One year after the tragedy, the family of Tenzin Dorjee revealed what happened to the learned teacher from Shelkar Monastery.
by Lopsang Gurung
There are Tibetans who decide to die through self-immolation to protest the cultural genocide of their people. For others, suicide is not a form of protest but the consequence of torture and terror.
Only on April 15, 2024, the parents of monk Tenzin Dorjee from Nubling township, Dingri county, Tibet, informed human rights organizations that their son had committed suicide last year, on May 25, 2023.
A learned 50-year-old monk of Shelkar Monastery from Dingri county, Tenzin Dorjee was accused of studying and explaining forbidden texts by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Shelkar is an important learning center founded in 1385 by Lotsawa Drakpa Gyeltsen of the Sakya school and converted to Geluk in the 17th century. It still commands considerable local prestige.
Tenzin Dorjee was detained and tortured. Upon his release, he was told that he would remain under surveillance. He did nor resist the physical pain and mental anguish and took his own life.
As a result of his suicide, his mother Lhamo Nordon, who is in her seventies, started experiencing mental health problems and is currently in a psychiatric institution in Lhasa. His father Ngawang Dorjee is 80, and they have another seven children in addition to the deceased Tenzin.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
