The authorities have sentenced two senior Tibetan monastic leaders to prison conditions of three and four years for their role in rare public demonstrations in 2024 against a planned Chinese hydroelectric dam project, two sources from the Radio Free region told Radio.
Sherab, the abbot of the Yena monastery in the canton of Wangbuding of the county of Dege in the autonomous prefecture of Tibet, the province of Sichuan, was sentenced to four years in prison and Gonpo, the chief administrator, condemned to three years, said that the sources, who had asked for anonymity for fear of reproductions. It was not immediately clear when the sentences were transmitted.
The sources said Gonpo was in critical condition due to detention torture and was transferred to an intensive care unit at Chengdu hospital in Western China.
The two Yena monastery leaders were detained with hundreds of Tibetan monks and local residents in February 2024 for having peacefully attracting the Drichu river dam (or Jinsha, in Chinese) which would overwhelm several monasteries of historical significance, including adults and villages.
Many demonstrators who have been detained were allegedly beaten during interrogations with some requiring medical care, sources told RFA at the time. Most were released the following month, but the main monastic and village leaders that the authorities suspected of playing a leading role in demonstrations – like the main administrator of the Wonto monastery, Tenzin Sangpo and the village manager, were transferred to a larger County detention center.
The Yena monastery was faced with a particularly severe repression. The authorities have targeted monks for “targeting and rehabilitation targeted” of their political ideologies and for their role as “serious informants”, sources told RFA.
“The government has really been part of Yena’s monastery, as if they were selling their anger,” said the first source to RFA. The officials said that the two leaders of the monastery should be “seriously punished” specifically for their decision to request and hire legal representation.
In 2024, the video emerged from Father Sherab from the Yena monastery holding her two inches in the traditional Tibetan begging gesture, such as him, other Tibetan monks and local residents have already cried and pleaded before visiting the officials on February 20 so as not to continue the planned project.
Collective imprisonment
The area on each side of the Drichu river remains under strict monitoring more than a year after the demonstrations, with movement restrictions imposed on monks and residents of monasteries and villages in the canton of Wangbuding, sources told RFA.
The authorities have established several control points at the border between the Tibetan zones of Sichuan and the autonomous region of Tibet, strictly controlling any entry and exit, they said.
Only Tibetans holding transit permits issued by the police are authorized to go through the control points installed on roads leading to monasteries like Yena and at will which are located near the river, sources said. Even the Han ethnic Chinese with transit permits are prohibited from entering, they added.
“The whole area was actually sealed, with nearly 4,000 residents and monks in villages and monasteries near the river in a state of collective imprisonment, having lost all freedom of movement,” said the second source.
During the periods considered to be politically sensitive by the Chinese authorities – as towards the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising on March 10 of 1959 or the anniversary of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on July 6 – surveillance is even more acquired, sources said.
During the “sensitive periods”, the Tibetans without local recording refused entry, while the local villagers traveling rural areas at the seat of the county of Dege must request transit permits and are often still refused, sources said.
The Gangtuo dam – which should be located in Kamtok (Gangtuo, in Chinese) in the county of Dege – is part of a Chinese government project to build a hydroelectric complex of 13 massive levels on the Drichu, with a planned total capacity of 13,920 megawatts.
Chinese officials had indicated after last year’s demonstrations that the project would continue as planned, but sources said that there was not yet clarity on the start of construction or if it would.
“Even if the project is not going forward, the monks and residents of the surrounding villages have already been deeply injured,” said the first source.
Written by Tenzin Pema. Edited by Mat Pennington.