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Free Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche & Nyima Choedron

In 1999, Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche was wrongfully arrested by Chinese authorities for "attempting to split the country" in one of the most serious political cases in Tibet in recent years. Bangri Rinpoche, sentenced to life in prison, and his wife, Nyima Choedron, sentenced to seven years imprisonment, were humanitarians who founded and headed the Gyatso children's home and school until they were wrongfully implicated by Chinese authorities in a failed attempt by a local man to raise the Tibetan flag in Lhasa's main square.

Political Prisoner Profile Since Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche's imprisonment, there have been serious concerns for his health. He has been hospitalized at least once during his sentence, and an eyewitness report describes him as being shackled to a bed by the wrists and ankles in a solitary ward, although he was too weak to move.
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Politically Motivated Arrest

Chinese authorities erroneously connected Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche and his partner Nyima Choedron to an attempt by a Tibetan construction worker at the school to raise the Tibetan flag in the main square in Lhasa and to blow himself up with explosives. Gyatso children's home was closed, the children put out and other staff arrested and imprisoned after the same incident.

A member of staff who was arrested and imprisoned with Rinpoche, a nun now in her forties, has recounted how she was dragged away from the school by security police with children clinging to her legs and begging the police not to take her away. She was beaten and tortured in custody. Despite assurances from Chinese authorities that the children are being cared for in other homes after the Gyatso school's closure, many have been left to beg on the streets of Lhasa with nowhere to go.

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