(TibetanReview.net, May17’25) – As they marked the culmination of the 49-day rituals on the death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, Tibetans remain determined to find out about the sequence of events which led to the highly respected lama’s escape from Tibet and his death under suspicious circumstances in an act of China’s transnational repression in Vietnam towards the end of Mar 2025.
Tibetans gathered in hundreds at the Tsuglakhang, the main Buddhist temple in Dharamshala, on May 17 to pray for the 10th abbot of Lung-Ngon Monastery in Ga-de county of Golog prefecture, Qinghai province. He died, aged 56, on Mar 29, 2025, in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.
The abbot had remained missing for eight months, having fled to Vietnam to escape persecution for his activism in promoting Tibetan language and culture; for his devotion to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama; and for his perceived lack of wholehearted welcome to the China-foisted 11th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu last year.
A visiting delegation of five monks from his monastery was permitted only a 3-4-minute look only at his face in a hospital while the cremation of his body was carried out in great haste, under tight security, and with utmost secrecy in the middle of the night on Apr 20, raising all sorts of questions which remain unanswered to this day.
Chinese authorities forbade the monastery and local Tibetans from holding public memorial services and even prayers for the abbot, said rfa.org May 16, citing sources.
At a separate memorial service later in the afternoon on May 17, Khenpo Ju Tenkyong, Director of Amnye Machen Institute, who has been closely monitoring the developments, has said it was clear that the respected lama was murdered in Vietnam under China’s influence. However, it was not clear how he was put to death and when. He haa said it was incumbent on both the Tibetan government in exile and Tibetan the civil society to continue to seek out that information.
The gathering was organized by five major exile Tibetan NGOs and was addressed also by Mr Tenzin Lekshay, spokesman of the Central Tibetan Administration; General Secretary Mr Sonam Tsering of Tibetan Youth Congress; and nun Gedun Sangmo, a former political prisoner from Tibet.