9 Buddhist Nuns Sentenced for Shouting ‘Tibetan Independence!’

BEIJING —  China has sentenced nine Buddhist nuns to labor camps for shouting “Tibetan independence!” from a public stage during a festival in Lhasa earlier this month, according to an official report that reached Beijing on Monday.

The Tibet Daily said six were sentenced to three years and three others to two years of “labor education,” China’s official term for forced prison labor.

The nuns, mostly from Qusang and Xiongse temples near Lhasa, jumped onto the stage Sept. 2 during a performance before thousands in the Norbulingka, the former summer palace of the exiled Dalai Lama, the daily said.

“They frenziedly chanted ‘Tibetan independence!’ and other reactionary slogans, openly carrying out criminal activities to split the motherland, and were arrested by police on duty at the scene,” it said. “They were swollen with reactionary arrogance.” It added that they were sentenced Sept. 8.

Foreign visitors to Lhasa said the nuns’ protest was one of three similar incidents during the traditional Tibetan Xuedun Festival in the city in early September.