Three Tibetan monks from Ngaba County staged separate solo protests, within a week’s time earlier this month, raising slogans against the Chinese authorities and calling for freedom in Tibet. Two of the three monks have been identified as Dorjee Rabten and Tenzin Gelek, while the identity of the third monk is still unknown, according to our sources at Kirti Jeypa monastery, a Dharamshala-based sister monastery of Tibet’s Kirti monastery in Amdo Ngaba.
On 5 September, 2018, Dorjee Rabten, a monk from Ngaba Kirti monastery, aged around 23 years old, staged a peaceful solo protest raising pro-Tibet slogans in Ngaba County, traditionally a part of Tibet’s Amdo region and currently incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province. The Chinese police stationed in the locality immediately arrived at the protest site and detained him.
Monk Dorjee Rabten hails from Meruma (Chinese: Maierma) town in Ngaba county and his teacher’s name is Lobsang Dawa. The whereabouts of the monk and other details were not available at the time of reporting.
The following day, on 6 September, another monk Tenzin Gelek, also from the Ngaba Kirti monastery raised slogans calling for freedom in Tibet. The 18-year-old monk was arrested on the spot by the Chinese police and has been detained at an unknown location. Monk Tenzin Gelek is also from Meruma (Chinese: Maierma) town in Ngaba county and is the son of Ma-nyo and Kundon. Prior to Tenzin Gelek’s protest and subsequent detention, he had posted two poems on
social media under the penname Sarin, expressing his pain and suffering living under the Chinese oppressive rule.
In a separate incident, around the same time, a third monk from Ngaba county, who remains unidentified at the moment, was also detained after he staged a lone protest raising pro-Tibet slogans.
The situation inside Tibet continues to remain dire. Since 2009, there have been at least 152 self-immolation protests in Tibet of which at least 24 self-immolation protests were by monks and former monks of Ngaba Kirti monastery. Most of these self-immolators called for the return ofHis Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and for freedom in Tibet.
-Filed by Human Right Desk, DIIR
