(TibetanReview.net, Sep28’23) – China has jailed a Tibetan man in Ngaba (or Ngawa, Chinese: Aba) Prefecture of Sichuan Province for two years after they arrested him for the second time in Feb 2023 for keeping a photo of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, in his mobile phone, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Sep 27. China considers any such finding an evidence of involvement in separatism.
The Tibetan has been named as Tsultrim, age unknown, and resident of Tsaruma Township in the prefecture’s Kyungchu (Hongyuan) county.
He was tried and sentenced by the prefectural court in April and is being held in the local Yak-nga Prison. None from his family as well as friends are being allowed to visit him, the report said, citing an unnamed exile Tibetan with knowledge of the case.
Tsultrim had graduated from Northwestern Minzu University in 2016, after which he started his own businessman. He has been described as an intelligent young man who advocated for the preservation of the Tibetan language, which is increasingly being endangered by China’s ongoing campaign to Sinicize all things Tibetan.
Earlier, in Jul 2022, Tsultrim was stated to have been summoned and interrogated by police after he shared a picture of the 14th Dalai Lama on social media and had also saved the photo on his mobile phone. At that time, he was released after being detained for two months.
“During his detention, he was beaten and had gone through such a tough time that he wished death upon himself,” the report quoted the source as saying.
China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist, although he only seeks autonomy for his occupied homeland. Tibetan across the occupied territory have been persecuted for even possessing or sharing his photos. In May, two Tibetan monks in Sershul (Shiqu) county in Sichuan Province were jailed for up to three and half years for separatism after Dalai Lama photos were found on their cell phones, the report said.