Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Oct 7: A Tibetan singer who was sentenced to three years in prison by Chinese authorities for performing a patriotic song has reportedly been released early, but remains under strict surveillance and restrictions.
Golok Palden, from Yostag village in Dhimda township of Golok Padma County, was released on September 25, several months before completing his original prison term. Sources indicate he has been explicitly warned against singing any more patriotic songs.
The singer was initially imprisoned in November of the previous year after performing the song “I Am the Messenger of the Emperor” online. His arrest and sentencing were carried out secretly by Chinese authorities.
According to Tibet Times, which cited an anonymous Tibetan source from Tibet, Palden’s release came without prior notice to his family. While the reasons for his early release remain unclear, reports suggest he is being closely monitored and followed by authorities.
Concerns about Palden’s health have emerged, as many prisoners released early by Chinese authorities often face medical issues and cases of death in detention are common in Chinese prisons. However, due to restrictions preventing him from meeting with villagers and the secretive nature of his release, his current health condition cannot be verified.
Prior to his arrest, Palden had established himself as a respected figure in Tibet’s traditional music scene. In 2022, he achieved sixth place in a traditional singing competition organized by Minthang Sermo and gained popularity for his online release “Missing Mother.” His social media following exceeded 98,000 at the time of his arrest.
Chinese authorities continue to implement severe restrictions on Tibetan cultural expression, with numerous artists, writers, and intellectuals facing arbitrary detention and harsh sentences. Singers Pema Trinley and Chakdor from Meuruma nomadic village were secretly sentenced by a Chinese court in Ngaba in February 2013, having been detained in July 2012 shortly after releasing their album “Agony of Unhealed Wounds,” which addressed sensitive topics including self-immolation protests and contained songs praising Tibetan religious leaders.
The crackdown extends beyond musicians and include writers and cultural advocates. Tibetan writer and poet Gendun Lhundrup, known for his cultural preservation efforts and his poetry anthology “Khorwa,” was arrested in the so called Qinghai province in 2020. Other notable cases include Tashi Wangchuk, sentenced to five years in 2018 for language advocacy, and singer Lhundrub Drakpa , who received a six-year sentence in June 2020 for his song “Black Hat” after spending over a year in pre-trial detention without legal representation. The pattern of suppression continues with the confirmed detention of prominent scholar Rongwo Gangkar in early 2021, following his disappearance for over a year.
One Response
The Chinese communists are controlling everything in occupied Tibet. Intellectuals, Academics, learnt and revered monks, artists, environmentalist et all. Many of the monks and lay people who have rubbed against the CCP have simply disappeared! While there are Tibetan prisoners from all walks of life, the monk community has been at the receiving end of the regimes “strike hard” campaign for many years. It is followed by Tibetan singers and writers. One of the most courageous Tibetan singer was LoLo. He was arrested on April 19th 2012. He was 30 years old at the time. His father’s name was Jamyang and mother was called Choekyi Dolma. He was born in Kyegudo. The reason why he was arrested and sentenced to six years in jail on February 13th 2013 is the release of one his famous song. There has been no word of his release for these many years. Did he disappear for good? The crime he committed according to the Chinese communist regime is the name and words of one of his songs called “RAISE THE TIBETAN FLAG CHILDREN OF SNOW LAND”! བོད་དར་ཆ་བསྒྲེང་གངས་བུ་ཚོ་
According to the Tibetan Human Rights and Democracy, LoLo བློ་བློ་has not been heard of ever since his detention. In order to remember a brave and patriotic young Tibetan who put his life on the line by writing a song about his feeling for Tibet and its people under unimaginably oppressive regime which ultimately caused him to disappear. since 2013! It is very much hoped he is still alive but we must not forget his famous stirring song which demonstrate the longing for the freedom and independence for Tibet. For those who like to read them in Tibetan in order to get the original taste, I am providing the Tibetan version with translation.
བོད་བཙན་པོའི་གདུང་རྒྱུད་སྐྱོང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ For the sake of continuing the lineage of our ancestral emperors,
རྒྱ་དམར་པོའི་དཔུང་ལ་རྒོལ་བའི་སླད་ In order to resist the red Chinese invaders
དོན་བདེན་པ་དབུ་མའི་ལམ་ཁ་ནས་ From the true meaning of middle path
བོད་དར་ཆ་སྒྲེངས་ཤིག་གངས་བུ་ཚོ་ Raise the Tibetan flag, children of the snow land!
