(TibetanReview.net, Jun19’21) – A Tibetan writer taken into custody by Chinese police in Jun 2018 while working at a private cultural education center in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, continues to remain disappeared, said the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Jun 18. No reason was cited for his arrest and his family has continued to remain in the dark about his situation.
Lobsang Lhundup, known by his penname Dhi Lhaden, was arrested apparently for materials he used while teaching at the centre in Chengdu. It is not clear what those materials were.
“It appears that someone told the owner of the cultural center about the teaching materials he was using, and so he was arrested,” the report quoted a source as saying, speaking on condition of anonymity for personal safety.
His friends were stated to have avoided talking about him since his arrest in the hope that he might be released eventually.
On Dec 4, 2020, Lhundup’s family was stated to have been summoned by Chinese authorities to discuss his case. But all they learnt was that his trial was pending and they were not allowed to meet with him.
Lhundup was born in 1980 in Pema county of Sichuan’s Golog (Chinese: Guoluo) Prefecture. He became a monk at the age of 11 and studied at Sichuan’s Larung Gar Tibetan Buddhist Academy, from where Chinese authorities evicted thousands of resident monks and nuns.
Lhundup had taught Buddhism at Drepung and Sera monasteries in Tibet’s capital Lhasa in his late 20s. He was stated to have traveled widely in Tibet and to have later written and published books about the 2008 protests that engulfed much of the Tibetan Plateau.
Lhundup is said to be married with one child.
