Tibetan activists perform street play calling for Rongye Adak’s release
DHARAMSALA, Aug 2: A Tibetan organization known for its unique style of activism performed a street play on Aug 1, recalling the turn of events that led to a Tibetan nomad’s imprisonment for eight years for openly expressing the wishes and aspirations of the Tibetan people at a horse racing festival in Lithang in former Kham province of traditional Tibet.
Members of the Tibetan group, Students for a Free Tibet called for the timely release of Rongye Adak who is said to be in poor health during the event held at the main square of Mcleod Ganj to mark seven years of Adak’s imprisonment.
On August 1, 2007 Adak spoke through a microphone at a popular horse racing festival commemorating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army in Lithang calling for the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, release of Tibetan political prisoners including the 11th Panchen Lama and Trulku Tenzin Delek, freedom for Tibetans and criticized China’s repressive policies in Tibet.
Within a minute into his speech, he was arrested and later sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for “disrupting public order” and “subversion of state power”.
Rongye Adak, father of eleven children, is a native of Yonru Kharshul in Lithang in former Kham province of Tibet.
