Ngawang Sangdrol's sentence

Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001

Amnesty International has received recent information indicating that Ngawang Sangdrol's actual sentence is 23 years instead of 21 years. Amnesty International has not been able to independently confirm that information is in fact true but has received enough information from reliable sources that this is true. This means that her sentence was actually 6 years and not 4 years for her participation in the May '98 protests. Please see the recent press release from the Gu Chu Sum Movement.

Press Release

Tibetan female political prisoner Ngawang Sangdrol's prison term is 23 years.

Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet Association carried out a research on the prison term of Ngawang Sangdrol.We have come to the conclusion that after she was sentenced for the first time, her sentence was extended three times. It is also understood that she is the youngest (she was barely 10 years old when she was arrested for the first time) and longest serving female political prisoner.

Till date, Human Rights Associations, Amnesty International, Newspapers and magazines stated Ngawang Sangdrol's prison term as 21 years, which does not coordinate with our statement.

When it came to our knowledge, that in 1998, her sentence was extended for the third time, we made the appropriate corrections in our annual magazine "Tibetan Envoy: Volume 5". And even after that, we did continue with our research. And by August 2001, as per the informations obtained from reliable sources we were confirmed with her prison term of 23 years.

Mr.Namgyal Tashi was Ngawang Sangdrol's father. Her mother's name is Jampa Choezom. Sangdrol was born in Lhasa in 1977. Her parents admitted her in Garu nunnery. In the year 1987, she participated in the Independence demonstration and was detained for 15 days when she was only 10 years old.

On 18th August 1990, she participated in another peaceful demonstration along with few other nuns during the "Opera Festival"and was detained for 9 months without charges, as she was considered too young to be tried at the time. Upon her release she was forbidden from rejoining her nunnery.

On 17th June 1992, Ngawang was again arrested for staging a pro-independence demonstration in Lhasa, along with other Garu nuns, and some monks from Gaden monastery. Although she was only 15 years of age, Ngawang was sentenced to three years and was incarcerated in Lhasa's notorious Drapchi prison.

On 8th October 1993, her sentence was extended by 6 years due to her involvement in recording a tape of patriotic songs with a group of 13 fellow inmates five months ago.

On 26th March 1996, Ngawang Sangdrol and other inmates protested against the prison guards after being unable to bear the afflictions. Her sentence was extended by 8 years on the 31st July 2001.

On 1st and 5th May 1998, she participated in the protest against hoisting of a communist Chinese flag in Drapchi prison. Her sentence was extended by 6 years this time in October 1998.

This has brought her total sentence to 23 years, thereby making her the longest serving female political prisoner in Tibet.

At present she is 24 years old. She is due to be released in the year 2015, at the age of 38.

The Chinese government in 1959 arrested Ngawang Sangdrol's father Namgyal Tashi for participating in the Lhasa Uprising. Again on the 13th June 1991, he was arrested and sentenced for 8 years and put in Drapchi prison. Along with him, his son Tenzin Sherab was also arrested and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. Even his brother Lobsang Lhundup was arrested. Ngawang Sangdrol's mother Jampa Choezom died due to heart attack.

After Namgyal Tashi was released, he met his daughter Ngawang Sangdrol for the last time on 20th August 2001 and died exactly after a month on 20th September.

Gu Chu sum Movement
17th October 2001.

  January 16, 2002