Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 20: Lobsang Thapkhey, a former librarian at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Ch: Aba), located in the so called Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, has been sentenced to three years in prison after spending over a year in secret detention in Chinese custody. The Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported the sentencing on Thursday.
He was initially arrested in June 2023 and held incommunicado for more than a year before being secretly sentenced. He is currently serving his prison term in Deyang Prison, Sichuan Province. His family was not informed of his whereabouts and was warned by authorities not to publicise the court’s verdict.
The charges against Lobsang Thapkhey accuse him of “inciting separatism” for importing Tibetan Buddhist texts from India, even though these materials held no political content. The books in question included ‘The Necklace of Textbook’ by Kirti Rinpoche and works by Geshes based in southern India, which were housed in the Kirti Monastery library, at the time of his arrest.
Before his arrest, he had been repeatedly summoned and detained by the Ngaba police on various occasions. Between 2017 and 2018, he was held and interrogated for sending a 2,000-yuan prayer offering to the Dalai Lama, Kirti Rinpoche, and other Tibetan spiritual leaders in India following the death of a lama named Chakdor from Kirti Monastery.
Lobsang Thapkhey, 56, is from Meruma village in Ngaba County. His parents are Khadon (father) and Jhoka (mother).
