentary (‘grel pa don gsal), and Panchen’s General Meaning Commentary on the First Chapter of Prajñāpāramitā (pan chen phar phyin spyi don skabs dang po), but also passed examinations before the monastery’s assembly administrators through memorization.
Following guidance from His Eminence the Kirti Rinpoche regarding unified approach to teaching and learning across Kirti monasteries, he began Geshe degree examinations in 2017 and was conducting the Geshe Kachu-pa (Ten Hardships) debate tours across various Kirti monasteries, when he was suddenly arrested by police from his quarters at Kirti Monastery on the night of 1 April 2021.
Restrictions and Relation with Tibetan Martyr Taphun
On 26 March 2022, Geshe Rachung Gendun’s mother Norpo received a telephone call from her brother Taphun asking for any information or messages she might have for him to relay. In the morning of 27 March, Taphun, the 81-year-old uncle of Geshe Rachung Gendun, self-immolated in front of the police station that monitors Ngaba Kirti Monastery. Consequently, family members, relatives, and close associates were subjected to repeated harassment and indefinite interrogations. The 83-year-old Norpo, who received a telephone call from Taphun, was suspected of “conspiracy.” She was placed under strict surveillance for approximately a year, without the freedom to go on pilgrimages or visit hospitals, as she herself stated in the audio recording below. After failing to receive adequate medical treatment, Norpo passed away on 10 June 2024, tragically before she could meet her son.
-Report filed by UN, EU, and the Human Rights Desk, Tibet Advocacy Section, DIIR

Geshe Rachung Gendun during a dialectics debate

Tibetan martyr, Taphun (left), who self-immolated in March 2022 and is the uncle of Geche Rachung Gendun, and Norpo (right), his late mother.