Disappeared Tibetan monk serving 9-yr jail sentence

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Geshe Tsultrim Nyendrak, 40, a teacher at Rabten Monastery in Driru.
Geshe Tsultrim Nyendrak, 40, a teacher at Rabten Monastery in Driru.

(TibetanReview.net, Aug29, 2014) – A Tibetan monk who disappeared after being taken away by Chinese police in Tibet’s capital Lhasa in 2012 is serving a nine-year jail sentence, his family learnt at the end of July this year. Geshe Tsultrim Nyendrak, 40, a teacher at Rabten Monastery in Driru (Chinese: Biru) County of Nagchu (Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, was arrested in Dec 2012 on suspicion of being engaged in anti-China activities and remained disappeared ever since.

It was not clear when the monk was tried and sentenced and on what grounds. Chinese authorities only informed the respected and learned monk’s family on Jul 31 that he was serving a nine-year jail sentence in Chushul, located in the outskirts of Lhasa.

The monk had been “subjected to torture while in prison,” was in poor health condition, and the authorities were not responding to his family’s appeals for medical care for him, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Aug 27.

Tsultrim Nyendrak’s arrest followed the authorities’ shutting down of his Rabten Monastery – as well as Tarmoe and Drongna monasteries, both also located in Driru —in Dec 2012 after monks opposed China’s takeover of their management and the campaign of political re-education under which they were required to condemn and slander their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

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