Vietnam receives Xi despite China’s alleged assassination of Tulku Hungkar in Vietnam

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 14 April: Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) Toronto and SFT-India staged protests outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto and the Vietnamese embassy in Delhi respectively today, demanding an investigation into the suspicious death of Tulku Hungkar Dorjee while in Chinese custody in Vietnam. 

“His family is still being denied access to his remains, no medical proof, no body, no answers. This is more than just one death, this is about the erasure of the Tibetan people. With Xi Jinping visiting Vietnam soon, now is the time to act. We demand an investigation”, SFT Toronto stated in a video statement on its Instagram account.

Collectively, the activists from SFT demand an independent international investigation into Tulku Hungkar Dorjee’s death, the immediate release of his remains to his family and monastic community, and accountability from both Vietnamese and Chinese authorities involved in his arrest and death.

The protest coincides with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Vietnam from 14 to 15 April, marking the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two communist countries.

Exile Tibetans around the world have united in protest and collectively condemned the suspicious death of the prominent Tibetan abbot while strongly criticising the Vietnamese authorities for denying access to his body, which is believed to be held at Vinmec Central Park International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Central Tibetan Administration in India and various NGOs working for Tibet have urged the Vietnamese government to allow neutral observers to conduct a transparent and independent investigation surrounding the Tulku’s sudden demise, an incident they claim reflects China’s transnational repression outside its occupied areas. 

The International Tibet Network (ITN) has expressed deep concern over the timing of the Chinese president’s scheduled visit to Vietnam. It stated, “This visit raises fears that any potential investigation into Tulku Hungkar’s death could be compromised or overshadowed by political considerations and bilateral relations between Vietnam and China”. 

According to a signed- letter published by Vietnamese media Nhan Dan Today, To Lam, Vietnam’s top leader has emphasised that Xi’s fourth visit to the country “will definitely be a great success making a great and important contribution to strongly promoting the tradition of friendship and opening a new era of development in Vietnam- China relations”.

Despite protests by Tibetan activists across the world, the Vietnamese government has maintained its silence on the demands for a transparent investigation into the mysterious death of the Tibetan Buddhist lama.

As such, SFT-India declared that “More protests are expected this weekend at Vietnamese embassies in major cities worldwide.”

According to BBC Vietnam, Tulku Hungkar has gained many Vietnamese followers in recent years who have started group practices, of which “the leaders are mostly “officials, businessmen and close to the Vietnamese government”.

Nonetheless, sources from occupied Tibet have told the Dhomay Cholkha Association(DCA) that the Tulku was arrested in Saigon on 25th March, in a joint operation involving Vietnamese police and Chinese agents. Three days later, on 28th March, he was reportedly transferred to Chinese custody and executed. 

Furthermore, access has been denied to a delegation of monks from Lung Ngon Monastery and Chinese government officials who went to Vietnam to recover the body of Tulku Hungkar Dorje. The delegation reportedly left the monastery on 3 April and reached Vietnam on 5 April.

This refusal has deepened suspicions and uncertainty over whether the body held at the hospital truly belongs to the Tibetan lama and if not, questions remain about his actual whereabouts or even whether he is truly dead. 

Two sides of the same coin: conflicting narratives 

The date of the death confirmed by the DCA (28) conflicts with the date (29) mentioned in a statement released by the Lung Ngon Monastery in occupied Tibet. 

The DCA maintains the Tulku was executed on the 28th, citing sources who revealed that Vietnamese secret agents had inquired about the death of a certain person among the lama’s followers on the same day, an inquiry the association believes referred to the Tibetan lama. 

The death of the prominent Tibetan Lama was initially announced by the Chinese authorities on 1 April. The authorities reportedly showed the death certificate of the lama to his monastery in Amdo and declared that the Tulku died from an illness while on a retreat in Vietnam.

On 3 April, Lung Ngon Monastery also cited the same cause of death in its statement while announcing the abbot’s sudden demise.   

The exiled Tibetans suspect that the statement may have been influenced by the Chinese authorities, given that monasteries in occupied Tibet have minimal freedom of expression.

Contrary to China’s claim that the Tulku was on a retreat in Vietnam due to illness, the DCA has contextualized the sudden death of the lama in the wake of China’s intensive crackdown on Tibetan educators and the schools that they run promoting Tibetan Language and culture in occupied Tibet in recent years. 

It is stated that Tulku was interrogated by the Qinghai Province police department in August 2024 over his composition of a long-life prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Additionally, the authorities have further accused him of failing to implement government educational policy in his schools in Golok. 

Sources from Tibet have also revealed that the Tulku was accused of his failure to give an elaborate reception to the China-appointed Panchen Lama during his visit to the Golog area last year privately establishing several monasteries and schools, and causing trouble by advocating for the rights of the poor and vulnerable.

Following the interrogation, Tulku disappeared in late September 2024  and remained out of sight until the Chinese government announced his death on 1 April.  According to the DCA, he had reportedly been seeking refuge in Vietnam, to escape ongoing repression in occupied Tibet.