Tibetan Writer Dies After Eight Years of Failing Health Following Release From Prison

A Tibetan writer jailed for three years for criticizing Chinese government policies in Tibet died this week in Sichuan’s capital Chengdu after suffering ill health for eight years following his release, Tibetan sources say. Ra Tsering Dhondup, who wrote under the pen name Shinglo Marpo, was a monk at the Rongtha monastery in Khyungchu county in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and was 34 at the time of his death.

Dhondup was arrested in February 2010 for publishing a magazine “whose content criticized the Chinese communist government,” Gendun Tsering—a friend and former colleague of Dhondup’s now living in India—told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“He was first detained in Barkham and was later sent to Mianyang Prison to complete his three-year sentence,” Tsering said. “He was released in 2013, but he was in failing health, and later he succumbed to liver disease and passed away.”

A magazine published by Dhondup had described conditions in Tibet after protests opposing Chinese rule swept the region in 2008, leading to hundreds of arrests and deaths at the hands of Chinese security forces, another friend of Dhondup said, also speaking from exile.

“Ra Tsering Dhondup, another friend, and I myself worked on that magazine together. However, it was published only once,” he said.

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