Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso (born 1933 in Panam, Tibet) is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was born in Tibet in 1933.
After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Palden Gyatso was arrested by Chinese officials. He spent the following 33 years in different Chinese prisons and labour camps. He was forced to participate in barbarous reeducation classes and was brutally tortured, leading to irreversible physical damage. During this time, he continued to abide by the Dharma (Buddha's teachings).
In 1992 Palden Gyatso was released. He escaped to Dharamsala, India, the place of the Tibetan exile government. There he wrote his autobiography Fire Under The Snow in Tibetan, since translated into many other languages and the subject of the film by the same name.
During his following visits in America and Europe he became politically active as an opponent of the Chinese occupation in Tibet and as a witness of many years under Chinese confinement. In 1995, he was heard by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
These days Palden Gyatso is living in Dharamsala and following his Buddhist studies.
After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, Palden Gyatso was arrested by Chinese officials. He spent the following 33 years in different Chinese prisons and labour camps. He was forced to participate in barbarous reeducation classes and was brutally tortured, leading to irreversible physical damage. During this time, he continued to abide by the Dharma (Buddha's teachings).
In 1992 Palden Gyatso was released. He escaped to Dharamsala, India, the place of the Tibetan exile government. There he wrote his autobiography Fire Under The Snow in Tibetan, since translated into many other languages and the subject of the film by the same name.
During his following visits in America and Europe he became politically active as an opponent of the Chinese occupation in Tibet and as a witness of many years under Chinese confinement. In 1995, he was heard by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
These days Palden Gyatso is living in Dharamsala and following his Buddhist studies.
