By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, February 9 – China has released on Tuesday a popular Tibetan singer jailed for his songs that called for Tibetan independence, expressed nostalgia for the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and remembered the Chinese government’s crackdown on Tibetans across Tibet in 2008.
According to the Radio Free Asia , Tashi Dhondup, was freed from a Chinese jail in Xining early Tuesday. “He arrived safely at his hometown in Yulgan county on the same day at around 7:00 p.m.,” the RFA quoted a relative of Tashi as saying. “On the way, he passed through Tsekhog county, where he was well received by the locals with scarves and greetings.”
“His family, fans, and friends gave him a warm welcome on his arrival at his home county in Malho prefecture,” said the relative who asked not to be named.
“So far, the local police have not imposed restrictions on the local Tibetans and Mongolians for welcoming the popular singer following his more than a year in detention,” the relative said.
Tashi was sentenced to one year and seven months’ jail term in March last year for producing a music album with “subversive songs”.
Tashi was arrested on Dec 3, 2009 from a restaurant in Xining, where he had been in hiding after authorities banned his album titled “Torture without Trace” in November the same year.
Chinese authorities in central Henan province, where the singer is a member of the Henan Mongolian Autonomous Region Arts Troupe, had issued the warrant for his arrest.
Tashi was previously detained in September 2008, according to sources of the International Campaign for Tibet, and accused by authorities of including ‘counter-revolutionary content’ in a song entitled ‘The Year of 1959,’ the year of the Lhasa Uprising and the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile. He was detained and beaten for over seven days by police in Xining.
5,000 copies of his album sold out within a month of its October release in Amdo region of eastern Tibet, where Tashi is a popular local star.
China launched a massive crackdown on Tibetan artistes, writers and intellectuals, following the nationwide protests that started on March 10, 2008 in Lhasa and spread across the Tibetan plateau.
