(TibetanReview.net, Feb16’24) – Chinese police in a Tibetan area that currently remains incorporated as a part of Sichuan province had arrested in Jul 2023 a Tibetan Buddhist monk for possessing a photo of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader. His whereabouts have remained unknown ever since, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Feb 15, citing two sources in Tibet.
Tenzin Khenrap, 29, was taken away by Chinese authorities, accused of keeping a photo of the Dalai Lama on his mobile phone, along with other books and documents published outside Tibet, the report said.
The monk, known by his penname Dhong Rangchak, hails from Nyagchu (Chinese: Yajiang) county in the province’s Tibetan prefecture of Kardze.
Authorities are stated to have revoked access to his social media accounts, while his current whereabouts and condition remain unknown, the sources have said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
Efforts by his immediate family members to meet with him or seek information on his whereabouts have been in vain, the sources have said. His mother’s health was reported to have deteriorated due to lack of access or information on him.
The monk, speaks fluent Tibetan and Mandarin and is known for intensely following developments about Tibetans’ struggle against Chinese-government repression and for writing articles online, the report said.
Khenrap was stated to have studied at several monasteries in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan province, including Lithang Gonchen, Sershul, and Nalendra, the single largest monastery founded by popular late Tibetan religious teacher and activist Tulku Tenzin Delek and which served as the primary institution for his increasing network of branch monasteries, monks and activists, report cited the two sources as saying.