གངས་དཀར་པོའི་ལ་རྒྱ་སྐྱོང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ In order to revive the dignity of the snow land
བོད་རང་བཙན་གཙང་མ་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་ In order to achieve total independence for Tibet ,
དོན་གནས་ལུགས་དུ་མའི་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་ནས་ Under myriad of background circumstances
བོད་དར་ཆ་སྒྲེངས་ཤིག་གངས་བུ་ཚོ་ Raise the Tibetan flag, children of the Snow land!
༧སྐྱབས་༧རྒྱལ་བ་བོད་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི་ཕྱིར་ In order for the Sublime leader to set foot in Tibet
བོད་གཞི་བྱེས་ལྷན་འཛོམས་འབྱུང་བའི་སླད་ and in order for the reunion of the Tibetans
སྲོག་དམར་པོ་བསྡེབས་པའི་ཉན་ཁ་ནས་པའི་ Despite the danger of losing one’s dear life
བོད་དར་ཆ་སྒྲེངས་ཤིག་གངས་བུ་ཚོ་ Raise the Tibetan Flag, children of snow land!
སེང་གངས་རིའི་རྒྱན་པའི་དར་ཆ་འདི་ the flag which is adorned with snow lion,
བོད་མི་རིགས་འདི་ཡི་རྒྱལ་དར་ཡིན་ is the flag of the Tibetan Nation
བོད་སྔོན་གཤེགས་དཔའ་བོའི་དགྲ་ལན་དུ་ In order to avenge the heroes who laid their lives for Tibet
བོད་དར་ཆ་སྒྲེངས་ཤིག་གངས་བུ་ཚོ་ Raise the Tibetan Flag, children of snow land!
It is hoped that Tibetans and especially, The Tibetan Human Rights organisation keep the case of LoLo alive so, if he is still alive, Tibetans can appeal to other Rights organisations for his release. Many of them are languishing in Chinese prisons without any rights and are treated like beasts for going against the dictates of the vile communist regime! The days of Tibetan singers writing beautiful songs of patriotism, devotion to the Dharma and Lama are gone. Now, every Tibetan is song is censored and has to be translated into Chinese to demonstrate there are no political overtones! The evil regime under Xi, the war monger is controlling every aspect of Tibetan life. Tibetan children are forcibly brought up in colonial boarding schools where they have been denied their language, customs and filial piety. Five little monks from Guge, who were forcibly removed from their Monastery and hauled into a colonial boarding school were rescued by a Tibetan when they were about to commit suicide by jumping into the nearby river! There is a video from occupied Tibet doing the rounds. The little monks are complaining that they are harassed by the authorities and are not fed well. They were desperate and wanted to kill themselves! What really happened to them is unknown but that much is true that the little ones were speaking their desperation to the Tibetan person who had filmed it. Under the guise of giving them “education”, even young monks and nuns are forcibly removed and taken to the indoctrination centres! Tibetan children are banned from visiting monasteries or meeting monks! They are brought up as non-believers like the Chinese communists themselves! The final solution for the Tibet issue according to the CCP is obliteration of TIBET’S UNIQUE CIVILISATION in order to legitimise its illegal occupation of Tibet. WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS!
Pandit Nehru who is often blamed for caving in to Chinese unfounded claims over Tibet has said this on December 7th 1950: IT IS NOT RIGHT FOR ANY COUNTRY TO TALK ABOUT IT’S SOVEREIGNTY OR SUZERAINTY OVER AN AREA OUTSIDE ITS OWN IMMEDIATE RANGE. THAT IS TO SAY, SINCE TIBET IS NOT THE SAME AS CHINA, IT SHOULD ULTIMATELY BE THE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE OF TIBET THAT SHOULD PREVAIL NOT ANY LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENTS! THE LAST VOICE IN REGARD TO TIBET SHOULD BE THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE OF TIBET AND OF NOBODY ELSE!!!!