Authorities in the Tibetan Kham region of China’s Sichuan Province detained four Tibetan nuns for nearly three weeks following their return to the area from India, RFA’s Tibetan service reports.
“The four nuns were detained by Ganzi County Public Security officials for about 20 days after their return from India,” a Tibetan source told RFA. “Those four nuns were taken into custody on Feb. 28, 2004, on suspicion of involvement in political activities.”
Chinese officials are generally suspicious of Tibetans returning from Nepal and India, where large numbers of Tibetan exiles are based. But Tibetan sources say early March is also a sensitive time of year in the region, as Tibetans commemorate a March 10, 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Public Security Bureau couldn’t be reached to comment on the case, and judiciary department and county court officials said they were unaware of it.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious and political leader, fled Lhasa in 1959 after an unsuccessful revolt against Chinese rule on March 10 of that year. He leads the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.
The four nuns fled to India in 1998 and enrolled for religious education at Namdoling Nyima Nunnery in Bylakuppe. “They completed seven years of Buddhist study at the nunnery in South India, but finally they had to go back for urgent family reasons,” the source said.
The four nuns were released on March 20, after their relatives vouched for them by paying a fine of 3,500 yuan (U.S.$422). “The relatives assured the officials that the nuns would not be involved in anything political,” said another source who asked not to be named.
Tibetan refugees routinely brave hazardous mountain journeys and risk imprisonment by Chinese authorities to seek out a traditional Buddhist education free from political restriction and social discrimination.
Those who return—often for family reasons—are treated with extreme suspicion and often sent to Chinese jails.
