(TibetanReview.net, Mar21’26) – Chinese police in a northeastern part of Qinghai province had returned the body of a young Tibetan Buddhist monk to his monastery on Dec 8, 2025 after having taken him away previously on an unspecified date and for unknown reasons amid allegations that he had been tortured to death during custodial interrogations, according to the Tibetan language tibettime.net and Tibet monitoring grouptibetwatch.org Mar 18 and 17 respectively.
The monastery, Ditsa Geden Tashi Choeding ling, located in Shongshan Township and stated to be one of the four major Tibetan Buddhist religious centres in Palung (or Bayan, Chinese: Hualong) County of Tsoshar (Haidong) prefecture-level City, has reportedly been warned not to talk or share information about the deceased monk, the 25-year-old Samten.
Police have told the monastery that the monk died while being taken to hospital after he suddenly fell ill, with no explanation on the cause of his death.
Monk Samten had previously been detained in 2021 for allegedly sharing news and photos about exile Tibetan elections which took place that year over the social media platform WeChat. He and the monastery had since been under police surveillance.
In Oct 2021, local police expelled 50 monks from Ditsa monastery for being aged below 18, and 30 from Jhakhyung Monastery located in the same county, said the tibetwatch.org report.
Ditsa Geden Tashi Choeding ling Monastery is said to have about 400 resident monks.