SOURCE CLAIM: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) reported on October 19, 2026, that Chinese authorities have sentenced Khensur Lobsang Tenpa, the former abbot of Ragya Monastery in Golog, to five years in prison, reportedly for performing long-life prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The report, filed by the UN, EU and Human Rights Desk of the CTA’s Department of Information and International Relations, relays information from a source inside Tibet whose identity it does not disclose. Free China Movement has not independently confirmed the sentence, and the charges, the sentencing court, and the date of sentencing have not been made public.
What the report says
SOURCE CLAIM (CTA, relaying a source inside Tibet): Khensur Lobsang Tenpa, the 54th abbot in the line of Ragya Monastery in Machen County, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture — in Tibet’s traditional Amdo province, now administered as part of Qinghai Province — was detained on July 5, 2026, the eve of the Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday. According to the report, he was subjected to harassment and ill-treatment in custody and was “recently sentenced to five years fixed-term imprisonment.” The report states that the prayers at issue were zhabten, the traditional long-life prayers for the Dalai Lama.
SOURCE CLAIM (CTA): This was his second detention in just over a year. In May 2025, during the year of the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, Machen County police detained and interrogated him for performing long-life prayers before releasing him.
UNCONFIRMED: The charges against him, the court that sentenced him, and the exact date of sentencing are not public. It is not known whether he had a lawyer or whether his family was informed. His current whereabouts are not stated in the report, and Free China Movement does not infer them.
Tibetan-language schools closed in the same area
SOURCE CLAIM (CTA): The same report says two schools teaching in the Tibetan language have been closed in the same area, affecting about 1,100 students and 120 teachers and staff. The CTA’s demands name the two schools as Gangjong Tsathang Girls’ School and Jasak School, and call for them to be reopened and for the order against Tibetan-language teaching to be withdrawn. A separate CTA report, also dated October 19, describes further Tibetan school closures in Golog.
The CTA’s calls
SOURCE CLAIM (CTA): The Central Tibetan Administration urges the Chinese government to release Khensur Lobsang Tenpa immediately and unconditionally; pending release, to disclose his whereabouts and the charges against him and guarantee him access to a lawyer of his choice, his family, and medical care; to investigate the reported ill-treatment; and to reopen the closed schools. It urges the international community to raise the cases at the UN Human Rights Council and in bilateral dialogues with China.
Context
VERIFIED FACT: Long-life prayers are a centuries-old practice central to Tibetan Buddhism; the CTA report frames the sentence as a warning to monks and lay Tibetans against expressing devotion to the Dalai Lama. The case follows a pattern of senior Tibetan religious figures disappearing into custody with little public information: in September, the International Campaign for Tibet marked nine months since lama Choktrul Dorje Ten was taken, his whereabouts still unknown — a case Free China Movement covered last month. Tibetan and other prisoner cases also featured in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s “Faces of Repression” hearing in September, and Human Rights Watch pressed the UN Human Rights Council for a dedicated follow-up discussion on Xinjiang and Tibet, as Free China Movement reported.
Reporting note: This article is based on a single institutional source — the Central Tibetan Administration’s October 19, 2026 report — which itself relies on an unnamed source inside Tibet. All case facts above are labeled accordingly. Free China Movement will update this article if independent corroboration or official information becomes available.
Sources
- Central Tibetan Administration (tibet.net), October 19, 2026: Former Abbot of Ragya Monastery Sentenced to Five Years for Reportedly Performing Long-Life Prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet Today index (October 19, 2026, incl. “Three More Tibetan Schools Shut Down in Golog”): tibet.net/news/tibet-today