(TibetanReview.net, Aug27’25) – The administrative head of a major monastery in eastern Tibet located in Ba (also called Gepasumdo / Kawasumdo / Thunte; Chinese: Tongde) county of Tsolho (Hainan) prefecture, Qinghai Province, has committed protest suicide recently while a teacher of the monastery remains disappeared after being arrested by Chinese police nearly two months ago. Both incidents are connected to China’s increased repression in connection with the commemoration of the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday this year, according to the Tibetan language tibettime.net Aug 22 and 25 and other recent reports.
Shersang Gyatso, the 52-year-old head of the Democratic Management Committee of Tsang (also referred to as Tsanggon or Tsanggar) Monastery, committed suicide on Aug 18 by jumping from the roof of the monastery’s shop, unable to bear the emotional distress caused by the sweep and level of the repression.
Chinese police arrived at the monastery some days before the Dalai Lama’s birthday and went on a room-to-room search of the monks’ residences. Photos of the Dalai Lama were found and taken as a serious violation of the party-government’s orders. All the monks were put under detention in the monastery while all those who were below 18 years of age were expelled from it, the report said.
Later, from Jul 20, the living rooms of the monks were subjected to repeated searches on a daily basis, while the monks themselves were subjected to political education meetings every day, totally ignoring or showing nothing but contempt to the monastery’s daily religious and other routines. Monks were also prevented from leaving to perform religious services at the surrounding nomadic communities, a traditional annual event taking place in the 5th and 6th Tibetan-calender months, the report continued.
The pressure and intimidation on the monastery’s officials and leaders was even greater and it drove monk Shersang Gyatso to commit suicide as an act of protest against the Chinese government’s harassment, repression, bullying and so forth, the report said.
Apart from Tsolho, the monastery has monks from neighbouring Malho (Huangnan) and Golog (Guoluo) prefectures. Shersang Gyatso is originally from Arig Village in Malho’s Sogpo/Yulgan (Henan) county. The monastery has five colleges, of which he belongs to the Gyupa Dratsang.
The monastery had around 1,000 monks before the recent expulsions.
Tibet Watch, a monitoring group associated with the Free Tibet Campaign, London, said Aug 26 that the crackdown at the monastery had begun around May this year. It cited Sanggon Dondup Rabten Ling Monastery as the monastery’s full name and Shersang Gyatso as a member of the monastery management committee.
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Earlier, on or around Jul 2, monk Zega Gyatso of Tsang Monastery was taken away by Chinese police allegedly for sending money to a relative living abroad, said a tibettime.net report Aug 25. But the relative has spoken of having not received any money from him, suggesting the reason was false, and it was probably more to do with him being a blacklisted person or for some other reason.
He was stated to have been held while in the provincial capital Xining to seek medical treatment for his ailment. No information has been provided on his whereabouts even to his family and relatives thus far.
Way back in 2008, during the great Tibetan Plateau upheaval of protests, his maternal cousin-brother Khedub Gyatso was arrested by the Chinese police. Since then, Zega Gyatso and many of his family members and relatives have been under surveillance while being subjected to constant harassment. They were frequently interrogated and warned for allegedly having contacts with people living abroad, and often summoned at odd hours to police station to answer questions, the report said.
Zega Gyatso, 48, had travelled to India in 2002, studied at the Sera Jey Monastery for about a year, returned home in 2003, and continued his study at a school in Ragya, located in his home prefecture. After graduating from it, he taught Tibetan at the Ngarig Legsheling school of Tsang Monastery and continued to be in service at the time of his arrest, the report said.
He is stated to be the eldest son of his father Sowang and mother Tashi who have three sons and three daughters.