Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, April 12: The Tibetan exile community worldwide has mobilized in protest following the suspicious death of prominent Buddhist leader Tulku Hungkar Dorje under Chinese custody in Vietnam. Demonstrations, candlelight vigils, and formal appeals have been organized across several countries, urging the Vietnamese government to ensure a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his demise.
Around 20 members of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on Friday staged a demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, calling on the international community to pressure both the Vietnamese and Chinese authorities to release a full and impartial report on the arrest and death of Tulku Hungkar Dorje. Prior to the protest, the activists visited the Vietnamese Embassy where they met with officials and submitted a petition demanding an international inquiry, the return of Rinpoche’s remains to his monastery and family, and the public disclosure of all findings.
In the United Kingdom, the Tibetan community held a candlelight vigil opposite the Chinese Embassy, expressing solidarity and demanding justice for the revered Buddhist figure. In Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, a similar vigil was held to honor his memory.
A coalition of six Tibetan advocacy organizations—Tibet Justice Center, International Tibet Network, Tibet Action Institute, Students for a Free Tibet, Free Tibet, and Australia Tibet Council—issued a joint letter pressing for an urgent, independent investigation and calling for the immediate repatriation of Rinpoche’s body to allow for proper funeral rites.
Tulku Hungkar Dorje, the abbot of Lungngon Monastery in Gade County, Golok, Tibet, had reportedly fled to Vietnam in late September 2024 after facing a series of interrogations by Chinese authorities in August. On March 25, 2025, he was detained from his hotel room in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in a joint operation involving Vietnamese police and Chinese intelligence agents. Three days later, on March 28, he was transferred to a local public security bureau, where he died under mysterious circumstances that same day.
His body is reportedly being held at Vinmec Central Park International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. On April 1, the administrative office of Lungngon Monastery was summoned by Chinese authorities to receive his death certificate.
On April 5, five monks from Lungngon Monastery, accompanied by Chinese government officials, traveled to Vietnam to retrieve the remains. That same day, a meeting was held at the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, attended exclusively by Chinese delegates—Tibetan representatives were denied entry. It remains uncertain whether they were able to view or claim the body. Access to the hospital is currently under strict control, with military personnel guarding the premises and entry severely restricted.
One Response
Thank you to the young freedom fighters of Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetans in the UK and those Tibetans in India for standing up for the murdered Tibetan patriot and abbot of Lungin monastery Tulku Hungkar Dorje. The Han chauvinist regime headed by the grotesque Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is responsible for the murder of Tulku HunkarDorje Rinpoche. The CCP is a pathological lier and fabricates everything in order to hide its evil deeds and deceive the world. In 2024, a Swedish publisher GUI Minhai was kidnapped from Thailand by Chinese agents for publishing a salacious sexual dalliances of dictator Xi Jinping and forcibly taken to China. Even though he was a Swedish citizen, the regime went against its own nationalities law and stripped GUI of his Swedish citizenship and gave him his original Chinese citizenship back!!! So, the Swedish Government had no contact with him!!!
When people found out the disappearance of GUI from Thailand for three months, the CCP produced him in China and made to confess on a Chinese TV that “he had voluntarily surrounded to the Chinese for interrogation purposes”!!! This was a lie he was forced to tell to save his own life! The so called statement by the monastery about Hunkar Rinpoche having “gone on retreat and died suddenly” is a total fabrication by the CCP which the monastery was forced to peddle like GUI Minhai. It’s the same lie that is being regurgitated in the case of Tulku Hunkar Dorje’s death. No Buddhist worth his salt would go for retreat in a hotel!!! Buddhists go to retreat where there is no hustle and bustle to concentrate on the Buddha’s teaching! The CCP’s lie is laid bare by the very fact of this inconsistency. He fled Chinese gestapos as soon as he got wind of his imminent arrest. He was murdered through torture during interrogation in Hochi Minh City!!! In order to cover its tracks, the CCP is using the monastery to whitewash its crime! The Vietnamese Government and Thai Government and in fact most of Asian countries are hobnobbing with communist China when it comes to human rights. Their own poor human rights record have made communist China their partner in crime. The case of 20 Uyghur dissidents forcibly sent back to China by the present Thai leader Shinawatra clearly shows the utter disregard for human life by Asian countries! To be fair to the then Thai Government, Chinese agents kidnapped GUI by tracking him on his WeChat! The Thai police were unaware of the clandestine kidnapping saga by the CCP regime. The CCP flouts international laws and engages in all sorts of clandestine activities including translational terrorism!