(TibetanReview.net, Dec21’22) – China has jailed some two months ago a Tibetan Buddhist monk in what is now part of China’s Sichuan Province for three years after rendering him disappeared for well over a year. He had been arrested for supporting a campaign to discourage people from slaughtering or merchandizing animals for meat and continues to remain disappeared, reported the rfa.org Dec 19.
The report said Monlam Gyatso, a 46-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, writer, and teacher from Raktam Village in Serta (Chinese: Seda) county of the province’s Kardze (Ganzi) prefecture was tried and sentenced in October this year. The exact date remains unknown and he has continued to remain disappeared ever since his arrest on Jun 9, 2021.
The report said strict information lockdown by authorities in the region meant that it was difficult to confirm developments in cases like Gyatso’s for weeks or even months after they had occurred.
Citing sources speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, the report said the monk was held for supporting a “10-point regulation campaign” started by a fellow-monk in Kardze’s Larung Gar Monastery “to discourage people from killing and selling animals.”
Chinese authorities were stated to have launched a crackdown on the campaign, accusing its supporters of “disrupting the ecosystem and livelihoods of the residents.” It was not clear what happened, if any, to the initiator of the campaign and its other possible supporters.
Monlam Gyatso, a monk of the local Raktram Jampaling Monastery, was stated to have studied Tibetan poetry, linguistics and creative writing. The report said he has authored several books, and articles and poems that made him well-known among Tibetan netizens in and outside Tibet.