(TibetanReview.net, Apr30’25) – The European Parliament has on Apr 30 joined the growing international call on China and Vietnam to account for the arrest of a revered Buddhist leader from Tibet, his sudden death under suspicious circumstances in their custody in the latter’s territory, and the great secrecy and haste with which they cremated his body in the middle of the night late last month, all within a space of four days or so.
The Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, Mounir Satouri, and the Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, Engin Eroglu, have jointly addressed a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the European Union on this matter, which concerns Tulku Hungkar Dorje, the 57-year-old abbot of Lung-ngon Monastery in Ga-de County of Golog Prefecture, Qinghai province.
Satouri has also written a separate letter to the Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU, raising the same concerns.
Both letters expressed grave concern and alarm over the unexplained circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s death and the subsequent cremation of his body in Vietnam without the consent of his family, said the Office of Tibet, Brussels, in a Tibet.net statement Apr 30.
Both governments have been asked to ensure a transparent, independent, and impartial investigation to determine the circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s disappearance and the cause of his passing.
The joint letter was stated to have asked China to be “a constructive partner in shedding light on the circumstances of the disappearance and death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje.”
The late abbot is highly revered also for his charity works as well as efforts to preserve Tibetan language and culture through establishment of schools that provided free education to the children of Tibetan nomads and farmers at a time when China had launched a campaign to Sinicize Tibet and its ethnic culture.
He was also stated to have earned Chinese authorities’ wrath for his perceived snubbing of the Beijing-installed 11th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu during the latter’s visit to his area last year. Gyaincain Norbu remains a living reminder of China’s abduction and disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima recognized by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.