China’s Tibet jails monk in secret trial for sharing Dalai Lama teachings

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Lobsang Thinley, a young monk of the local Kirti Monastery is now serving a five-year jail sentence. (Photo courtesy: RFA/Kyisar Lhudup)

(TibetanReview.net, Dec14’21) – After disappearing for several months since Chinese police in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County – which is now part of China’s Sichuan Province – took him away on Jul 1, a young monk of the local Kirti Monastery is now serving a five-year jail sentence, reported the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Dc 13, citing a Paris-based exile Tibetan with local contacts. Lobsang Thinley, in his early 20’s, had ignored repeated police warnings and several stints of detentions to keep disseminating religious teachings of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the report said.

“He was charged with disseminating teachings by the Dalai Lama and sharing books about him,” the report quoted Kyisar Lhudup as saying.

It was not clear what the criminal charge against him was. Perhaps “inciting separatism”?

“It came to light in September that he is now being held at the Mianyang Prison in Sichuan, and that authorities informed his family in a letter that he had been sentenced to five years in prison,” Lhudup has said.

The report said the trial had taken place without the knowledge or presence of his family and without legal representation.

The family has now been allowed to visit him in Mianyang Prison, located in the outskirts of the provincial capital Chengdu.

Fearing repercussions, the monk’s relative had remained tight-lipped about his sentence, which was why information about it took time to reach outside contacts.

Political crackdown on Ngaba Tibetans was reported to have been ramped up around the period of the monk’s arrest.

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