“During one of their campaigns to re-educate the nuns, the nuns all went on hunger strike and did not eat a morsel for days and nights […] We did our prayers and chanting and we did not give in”
– Anonymous nun from Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Nunnery
Driru Nunnery destruction
The Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Nunnery was also targeted in the 2013 crackdown in Driru. Most of its nuns were forced to leave. A political re-education campaign was also imposed on the nuns, who responded by going on hunger strike and refused to read the propaganda material given to them.
In September 2014, a large number of official “work teams” arrived at the nunnery. A total of 26 nuns were expelled after they refused to criticise the Dalai Lama. Similar to other religious institutes in Tibet, a restriction of registered pupils (in this case 140) had been placed on Jhada Gon Palden Khachoe Nunnery. One year later, in late September 2015, authorities expelled a further 106 nuns from the nunnery and then demolished their living quarters, leaving many of them homeless and seeking shelter. The nunnery now houses between 40 and 50 nuns.
Free Tibet’s research partner Tibet Watch has published a comprehensive report examining the role of monasteries in defending Tibet – and the price they have paid in repression.
You can read the full report here, as well as the executive summary here.
[Content warning: the above reports contains graphic images of injuries that some may find distressing]
