Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday - May 10, 1997

Tibet Information Network News Update

London, 9 May (TIN)A Tibetan court has sentenced Chadrel Rinpoche, former

abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery, to six years in prison and convicted him of

committing "the crime of splitting the country" for his handling two years

ago of the search for the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.

Chadrel Rinpoche is believed to be the most senior lama and the highest-

level official in Tibet to have been convicted of a political offence for

at least 15 years.

The 58 year old abbot and two other Tibetans, a monk and a businessman,

were accused of "colluding with separatist forces abroad" and "seriously

jeopardising the national unification and unity of ethbic groups",

according to a report issued by Xinhua on 7th May.

Champa Chung, the monk in his fifties who assisted Chadrel Rinpoche,

received a four year sentence and Samdrup, a businessman in his 30s who

worked in the trading corporation associated with the monastery, was

sentenced to two years in prison.

The announcement was the first admission by the Chinese since the abbot

disappeared two years ago that he was in detention. For the first five

months after his disappearance in May 1995 the Chinese government said that

he had been taken ill and was recovering in an unnamed hospital.

In November that year the authorities denounced him and his associates as

"the scum of Buddhism", but did not say that he and the two other men had

been detained.

In the official denunciations, published in the Chinese press, the abbot,

who was head of the official search team for the Panchen Lama's

reincarnation, was accused of "interference and sabotage" and "violating

religious rituals" because he had delayed or varied the procedures used in

the search.

His main offences included carrying out a visit to a sacred lake without

consulting other officials and falsifying the results of a "rice-ball

divination", according to the 1995 denunciations published by Xinhua.

The abbot was also accused of having sent a letter to the exiled Dalai Lama

in December 1994 which named 25 Tibetan boys identified by the official

search team as candidates for the reincarnation of the former Panchen Lama.

The abbot was extensively criticised for following requests from the Dalai

Lama concerning the search procedure, but the denunciations did not refer

to any "splittist" or pro-independence activities by the abbot.

Chadrel Rinpoche is reported by unofficial sources to have been held for

the last year in a special prison for high-level officials in Heishui in

Sichuan, 200 km north-west of Chengdu, but his present whereabouts are

unknown.

- Trial in Shigatse -

The sentencing of the three men took place at the Intermediate Court in

Shigatse on 21st April, according to Xinhua, which said the main

proceedings were closed to the public because state secrets were involved

in the case. Chadrel Rinpoche and Champa Chung defended themselves and the

three prisoners decided not to appeal against their sentences, which are

already below the minimum specified for the charges.

Chadrel Rinpoche received two years for the state secrets charge - probably

a reference to the names of the 25 boys he is alleged to have sent to India

- and five years for plotting to split the country, with the total commuted

to six years. All three men were found guilty of "seriously jeopardising

the national unification and unity of ethnic groups, damaging the stability

and development of Tibet and committing the crime of splitting the

country". The Xinhua report on the trial did not say what political

activities had been carried out by the three men.

- A "Resplendent Model" -

Chadrel Rinpoche's aim during the Panchen Lama search appears to have been

to get both the state and the religious authorities to agree on the same

child as the reincarnation in order to avoid future disputes. His decision

to co-operate with the Dalai Lama was originally endorsed by the Chinese

authorities, who in July 1993 allowed him publicly to hand over a letter to

the Dalai Lama asking for assistance in the search for the reincarnation.

The Chinese authorities later changed their policy on religious contact

with the Dalai Lama and in July 1994 ruled that "we must reveal the true

political face of the Dalai hidden behind the religious mask". In March

1995 they broadcast a TV report entitled "Is Dalai still the spiritual

leader of a religion?" and since December 1995 press articles have

regularly referred to the Dalai Lama as "no longer a religious leader", in

effect closing the option of allowing contact with the Dalai Lama on

religious matters.

At the time of his detention Chadrel Rinpoche was a member of the national-

level Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a

vice-chairman of its TAR Committee. He was expelled from the regional

organisation on 22nd May 1996 for "losing the political standpoint of being

a patriotic personality".

In October 1994 he had received a major award from the regional government

for turning his monastery into a "Resplendent Model of Safe-guarding the

Unification of the Motherland by Displaying the Spirit of Patriotism".

"He stressed not supporting the splittists in any way whatsoever, and

stressed not speaking any word against the unity of the country and the

solidarity of the nationalities", said the official commendation of the

abbot, the first recipient of such an award. "The splittists hate the

Tashilhunpo monastery for holding up the banner of patriotism, and hate

their patriotic attitude", continued the commendation. He was stripped of

his position as acting abbot and head of the Tashilhunpo management

committee in July 1995.

Chamba Chung was the assistant to the abbot and deputy director of the

Panchen Lama's residence in Shigatse, near Tashilhunpo monastery. Samdrup,

who comes from Shigatse, was general manager of the Dram (known in Chinese

as Zhangmu) branch office of the Gang-gyen Corporation, a major trading

company affiliated to the monastery.

By January 1996 at least 56 Tibetans had been detained in connection with

the dispute over the Panchen Lama's reincarnation, according to unofficial

reports. 19 of these cases were monks at Tashilhunpo detained after a

protest there in July 1995 who were released without charge after some 3

months in prison. Four other Tashilhunpo monks were given sentences of six

months or one year and have now been released. One monk, Lobsang Tendor, is

still serving a two and a half year sentence, and three others - Gyatrul

Rinpoche, Phuntsog from Legling college and Champa from Trehor college -

are rumoured to be still in detention awaiting sentence.