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Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche
Photo: the Telegraph

One of Tibet’s most high-profile political prisoners, the senior monk Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche has been released after eight years in a Chinese prison.

While one source claims that Rinpoche was escorted secretly to his home in Dhartsedo, Kardze, another says that he is staying in Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu, potentially undergoing medical check-ups and treatment. He has been forbidden from making a statement about his release.

The monk’s health is uncertain, though it has been a major concern for human rights groups in the past after reports of torture and mal-nutrition emerged. One visitor to Mianyang prison in 2014 told the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy of Rinpoche’s worrying condition. “At first I couldn’t recognize him as he had become so weak, almost emaciated,” he stated.

Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche was arrested by Chinese authorities in May 2008, aged 52. As abbot of the Pang-ri nunnery in Kardze, eastern Tibet, he was blamed for a peaceful protest against an enforced political and patriotic re-education campaign. When ordered to sign a document criticising the Dalai Lama, he refused and he, along with 54 nuns, were arrested.

By the time he stood trial in April 2009, Rinpoche also faced charges of weapon possession. A pistol and more than 100 bullets were allegedly found by Chinese police under a bed in his living room. Rinpoche insisted that he had been framed but after enduring four days of torture, and after his wife and son were threatened with imprisonment, he admitted to the charges.

Despite his lawyer’s insistence that the evidence provided by the authorities was extremely questionable, he was found guilty of “inciting separatism” and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

As a highly respected Tulku (living Buddha) of Tehor Kardze Monastery and head of both Pang-ri and Ya-tseg nunneries, it is thought that Rinpoche’s widespread influence was considered a threat by Chinese authorities and could explain his arrest. He was a pillar of Tibetan society, also running a home for the elderly and another for orphans and handicapped children. His arrest sent reverberations of shock and dismay through the community and news of his safe return home is now awaited.