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Rukhag 3: The Nuns of Drapchi Prisonorganisation, which came into being a month later at midnight 31 December 1994.) A housewife in her mid-forties, NgawangYudron, detained two weeks after Chungdag and sentenced to six years at Drapchi, became the second female politicalprisoner at Drapchi in this period.Even in the tightly controlled and traumatic environment of military rule, small groups of Tibetans from nunneries in theLhasa area remained defiant. Nearly 30 nuns are known to have been detained for staging protests or putting up posters5while martial law was in force. All but a few served prison sentences. The first group, from Chubsang nunnery on thenorthern fringe of Lhasa, was detained in early September 1989, and punished by administrative sentences of two or threeyears. Some of the nuns were held at Gutsa Prison, a locality-based name for the Lhasa City (Ch: Shi) Public Security Bureau6(PSB) Detention Centre , situated about six kilometres east of central Lhasa. Some of those who received three year sentenceswould finish their terms at Trisam Prison, an informal Tibetan name for the TAR Re-education Through Labour Center,located about 14 kilometres west of the city centre. Trisam became operational as a laojiao in 1992. 7[see Image 35: Gutsa PSB Detention Centre][see Image 34: Trisam Re-education Through Labour Centre]Only three weeks later a group of nuns from Shugsib nunnery, in the hills of Chushur county southwest of Lhasa,demonstrated in the Barkor. All of them received administrative sentences to Trisam except Rinchen Choenyi, who wassentenced to seven years at Drapchi. According to TIN’s records, she became the third female political prisoner – and thefirst nun – at Drapchi during the current period of political unrest which began in 1987. Three weeks later, in mid-October1989, a group from Mechungri Nunnery, on a mountainside overlooking northeast Lhasa, staged another protest. Four ofthe nuns were sent to Trisam and two were imprisoned at Drapchi with longer sentences. One, Phuntsog Pema, was releasedin 1997 but the other, Phuntsog Nyidrol, remains in Drapchi serving a sentence that was extended to 17 years in 1993.Phuntsog Nyidrol was the fourth female political prisoner, and the second nun, to arrive at Drapchi since 1987. She has beenin prison longer than any other female Tibetan political prisoner. With her release scheduled for 2006, there is only onefemale political prisoner due for release after her, Ngawang Sangdrol.[see Images 16a, 16b: Mechungri Nunnery][see Image 19: Shugsib Nunnery]Military rule in Lhasa was lifted after nearly 14 months, on International Labour Day, 1 May 1990. Drapchi’s Unit 3 and Unit5 had been established shortly before that. As the authorities had hoped, the wave of protest quietened down somewhat – butonly for the duration of 1991. From then until 1995, protest would remain generally vigorous, but with significantly alteredpatterns of participation. Intense media coverage across China had made the March 1989 events in Lhasa and the impositionof martial law into a national example of the danger inherent in a popular challenge to the authority of Party and state, evenbefore the suppression of student protestors in Tiananmen Square three months later. Especially in Lhasa, there would beno more demonstrations led by monks and nuns, with large-scale lay participation. Some incidents of protest with popularsupport continued, but these were in smaller, more remote towns, and are not known to have entailed death, bloodshed orimprisonment on a scale anything like the earlier demonstrations in Lhasa.Throughout the early and mid-1990s, monks and nuns would continue to stage small, fleeting protest demonstrations, or putup posters in their monasteries and nunneries – or on the walls and gates of government or Party compounds. On someoccasions leaflets were prepared and distributed. Nearly always the message was of allegiance to the Dalai Lama, a call for6
Female political prisoners at Drapchi: the buildup of Unit 3independence, and an exhortation that Chinese people should return to the places from which they came. Perhaps revealingthe influence of international focus on the Tibetan cause, calls for improved human rights and environmental protection beganto appear. Demonstrations remained peaceful - harm to participants was almost unheard of and property damage unusualand relatively minor. When property damage did occur, it was usually in the context of a conflict that would develop whena contingent of local police and officials arrived at a monastery or nunnery to implement the latest crackdown or political8education campaign. For ordinary protest actions, sentences of three to five years at Drapchi, under charges of “incitingcounter-revolution”, became routine. Those suspected of having been a “principal culprit” would receive sentences of sevento eight years or longer.7
Page 4 and 5: Tibet Information NetworkTibet Info
Page 8 and 9: Table of Contents1. Introduction ..
Page 10 and 11: Image 15: Gyabdrag Nunnery, in the
Page 12: Rukhag 3: The Nuns of Drapchi Priso
Page 15: Female political prisoners at Drapc
Page 19 and 20: Female political prisoners at Drapc
Page 37 and 38: Unit 3 and the Drapchi protests of
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Unit 3 and the Drapchi protests of
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Conclusion4. ConclusionThe women no
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Appendices5. AppendicesPrisoner lis
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Appendices500Tibetan political pris
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List 2: Drapchi Prison: Unit 3 nuns
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TIN# status code name lay name det.
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List 4: Female political prisoners
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TIN # status code name lay name det
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TIN# status code name lay name det.
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List 8c: Male Tibetan political pri
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List 10: Female political prisoners
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4 495-0442 REL Ngawang Tenzin Yangd
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95-0074 REL Tsultrim Choedron Tseri
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EndnotesPrefecture, to the west of
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Endnotes40. TIN Doc 399 names the d
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Endnotes75. TIN Doc 39976. TIN Doc
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EndnotesNgawang Sungrab was taken t
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Endnotes159. TIN Doc 1(sd). Sonam T
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Images6. ImagesA. Nuns and nunnerie
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ImagesExtended sentences, currently
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ImagesImage 13: Chubsang Nunnery, o
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ImagesImage 15: Gyabdrag Nunnery, i
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ImagesImage 16b: Mechungri Nunnery,
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ImagesImage 18: Shar Bumpa Nunnery,
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ImagesB. Drapchi PrisonImage 20: Dr
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ImagesImage 21: Drapchi Prison, lat
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ImagesImage 23: Drapchi Prison, are
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ImagesImage 30: Lhasa Prison (forme
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ImagesImage 32: new prison in Sangy
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ImagesImage 34: Trisam Re-education
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127Images
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