Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980512100129.007bb600@hella.stm.it>

Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 10:01:29 +0200

From: Tibetan Youth Congress

Subject: Biographies of the second batch of unto death hunger strikers

Biographies of the second batch of unto death hunger strikers

1) Phuntsok Semsang was born in Chushur, central Tibet in 1973. He has eight brothers and sisters who are still in Tibet. He became a monk and in 1991 he and two others put up wall posters demanding Tibetan independence and the withdrawal of the Chinese from Tibet. The posters were placed on the walls of the Chushur County Auditorium and the houses of two government officials. The Chinese police started an investigation to find out who had put up the posters, so he fled to India. He later learned that the Chinese authorities confiscated his land and imposed a fine of 500RMB on his parents. He now lives at the Norbulingka Institute for Tibetan Culture, Sidhpur, near Dharamsala. He decided to partake in the unto death hunger strike because the Tibetan people s plea for international support has failed to elicit any meaningful response, even though Tibet is under the occupation of an alien power.

2) Ven. Jampa Kalden was born in Muktinath, Nepal in 1975. His mother Jangchub lives in the Tibetan Jampaling Settlement in Pokhara; he has four sisters and one brother. He received his childhood education at Jorpaling School, Pokhara, Nepal. At the age of eleven he joined Paljorling Monastery in Pokhara. In July 1997 he was ordained as a Gelong. While at the monastery he worked, amongst other positions, as a curator of the shrine room. He participated in the first Peace March for Tibetan Freedom in 1995.

3) Tsering Dorjee was born in Dhingri, western Tibet in 1961. His father Norgye and mother Pasang worked as road construction labourers in Manali before the family migrated to the Tibetan settlement in Kollegal, south India. He first went to the Tibetan Children s Village school in Dharamsala and studied there up to Class III. In 1975 he went to Kollegal and studied up to Class V in the settlement school. In 1986 he became a member of the Tibetan Youth Congress. He participated in the 1995 Peace March for Tibetan Freedom and many other movements for the restoration of Tibetan freedom.

4) Kalden Norbu was born in Nya-nam, western Tibet in 1951. He studied up to Class X at the erstwhile Central School for Tibetans in Pachmari. In 1971 he joined the Indian army and served until 1978. He lives in the Tibetan settlement in Kollegal, south India and became a member of the Tibetan Youth Congress in 1986.

5) Tsering Gonkyab was born in Zong-ga, western Tibet in 1944. When he escaped to India his parents had to stay behind. He spent the early years of his exile life as a road construction labourer in Manali. In 1975 he migrated to the Tibetan settlement in Kollegal, south India. He has been an active participant in the Tibetan Youth Congress since its inception. In 1995 and 1996 he participated in the Peace Marches for Tibetan Freedom.

6) Thupten Ngodup was born in Shitsezong Gyatso Shar, Tibet, in 1938. He became a monk at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery before escaping to India in 1959 through La-chen la-chung in Sikkim. He worked as a road construction labourer in Bomdila for about an year before moving down to Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe. From October 1963 through October 1986, he was in the Tibetan army. Then he came to Dharamsala and worked as a cook at the Dip Tsechokling Monastery. He took part in three demonstrations in Delhi and also participated in the 1995 and 1996 Peace Marches for Tibetan Freedom. On April 29, 1998 he succumbed to injuries sustained from self-immolation in protest of the disruption of the unto death hunger strike and to further highlight the issue of Tibet.