Dharamshala — Chinese authorities in Lhasa have secretly sentenced a Tibetan monk to seven years in prison following his arrest in 2021. He was accused of helping monks escape from Tibet to India and making offerings to their spiritual leader in exile, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His conviction was revealed only recently, when his family received invoices for expenses incurred during his imprisonment.
Dharge, aged 63, a Tibetan monk from the Serta Sera Monastery in Serta County, eastern Tibet. He was a highly renowned and respected monk who worked for the well-being of Tibetans in Lhasa before being arrested by the Chinese police on August 5, 2021, alongside his brother Tsering and a nun, Choekyi. They were subsequently released, but Ven Dharge has been missing ever since; his family and disciples have questioned the police regarding his whereabouts, but no information has been provided to them.
During his stay in Lhasa, the Venerable Dharge undertook pilgrimages to the monasteries of Drepung, Sera, and Gaden, received teachings from Tibetan lamas, and led spiritual retreats. He also opened a small shop in Lhasa to perform consecration rituals for religious statues, sacred scriptures, and stupas for the Tibetan devotees.
His family and disciples approached the Chinese police in Lhasa on several occasions to inquire about his place of detention and his condition; the police asserted that he was doing well and that there was no cause for concern, but refused access to all visitors, including members of his own family.
However, when the Chinese police gave bills of costs of Ven Dharage in prison to his family, his relatives learned he had been sentenced to seven years in prison on alleged charges of assisting monks in escaping to India and making offerings—whether for protection or in connection with a death—to their spiritual leader in exile, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The exact date on which the sentenced, the court that adjudicated the case, and the location where he is serving his sentence are remain unknown, due to the heavy strictions imposed on the informations related to Tibet by Chinese authorities.
Ven Dharge was born in 1962, in Palshu Serta, in the Golok region of Eastern Tibet; his father was named Choephel and his mother called Choelha. He is a monk at the Serta Sera Monastery, located in Serta County, in the Golok region of Eastern Tibet.
Most often, Tibetans have been secretly sentenced on political grounds, even though they had committed no illegal acts. Although they engage in no illegal activities, by preserving Tibetan language, culture and religion, the Tibetan scholars, teachers, and writers have been arrested in recent years, with the aim of eradicating the Tibetan language and religion.
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.
