Zhaxi Dunzhu / 扎西顿珠 — Media Archive
This archive documents the case of Zhaxi Dunzhu / 扎西顿珠. It preserves the documented record of a Tibetan herder from Zoige county, Sichuan, detained after a December 2015 solo protest and sentenced in 2016.
Case chronology
- December 19, 2015 — Zhaxi Dunzhu stages a solo protest on the main avenue of Zoige (Ruoergai) county town: draped in a Buddhist prayer flag, holding aloft a large portrait of the Dalai Lama, jogging along the street in a demonstration against government oppression. He is seized and detained by local police within a very short time.
- December 2015 — Zhaxi Jie (扎西杰), a fellow Zoige county resident, films the protest and circulates the footage online. He is detained by local police around the same time.
- 2016 — Zhaxi Dunzhu and Zhaxi Jie are formally arrested by the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture authorities and sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment. The charges, sentence lengths, and serving prisons are not publicly documented.
- 2019 — The case is entered into the Prisoners of Conscience database with the protest, detention, and 2016 sentencing documented and the charge, sentence, and prison location recorded as unknown.
- 2026 — The name 扎西顿珠（藏） appears in the “sentence unknown” group of the 2026 political-prisoner roster.
Source records
- Prisoners of Conscience database — 扎西顿珠 / ZHA XI DUN ZHU (case record entered December 18, 2019). Documents: home village and occupation (Fenjia village, Tanke town, Zoige county — herder); the land-grievance background; the December 19, 2015 solo protest (Buddhist flag, Dalai Lama portrait, jogging protest in the county town); immediate detention; 2016 formal arrest and sentencing by Aba prefecture authorities; charge, sentence, and prison recorded as unknown. Lists two further source references (Radio Free Asia; a Tibetan reporting site) which remain unverified.
Evidentiary notes
- No court document, verdict, or official procedural record for this case has been located.
- No state-media or official coverage of the 2015 protest or the 2016 sentencing has been found.
- The 2015 protest footage filmed by Zhaxi Jie is referenced in the case record but no publicly accessible copy has been located.
- Zhaxi Dunzhu’s present whereabouts and custody status are unknown; the 2016 sentence length is unknown, so no inference about release should be drawn.
- This case is distinct from other persons sharing the name, including a Tibetan singer detained in 2009 and released in 2011 and a monk detained in 2012; the Zoige 2015 case is anchored by its own date, place, and events.
Related person profile: Zhaxi Dunzhu / 扎西顿珠