Tibetan Monk Commits Suicide Following Crackdown
Fifty-two year old Shersang Gyatso died at his monastery in Ba County following an intensive crackdown.
On 18 August 2025, a fifty-two year old monk at the Tsanggon Dondup Rabten Ling Monastery in Ba (Chinese: Tongde) County, Amdo, committed suicide in the midst of an intense crackdown on religious freedoms.
Shersang Gyatso (ཤེར་བཟང་རྒྱ་མཚོ།) was a respected scholar and member of the monastery’s management committee, and had been facing intense pressure amid a wide-ranging crackdown at the monastery by Chinese authorities since May. This crackdown, which intensified in the weeks leading up to and during the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday celebrations, saw the monastery raided by authorities searching for images of the Dalai Lama, as well as a ban on traditional religious ceremonies ahead of the exiled religious leader’s birthday.
These raids extended beyond the common areas of the monastery, as authorities conducted extensive searches of monks’ private living quarters. During the crackdown, monks were confined in the monastery, and an unknown number of young monks under the age of 18 were expelled.
By refusing to allow traditional religious ceremonies, the distress of these crackdowns spread to local people. Tsanggon Dondup Rabten Ling (གཙང་དགོན་དོན་གྲུབ་རབ་བརྟན་གླིང་།) Monastery has close ties to the nomadic communities across the region. Without the monastery performing these religious ceremonies, the nomadic peoples were left without key religious ties.
Following the Dalai Lama’s birthday there was a brief period of relaxing restrictions. However, this was quickly reversed, as from 20 July monks were required to attend daily political education meetings, forced to denounce the Dalai Lama, and were subjected to further searches of their living quarters.
Shersang Gyatso’s death is the latest in a series of tragic suicides that has been observed by our sister organisation, Tibet Watch, and other Tibet monitoring organisations following the 2008 Tibetan Uprising. Intensified crackdowns on Tibetan religious institutions has led to monks and nuns experiencing unbearable psychological trauma during ‘patriotic education’ campaigns, as well as resulting in monks and nuns becoming victims of physical violence at the hands of Chinese authorities.
More information on this story and the crackdown at Tsanggon Dondup Rabten Ling Monastery can be found at the Tibet Watch website.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
