Dharamshala — Chinese authorities dismissed a Tibetan lama from his position at the end of 2024 and arrested him shortly afterwards. He has been disappeared since then. Although the Chinese authorities have not specified the reasons for his arrest, some sources claim that it may be linked to his assistance to a Tibetan monk returned from exile and sending of money to Tibetans in exile, charges frequently made against Tibetans accused of maintaining relations with family members in exile.
The Chinese authorities arrested Lobsang Lungrik, a Tibetan Buddhist lama, at the end of December 2024, without explaining the reason. He has been disappeared since then. His arrest came after he was removed from his position as a member of the Standing Committee of the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on December 26, 2024.
Although the Chinese authorities have not specified the reasons for Lobsang Lungrik's arrest, some sources claim that it may be linked to the assistance he provided to a Tibetan monk who had returned from exile (India) and was living at Ba Gön Monastery as a scripture teacher. Originally from the Tsawa region in Chamdo, this monk was reportedly expelled from his home monastery and fled to Chumarleb after the Chinese authorities issued an arrest warrant for him.
The source also stated that the Chinese authorities accused Lobsang Lungrik for sending money to Tibetans in exile, a charge frequently levelled against Tibetans accused of maintaining relations with family members in exile.
Before his arrest, Lobsang Lungrik held several important positions recognised by the state, including Vice President of the Buddhist Association of Qinghai Province, Executive Vice President of the Buddhist Association of Yushu Prefecture, and Vice Chairman of the Yushu Prefectural CPPCC. He was appointed Board Member of the Yushu Buddhist Association in 1999.
Lobsang Lungrik was born on 25 August 1975 in Chumarleb County, Yushu, Kham province of Eastern Tibet. In 1982, he was recognised as the 11th incarnation of Bartri Gyuchen. He studied for more than 21 years at Sera Monastery in Lhasa. In July 2002, he was appointed advisor to the Kangyur and Tengyur Collation Office of the China Tibetology Research Center. He graduated from the Advanced Tibetan Buddhist Institute of China in 2003 and later obtained a Master’s degree from Qinghai Normal University in March 2015. He aged 51 and he is the head lama of Ba Gön Monastery, a Gelug monastery located in Chumarleb County.
China-Tibet: The one-thing you need to know:
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 Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was 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.
