Torture of a Buddhist Monk

In May 2004, I met the Tibetan Buddhist monk, Palden Gyatso, one of the most inspiring human beings I have ever met. My wife and I were attending a three day series of teachings given by HH the Dalia Lama in Glasgow, Scotland. I actually ‘bumped’ into Palden as we exited our taxis on that first morning. As he exited his taxi I looked at him – he looked at me – it was as if I knew this man from somewhere. He smiled and went on his way to the entrance to the exhibition centre with his aide.


Here is his story . . .

Buddhist monks are not known to carry around instruments of torture. However, the Venerable Palden Gyatso does, in a case which he carefully wraps in cloth. The 64-year-old Buddhist monk uses the electric prods and cuffs as visual displays when he describes 33 years of imprisonment and torture under the People's Republic of China government in his native Tibet. His tortures included being made to kneel in broken glass, beatings, hand and thumb cuffs that cut off circulation, electrocution and even being thrust into boiling water.

At a meeting before 200 people at the University of Washington Palden spoke about human rights abuses in Tibet under the Communist Chinese government. His talk was jointly sponsored by the Tibetan Rights Campaign, Amnesty International, Students for a Free Tibet and the Tibetan Association of Washington. His commentary was translated from Tibetan into English for the audience.

In 1949, China entered and occupied neighbouring Tibet. Ten years later, in 1959, when the Chinese government attempted to arrest the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, thousands of Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people demonstrated. Gyatso was one of the demonstrators who was imprisoned. China then began a crackdown on Tibet's monasteries and temples.

Gyatso and other imprisoned monks were placed ion cells without toilets or mattresses. They slept on the concrete floor and wore hand cuffs continuously, even when going to the bathroom.

In the daytime, Gyatso and other monks faced nine hours of hard labour, ploughing fields without the use of beasts of burden. The monks instead became the "cows." Two monks worked each plough. Chinese soldiers beat the monks with iron whips to motivate them to work. Gyatso recalls that many of the old monks could not stand the combinations of beatings and hard labour, so they died.

The Chinese also starved the prisoners, barely feeding them enough to survive. The prisoners survived by eating grass and even stealing food that was used to feed the pigs.

Gyatso said there was a time when China gathered up prisoners from around Tibet and sent them to China on foot. They would march in groups of 300 to 400. Since the prisoners were barely fed, approximately only 100 prisoners would survive. Gyatso said perhaps thousands of Tibetans have died this way.

Tibetan prison labour was also used to gather salt from mines in northern Tibet. Again, he said because they were barely fed, many died. "You can see so many corpses, they're buried in the valleys, covered with small stones."

In 1962, border tensions between China and India led the Chinese to "become suspicious" of their Tibetan prisoners. They were subjected to a lock-down, unable to leave their cells. Not able to gather grass for food, many died of hunger, Gyatso said. He said he even consumed pieces of his leather shoes in order to survive.

During interrogations, Gyatso said the Chinese made their prisoners kneel on broken glass and stones, with their hands tied behind their backs. All Tibetan prisoners were asked to renounce any ideas of Tibet as an independent, sovereign state and declare China as Tibet's rightful ruler. Gyatso said that when he refused, they would hand him from the ceiling. He said he still bears the scars on his hands and wrists from that time.

The Chinese even thrust his feet in boiling water, which would make the skin peel off. Gyatso said he underwent this torture "several times." He also added all other prisoners underwent the same or similar tortures.

Gyatso displayed several electric prods, which deliver a jolting electric charge when placed against a human body. Although one was made in China, he said two of the models had parts that came from Great Britain, a country with which China enjoys good trade relations. He said he saw no value for the electric prods other than to injure people.

"You cannot find a single Tibetan prisoner who has not gone through this shock (torture)" he said.

In graphic detail, Gyatso recalled the one time he was tortured so
extensively with an electric prod, he lost consciousness. When he woke up numb in his own urine and faeces, he noticed his tongue was cut in pieces and he had lost several of his teeth. Apparently, his body had undergone tremendous convulsions from the electric shock.

For the audience, he removed his dentures to show his missing teeth. These days, Gyatso wears dentures, paid for by a human rights group in Great Britain.

Gyatso noted that the Chinese have inserted electric prods into the vaginas and wombs of female Tibetan prisoners. Two Tibetan nuns who escaped to India in 1988 are unable to control their bodily functions due to this torture. They are also disabled, he said.

For Tibetan prisoners who are executed, the Chinese government forces their Tibetan families to cover all costs of the execution and burial expenses, he said. The family must even reimburse the Chinese for the cost of the bullets use to execute their member.

A variety of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, keep tabs on the whereabouts of Tibetan prisoners. Gyatso encouraged audience members to participate in Tibetan and human rights organizations. He added that he was freed in 1992 only because of pressure from Amnesty International on the Chinese government.

Since his release, Gyatso has travelled the United States and Europe, speaking in universities about the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He said he considers it his life’s mission to speak out against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Since 1949, the Tibetan Rights Campaign estimates the Chinese government has killed 1.2 million Tibetans.

"I am a real witness if Tibet has benefited from Chinese occupation."

Last year, he testified before a Senate subcommittee and the United Nations about human rights in Tibet. He recently completed a 45-day walk, the March for Tibet's Freedom, from Washington D.C. to New York City.

In spite of all these tortures over the years, Gyatso said, "The Tibetan prisoners never gave up. They never agreed that Tibet is part of China."

During his years in prison, Gyatso said what made him forget his own suffering was his thinking about the suffering of other prisoners. He also thought of the people in China being persecuted by their government.

Gyatso said he bears no vengeful feelings toward his tortures.

He is a true Boddhisattva!