DHARAMSHALA, MAY 20: Karma Monastery’s abbot Lodoe Rabsel who disappeared a day after his release on May 5 has been released but warned against wearing his monastic robes or carrying out any of his monastic and religious duties, source said.
According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the Chamdo County Public Security Bureau (PSB) summoned Khenpo Lodoe on May 6, and held him in secret detention until May 14.
Khenpo is now required to report himself to the authorities every week, a source told the TCHRD. “He is not allowed to travel outside the borders of his home village. The County PSB officers had also warned him against resuming his religious studies, wearing his robes or join his monastery. Lodoe Rabsel is now being cared for by his mother.”
Khenpo Rabsel was arrested in October 2011 along with Khenpo Namsey Sonam, 46, for refusing to “cooperate” with the Chinese officials conducting patriotic reeducation campaigns at the monastery. He was held at the high-security Powo Tramo Prison located in Pome County in Nyingtri.
“The monks refused to denounce the Dalai Lama and consider Tibet as part of China as required in the patriotic re-education classes,” TCHRD said in its release in 2011.
Following the self-immolation of Tenzin Phuntsog, a former monk of Karma monastery and the reported bombing of an empty municipal office in the region in 2011, monks of the monastery had faced severe restrictions leading to the arrest of around 70 monks.
The Karma monastery, located on the eastern bank of the Dzachu River in Chamdo, was founded by the first Gyalwang Karmapa, the head of Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism in the 12th century. Repression had been intense in Chamdo, particularly since the 2008 pan-Tibet protests. The area witnessed a dramatic tightening of security and imposition of ‘emergency’ measures by the authorities.
