Dharamsala, India – hundreds of Tibetans gathered on Friday at the Dharamsala main temple, India, to offer prayers to mark 49 days since the death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje – the venerated a Tibetan leader and educator who died in detention in Vietnam in March 2025.
His disciples say that the Buddhist chief, who had disappeared for more than eight months, had fled to Vietnam to escape the persecution of the Chinese government for his work as a Educator and promoter of the Tibetan language and culture.
Tulku Hungkar Dorje, who was the 10th abbot of the pulmonary monastery Ngon in the county of Gade in Golog, died, at the age of 56, on March 29, 2025, to Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, said his monastery in a press release. The Chinese authorities prohibit the monastery and local residents to hold public commemorative services and prayers for the abbot, sources said in RFA.
The 49th day prayer service is particularly important in Tibetan Buddhism because it marks the end of Bardo, or the period between death and the Renaissance. Developed rituals and prayer offerings are made to guide the awareness of the deceased by Bardo and in the Renaissance.
Defense groups of rights and various Tibetan associations, including the Dhomay Cholka Association which is a non -governmental organization representing the Tibetans of the historic region of AMDO, decried the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death while he was in custody Chinese in Vietnam and called for an independent investigation.
A separate commemorative service – entitled “Tulku Hungkar Dorje Lives” and organized by Tibetan rights groups – took place later the same day in Dharamsala to pay tribute to the contributions of the life of the Buddhist chief as a religious teacher, PhilanthropE, educator and ecologist of the leader.
During the event, Tibetan scholars, activists and former political prisoners underlined the incessant efforts of Tulku Hungkar Dorje to preserve the Tibetan language, culture and religion, and promised to continue to urge the Vietnamese government to allow a transparent and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding its death.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington