Tibetan writer severely ill after forced labour in prison
Update on Thupten Lodoe surfaces two years after his prison sentence
Tibetan writer Thupten Lodoe, arrested in October 2021, is severely ill after being subjected to forced labour in prison.
He has been transferred to a hospital, but the date of transfer, name of the hospital, and whether he still remains there remain unknown.
Two years ago, when Tibet Watch first reported about his prison sentence, there was no clarity about his whereabouts since his arrest and prison sentence. However, a source has now confirmed that Thupten had been in Dartsedo Prison.
Thupten was handed a prison sentence of four years and five months in June 2022 after being found guilty of “inciting separatism” and “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” The trial followed seven months of arbitrary detention.
Although the police arrested him on suspicion of writing posts of political nature on social media websites Weibo and QQ, Thupten Lodoe is also beloved for his short stories and essays, which are widely read inside Tibet and posted on various Tibetan language websites and literature platforms.
Thupten Lodoe, in his thirties, hails from Bum-nying village (འབུམ་རྙིང་སྡེ་བ།), Sershul County (སེར་ཤུལ་རྫོང་།), in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. He taught Tibetan language classes at Sershul County Middle School for years until he quit his teaching position due to the Chinese government’s repression.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
