Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Aug 22: Geshe Shersang Gyatso, a 52-year-old Tibetan monk and respected leader of Tsang Monastery in Amdo, eastern Tibet, has died after taking his own life on August 18 in protest against relentless pressure and escalating repression by Chinese authorities, reported Tibet Times, a Tibetan media outlet based in Dharamshala.
According to the report, in the days leading up to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, Chinese officials carried out sweeping inspections at Tsang Monastery. Security personnel searched monks’ residences room by room, where photographs of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader were discovered in several quarters. The monastery was subsequently placed under strict lockdown, severely restricting the monks’ movements. Additionally, all monks under the age of eighteen were expelled.
From July 20 onward, authorities tightened controls further. Monks were subjected to repeated daily searches, forced political indoctrination sessions, and widespread disruption of traditional religious activities. Centuries-old rituals and ceremonies were also disregarded, causing deep distress among the monastic community.
Nomadic communities under Tsang Monastery’s spiritual jurisdiction, who customarily invite monks for religious services during the fifth and sixth Tibetan months, were also denied access this year—a move that not only violated long standing traditions but also constituted a blatant infringement of religious freedom.
Amid this climate of coercion, Geshe Shersang Gyatso, who also served as director of the monastery’s management committee, ended his life on the afternoon of August 18 by jumping from the upper floor of the monastery’s shop building. TT’s report stated that his act was seen as a final protest against China’s unyielding repression.
Originally from Arig village in Sog County of Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Geshe Shersang Gyatso was widely respected for his scholarship, discipline, and moral integrity. Tsang Monastery, among the largest in the Amdo region, is home to nearly a thousand monks from Malho, Tsolho, and Golog. Within this vast institution, Geshe Shersang Gyatso stood out as one of its most accomplished and revered figures.
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China’s iron grip on Tsang Monastery—expelling monks, banning rituals, and crushing Tibetan identity—is a calculated move to erase cultural resistance. Geshe Shersang Gyatso’s tragic protest signals escalating oppression. Global powers must counter this strategic erasure.
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Have a look at this and do spread it to the max so that it reaches the so called GLOBAL SUPERPOWERS.
This is a very tragic incident but life under brutal Chinese occupation is hell on earth. On the surface, it looks deceptive. There are lot of changes which the Chinese call “development” but all these so called “developments” are in fact nothing but consolidation of Chinese power and control in occupied Tibet and tighten its grip on the people of Tibet. Just like a thief is ever suspicious of its criminality, the communist regime is ever suspicious of the Tibetans and are vigilant in hiding its crime behind a facade of window-dressing and massive propaganda to airbrush its crimes. It always boasts of what it brought to occupied Tibet and vilifies independent Tibet in order to give a pretext for its crime of illegal invasion, atrocities and brutal occupation! It never admits how much they have taken from occupied Tibet! Even though the CCP made bombastic claims on statistics and a show of much fanfare, the actual truth is, the arrival of Xi was announced only 12 hrs before the event. All the monasteries were locked down in fear of the monks taking to the streets. The roads around Lhasa city had multiple check points. Hotels were told not to accept new clients and those who were already lodged in hotels were confined to their rooms. There were snipers on roof tops of monasteries and the whole of Lhasa city was milling with security personnel. Xi didn’t make any speeches according to reports owing to suspected ill- health! His eyes did look puffy and some suggest his gait is also slow and awkward! The “most dangerous man” is Wang Huning, the ideologue of the CCP. It seems, he is responsible for all ideological matters of the CCP. His emphasis on Sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism is in-fact CALLING FOR THE ERASURE OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM IN OCCUPIED TIBET! THE CCP SEES TIBETAN BUDDHISM AS THE GREATEST HURDLE IN SINISIZING TIBET. BESIDES, ALL THE RESISTANCE TO CHINESE OCCUPATION OF TIBET COMES MAINLY FROM THE BUDDHIST MONKS OF TIBET AND GESHE SHERSANG GYATSO IS THE LATST VICTIM OF THE CCP’S CAMPAIGN TO ROOT-OUT THE GUARDIANS OF BUDDHISM. THAT IS WHY, TIBETAN CHILDREN ARE BANNED FROM CELEBRATING TIBETAN HOLY DAYS AND DISALLOWED TO VISIT MONASTERIES AND MEET THE MONKS! Tibetan Buddhism is the very identity of the Tibetan people! If it is snuffed out, that will be the end of Tibetan identity. Banning Tibetan language is rooted in the uprooting of Tibetan Buddhism once and for all. Right from day one of the Chinese communist invasion and occupation of Tibet, BUDDHISM WAS THE MAIN TARGET OF CHINESE COMMUNIST VANDALISM AND CULTURAL DESTRUCTION. THE MONKS AND NUNS BORE THE BRUNT OF COMMUNIST CHINA’S CULTURAL ANNIHILATION AND ANTI-BUDDHIST MAYHEM! The campaign is on going and is only ramping up the ante by making euphemistic slogans to cloak it with a veneer of plausibility! TIBETANS MUST KNOW THAT DESTRUCTION OF RELIGION IS THE ETERNAL GOAL OF MARXISTS!!!