Source: TGiE; TCHRD

Details: D; N

A nun by the name of Pema Yangtso from Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) county in Kardze prefecture staged a solo protest on the morning of March 3, 2009 and was taken into custody.

TCHRD also reported Pema Yangtso’s protest and detention, but according to TCHRD she was accompanied by another nun whose identity was not known to TCHRD at the time of reporting.

Pema Yangtso’s detention took place at a time of heightened tension in Kardze in the run-up to the one-year anniversary of the protests that had swept Tibet and continued sporadically ever since, particularly in Kardze, as well as being the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile. There was also a great deal of tension in the area with the Chinese authorities attempting to persuade Tibetans to mark the traditional new year on Tibet’s lunar calendar; however, there was a popular movement to forego celebrations and instead conduct prayer ceremonies for the people who had lost their lives in the protests of the year before. (See: SP 090225 Kardze.)