China releases Tibetan singer Gepey

Tibetan singer Gepey (Photo: Free Tibet)
Tibetan singer Gepey (Photo: Free Tibet)

DHARAMSALA, June 18: Chinese authorities in former Amdo Province of Tibet on June 13 released a popular Tibetan singer arrested last month for asserting Tibetan cultural and language rights in his songs and a Tibetan monk imprisoned for three years for raising slogans calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.

Gepey, the Tibetan singer who was detained on May 24 after a music concert in Khyungchu county in present day Sichuan province’s Ngaba prefecture where he played songs such as “Will be perished” from his banned album which calls on the new generation of Tibetans to preserve Tibet’s unique language and cultural traditions.

While leaving concert hall, Chinese police from Barkham county arrested Gepey and took him away.

Singer Gepey had not been seen in public since 2012, the year his album was released and subsequently banned by the authorities.

Meanwhile, Ngawang Lobsang, a Tibetan monk from Dhargye monastery in Kardze county in Sichuan’s Kardze prefecture was released on the same day after completing a 3-year sentence.

Ngawang Lobsang was arrested on June 15, 2011 later sentenced to a 3-year jail term for raising slogans calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.

Upon his return, Ngawang was given a warm welcome by the monks of Dhargye monastery and the lay Tibetans in the area.

Scores of Tibetan singers, writers and monks have been detained, tortured and sentenced by China for asserting Tibetan nationalism and displaying allegiance to the Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama who has been living in exile in India since 1959 following Chinese occupation of Tibet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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