Tibetan Monk Released from Chinese Prison, Now in Hospital

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 9 Dec: Geshe Rachung Gendun, a Tibetan monk from Ngaba in the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo, was released from prison on 16 November after completing his three-and-a-half-year sentence. He is currently receiving medical treatment at Hashi Hospital in Chengdu, as reported by a close source on December 9. The source requested anonymity for security reasons.

Gendun, from Meruma County in Amdo Ngaba, was arrested from his room at Kirti Monastery on 1April 2021, by Chinese authorities on the grounds of sending donations to the Dalai Lama and Kirti Rinpoche, an act criminalised in Tibet by the Chinese authorities. 

His family members were kept in the dark about his whereabouts following the arrest. Even after his status was confirmed, the family was denied any visitation rights, a practice that is illegal under Chinese laws but commonly employed against Tibetans.

In July 2022, his verdict of three- and six-month prison sentences was publicly announced, stating that he had been charged with the crime of sending money to the Dalai Lama and Kirti Rinpoche, according to the source.

This was not Gendun’s first arrest. During the intensifying China’s repression of religious practices and rigorous propaganda at Kirti Monastery, monks staged protests against it. Gendun, along with several other monks, was arrested after their protest in December 1998, says the source. The incident and its details are documented in the book The Wounds of Three Generations, published by Dharamshala-based Kirti Monastery in 2010.

Tashi Phuntsok, who self-immolated on 29 March 2022, in front of a local Chinese police building, was Gendun’s uncle. At the time of his self-immolation, Tashi Phuntsok was 81 years old, making him the oldest among the 160 Tibetans who have self-immolated in protest against China’s repressive rule in Tibet. Amdo Ngaba has the highest concentration of Tibetan self-immolations and protests, and the region is doubly restricted and surveilled by Chinese authorities.

Gendun’s family was then put under heavy surveillance and faces severe restrictions since the self-immolation of his uncle, Tashi Phuntsok.

Moreover, Gendun’s mother, Narpo, was accused of conspiring with her brother Tashi Phuntsok before his self-immolation. Despite being 85 years old and in need of medical treatment for her illness, the Chinese authorities restricted her access to hospitals and monasteries. She passed away on 10 June 10 of this year, without having seen her son for almost four years, says the source.

Due to ill-treatment in prison, Gendun, upon his release, arrived home in poor health. He is currently being treated at a hospital in Chengdu.

Gendun’s case—facing an unfair trial without due process, undergoing ill-treatment in prison, and being released in poor health—breaches not only international law but also China’s own laws. It highlights the plight of other Tibetans under China’s discriminatory and repressive policies in occupied Tibet.