(TibetanReview.net, Sep24’24) – China has jailed a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Qinghai province for displaying a speech of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the back of his WeChat social media voice message meant to commemorate the Tibetan national Uprising Day of Mar 10 this year, reported the Tibetan language tibettime.net Sep 24.
The monk, Jampa Choephel, from Rebgong (Chinese: Tongren) County in the province’s Malho (Huangnan) prefecture, was arrested from his monastic living quarter in the middle of Mar 2024 and was held in the detention centre at Gurathang in Lower Rebgong from Mar 22 onwards.
He was tried and jailed for one and half years last month.
Following his sentencing the monk was taken to a provincial prison in capital Ziling (Xining) on Sep 22 to serve the remaining one year of his term.
Throughout the period his incarceration, which began with his arrest by the Rebgong city police, continued when the city people’s procuracy charged him, and when the city people’s court tried and sentenced him, no notice of any kind was given about him to his family.
On the other hand, his close family members were warned that the monk could be severely punished, that their visits to the Chinese government offices to seek information about his situation were by themselves severe criminal violations.
The report cited its source as saying Jampa Choephel was already always under close surveillance from the Chinese government; that on every Tibetan festive occasion, they kept spying on him from rooftops, walls and other places.
Jampa Choephel had travelled to India as a refugee in 1986 and studied for 10 years at the Buddhis Dialectics Institute in Dharamshala. He then returned home in 1996. He devoted himself to meditating and religious practices at Penkarthang Monastery in Lower Rebgong. Occasionally, he took part in events during major religious occasions. He is known for his skill in Tibetan script writing and is also conversant in English, both of which he would teach others, the report said.