Sangchu County, Gansu Province
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has escalated its war on Tibetan religion and culture, abducting one of Tibet’s most respected Buddhist scholars under the cover of darkness. Geshe Lharampa Kunchok Chodak, abbot of Hortsang Kirti Monastery, was taken in a midnight raid by armed Chinese security forces. His residence was ransacked, and monastery documents were seized. No charges have been announced, no explanation given, he has simply vanished into the black hole of China’s secret detention system.
This is not law enforcement. This is state-sanctioned kidnapping.
From Scholar to Target
Born in Dzoge County to parents Alo and Machik Kyi, Geshe Kunchok Chodak entered monastic life at a young age, dedicating decades to Buddhist study and discipline. In 2019, he attained the Geshe Lharampa degree – the Gelug school’s highest scholarly honor, equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy. By 2021, his reputation for scholarship and leadership earned him the abbacy of Hortsang Kirti Monastery, a position chosen in keeping with centuries-old monastic tradition.
For Beijing, that very prestige made him dangerous. The CCP views respected Tibetan religious leaders not as spiritual teachers, but as potential centers of resistance to its rule.
A Deliberate Strategy to Decapitate Tibetan Leadership
The CCP’s approach is systematic:
- Eliminate Influence: Monks, abbots, and lamas with large followings are harassed, detained, or disappeared.
- Replace with Loyalists: Government-approved “religious leaders” are installed to push Party propaganda.
- Destroy Institutions: Monasteries face invasive “patriotic re-education” campaigns, replacing Buddhist studies with political indoctrination.
- Criminalize Faith: Devotion to the Dalai Lama or preservation of Tibetan language and tradition is branded “separatism”, a criminal offense.
This is cultural genocide in slow motion. The calculated dismantling of Tibet’s spiritual infrastructure.
An Expanding Pattern of Human Rights Crimes
The CCP’s human rights record in Tibet is already one of the most brutal in the world:
- Enforced Disappearances: The 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, abducted in 1995, remains missing after nearly 30 years.
- Mass Surveillance : Every monastery, every public square, and every mobile phone is monitored.
- Language Suppression: Tibetan is systematically erased from education, replaced by Mandarin.
- Cultural Cleansin: Historic monasteries face demolition; sacred traditions are replaced with state-approved rituals.
International watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, consistently rank Tibet among the least free places on Earth, worse even than North Korea on some measures of cultural and religious repression.
