Where is Ngawang Choephel


September 15, 1996 the first anniversary of Ngawang's detention is quickly approaching. A number of communities and campuses are planning events to mark the anniversary, and filmmakers American Robin Garthwait and Dan Griffin will be releasing a 30 minute version of the film for groups to show and use for the anniversary.

There are now about 100 people in the US and abroad who are actively working on behalf of Ngawang, and the campaign is steadily gaining attention of individuals, organizations and government officials in the West, and more importantly, Chinese officials are now taking notice and investigating the case.

Case Update

So far, there has still been no official confirmation from the Chinese government about Ngawang's whereabouts, his health or charges against him. However, the Chinese government is finally beginning to look into his case. An assistant to Li Daoyu, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., called Senator Jeffords' office on August 13, and said that they were looking into the case. Senators Jeffords and Leahy, and Congressman Sanders, all from Vermont, are taking an active interest in Ngawang.


Appeal for Ngawang Choephel

28 March 1996

 

Ngawang Choephel, a 29 year-old Tibetan exile, is reported to have been detained in Tibet since August 1995. He had travelled there in July 1995 to make a film documentary about traditional Tibetan performing arts and was first reported missing by his mother who was expecting him to return to India in December.

According to exiled Tibetan businessman Dorji Rinchen, who was released from detention in Tibet in October 1995, Ngawang Choephel is currently being held in Nyari detention centre in Shigatse. Dorji Rinchen left Tibet two years ago to settle in India, but was detained by police in Shigatse on 14 August 1995 while visiting relatives. In September 1995 Dorji Rinchen was moved to Nyari detention centre and on 16 September he "was shocked to see two prison officials bringing in Ngawang Choephel". Dorji Rinchen had previously met Ngawang Choephel in Nepal.

During two brief conversations in Nyari detention centre, Ngawang Choephel told Dorji Rinchen that he had been detained from the marketplace in Shigatse and he talked about the work he had been doing recording traditional Tibetan music and dance on video. He also said that his travel documents, camera and two video tapes had been confiscated. Dorji Rinchen said that at the time of his release, on 8 October 1995, "Ngawang Choephel was still in prison at that time and he appeared to be in good health".

The exact date of Ngawang Choephel's detention in Shigatse is not known. Before being seen by Dorji Rinchen in Nyari detention centre he was last seen on 20 August 1995 when he parted from his travelling companion in Lhasa with the intention of travelling alone to Shigatse before returning to India in November. During his visit, Ngawang Choephel had been questioned by police about his filming on more than one occasion and had also been asked to show his travel documents.

Dorji Rinchen's testimony gives a detailed account of him being tortured and ill-treated in Nyari detention centre, including being "strapped and stretched on a wooden plank and left without food for the night" and of being placed in solitary confinement without food or clothing. He says that he was beaten and hit with sticks, "they hit me all over my body and boxed my face. My eyes were stung with each blow. During the whole interrogation session, I was handcuffed and by the time they had finished questioning and torturing me, my wrists were bleeding". He also describes his conditions of detention saying that he was given boiled water for breakfast, lunch was the last meal of the day and consistedof either a Tibetan bun or rice, with boiled water to drink. His relatives were not allowed to bring food or clothing. Dorji Rinchen was released after 54 days in detention and left Tibet on 13 October.

In a document given to Dorji Rinchen's wife by the authorities, the reason given for his detention was that he did not have valid travel documents. However, Dorji Rinchen says that he was accused by the police of "carrying documents about the Panchen Lama reincarnation issue produced by the Tibetan government-in-exile", and that he was also accused of having "come to Tibet with the purpose of disrupting the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Tibet Autonomous Region". Dorji Rinchen reported having heard from other prisoners that Nyari detention centre holds more than 500 prisoners, all but two of whom are Tibetans and that the majority are detained for political reasons.

While he was in the detention centre, Dorji Rinchen met Lobsang Tsultrim, a 20 year-old monk from Tashilhunpo monastery, of which the Panchen Lama is the traditional head. Amnesty International remains concerned about the abbot and many monks from the monastery, as well as several laypeople, who have spent several months in detention in connection with the disputed choice of the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. It also remains concerned about Gendun Choekyi Nyima, a six year-old boy announced by the Dalai Lama to be the 11th Panchen Lama, and his family, who have been missing from their home since May 1995.

Originally from Tibet, Ngawang Choephel and his family went to live in India when he was two years old. Ngawang Choephel studied up to the age of 15 in the Central School for Tibetans, in Mundgod Tibetan settlement in South India. He later joined the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, from where he obtained a diploma in Tibetan music and dance and went on to become a music and dance teacher. He studied music for one year on a prestigious scholarship at Middlebury College, Vermont, in the United States.

