Court Official Acknowledges Imprisoning Tibetans Who Carried Dalai Lama Photos Into the TAR

January 26, 2006

An official of the Shigatse (Rikaze) Prefecture Intermediate People's Court, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), acknowledged that during the past decade the court sentenced more than 20 Tibetans to between one and five years imprisonment for offenses that included possessing photos of the Dalai Lama, according to a September 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report.

An official of the Shigatse (Rikaze) Prefecture Intermediate People's Court, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), acknowledged that during the past decade the court sentenced more than 20 Tibetans to between one and five years imprisonment for offenses that included possessing photos of the Dalai Lama, according to a September 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. The official, who declined to be identified, asserted the court's authority to "sentence any individual who commits reactionary actions." He confirmed an RFA report on August 11 that an 18-year-old Tibetan had been imprisoned in 2001 for bringing religious material featuring the Dalai Lama's photo with him when he returned from India to his family home in Gansu province.

Chinese law enforcement authorities sometimes characterize the possession of printed or recorded materials featuring the Dalai Lama's likeness or his religious teachings as a threat to state security, especially when a Tibetan carries them across China's international frontier. The court official addressed the issue of importation, telling RFA that, "Any document that relates to Tibetan independence, Dalai Lama photos, or any other documents or literature containing reactionary themes or subjects are punishable." The severity of the sentence, he said, "depends on the quantity of illegal materials brought in from abroad. The court documents specify guidelines for the decisions we should make. The materials could be photos of the Dalai Lama, or other documents inciting separatist activities."

Information in the CECC Political Prisoner Database (PPD) accords roughly with the Shigatse official's statement. For the period 1996 onward, the PPD records 30 cases of Tibetan political prisoners who either served sentences in Shigatse, or were sentenced in Shigatse and transferred to Lhasa's TAR Prison. All but two are believed to have completed sentences ranging from one to six years.

Tibetans living in China rarely receive official permission to travel to India. They make the journey without a passport or visa, trekking across Himalayan mountain passes that lead into Nepal, and return the same way. Tibetans whom Chinese police catch crossing into the TAR without proper documents typically face about three months in detention if they are not carrying religious or political material that Chinese authorities characterize as a threat to state security.

Additional information about the Chinese government's policy toward the Dalai Lama is available in CECC Annual Reports.