Sangye Lhamo

Age: 26.

Status: whereabouts unknown .

ARRESTED FOR A PEACEFUL PROTEST AGAINST CHINA’S REPRESSION AND CONTINUED OCCUPATION OF TIBET

Sangye Lhamo is from Dungra Village, Serchuteng Township, Kardze County, Kham in eastern Tibet and was a nun at Dragkar Nunnery at the time of her arrest.

On May 28, 2008 Sangye Lhamo and two other nuns from her nunnery, Tsewang Kando (38) and Yeshi Lhadon (24), were detained at the market square of Kardze Town as they distributed leaflets calling for Tibet’s independence. Witnesses also claim that the three women shouted slogans – “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Freedom for Tibet.” Their whereabouts are unknown.

Sangye Lhamo’s protest was part of a second wave of dissent that followed earlier demonstrations in March 2008. On May 11th and 12th two separate protests were carried out by nuns from Sangye Lhamo's, Dragkar Nunnery and it is estimated that more than 80 nuns from Kardze were arrested that month.

Many reports from the protests claim that the nuns appealed for the immediate release of their fellow monks and nuns detained in earlier protests and for an end to the Chinese government’s stringent 'patriotic re-education' campaign in the region that forces monks and nuns to denounce the Dalai Lama and accept Chinese rule.

Sangye Lhamo's protest on May 28th only lasted minutes. She likely would have known the consequences of her actions – beatings, torture and the possibility of death. The strength of Sangye Lhamo and others like her, who risked everything for their freedom last spring, demonstrates the enduring resistance of Tibetans inside Tibet.