Norbu Dondrub (诺布 • 顿珠) is a Tibetan Buddhist monk from Tingri County in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Human Rights Watch reports that he served as chaplain and caretaker of Tengdro Monastery and was sentenced in 2020 to seventeen years in prison.
2019 monastery raid
Human Rights Watch reports that police raided Tengdro Monastery and nearby Dranak village in September 2019 after finding communications between a monk and Tibetans living abroad, including records of a humanitarian donation following the 2015 Nepal earthquake and images related to the Dalai Lama. Norbu Dondrub was detained about a month after the raid.
Secret trial and sentence
HRW reports that Norbu and three other monks were held for about a year and tried in secret by the Shigatse Intermediate People’s Court in September 2020. The four received sentences of twenty, nineteen, seventeen, and five years; Norbu received the seventeen-year term. The specific criminal charges were never made public.
Evidence limits
HRW reports that Norbu had suffered serious injuries from police beatings. Those allegations remain source-attributed. Rights Defense Network Issue 131 lists 诺布 • 顿珠（藏） in the seventeen-year-sentence group as of August 31, 2026. A later advocacy list gives a prison location, health concerns and a 2036 term endpoint, but those details are not independently confirmed and are not stated here as established facts.
Media Profile & Archive: Norbu Dondrub / 诺布 • 顿珠 — Media Profile & Archive.