Monk commits suicide

According to unconfirmed reports a 70-year-old monk, Ngawang Gyatso, from Rongpo monastery (Nakchu county, TAR) committed suicide on 20 July 2010.

His suicide is reported to be as a result of the pressure of an ongoing patriotic-re-education campaign and the arrest of the head of the monastery as well as other monks.

Lama Dawa Rinpoche, 75, the abbot of monastery is said to be under house arrest for allegedly communicating with the Dalai Lama about the identification of a reincarnation.

Shortly after the abbot’s detention in May, a patriotic re-education campaign was launched in the monastery with the monks required to sign a document denouncing their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

According to source who is exile, on 17 July, a group of monks appealed to the work -team conducting the campaign to stop forcing them to denounce the Dalai Lama. However, their request was rejected and all 17 monks were expelled from the monastery.
Other monks from the monastery are reported to have been detained in connection to their objection to the patriotic re-education campaign.

In the patriotic re-education campaigns, Tibetan Buddhists are forced to denounce their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama who they hold as sacred, and to swear allegiance to the Chinese State and the Communist Party.

Patriotic re-education violates the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religious belief and violates the right to personal integrity and dignity; it amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and in some instances may amount to torture.

Since the 2008 mass protests in Tibet and the ensuing crackdown on protesters and monks by the authorities, a string of suicides by monks have been recorded.

Read more about patriotic re-education and other violations of freedom of religion in Tibet.

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