Dharamshala — A Tibetan man dies after being brutally tortured by Chinese police while in the detention. He had been arrested for sharing the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Chinese social media and for keeping photos and CDs of His Holiness in his home in Lhasa, the Capital of Tibet.
According to an exclusive source to TPI, a Tibetan named Damdul, aged 57, from Pasho county in Kham, eastern Tibet, who lived and worked in Lhasa, died in November 2021. He was suffering from a serious illness caused by beatings and torture inflicted by the Chinese police in Lhasa.
"Damdul shared summaries of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings on the Chinese social network (Wechat) several times in 2021. Later, the Chinese police found out and arrested him in the middle of the night on March 5, 2021," said the source, citing information from Tibet.
"After his sudden arrest, Chinese police raided his home and found photos and CDs of the speech by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his home in Lhasa. Then they beat and tortured him, interrogating him about the source of these photos and CDs. As he said nothing, he was tortured more and more severely," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Damdul was detained for five months and tortured by the Chinese police over a long period. He was released from prison in June 2021, after a serious illness. After his release, his family and relatives took him to several hospitals for treatment. But these hospitals were unable to treat him for his serious illness. Finally, in November 2021, he passed away.
Photographs and teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are banned in Tibet, even though His Holiness is their beloved lama and the most respected spiritual leader of Tibetans. Tibetans who keep the portrait and book of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, if found by the Chinese police, will be arrested, detained, imprisoned for many years and tortured. Damdul is an example of torture and harassment by the Chinese government for the picture and teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Chinese authorities arrested a Tibetan monk named Jampa Choephel from Rebgong County, in March, 2021, for posting the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his social media platform (Wechat). After five months in detention, he was sentenced by a Chinese court to one and a half years in prison, in August, 2024.
In September 2023, Chinese authorities in Dzachuka county arrested a young Tibetan monk and writer named Tenzin Chenrab, for allegedly possessing a photo and several e-books of Tibet's spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his phone. His mother, aged 53, died after the disappearance of her only son. Tenzin Chenrab's whereabouts are still unknown, as the Chinese authorities have imposed strict controls on the flow of information from Tibet to the outside world.
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.