TCHRD
April 28, 2009
Contact Person: Tsering Agloe
Phone: 01892-223363/225874

China detains three Tibetan monks in Nagchu County

According to confirmed information received by
the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
(TCHRD), the Chinese authorities in Nagchu
County, Nagchu Prefecture, “Tibet Autonomous
Region” (“TAR”) has secretly detained three Tibetan Buddhist monks.

On 11 April 2009, Nagchu Public Security Bureau
(PSB) detained Khensur Thupten Thapkhey, 47, a
former abbot of Shapten Monastery and a 34-year
old scripture master, Geshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen, for unknown reasons.

Nagchu security personnel misled the monks of
Shapten Monastery by explaining that Khensur
Thupten Thapkhey and Geshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen had
gone to Lhasa City to receive Geshe (Doctorate of
philosophy) Degree Certificate from religious
bureau. However, it proved to be a ruse, where
Nagchu authorities straight away taken them to a
detention centre, where they were currently being detained.

Similarly, another monk Tsundue, 30, a head of
the Shapten Monastery's Democratic Management
Committee (DMC) was also misled by Chinese
authorities that he had to attend a meeting but
was escorted to Nagchu PSB detention centre.

As of now, TCHRD is yet to learn about the
precise reasons for which the three monks were
detained. The parents and relatives of the
detainees were trying to make contact with them
in Nagchu PSB detention centre, according to sources.

TCHRD expresses serious concerns about their safety and well being.