Summary:  Lobsang Lhundup, also known by his pen name Dhi Lhaden, is a famous Tibetan writer, who was secretly arrested by security officials in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in June 2019. Following the 2008 uprising in Tibet, he wrote a book titled “The Art of Passive Resistance” in which he was critical of the Chinese rule in Tibet. Those close to Lhundup suspect that his arrest is linked to his involvement in teaching Tibetan history at a private cultural education centre in Chengdu.

Details: 

In June 2019, police in Chengdu municipality, Sichuan province, detained Tibetan writer and intellectual Lobsang Lhundrub—better known by his pen name Dhi Lhaden—near his Chengdu apartment. Authorities held him incommunicado at an unknown location, reportedly in Chengdu, on unreported charges. 

TCHRD learned in March 2020 that the police investigating Dhi Lhaden cited the English translation by TCHRD of his book “The Art of Passive Resistance” as evidence in his case. Sources believed that Dhi Lhaden’s detention also may have been connected with his work at a cultural center in Chengdu. 

In December 2020, authorities told his family that his trial was pending and that they could not visit him in custody.

In 2021, on an unknown date, unknown court sentenced Dhi Lhaden to 4 years in prison, reportedly for a crime related to “disturbing social order.”

Dhi Lhaden was formerly a monk at the Serthar Buddhist Institute, also known as Larung Gar, in Serthar (Seda) county, Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, and studied at Drepung and Sera monasteries in Lhasa. He is married and has a daughter.

Charge: “Disrupting social order”

Sentence: 4 Years

Prison: Unknown

Status: His current state of health is still unknown