Two Tibetan “singing nuns” go into exile in India

BEIJING (Reuters) – Two former Tibetan political prisoners
who were part of a group known as the “singing nuns” have left
the mountainous Chinese region and gone into exile in India, an
advocacy group said on Wednesday.

Rigzin Choekyi, who served 12 years in prison and Lhundrub
Zangmo, who served nine years, left overland and traveled
through Nepal before reaching India, where Tibet’s spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, leads a government in exile.

“Both Rigzin Choekyi and Lhundrub Zangmo now wish to
receive medical treatment due to concerns for their health
following torture in prison,” the International Campaign for
Tibet said in a statement.

Communist troops invaded Tibet in 1950 to cement Chinese
rule, and the Dalai Lama fled nine years later after a failed
uprising.

The two Buddhist nuns were first detained in August of 1990
for their roles in protests, but their sentences were extended
when they, along with 12 other jailed nuns, recorded
nationalist songs about Tibet in 1993 that were smuggled out of
prison.

China, which considers the Dalai Lama a traitor who is
trying to split Tibet from China, said the songs spread
“counter-revolutionary propaganda” that incited independence.

Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet,
said the nuns chose to leave because of restrictions placed on
them even after they were released.

“Tibetans when they’re released from prison really don’t
experience freedom. They are under constant suspicion from the
authorities, they’re under constant surveillance,” she said.

The nuns were also unable to return to their nunneries.

Phuntsog Nyidron, who was the last of the singing nuns
freed when she was released in 2004, was allowed to leave for
China in March to seek medical treatment in the United States.

She had been barred from re-entering her nunnery, speaking
with the press or meeting freely with foreigners.