(TibetanReview.net, Apr11’25) – Members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest Tibetan NGO, have staged a protest in front of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi today over the explained sudden death in Chinese police custody in Vietnam of a prominent Tibetan religious leader from Golog, Qinghai province.
All but one of the 17 protesters were stated to have been held and taken away by police shortly after they collected before the embassy at 11 am with shouting of slogans.
Police in Delhi have generally released such detained Tibetans shortly afterwards in recent years, unlike in the past when they used to be put on trial.
The protesters have demanded that the international community put pressure on China and Vietnam to conduct globally acceptable tests to determine the cause of the religious leader’s unexplained sudden death. They wanted the results of such tests to be publicly announced and the body of the lama handed over to his monastery.
They also wanted the Chinese authorities to allow the monastery to carry out proper traditional death rituals and ceremonies for the deceased lama.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Australia Tibet Council has written to the Vietnamese Embassy in Canberra, seeking information on the circumstance of the lama’s death and a credible investigation of the cause thereof, as also the handover of his remains to his monastery with urgency.
At McLeod Ganj in Dharamshala, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women’s Association, Students for a Free Tibet, and the National Democratic Party of Tibet decided to jointly carry out a candle-light march through the market later in the evening.
The religious leader, Tulku Hungkar (also written as Humkar) Dorje, was living in Vietnam since about Nov 2024 to escape Chinese persecution for his stupendous work in preserving Tibetan culture which was seen as inimical to China’s Sinicization drive in Tibet. The Chinese government was stated to be especially incensed by his perceived snub of the Beijing-installed 11th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu who is not accepted by mainstream Tibetan Buddhists.
Tulku Hungkar Dporje was stated to have been caught in a joint operation between Chinese intelligence officers and Vietnamese police from a hotel. He reportedly died on the day he was handed over into the custody of a Chinese police team from his homeland.