(TibetanReview.net, Mar07’26) – A Tibetan monk who disappeared after being taken away by Chinese police from his monastery in an eastern part of Tibet that is now under China’s Sichuan province over five years ago has just been learnt to be serving a six-year jail sentence in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in western Tibet, according to the Tibetan-language tibettime.net Mar 6. He is suspected to have been punished for teaching Tibetan to local youngsters during school holidays and his family members were also stated to have been ill-treated severely.
The monk, Palden Yeshe, 52, was a teacher at Kardze Monastery in Drung-nga Town of Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) County in the prefecture by the same name, when the Chinese police took him away on May 17, 2021 without stating any reason. He remained disappeared ever since.
It finally emerged recently that the monks is serving a six-year jail sentence in Chushur Prison in the outskirts of Tibet’s capital Lhasa in TAR.
The report said the monk himself revealed that he was under a six-year jail sentence, but did not say to whom and how the information reached out.
Local Tibetans suspect that he was punished for teaching Tibetan to the local Tibetan youngsters during school holidays at a time when China was campaigning against any such effort, shutting down privately-run schools and arresting their heads in President Xi Jinping’s signature drive to Sinicize Tibet and other ethnic minority regions.
Palden Yeshe was stated to have been teaching language and other Tibetan subjects to the local Tibetan children during their summer and winter school breaks.
The report cited a source as saying the Chinese authorities had previously shown hostility and dislike toward him on multiple occasions for his coaching activity. And they have not cited any ground or announced any charge, or any finding of guilt against him to this day.
Palden Yeshe’s family was stated to have approached government authorities some four times to seek clarity on the reason for his arrest and the charges against him, but did to get any clear information. In fact, they were repeatedly threatened and harassed. Worse, they took away one of his three siblings too, and subjected him to interrogation, beating and other forms of ill-treatment for a week.
The Chinese persecution took a toll on the health of their father, Sonam Tsewang, and he passed away on Sep 21, 2022, the report said.