Two influential Tibetans released from Chinese prison
Environmenalist Karma Samdup and writer Gendun Lhundup have been released from prison
Prominent Tibetan philanthropist and environmentalist Karma Samdup has been released on Monday from Shayar Prison in East Turkestan, and Gendun Lhundup, a prolific writer also known by his pen name Lhamkok, was released last weekend.
Undated old photos of Karma Samdup (left) and Gendun Lhundup (right)
Karma, 56, was a businessman in antique objects who was sentenced to 15 years on 24 June 2010 under falsified charges of grave robbing and dealing looted relics. He was in poor health while in prison.
Fifty-year-old Gendun was arrested on 2 December 2020 and known to have been sentenced to prison for four years, and two more years of “deprivation of political rights” for inciting separation – an accusation routinely used by the Chinese authorities against Tibetans critical of or suspected to be critical of the communist party-state. It is not known which prison he had been kept in.
Karma Samdup is from Dompa Village (སྡོམ་པ་གྲོང་།) in Samphel Township (བསམ་འཕེལ་ཞང་།) of Gonjo County (གོང་འཇོ་རྫོང་།) in Kham region. Born in 1974 in the Rebgong nomadic region, Gendun was a teacher at Rongwo Monastery. Since 1994, he has published numerous books. In October 2020, two months before his arrest, he published a book entitled Khorwa and urged fellow Tibetans to support it. He claimed that the book presents the truth as it is without bowing to orders.
