Tibetan poet and writer Gendun Lhundrub who disappeared more than a year ago is now reported as being held in a detention centre in Siling (Ch: Xining) according to a report by Radio Free Asia Tibetan service. The former monk from Rongwo monastery in Rebgong County in the Amdo province was arrested by the Chinese authorities on December 2, 2020, since then there has been no information as to his whereabouts.
“We have learned that Gendun Lhundrub, whose whereabouts remained unknown until now, is being detained at a detention centre in Siling,” said RFA’s source who lives in the Tibet Autonomous Region, adding “his family members are still not allowed to see him, and no information about his condition has been revealed.”
Gendun Lhundrub, who is around 47 years old, is reportedly undergoing China’s political re-education programme under which he is required to translate Tibetan Buddhist scripts into Mandarin Chinese. The source also informed RFA that the Chinese Communist Party requires monasteries to teach Buddhist studies solely in the Chinese language. Thus China’s sinicisation drive has been extended beyond school education, where Tibetan language schools are being shut down and children in primary schools are taught through the medium of in Chinese instead of Tibetan.
RFA’s sources have reported that there are still no details about Gendun Lhundrub’s, trial but it is believed that the writer is being kept in a special detention centre and “his life is not under threat.”
Gendun Lhundrub was arrested while on the way from Rongwo Monastery to Rebgong County to attend a dialectics session; a witness saw him “being forcibly taken into a black car”. He has not been by anyone since then; his family was informed at very short notice about his trial on September 27, since then no details about the trial or his whereabouts have been revealed.
Prior to his arrest, he had attended a workshop on the sinicisation of Tibetan Buddhism in Rebgong County which had been organised by the authorities; during the workshop he raised questions, asking “… how does one sinicise Tibetan Buddhism?”, this resulted in a verbal altercation between the facilitator and himself. His arrest took place shortly after this workshop.
A previous report published by RFA suggested that his arrest was connected to his questioning of the authorities who ordered him to help translate Tibetan Buddhist texts into Mandarin Chinese.
Two months before his arrest, Gendun published a book entitled Khorwa and urged fellow Tibetans to support it. He claimed that the book presents the truth as it is without bowing to orders. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has reported that a Tibetan language website that Gendun administered was shut down, amongst many others by administered by Tibetans.
Gendun, also known by his pen name Lhamkok, is a prolific writer who has published numerous books since 1994. He is a highly revered intellectual who is known for his active involvement in the preservation and promotion of the Tibetan Language in the Rongwo Region. He was born in a nomadic family in 1974 in Rebgong County
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