Chinese authorities have interrogated and detained local Tibetans who posted photos and messages online mourning the loss of an influential Tibetan Buddhist leader said to have died while in custody in Vietnam, two sources from the region told Radio Free Asia.
The Tibetan government-in-exile called Tuesday for an independent investigation into the death of an influential Tibetan Buddhist leader said to have died in Vietnam, where he was reportedly in hiding from the Chinese government.
Hundreds of Tibetans have taken to social media to demand that China restore Tibetan language studies in schools, just days after Beijing released a white paper claiming that the right to use Tibetan language is guaranteed in Tibet.
Chinese officials have confirmed the death of an influential Tibetan Buddhist leader who went missing eight months ago shortly after he publicly called for the preservation of Tibetan language and culture, two sources told Radio Free Asia.
As Tibetan students return to school for the spring term, they are being subjected to propaganda movies about heroic Chinese soldiers and storytelling contests extolling the greatness of the Communist Party, according to sources inside Tibet and state media reports.
Chinese authorities have expelled over 1,000 Tibetan monks and nuns from the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in the latest blow to the major center of Tibetan Buddhist learning, sources inside Tibet with knowledge of the situation said.
China is moving ahead with plans to build the world’s largest hydropower dam on Tibet’s longest river despite environmental, water security and displacement concerns raised by India, Bangladesh and Tibetan rights groups.
The British Museum’s use of the term “Xizang” to label Tibetan artifacts in its Silk Roads exhibition has prompted criticism from Tibetans and rights groups who have demanded that the museum remove the Beijing-promoted term and issue a formal apology.
Chinese authorities have arrested a popular Tibetan social influencer and internet entrepreneur in Qinghai province, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk imprisoned for sending money for prayer offerings to be made to the Dalai Lama and the abbot of India’s Kirti Monastery has been released from jail but remains in poor health, according to two sources in Tibet familiar with the situation.