(TibetanReview.net, Jan31’25) –A young Tibetan writer and poet has been reported released sometime over Nov-Dec 2024 after remaining disappeared following his arrest in 2022 in Golog prefecture of Qinghai Province. However, though back home in Denang Village of Pema County, he remains under tight surveillance and restrictions, according to the Tibetan-language tibettmes.net Jan 31 and rfa.org Jan 30.
Palgon, 32, is widely suspected to have been arrested for maintaining contact with people outside the country, said the tibettmes.net report. The report said he is otherwise in good health.
According to the rfa.org report, Palgon was arrested also for making a prayer offering to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader reviled by China on baseless allegations of being a separatist.
The official reason for his arrest, the place of his detention, and the date of his release remain unknown due to the fact that it all happened in secrecy, along with the restrictive conditions imposed on him.
The tibettmes.net report cited a local source as saying Palgon currently spends his time reading and writing at home, as these facilities were denied to him during his years-long detention. However, he is unable to communicate with his friends and fellow-writers who cannot even “Like” his WeChat postings without attracting police suspicion.
Palgon, a graduate from the prominent vocational Tibetan private school Gangjong Sherig Lobling, located at Ragya in his home prefecture and which was shut down by the Chinese government in Jul 2024, has written many literary pieces on various social media platforms and audio chat groups as well as in published works before his arrest.
His writings were stated to include a research work on Tibet’s traditional costumes, a collection of essays, a pictograph, a book of poems, as well as a book of collection of poems with contributions from several fellow-poets. He was stated to have won the top prize in a literary competition at the Ragya Sherig Lobling on Jun 7, 2017.