Tibet

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 16 July: The demolition of a historic stone fortress in Tibet’s eastern Gyalrong region by Chinese authorities has drawn criticism from Tibetans, who say it has heightened concerns over the preservation of Tibetan cultural heritage just days after China’s “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” came into force.

Months after arbitrary detention of Tibetan spiritual leader and educator Choktrul Dorje Ten Rinpoche, Chinese authorities have tightened restrictions at his monastery in occupied Tibet as Saga Dawa, the holiest month in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, is underway, having begun on 17 May.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 5 April: A new Human Rights Watch report titled Start with the Youngest Children: China Uses Preschools to “Integrate” Tibetans says China’s “Children’s Speech Harmonisation Plan,” introduced in 2021 by the Ministry of Education, has effectively eliminated the remaining legal and policy space for minority-language education in early childhood schooling.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 22 April: Reports from Tibetan sources have raised alarm over the deteriorating health of two detained writers in occupied Tibet, underscoring broader concerns about prisoner welfare and access to adequate medical care in custody under Chinese colonial authorities.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMASALA, 10 April: Yeshe Sangpo, a 58-year-old Tibetan man from occupied Tibet, was released by Chinese authorities on March 25 after serving 18 years in prison. Reports indicate that he is in extremely poor health following his long period of detention.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 30 March: Chinese authorities have arbitrarily detained and tortured a Tibetan monk during the first-anniversary memorial ceremony for Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche at Lung Ngon Monastery in Gade County, Golok, Amdo — a Tibetan Tulku whose death under mysterious circumstances last year continues to alarm communities worldwide, according to a report by Tibet Times.

By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 10 Feb: Tibetan environmental rights defender and anti-corruption whistleblower A-Nya Sengdra has been released from a Chinese prison after serving seven years and five months of unjust imprisonment on Saturday. Exiled Tibetans caution that his freedom remains fragile, given the Chinese government’s well-documented record of surveillance, intimidation, and re-imprisonment of human rights defenders even after their release.

DHARAMSALA, 14 Jan: A Tibetan exile who recently reunited with family members from Lhasa in Nepal has learned of increasingly “harsh restrictions and surveillance measures” imposed in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa and the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Ironically, the reunion itself carried significant risk as Kathmandu recently made it to the headlines with thousands of Chinese-supplied CCTV cameras monitoring streets and public spaces throughout the capital.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 16 Dec: Chinese authorities reportedly detained around 80 Tibetans in Kashi Nomadic Village, located in the Zachuka in the traditional Tibetan province of Kham in occupied Tibet, on 6 November, following a protest by the local Tibetans against a gold mining project. The project, led by a Chinese business group, had reportedly begun operations without the knowledge or consent of the local Tibetan community.

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA 16 Oct: China has released a new think tank report portraying its rural development policies in occupied Tibet as “a harmonious blend of tradition and modernity,”  a model it contrasts with Western modernisation, which it claims erodes culture and heritage at the expense of development. But for Tibetans, beneath this new packaging lies the old mechanism of  assimilation, control, and the systematic remaking of a civilisation and its culture under the twin project of modernity and colonialism.