Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, April 11: International rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged the Vietnamese government to launch an impartial and transparent investigation into the death of a prominent Tibetan religious leader, Hunkar Dorje Rinpoche, under what the organisation described as “suspicious circumstances” in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on March 29, 2025.
The 56-year-old lama, who headed the Lung Ngon Monastery in Gabde County, Golog Prefecture, Amdo Province, had been missing since November 2024. His sudden death in Vietnam, following reports of detention by Vietnamese police in cooperation with Chinese security operatives, has intensified fears of transnational repression against Tibetans abroad.
In a statement released Wednesday, Maya Wang, Associate China Director at HRW, said:
“Hunkar Dorje Rinpoche’s death in Vietnam is especially concerning given the Chinese government’s severe repression of Tibetans and its record of snatching its nationals in Vietnam.” She further stated, “The Vietnamese authorities should credibly and impartially investigate these claims and take appropriate action, including by providing autopsy findings to Hunkar Dorje’s family.”
According to exile sources, Hunkar Dorje fled Tibet in late September 2024 after being interrogated by local Chinese authorities after the Chinese Communist Party coerced him into hosting Gyaltsen Norbu, the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, at his monastery—an action he reportedly did not comply with wholeheartedly. His last known public appearance was in September during a government-hosted delegation at Lung Ngon Monastery, after which Chinese state media made no further mention of him—an unusual silence for such a prominent religious figure.
According to HRW, the Lung Ngon monastery on April 3, issued a statement that Rinpoche had gone on retreat due to health issues and died suddenly of illness in Vietnam. However, exiled Tibetans allege that this narrative was fabricated under pressure and contradicts the lama’s known health and travel circumstances.
The monastery’s statement is incomplete and may have been written under some form of duress, Human Rights Watch said, given the Chinese authorities’ tight control over the management of Tibetan monasteries.
The incident comes amid a broader crackdown by Beijing on Tibetan educators and monastics who promote the Tibetan language and culture, particularly in regions like Golok in eastern Tibet. Human Rights Watch notes that Chinese authorities have long engaged in transnational repression—human rights abuses carried out beyond China’s borders to silence dissent. This includes targeting Tibetans living abroad who are critical of the Chinese government or involved in cultural, religious, or political activities deemed threatening by Beijing.
According to HRW, unconfirmed reports suggest that members of Lung Ngon Monastery who may have accompanied Rinpoche to Vietnam were also detained and may be at risk of repatriation to China, where they could face torture and persecution. HRW reminded Vietnam of its legal obligations under the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they may face serious harm.
HRW has called on Vietnam to follow the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death, urging authorities to provide the lama’s family with detailed information on the cause of death, ensure the return of his remains, and allow for independent scrutiny.
“Foreign governments should press the Vietnamese government for answers on Hunkar Dorje Rinpoche’s death,” said Wang. “They should hold Vietnamese officials accountable for complicity in China’s abusive practices in Vietnam and take measures to prevent their recurrence.”
In a press conference held Tuesday at the Department of Information and International Relations in Dharamshala, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) spokesperson Tenzin Lekshay condemned the circumstances surrounding Hunkar Dorje’s death. He alleged that the lama was arrested on March 25 in a joint operation by Vietnamese police and Chinese intelligence and died just four days later while in custody.
He urged the international community to denounce the unexplained death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje and to demand full transparency from both Chinese and Vietnamese authorities regarding his detention and demise. He emphasized that the body must be returned without delay to Lungngon Monastery so that a proper funeral, in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist customs, can be performed.
One Response
The exile Tibetan world is turning topsy turvy! In occupied Tibet, Tibetans are mourning the death of a respected patriotic Lama who has been murdered in Vietnam after he fled communist China’s persecution for standing up the protection of Tibet’s unique culture, language, religion and identity! There is hardly a squeak from the public let alone any demonstrations! However, in Mundgod in southern India, a lynch mob created a ruckus against two monk parlimentaries who are visiting the area. The mob carried placards condemning the age old union of “Dharma and politics” (ཆོས་སྲིད་ཟུང་འབྲེལ་) and distributed leaflets to the guests and other officials in the auditorium. The message was not lost on any one though. It was a subtle way of rejecting the religious parliamentarians as irrelevant in this day and age and they want monks and nuns to be banned from participating in politics all together! This issue arose after Sikyong Penpa Tsering came to power! It is an entirely new issue during the tenure of this present incumbent! On the one hand they proclaim that the Dalai Lama bequeathed democracy to the exiles and regard it as something very precious. Yet on the other hand, the edifice that was erected by the Dalai Lama in terms of representation was inclusive of all spheres of Tibetan population by creating a representative body consisting of the three political regions of Tibet (ཆོལ་གསུམ་) the four Buddhist schools of ས་སྐྱ་ བཀའ་རྒྱུད་ རྙིངམ་ དགེ་ལུགས་ plus གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་ This was a brainchild of the Dalai Lama. However, after 66 years of an inclusive representation of all walks of life in exile community, a section of the populace who are supporters of the incumbent are hellbent to dismantle the very structure that the Dalai Lama himself envisioned and unanimously accepted by the Tibetan people in its inception. These people are being selective in the sense that they want to keep the ones that suits them but eliminate the others that is not to their liking even if it is engineered by non other than the the Dalai Lama himself! Is that acceptable? I think not! You can’t have both ways! Besides, the monk and nun community makes a sizeable chunk of the population in exile. During one of the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra initiation in Bodh Gaya in 1985, there were 40,000 celibate monks and nuns in attendance of the Kalachakra! Even if that number may have dwindled since then, still the clergy population is still significant. To deny representation to one of the most educated, highly visible and intellectually productive section of the population is not only wrong but undemocratic and immoral! Democracy demands representation of every section of the nation’s population. That is why the Government formed by such inclusive mechanism is called representative Government. Instead of fighting for the independence of Tibet, these people are indulging in communal politics and disruptive behaviour. THIS IS ABUSE OF DEMOCRACY! The monk and nun community has been at the receiving end of communist China’s oppression and suppression in occupied Tibet! Most of Tibetan prisoners languishing in Chinese prisons in occupied Tibet are monks and nuns to this day! Sixty six years later, what the CCP is doing in occupied Tibet against the monk and nun community is replicated by a section of pro-CCP useful idiots in exile. This could well be the handi-work of the United Front of the CCP. It clearly demonstrates that the CCP has infiltrated the exile community to create discord and plunge the exile Tibetans into mindless feud that will ultimately destroy the Free Tibet Movement through disunity and animosity bedevilling the exile community!