 

Footnotes:

1. Ngawang Choephel has an Indian Identity Certificate but as this is not recognized for travel in China he travelled to Tibet as an "overseas Chinese" visitor with a document issued by the Chinese authorities in India.

2. See AI documents: 6-year old boy missing and over 50 detained in Panchen Lama dispute, ASA 17/07/96, 18 January 1996, Three detained in Panchen Lama controversy, ASA 17/40/95, 20 June 1995, and Crackdown on Tibetan dissent continues, ASA 17/74/95, 29 September 1995.

 

Please send telegrams/telexes/express and airmail letters in English, Chinese or in your own language,urging the immediate and unconditional release of Ngawang Choephel unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence;

President of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Government
Gyaltsen Norbu Zhuxi
Xizang Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
1 Kang'angdonglu
850000
Xizang Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China
Telexes: 68014 FAOLT CN or 68007
PGVMT CN

Salutation: Dear President

Telegram: President of the Regional People's Government
Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous
Region, People's Republic of China

Director of the Department of Public Security Bureau
Nyima Tsering Juzhang
Gong'anju

Kung Jue Lin Zhe lu er hao
Shigatseshi
Xizang Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China

Salutation: Dear Director

Telegram: Director of the Department of
Public Security
Shigatse
Tibet Autonomous Region
People's Republic of China

INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT
1 EASTON STREET
LONDON WC1X 8DJ
UNITED KINGDOM


An Open Letter to All Supporters of Human Rights in Tibet from Ngawang Choephel's friend

 

July 1996

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you to appeal for your immediate action to help free Ngawang Choephel, who has reportedly been imprisoned in Shigatse Tibet, since August, 1995. At the time he was detained he was in Tibet researching traditional Tibetan folk music and had in his possession a video camera.

Ngawang Choephel is a close friend of mine. I met him in 1987 while I was living in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India, where he was studying at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA). We became very good friends, and in December that year we travelled to Ahmednagar in south India to stay with his mother and his uncle. Ngawang had wanted to spend his school holidays with his family and to help them with their street-side business of selling sweaters. I stayed with him and his family and we also visited his village in Mungod and Ganden and Drepung monasteries together.

Ngawang's mother, Sonam Dickey carried him on her back over the Himalayas and out of Tibet in 1966, when he was only 2 years old. He was raised in South India in the Tibetan settlement at Mungod. After he finished high school, he studied traditional Tibetan folk music, song, and dance at TIPA, where he was recognized as an outstanding student. He completed his diploma in 1988, and after graduation taught music at Tibetan schools in Mungod and Bylakuppe. In 1993 he was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and went to the United States to continue his musical studies at Middlebury College, Vermont. One his primary goals was to learn Western musical notation so that he could preserve Tibet's musical heritage in a form accessible to a general audience. Another of his priorities was to make a video of Tibetan folk music and dance for use as an educational tool.

The last time I saw Ngawang was in the autumn of 1994 at a Halloween gathering in Amherst, Massachusetts. A few months later he left for India. He was looking forward to seeing his mother. His plan then was to travel to Tibet to research and record music in his homeland. He believed that there was a wonderful legacy of traditional songs and dances preserved in the memories of the older people in Tibetan villages, and his dream was to record it for posterity. Since young Tibetans in Tibet are not free to learn and enjoy traditional rites of celebration and expression, Ngawang believed that if he didn't speak to the elders and record the music in their minds, it would be lost forever.

Ngawang Choephel has been imprisoned for more than ten months! News of his detention was reported February, 1996, and appeals for his release have only just begun. He was in Tibet doing what his Western education at Middlebuty College taught him to do-scholarly research. Now he is in prison. It is quite likely he has been subject to ill-treatment and abuse. His detention has never been confirmed or acknowledged by the Chinese.

I am deeply concerned for Ngawang's well-being and appeal to you now to help bring his illegal imprisonment to the attention of the Chinese government. Please go to the post office, buy 10 or 20 aerograms (only 50 cents each), and write letters to the Chinese official. If you can, please write more than once. Your letters will help Ngawang. Through our compassionate efforts we must demand his immediate release.

I appeal to you from my heart, PLEASE HELP NGAWANG!

It would also be a great help if you would contact your elected government representatives on Ngawang's behalf, and encourage your local Tibet support organization to campaign actively on his behalf.

Since 19871 have been doing my tiny, tiny bit to help Tibet by being a member of Tibet support groups, going to demonstrations, writing a few letters, and helping disseminate and publish information about Tibet. Clearly this is not enough. The urge to do much more has suddenly awakened in me. Unfortunately, it has taken a close friend's becoming a political prisoner to wake me up in this way. I hope you will not be as complacent as I was.

Thank you so much,

Wendy Cook

Brookline, MA

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Last updated: 14-Jan-97