Talk by renowned former Political prisoner Golog Jigme

Golog Jigme Gyatso is one of the most significant Tibetan activists to flee their homeland and seek asylum in the West since the Tibetan Uprising in 2008. His resistance, persecution, torture, and escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet is both a remarkable personal story and a deep insight into Tibet under Chinese rule.

Tibetan monk Golog Jigme (born 1972) was arrested in 2008 for helping to make a film in which Tibetans spoke frankly about the Chinese occupation and, at the time, the forthcoming Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Although both he and his fellow filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, were jailed before completing the film, it was smuggled out of China, edited, and later screened to journalists in Beijing prior to the Olympics, before being released to the public as ‘Leaving Fear Behind’.

Jailed three times between 2008 and 2012 for his activism, Golog Jigme was brutally tortured, including being chained to the chimney of a burning stove and to an iron chair where he faced beatings and electric shocks.

He was arrested in 2009 for allegedly sharing information with the outside world about the Tibetan Uprising in 2008, and then again in 2012 on a charge of inciting Tibetan self-immolation protests. Believing that he was going to be killed in prison, he managed to escape from jail. While he was on the run, the authorities falsely charged him with murder to spark a nationwide manhunt. However, their efforts failed after many brave Tibetans protected the filmmaker for nearly two years.

He secretly crossed the border to India in May 2014, after twenty months on the run. In 2015, he moved to Switzerland, where he has given testimony to the United Nations and played a key role in the campaign to prevent China from hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Topic: བོད་ཕྱི་ནང་གཉིས་སུ་སྤེལ་བའི་ལས་འགུལ་དང་། མི་རབས་གསར་པ་རྣམས་ལ་སྐུལ་ལྕག
Speaker: Renowned former Political prisoner Golog Jigme
Date: 26 July 2022
Timing: 3:30 PM – 5 PM(IST)
Venue: LTWA Sager Science Center