"Jigme Guri, also known as Jigme Gyatso, passed away at the age of 56 on Saturday afternoon, July 2, 2022", a source told TPI.

"From May onwards, his health had been deteriorating for a long period before he was taken to a medical facility in Siling, a town in the Tso-ngon region of Tibet, but without success.' it added.

In a five-year period, between 2006 and 2011, the Tibetan monk was arbitrarily arrested four times, with the most recent arrest which led to five-year imprisonment. Each time he was ill-treated and systematically tortured, and his physical condition was severely damaged by the Chinese brutal, inhumane and degrading actions.

In 2009, after a videotape of his brutal treatment and torture in a Chinese prison went viral on the internet, the Tibetan scholar became a national hero to the Tibetan people, not only in his homeland but also around the world.