The Tibetan government in exile called on Tuesday for an independent investigation into the death of an influential Tibetan Buddhist leader who died in Vietnam, where he would have been hidden from the Chinese government.
On April 3, the Lung Ngon monastery in the county of Gade (Gande en Chinese), the prefecture of Golog, Qinghai province, published a statement confirming that his abbot, Tulku Hungkar Dorje, 56, died in Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam on March 29 due to poor health. The monastery declaration gave no other details. His disciples say he had disappeared for eight months.
The Chinese authorities prohibit the monastery and local residents to hold public commemorative services and prayers for the abbot, stressing the sensitivity of his death, three sources in the region on Radio Free on Wednesday. The sources asked for anonymity because they feared reprisals.
The central Tibetan administration – The exiled government based in Dharamsala, India – and human rights groups argue that Tulku Hungkar Dorje was arrested in his hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City on March 25 during a joint operation by local police and Chinese government. He would have been transferred to Chinese guard on March 28, where he mysteriously died the same day, they added.
“(This raises) serious concerns concerning cooperation in cross-border security, transnational repression and human rights violations which require an immediate and in-depth investigation, as well as the responsibility of the Vietnamese and Chinese authorities,” said Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson for the CTA.
Tulku Hungkar Dorje was a religious teacher, a philanthropist and a renowned educator. He disappeared last August after calling for public education in July for the preservation of Tibetan language and culture.
The rights defense groups say that Tulku Hungkar Dorje was also subjected to several interrogation cycles before his disappearance after he did not fully consider Beijing to welcome the Panchen Laman of Panchen, China, Gyaltsen Norbu, in his monastery.
He has also been accused of not having implemented Chinese government policies in schools he had created for children from nomadic Tibetan families in Golog, said sources in the region. He also composed a long-term prayer for the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, which China considers a separatist, they added. (The Dalai Lama actually advocates a “median way” which accepts the status of Tibet as part of China and urges more important cultural, religious and linguistic rights and linguistic freedoms by virtue of the provisions of the own constitution of China).
Escape from Vietnam
Faced with the growing pressure of the Chinese government, Tulku Hungkar Dorje fled to Vietnam, where he would have been hidden since September 2024 until the Chinese authorities arrested him at the end of March with the help of the Vietnamese government, said Tibetan rights groups, citing familiar sources with the case in the region.
Lhamo Tashi, president of Dhomay Cholka Association, a non -governmental organization representing the Tibetans of the Historical Amale region of Tibet, said: “Given the serious nature of these events, we call an independent international investigation into the circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje. Vietnam. “”
The Vietnamese and the Chinese government did not immediately respond to requests for comments from the FRG.
Beyond Tibet, Tulku Hungkar Dorje has a large part of Buddhist disciples around the world, including in the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada and Vietnam. In Vietnam, his supporters of the Center Longchen Nyingthig published a short note moving his death.
In recent years, there has been growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism in Vietnam, with the creation of several Dharma meditation centers, pagodas and even the largest Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel in the world located in the Don Duong district, the province of Lam Dong in southern Vietnam.
Experts say that the visits to Tibetan Buddhist leaders in Vietnam are tolerated, sometimes even promoted. This is an unusual exception to intolerance to the Communist Party of religious groups which are not sanctioned by the State and which are perhaps intended to counter criticism of this policy. However, experts say that Vietnam avoids any advertising around Buddhist leaders who are under the control of the Chinese government to avoid diplomatic problems with Beijing.
Suspicions of unfair playing
Ju Tenkyong, director of Amnye Machen Institute, a Tibetan center based in Dharamsala for advanced studies, said that earlier this month, five Tibetan Buddhist officials from Gologie’s Lung Ngon Monastery and six Chinese government officials went to Vietnam to recover the international body of Tulku Hungkar Dorje.
However, the five monks were forbidden to participate in an emergency meeting that was convened on April 5 at the China Embassy in Vietnam, where only the six Chinese officials were authorized, he said. They were not allowed to see the body either, despite their initiation to what they can do, he added.
“The officials demanded that the monks sign documents confirming the death of Tulku, but the monks refused, saying that they could only sign if they had seen his body. The fact that the body was not shown to the monks and disciples suspects serious suspicions of unfair play,” said RFA to RFA.
The Tibetan government in exile has also called the body of Tulku Hungkar Dorje to give immediately to the pulmonary ngon monastery to allow appropriate rites to be carried out in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
“It should be noted that the suspicious death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje represents a disturbing climbing in the systematic targeting of China of influential Tibetan figures which promote Tibetan culture, language and identity,” said the spokesperson for CTA Lekshay. “His case highlights the continuous abolition of human rights in Tibet, where people experience a constant fear of arrest for the slightest expression of Tibetan identity.”
The Chinese authorities closely examine the Tibetan Buddhist lamas and the businessmen involved in philanthropy, as well as poets, writers and religious teachers who argue for the preservation and promotion of Tibetan language and culture. These figures are often faced with strict surveillance and are vulnerable to arbitrary detentions and long terms of prison.
Photos thrown on the ground
On Wednesday, the local sources that spoke in RFA said that the Gader county officials, where the monastery is located, had asked the local canton and the village chiefs to strictly prohibit Tibetans from sharing images or information related to Tulku Hungkar Dorje online.
“Initially, the government told the Lung Ngon monastery that they could organize commemorative services, but fearing large public rallies, they suddenly imposed restrictions,” said one of the three sources.
Since April 2, the authorities of the Prefecture of Golog and the County of Gade have jointly led strict inspections to the monastery and the surrounding villages, with the police who patrol day and night, the sources said.
“When the school of the monastery tried to display the photo of Tulku and to hold commemorative services, the Chinese officials arrived, threw photos on the ground and prohibited any religious activity,” said another of the sources.
In its 2025 annual report, the American Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that China and Vietnam be designated as “particularly concern” to engage in systematic, continuous and flagrant violations of religious freedom.
The USCIRF said that religious freedom in Vietnam remained poor in 2024, the Vietnamese government continuing to compete for its 2018 law on belief and religion to strictly control religious affairs through religious organizations sponsored by the state.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington