Tibetan singer released early
Palden was warned with rearrest if he performs any songs deemed politically sensitive
Tibet Watch has learned that Tibetan singer Palden was released in secret last month before the end of his three-year prison sentence.
Palden was released on 25 September but still remains under the close watch of police. He had been warned with rearrest should he perform any further songs that contain any politically sensitive messages or political connotations.
Tibet Watch first learned about Palden’s situation in late January 2024, when a source shared that he had been arbitrarily detained and sentenced to three years in prison in November following a secret trial. The source noted that his sentencing was unusually fast.
The singer, who hails from Yotak village (ཡོ་སྟག་སྡེ་བ།), Dedha Township (དྷི་མདའ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།), Pema County (པདྨ་རྫོང་།), in eastern Tibet, was arrested for performing the song Messenger of [Tibetan] Empire (བཙན་པོའི་ཕོ་ཉ།) online in December 2022 as part of a singing contest with a Dranyen, a Tibetan stringed instrument that Palden loves to play.
His social media account went silent months later, with no pictures or music posted after 26 March 2023. The source informed Tibet Watch that the police deemed the song to be patriotic and therefore politically sensitive.
A source informed Tibet Watch that Palden “was interrogated for a long time in detention… He was never given a free and fair trial, but [instead] he was later informed by the authority [prefecture level] that he had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment [without any legal documentation].”
As of December 2023, Palden was known to be being held incommunicado in a detention centre in Pema County. Information about where he was subsequently imprisoned is currently unknown, as are the circumstances of his release on 25 September. Palden was denied family visits throughout his detention period and while he was is prison. Palden’s current health condition is unknown.
Palden participation in the December 2022 contest brought him widespread renown and admiration from across Tibet. He became popular for his sincere personality and his song Remembering Mother, which was widely shared afterward. As of this year, he had an online following of over 98.5 thousand people.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
