Dharamshala — Tibetan monk Zeyga Gyatso released after six months in the Chinese police detention, in poor health. He suffers from knee pain and eye problems, due to exposure to intense light whilst he was detained at the Xining police station. Since his release, Zeyga has been placed under close surveillance, making it difficult to obtain full information about his state of health.
According to the reliable source to TPI, Chinese police detailed Tibetan monk Zeyga Gyatso from Tsang Monastery, which is in Ba County, north-eastern Tibet on July 2, 2025, in Xining City, Tso Ngon (Ch: Qinghai Province), north-eastern Tibet, while he was on his way to a medical examination for health condition. After six months in the Chinese police detention, he was released on January 2, 2026, in poor health.
During his detention, his family members denied visiting him and he was held under incommunicado detention until his release. Chinese police accused Ven Zega Gyatso for "sending money to India" to his brother, but the family members reject this accusation and claim that this is how Chinese authorities label Tibetans as “criminals” when they are arrested, even if they have not committed any illegal activity.
Three days after returning home, Ven Gyatso was summoned back to Xining City and ordered to sign a document pledging not to engage in any activities against the Chinese government. Even after his release, the Chinese authorities have been closely monitoring his every movement. He was subsequently permitted to return to his monastery during Losar (Tibetan New Year) February 18, 2026. However, details about his current health and living conditions remain unknown, due to high restriction placed on the information flow from Tibet.
Ven Zega Gyatso's younger brother, Khedrub Gyatso, was arrested by Chinese police in 2008 after participating in protests against the Chinese government's repressive policies in Tibet during the 2008 Tibetan national uprising. Since then, his family and relatives have been under constant surveillance by the Chinese authorities. Ven Gyatso, in particular, accused of maintaining contacts outside Tibet, has been repeatedly harassed by the authorities, who have issued him with warnings, interrogated him and summoned him to the police station on several occasions.
Ven Zega Gyatso studied for one year at Sera Je Monastery in Bylakuppe, South India, in 2002. The following year, he returned to Tibet and continued his studies at Gangjong Sherig Norbu School in Ragya Town, Machu County, Golog Prefecture, Tibet. After completing his studies, he taught at the Leksheling Five Sciences School at Tsang Monastery, where he continued to teach the Tibetan language until his arrest. He is the eldest of six siblings, his father called Sowang and mother called Tashi.
During the celebrations for the 90th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in July 2025, Chinese authorities searched the rooms of monks at Tsang Monastery (Tib: གཙང་ དགོན་པ།) in Ba County (Tib: འབའ་ རྫོང་།) in northeastern Tibet on July 20, 2025 and found photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the rooms of some monks. Photos, books and teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama banned by the CCP. As a result, the monastery was placed under strict restrictions, with the monks' movements severely restricted.
The Tibetan monk Shersang Gyatso, abbot of Tsang Monastery in Ba County, northeastern Tibet, committed suicide on August 20, 2025, to protest the Chinese government's crackdown on his monastery, which included raiding the monks' rooms, disrupting their studies and religious practices, organising Chinese political indoctrination sessions, and expelled all monks under the age of 18 from the monastery.
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.
