DHARAMSHALA, APRIL 1: A Tibetan monk of Drongna monastery in Driru County has been sentenced to eighteen years in prison on charges of ‘inciting separatism’, the most common and arbitrary of allegations against Tibetans engaging in anti China protests or expressing loyalty to the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
Thardoe Gyaltsen, the chantleader and administrator of the monastery was allegedly found to be in possession of pictures of the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and recordings of his speeches and teachings, said Ngawang Tharpa, a TIbetan source living here.
Drongna Monastery was shut down in November last year and its debate master Kalsang Dhondup was arrested. Rabten monastery and Drongna monastery were surrounded by Chinese armed personnel when news about crackdown in Tarmoe monastery came out in November last year.
Thardoe studied Tibetan Buddhism at the Ganden monastic university near Lhasa and returned to his native in 1992. He joined the Drongna Monastery as its chantleader and later became its administrator in 1998. The monastery currently houses about ninety monks but can not hold its regular prayer sessions and other monastic routines due to restrictions imposed by the local Chinese authorities, according to the source.
In March last year, several monasteries in Tibet were forced to hand over their administration to communist party cadres while some monasteries faced a complete shut down due to boycott by monks following increased repression and control by Chinese government authorities. Alarmed by the closure of monasteries and the absence of monks to perform rituals, local Tibetans in the region had carried their protest to government officials and in one instance, even left a dead body at a government building, complaining that there were no monks to perform the last rituals.
Chinese government considers Driru as one of the most restive regions brewing anti government sentiments and activities in the Tibet Autonomous Region, according to another source. “They fear that instability in Diru could cause ripple effect in other areas in the TAR. Therefore, they have been engaged in forcing Tibetans in Driru to rigorous ‘Thought Education Campaign’ since september,” the Tibetan source told Phayul last year.
