By Tenzin Dharpo
Dharamsala, July 13: A Tibetan philanthropist religious leader who was serving a life sentence in a Chinese prison has died on Sunday, according to sources from inside Tibet.
65 year old Trulku Tenzin Delek Rinpcohe, known to be in extremely poor health with serious heart condition, was denied access to medical treatment even though deterioration in his health was reported as early as 2009, Tibetan exile say. Repeated petitions for medical parole were quashed since then. His body has not been handed over to his family.
“Chinese police informed his relatives that he was seriously ill and when they rushed to visit him, they were told he was already dead,” a Tibetan told RFA’s Tibetan Service. Pleas to visit the ailing monk in Mienyang prison by his relatives were turned down for more than a week before his death.
He was arrested on April 7, 2002 during a raid on Jamyang Choekhorling in Kardze, Sichuan on charges of involvement in an explosion on April 3, 2002 in Chengdu, Sichuan’s provincial capital.
Tibetan sources said Trulku’s advocacy to develop social, medical, educational and religious institutions for Tibetan nomads in eastern Tibet and his work for environmental conservation in the face of indiscriminate logging and mining projects had earned him the wrath of the Chinese authorities in the region.
Petitions from various pockets of the world urging Chinese authorities to absolve the charges against him and to release him from detention have been carried out on numerous occasions since his arrest 13 years ago.
Tulku Tenzin Delek in an undated statement had said, “Since I am a Tibetan, I have always been sincere and devoted to the interests and well-being of Tibetan people. That is the real reason why the Chinese do not like me and framed me. That is why they are going to take my precious life even though I am innocent.”
On 2 December 2002, the Kardze Intermediate People’s Court in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, sentenced Lobsang Dhondup, a relative of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, to death for “inciting separatism”, “causing explosions” and “illegal possession of guns and ammunition”. He was executed on January 26, 2003, despite huge international outcry.
Tenzin Delek Rinpoche received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for “causing explosions” and “inciting separatism”. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, based then at a monastery in nomad-dominated Othok, was granted a two-year reprieve, and later had his sentence commuted to life on January 26, 2005.
