(TibetanReview.net, Aug14’25) – Chinese police in Sangchu (Chinese: Xiahe) county of Kanlho (Gannan) prefecture, Gansu Province, were stated to have taken away the acting head lama of a prominent local monastery in a night raid in Dec 2024. The incident is linked to a general crackdown on religious education perceived to be not in conformity with Beijing’s drive to Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism. The whereabouts of the monk, Geshe Lharampa Konchok Choedak, has remained unknown ever since, said Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human rights and Democracy (tchrd.org) Aug 13.
The local police were stated to have confiscated documents related to the Kirti Monasteries General Buddhist Education Supervisory Group. This was an inter-monastery body composed of the heads of the four Kirti monasteries: the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Aba) county, Taktsang Lhamo Kirti in Dzoege (Ru’ergai) county, Hortsang Kirti in Sangchu county, and Tsodhun Kirti in Barkham (Ch: Maerkang) county, located in Gansu and Sichuan provinces. The group collectively oversaw Buddhist education across the monastic network.
Chinese authorities have accused the group of maintaining links with Kirti Rinpoche, the monasteries’ overall head who lives at Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, India, and dissolved it, dismantling one of few remaining bodies coordinating monastic education in the region.
Attempts by both his family and the monastery, the Hortsang Kirti Monastery, to obtain information from the police regarding his whereabouts, the charges against him, or his physical conditions have proved futile, the centre said.
Geshe Lharampa Konchok Choedak was born in Dochog Village of Drengwa Township in Dzoege County, Ngaba prefecture, which is now part of China’s Sichuan Province. He joined the local Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery as a child. In 2019, he earned the highest academic degree in the Gelug tradition, the Geshe Lharampa, and in 2021 the head monastery, Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery, appointed him as the Tritsab (acting head lama) of Hortsang Kirti Monastery.
In July – which was seven months after Geshe Lharampa Konchok Choedak was taken away – Chinese authorities launched a general crackdown on the network of Kirti monasteries, closing down the supervisory body. A long-standing prohibition on displaying photographs of Kirti Rinpoche was intensified. Officials carried out sweeping inspections in monastic dormitories and lay households to confiscate photographs and other religious items.
The campaign was stated to have been coordinated at multiple levels, including the central government and by the Sichuan provincial authorities, Ngaba Prefecture officials, and local county governments.
China was also stated to have banned an annual summer religious gathering which was traditionally held in July, bringing together monks from across the Kirti network. Local Tibetans were warned that any possession or display of Kirti Rinpoche’s image was now explicitly defined as a “political crime”.
These crackdowns have been repeatedly carried out since the 2000s, along with holding of “patriotic education” and other political education campaigns.
Geshe Lharampa Konchok Chordak’s case adds to a growing list of Kirti monks punished for peacefully practising their religion and expression, the centre said. It referred, to the previous cases, especially, of the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba since 2020 of Go Sherab Gyatso, Lobsang Choephel, Geshe Sonam Gyatso, Geshe Rachung Gendun, Lobsang Thapkey, Lobsang Trinley, Lobsang Samten, Pema, Thapkey Gyatso, Lobsang Tashi, and Lhundup.