Dhondup Wangchen | |
|---|---|
| དོན་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེན་ | |
_(Dhondup_Wangchen_Headshot).jpg) Dhondup Wangchen in 2018 | |
| Born | (1974-10-17)17 October 1974 (age 51) Hualong Hui Autonomous County, Qinghai, China |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Known for |
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| Spouse | Lhamo Tso |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | |
Dhondup Wangchen (Standard Tibetan:དོན་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེན་,Wylie:don grub dbang chen; born 17 October 1974) is aTibetan filmmaker who had been imprisoned by theChinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentaryLeaving Fear Behind. Made with seniorTibetan monkJigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the2008 Beijing Olympics, andHan Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the2008 Tibetan unrest.
Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for subversion. Numerous international human rights organizations protested his detention, includingAmnesty International, which named him aprisoner of conscience. In 2012, he was awarded theInternational Press Freedom Award of the US-basedCommittee to Protect Journalists.
He served his full six-year sentence and was released from prison on 5 June 2014. In December 2017 Wangchen escaped from China to the United States, arriving in San Francisco on 25 December, where his wife and children live, having been granted political asylum in the United States in 2012.
Dhondup Wangchen was born in 1974, inBayen in theTsoshar region ofQinghai province (formerly part ofAmdo, Tibet). His family were farmers.[1] He later moved to the capital ofLhasa. There Dhondup Wangchen witnessed apro-independence demonstration repressed by security authorities, an experience that a relative would later describe as critical to his "political awareness".[2] In 1993, he and a cousin crossed theHimalayas into India to receive the blessing of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Dhondup returned to Tibet shortly after to act as an activist for the Tibetan cause.[1]
In 2007, Dhondup Wangchen and friendJigme Gyatso, a senior Tibetan monk, conceived of a documentary[3] interviewing ordinary Tibetan people on their views of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government in the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[4][a] The documentary was to be calledLeaving Fear Behind. The pair coordinated their efforts with Dhondup Wangchen's cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin, who remained in Switzerland.[1] In preparation for likely reprisals by the Chinese government, Dhondup Wangchen moved his wife, Llamo Tso, and their four children toDharamsala, India.[2][5]
Between August 2007 to March 2008, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso gathered interviews from 108 Tibetan individuals discussing the political situation, all of whom agreed to have their faces shown on camera.[6][7] The pair gathered 40 hours of interview footage shot by a single camera.[2][4] They had completed filming and just smuggled the tapes out ofLhasa, the Tibetan capital, whenriots erupted and began to spread through Tibetan-majority areas of China.[6] As part of the government response that followed, both Jigme Gyatso and Dhondup Wangchen were detained on 28 March inTong De,Qinghai Province.[8]
The footage was taken to Switzerland, where colleagues at Dhondup Wangchen's production company, Filming for Tibet, assembled it intoLeaving Fear Behind.[9] The 25-minute documentary constructed from Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso's footage showed ethnic Tibetans criticizing the choice of China to host the2008 Summer Olympics, praising the Dalai Lama, and expressing dislike ofethnic Han migrants.[2] The result was described byThe New York Times as "an unadorned indictment of the Chinese government".[2] Dhondup Wangchen states in the documentary that "My aim for this film is not to make a famous or particularly entertaining film. This film is about the plight of the Tibetan people—helpless and frustrated."[10] The film premiered on the opening day of the Olympics and was clandestinely screened for foreign reporters in Beijing.[11]
Following Dhondup Wangchen's March 2008 arrest, he was held for several days in unofficial detention at Gonshang Hotel.[12] Amnesty International reported that while there, Chinese security forces beat him and deprived him of food, water, and sleep.[12]
He was later moved toXining City No. 1 Detention Centre, where he was heldincommunicado until April 2009, when he was allowed to meet with his lawyer, Li Dunyong.[12] Three months later, however, Li Dunyong dropped his case, reporting that he had been ordered to do so by judicial authorities.[2] Another lawyer was reportedly threatened with the closing of his law firm if he chose to defend Dhondup Wangchen.[13]
On 28 December 2009, Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six year's imprisonment for subversion, following asecret trial in Xining.[12] On 7 January 2010, Filming for Tibet reported that he had been unable to appeal his sentence because he had been denied access to his lawyer until his right to appeal expired.[14]
His family stated that he has contractedhepatitis B while imprisoned, and his health was said to be failing.[13] In April 2010, he was transferred toXichuan Labour Camp in Qinghai Province, where prisoners' work reportedly includes the manufacture of bricks, concrete, and aluminum-alloy windows.[15] On 6 April 2012,Amnesty International issued another appeal on Wangchen's behalf warning that he was being denied needed medical treatment.[16]
Jigme Gyatso and Dhondup Wangchen's arrests were condemned by numerous human rights groups.Amnesty International protested the arrests of both men, noting Jigme Gyatso to be at risk of further torture[17] and naming Dhondup Wangchen aprisoner of conscience.[18]Human Rights Watch,[19]Front Line,[17]The Committee to Protect Journalists,[20]Reporters Without Borders,[5] and theTibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy[18] also advocated on Dhondup Wangchen's behalf. Blogging from underhouse arrest in Beijing, TseringWoeser wrote in 2010, "In fact, we are living in a country where the spiritual has already been undermined, when someone like Dhondup Wangchen who has been the conscience of mankind is consigned to a dark prison, I am afraid the future of this country will sink into hatred and brutality."[21]
On 10 March 2011, formerSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi called for Dhondup Wangchen's release in honor ofTibetan Uprising Day.[22][b] Also in early 2011,Boston'sAmerican Repertory Theater andSystem of a Down'sSerj Tankian dedicated their production ofPrometheus Bound to him and seven other activists, stating in program notes that "by singing the story of Prometheus, the God who defied the tyrant Zeus by giving the human race both fire and art, this production hopes to give a voice to those currently being silenced or endangered by modern-day oppressors".[23]
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A coalition of human rights and Tibetan activist groups calling for Dhondup Wangchen's release held a rally in New York City'sTimes Square on 9 March 2012, the day before Tibetan Uprising Day. Speakers included Dhondup Wangchen's wife Lhamo Tso as well as poet-activistTenzin Tsundue. Excerpts fromLeaving Fear Behind were shown on a twelve-foot video screen beneath theXinhuaJumbotron.[24]
In 2012, Dhondup Wangchen won theInternational Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The award recognizes journalists who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment.[25] He was honored in absentia at the organization's November 2012 banquet due to his ongoing imprisonment.[26]
In 2014, he received theVáclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
He served his full six-year sentence and was released from prison on 5 June 2014.[27]
In December 2017 Wangchen escaped from China to the United States, arriving inSan Francisco on 25 December, where his wife and children live, having been granted political asylum in the United States in 2012.[28]
