Dharamshala — Chinese authorities arrested a Tibetan monk from Kirti Monastery and prohibited the display of photographs of His Eminence the 11th Kirti Rinpoche in his monasteries in Tibet starting in July, 2025. China already banned all photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and now they are banning Kirti Rinpche's photo, the authorities aims to cut off ties between Tibetans inside Tibet and their exiled spiritual leaders.
According to sources, one night in December, 2024, Chinese authorities arrested a Tibetan monk named Geshe Lharampa Kunchok Choedak in Sangchu County (བསང་ཆུ་རྫོང་།) in northeastern Tibet. The authorities raided his room and found documents related to an "Education Board Committee" that had been shut down by Chinese authorities. Since then he has disappeared, and his whereabouts and health status remain unknown, due to the Chinese government severely restricts the flow of information about Tibet to the free world. Geshe Lharampa Kunchok Chodak was professor and representative of the Hortsang Kirti Monastery (ཧོར་ཚང་ཀིརྟི་དགོན་དགེ་ལྡན་བསྟན་འཕེལ་གླིང༌།) in Sangchu Couty, the Monastery has more 100 Tibetan monks in 2020.
In July 2025, Chinese authorities dissolved the "Education Board Committee", composed of monks trained in Buddhist philosophy from major Kirti monasteries and tasked with overseeing studies at all Kirti monasteries in Tibet. Authorities allegedly stated the committee has connection with Kirti Rinpoche in exile and ordered the monks not to reestablish the committe again.
Geshe Lharampa Kunchok Chodak was born in Zorge County, which is located in the north-eastern region of Tibet. The father was named A-lo and the mother Machig Kyi. He pursued his studies at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery from a young age, eventually attaining the designation of Geshe Lharampa in 2019. In 2021, he transferred to Hortsang Kirti Monastery, where he served as the monastery's representative, Tritsap. The representative of Hortsang Kirti Monastery was sent by Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery.
The sources also stated that Chinese authorities banned the display of all photos of the 11th Kirti Rinpoche, Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyatso Rinpoche, in approximately 40 Tibetan monasteries starting July 13, 2025, particular in Taktsang Lhamo kirti Monastery, Ngawa Kirti Monastery, Gyalrong Tsodun Kirti Monastery and ordered the removal of all photos of Kirti Rinpoche from the monasteries. the authorities also warned monks and the public that they will be detained or arrested if they display the Rinpoche's photo in monasteries or at public events in future.
According to the source, at Hortsang Kirti Monastery, the Chinese authorities banned the display of the photo of Kirti Rinpoche in the early of July, 2025.
Chinese authorities forcibly shut down the Buddhist primary school at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery during the first week of October 2024 and forced more than 300 young Tibetan monks to attend Chinese state-run boarding schools. When they refused to leave the monastery and attend Chinese colonial-style boarding schools, they were beaten and tortured.
Kirti Monastery in Tibet has been the site of more than 13 self-immolation protests by Tibetan monks and others, protesting the Chinese Communist Party's rule in Tibet and its oppressive policing and actions against Tibetans, their religion, language, culture, and environment. There are a least 157 Tibetans have self-immolated inside Tibet since 2009, to protest against Chinese government and call for free Tibet and return of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
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.
