(Taipei, April 10, 2025)-The Vietnamese government is expected to investigate death in suspicious circumstances of a high Tibetan Lama, humkar Dorje Rinpoche, in Ho-Chi-Minh-Ville on March 29, Human Rights Watch said today.
Humkar Dorje, 56, died after months of concern in the Tibetan community about his fate and well-being. His followers in India, where many Tibetans live in exile, claim that the Vietnamese and Chinese authorities arrested him in Vietnam after his flight from Tibet. His monastery in China, under an official supervision, said, on the contrary, that he died of a disease during a monastic retirement.
« The death of humkar Dorje Rinpoche in Vietnam is particularly worrying, given the severe repression exerted by the Chinese government against Tibetans and previous Tibetan kidnappings in Vietnam “Said Maya Wang, assistant director for China at Human Rights Watch. “” Vietnamese authorities are expected to investigate in a credible and impartial manner in these allegations and take the appropriate measures, in particular by communicating the results of the autopsy to the Humkar Dorje family. »
Haut Lama Humkar Dorje directed the monastery of Lung Ngon, in the county of Gabde, located in the autonomous prefecture Tibetan Golok which is part of the province of Qinghai in China. He had thousands of faithful in China and abroad, especially in Vietnam. Renowned educator, he had founded, with the authorization and supervision of the Chinese authorities, a vocational school and more than ten other schools in the province of Qinghai, where he sponsored the education of children in the region.
The disappearance and death of humkar Dorje occurred in the context of the repression exercised by the Chinese government against eminent Tibetan educators and the schools they run, which promote Tibetan language and culture, in Tibet as well as in areas east of this region, including the Golok prefecture.
Humkar Dorje had been missing since at least November 2024, according to the Tibetan media in exile. When residents of the County of Gabde expressed their concern about it in December, local authorities would have prohibited any public discussion about it. This silence ended on April 1, when the Gabde County authorities showed representatives of the monastery a death certificate issued by a hospital hospital.
On April 3, monks from the Lung Ngon monastery published an official public statement, saying that Humkar Dorje had ” presented signs of poor health “, was ” left alone towards an unknown place “On an unclear date for a religious retirement, and was” suddenly died of an illness In Vietnam on March 29, without giving more details.
On April 5, disciples of humkar Dorje living in India, however, contradicted these affirmations; They indicated that Haut Lama had fled to Vietnam, after being summoned by Chinese police for interrogation in September 2024. They said that the Vietnamese police, clearly acting in concert with agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security, arrested him on March 25. Humkar Dorje died four days later.
The declaration of the monastery is incomplete and may have been written under stress, said Human Rights Watch, given the strict control exercised by the Chinese authorities on the management of Tibetan monasteries.
The Tibetan lamas often retreat for long periods, but it seems very improbable that the monks of the monastery of Lung Ngon ignored where the Humkar Dorje Humkar was located or if he had traveled abroad, or that they concealed information for several months. In addition, if Haut Lama had retired or had been sick, the authorities would have no reason to prohibit any discussion on his situation.
Humkar Dorje faithful in India said he had fled his monastery at the end of September 2024, after being questioned in Gabde by government representatives and local security forces. An official Chinese press article published on October 15, 2024 described the visit of a senior county official at the Lung Ngon monastery for ” inspect temple management »; But the article did not mention Humkar Dorje, which was unusual.
Previously, Humkar Dorje was apparently on good terms with the Chinese authorities for a long time. A graduate in 2001 of the Chinese Chinese school of Tibetan Buddhist lamas, he held a prestigious position in the County People’s Assembly, where he was deputy president of the Standing Congress Committee. He was also president of the branch of the Buddhist Association of China at the County of Gabde, which made him the highest religious figure of this county.
In July 2024, Humkar Dorje presided over an important public religious ceremony at the Lung Ngon monastery, which would have required official authorization. In August, official press articles presented him as one of the heads of a government delegation visiting another local monastery. In September, the official media showed a national official and members of a provincial delegation sharing a meal with Humkar Dorje to his monastery, saying that ” The various works carried out by the temple of Longen [Lung Ngon] In recent years have been fully approved by services at all levels of the province, the prefecture and the district ».
Humkar Dorje mentions in Chinese official publications stopped at the end of September; It was around this date that he would have fled to Vietnam, according to his faithful who live in exile in India.
The Chinese authorities have long exercised a transnational repression-human rights violations committed beyond the borders of a country to repress dissent-especially against Tibetans living abroad, targeting those who criticize the Chinese government or participate in activities considered to be threatening for the government.
Unconfirmed information emanating from other faithful Humkar Dorje indicates that some members of the Lung Ngon monastery who were with him in Vietnam may also have been detained by the Vietnamese authorities and handed over to China, despite the significant risks of torture and other ill -treatment in this country.
The Vietnamese government is required to respect the principle of non-refoulement which is inscribed in international law; This principle prohibits countries from referring a person to another countries where it is exposed to a real risk of persecution.
In 2022, the Chinese government previously repatriated, with the cooperation of the Vietnamese authorities, at least two Chinese political dissidents who fled Vietnam – Dong Guangping and Wang Bingzhang – before being arrested there.
In accordance with the Minnesota protocol concerning investigations on potentially illegal deaths, the Vietnamese government should conduct a impartial investigation into the circumstances of the death of humkar Dorje, in particular on the role of Vietnamese security services and on any possible involvement of Chinese security services or other officials of this country. This investigation should include an autopsy aimed at establishing the causes of the death, having to be provided to the family when the body returns. The Minnesota protocol thus defines this obligation: ” In the event of a homicide resulting potentially from an illegal act, families have the right, at least, to obtain information on the circumstances of the disappearance of the deceased, the place where the body and the state of the body are found as well as, as long as they have been established, the cause and type of death. »
« Foreign governments should put pressure on the Vietnamese government to obtain answers on the death of Humkar Dorjé Rinpoche », a conclu Maya Wang. « They should hold Vietnamese officials to make accounts for any complicity in the abusive practices of China in Vietnam, and take measures to prevent them from happening again. »
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