By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Aug 16: Following the testimony of the slain Tibetan teacher ‘s niece here in India that he was “murdered through poisoning” last week and garnered the attention of global media and observers alike, China denied the accusation and maintained that he died due to a heart complication while serving his sentence in prison.
In response to a query posed by Reuters after the refreshing testimony of Trulku Tenzin Delek’s niece Nyima Lhamo who escaped Tibet, China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the Tibetan philanthropist Lama who was charged of “causing explosion” and “inciting separatism” died of heart related problems and that efforts to revive him were ineffective while asserting that his rights were protected in line with relevant laws during the incarceration. “China is a country ruled by law, during Tenzin Delek Rinponche’s sentence his legal rights were protected according to relevant laws,” a statement of the foreign ministry sent to Reuters on Saturday (July 30) stated.
Two days earlier on July 28 in Dharamshala, Nyima made public her version of her uncle’s mysterious death saying he was tortured and poisoned to death. The 26 year old who have fled her home in Tibet leaving behind her family and her 6 year old daughter spoke in length about the covert handling of the issue by Chinese authorities, even cremating the body of the Tulku themselves and denying meeting before his death to her mother and herself.
The niece claims that the poison was administered that rendered the lips and nails of the Tulku to be blackened in addition to an unexplained injury to the head.
Tulku Tenzin Delek died in Chaundong prison in Chengdu on July 12, 2015 while serving the 13th year of a life sentence commuted from a death sentence. Tulku’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 pegged him as a figure of resistance and Tibetan identity.
