Edited by Pema Tso
Translated by TenGyal
In Ngaba, Geshe Rachung Gedun of Kirti Monastery has been released after serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Due to his frail health at the time of his release, he is currently under medical supervision.
Recently, Geshe Rachung Gedun, a monk from Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, was released on November 16th after serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. However, his health remains fragile; he was immediately admitted to a hospital for medical treatment. In July 2021, Geshe Rachung was sentenced after being accused of making donations and offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Eminence Kirti Rinpoche through his brother, Rachung Thokmey, who served as the secretary of Kirti Jepa Monastery.
Rachung Gedun’s mother, Norpo, is the sister of the late Tibetan patriot Taphun, who self-immolated for the political and religious sovereignty of Tibet on March 27th, 2022. The day before his self-immolation, on March 26th, Taphun reached out to his sister and asked if there was anything she wanted to say to him. Following this phone conversation, the Chinese government subjected his family and close acquaintances to prolonged interrogations and harassment. Authorities suspected that the 86-year-old Norpo had been informed and advised to flee during the call. She endured similar treatment for over a year, including frequent questioning and harassment. Her situation worsened when she was denied access to medical care and assistance during illness. Even her routine circumambulation of the local village stupa was closely monitored. This relentless persecution caused her immense physical and mental suffering, and she tragically passed away on June 10th without the chance to reunite with her son, Geshe Rachung Gedun.
Geshe Rachung Gedun, originally from Meuruma, Ngawa County, was the son of Rachung Kuye and Norpo of Ruchen Sumpa (3rd Battalion). He joined the Kirti Geden Lekshe Ling Monastery at a young age, where he pursued monastic training. Under the guidance of his uncles, Venerable Choezin and Venerable Loye (Rakhoe Lobsang Sonam), as well as Venerable Lobsang Tashi and other esteemed masters, he committed to rigorous study and spiritual practice.
He received a classical monastic education, which involved memorising the religious and ritual liturgies of the monastery. Upon completing his studies of the classical Buddhist texts included in the Five Great Treatises—such as The Ornament of Realization, Engaging in the Middle Way, The Compendium of Valid Cognition, The Essence of Eloquence: Definitive and Interpretive Meaning, Commentary on Clear Meaning, and Panchen’s Overview of the Perfections: Chapter One—he undertook a rigorous examination before the monastery’s assembly and officials. Furthermore, as outlined in H.E Kirti Rinpoche’s vision and guideline for a unified approach to studying scriptures in all monasteries under the auspice of Kirti Monastery in Tibet, he enlisted in the Geshe examinations in 2017. As he was giving his dissertation for his candidacy for the Kachupa Geshe degree in the different monasteries of Kirti, on the evening of April 1st 2021, the Chinese police suddenly arrested him from his quarters in Kirti Monastery. For a long time, no one could determine his whereabouts after the arrest. Although it was learned that he was in good health after a few months, he was not allowed to meet with anyone even once during that time. In July 2022, a whole year after the arrest, a court tried and sentenced him to three and a half years imprisonment for the alleged crime of making donations and offerings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Eminence Kirti Rinpoche via his brother Rachung Thokmey who was the secretary of Kirti Jepa Monastery in Dharamshala. However, even as the verdict of the trial was widely publicised, his family remained unaware of the length of the sentence and continued to hope for him to be released at the earliest and return home.
The recent trial and sentencing of Rachung Gedun are far from an isolated incident. In May 1998, Kirti Monastery in Ngaba Prefecture of Tibet became the first place to receive intensive “patriotic and religious” education. Officials from the prefecture and county levels started to come to the monastery, stating that this campaign was not only about reforming monastic discipline but also about “purifying Buddhism”. As part of these reforms, it was declared that “criminals” were not allowed to reside in the monastery, and monks under the age of 18 must leave the monastery. The officials also began to push for compulsory documentation of the monks who were residing in the monastery.
Kirti Monastery housed more than 3,000 monks on average during the large monastic assemblies. Generally, the monastery had between 2,700 and 2,800 permanent monastic residents. Yet, as the Chinese officials dictated that the monastery was not allowed to house more than 1,500 monks at any given time, banned the display of portraits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, issued strict directives to not follow the instructions of His Eminence Kirti Rinpoche and convened the monks for frequent meetings and gatherings for different durations of time, it caused great discomfort and restlessness among the resident monks.
These strict and oppressive measures led to many monks shouting in protest during the meetings, leaving the meetings and expressing their increasing disapproval of the Chinese officials. During this period, almost every morning, there were shouts of protest from the monastery complex to the market area of Ngaba County, calling for a “ Free Tibet” and “ Repeal the Patriotic and Religious Education”. As part of the protests, Tibetan flags were frequently hoisted around the main assembly hall, on the electric wires of the central complex of the monastery and on the electric wires and posts in the main roundabout of Ngaba County, among many other places. It had become evident to Chinese officials, then, that they were unlikely to succeed in accomplishing their intended objectives.
On December 11th, 2022, fifty Chinese officials from the Ngaba county and prefecture levels entered the complex in an attempt to impose the “ patriotic and religious education” program through force and intimidation. However, the program once again proved unsuccessful, as it was met with a widespread wave of protest pamphlets. In response, the officials cracked down and arrested many of the monks from the monastery. Rachung Gedun was also arrested and detained during these protests. During a period marked by daily reports of self-immolations in Ngaba, one evening, a group of Chinese police officers scaled the fence and ransacked Gedun’s quarters. Reports indicate that they forcefully confiscated photographs of the Dalai Lama, and Gedun was subsequently detained and subjected to repeated interrogation.
