(TibetanReview.net, Apr10’25) – Following reports that a prominent religious figure in Golog (Chinese: Guoluo) prefecture of Qinghai province had died under explained circumstances in Vietnam under Chinese police custody late last month, the Dalai Lama has said prayers for him on Apr 9. On the same day, New York-based international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Vietnamese government to investigate the death as it has happened under suspicious circumstances.
The religious figure, Tulku Humkar Dorje, 56, was the Abbot of Lung-Ngon Monastery in the prefecture’s Gadé (Gande) County. He had previously visited India to study at the Drepung Gomang Monastery in Karnataka state from 1989 to 1994. He had also studied in the United Sates from 995 to 1997, before returning to Tibet.
In 2002, with the approval of the Chinese government, he was enthroned as the tenth abbot of Lung-Ngon Monastery. After that, from 2004 to 2006, he went to Beijing to especially study Buddhism, according to the Tibetan langue tibettimes.org Apr 9.
The report said the Dalai Lama was apprised with the news about the abbot’s unfortunate death by Khenpo Ju Tenkyong, the director of Dharamshala-based Amnye Machen Tibetan Cultural Research Centre (Amnye Machen Institute). He has said the Dalai Lama expressed sadness over the abbot’s death and offered prayers for him.
Ju Tenkyong sees it as futile to hope for justice from the Chinese government, noting that numerous similar unfortunate incidents had happened in the past too. He has said the government of Vietnam was bound to investigate the death as it happened in their territory, and because it was also an act of transnational repression.
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Referring to the abbot’s prominence and contributions, the report said: Venerable Tulku Humkar Dorje is the son of Lama Pema Tumdrag Dorje, the founder of Lung-Ngon Monastery. In 2004, he founded the Qinghai Province Gesar Charity Foundation and did a lot of work to preserve the Gesar culture. In 2007, with the approval of the Golok Prefecture government and its Education Department, he established the Humkar Dorje Nationalities Upper Middle School Vocational Studies Centre with about 1,000 students.
He also established about 14 primary and secondary schools one after another to provide free education to thousands of Tibetan children in rural areas. In addition, he built numerous monasteries and monastic teaching centres, making great contributions to the preservation and restoration of Tibetan religion, culture, and language.
These were stated to have led the Chinese government to persecute him with all manners of politically motivated accusations. This apparently came to a boil when the Chinese government felt that he was not wholehearted in hosting the China-imposed 11th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu when made to do so last year. Gyaincain Norbu is not recognized by the religiously faithful Tibetans while China has continued to render disappeared the Dalai Lama-recognized 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Chokyi Nyima since 1995.
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Also on Apr 9, Human Right Watch (HRW) released a statement, saying the Vietnamese government should investigate the abbot’s death which had occurred under suspicious circumstances in Ho Chi Minh City on Mar29, 2025.
“The Vietnamese authorities should credibly and impartially investigate these claims (about the abbot’s death) and take appropriate action, including by providing autopsy findings to Humkar Dorje’s family,” Maya Wang, associate China director at HRAW, has said.
According to her, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche’s death in Vietnam is especially concerning given the Chinese government’s severe repression of Tibetans and its record of snatching its nationals in Vietnam.”
The group said Humkar Dorje’s disappearance and death occurred amid a Chinese government crackdown on prominent Tibetan educators and the schools that they run, which promote Tibetan language and culture, in eastern Tibetan areas including Golog.
Humkar Dorje had been missing since at least Nov 2024, and when people in Gade county expressed concern about it in December, local authorities banned all discussion of the issue in public.
The silence ended on Apr 1 when officials in Gade county showed representatives of the monastery a death certificate issued by a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
“Foreign governments should press the Vietnamese government for answers on Humkar Dorje Rinpoche’s death,” Wang has said. “They should hold Vietnamese officials accountable for complicity in China’s abusive practices in Vietnam and take measures to prevent their recurrence.”