(TibetanReview.net, Jun04’24) — For flying the Tibetan national flag atop his newly built home as a part of its consecration ceremony, Chinese police in Pashoe (Chinese: Basu, or Baxoi) County of eastern Tibet’s Chamdo City have taken away a Tibetan man last week, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Jun 3.
Rabgang Tenzin, a 51-year-old father of three, carried out the ceremony in the evening of May 28 and intended to take down the flag next morning. However, he forgot and failed to do it, the report cited three sources with knowledge of the situation as saying.
“The next day, the Chinese police arrested him, and his current whereabouts are unknown,” one of the sources has said.
The yellow-bordered blue-and-red coloured Snowlion flag of Tibet with a rising sun in the centre is a ubiquitous presence at any Tibet protest event across the free world and is banned by China.
Following the arrest, Chinese police warned the local Tibetans against talking about the incident with “outside forces” or face arrest themselves, the report cited a second anonymous source as saying.
The report said Rabgang Tenzin is a farmer who occasionally engages in small-time business.
Local residents fear that Rabgang Tenzin’s arrest could lead to his 10-year-old eldest son being expelled from the Pashoe County Elementary School, the report cited two other anonymous sources as saying.
Along with pictures of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, any display of the Tibetan national flag attracts swift crackdown and brutal punishment from Chinese authorities in Tibet.