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Dharamshala, India — Chinese authorities again detained 53 Tibetans from Wonpo, Sershul County, Dzachuka, eastern Tibet, for allegedly possessing photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and having contacts outside Tibet.

According to a reliable source, Chinese authorities detained 53 Tibetans from Wonpo villages again from August 25-29, 2021, for allegedly possessing photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and communicating with exiled Tibetans.

"Beginning on August 25, 2021, Chinese authorities searched every home in the Wonpo Villages to check whether they have photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in their homes and whether they are in contact with Tibetans outside of Tibet, and then they detained 53 Tibetans from the Villages,” the source said. Further information, including their names and ages, are unknown, due to tightened control of blocking information flow and preventing news about Tibet to reach the outside world.

"Starting on August 31, 2021, 20 Tibetan monks from Wonpo Monastery are to be investigated every day at the local Chinese authorities' office, and these monks must prove that they have had no contact with Tibetans outside of Tibet, have not talked about Tibetan politics, have not done anything to violate Chinese law, and they must promise not to do these things in the future," the source added.

“Sershul County is tightly controlled and the Tibetans are suppressed. I heard that more Tibetans are being detained, but due to the intense control, it is impossible to get the numbers and their names,” the source further said.

On August 23-24, 2021, Chinese authorities detained approximately 60 Tibetans from Wonpo Township, Sershul County, Dzachuka, eastern Tibet, for possessing pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. From August 23-29, 2021, Chinese authorities detained a total of 113 Tibetans from Sershul County, Tibet.

Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.

The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.

Until 1949, Tibet was an independent nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse — a unifying theme among the Tibetans — as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.