In the run up to the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, Dhondup Wangchen is touring European Countries to deliver his message that China do not deserve to be Olympic hosts again.

Visit his tour website My Olympic Oath.

Dhondup Wangchen’s Visit to Washington DC Concludes

DC visit of Dhondup Wangchen a huge encouragement, says Filming for Tibet

Washington DC, February 15, 2017:

Tibetan video documentarist Dhondup Wangchen concluded his first visit to Washington DC today. The aims of his visit were to thank individuals and organisations who had supported him while imprisoned by China, to testify at a Hearing on Tibet by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and to speak about the current situation in Tibet.

Dhondup Wangchen said: “This visit to Washington DC has been an opportunity for me to thank many people and organisations who closely followed my case while I was in prison and I have been very warmly welcomed here. While the situation inside Tibet has worsened since Leaving Fear Behind was released in 2008, Tibetans in Tibet have not given up their struggle for freedom.”

Accompanying Dhondup Wangchen in DC, Dechen Pemba, spokesperson for Filming for Tibet said, “Many people we met in DC had re-watched Leaving Fear Behind and were commenting that the film had lost none of its power even ten years on. This speaks to the power of documentary filmmaking and the importance of highlighting voices from inside Tibet and should be an encouragement for us to continue this work with more determination.”

During his 4 day visit, Dhondup Wangchen met with State Department officials, representatives from various human rights NGOs in DC, congressman Jim McGovern and the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He testified at the Hearing on Tibet on February 14 in front of Senators Marco Rubio and Steve Daines, congressman Chris Smith and Ted Lieu were also present. Dhondup Wangchen spoke to the Tibetan and Mandarin services of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America and was interviewed by the Washington Post. Dhondup Wangchen was also honoured by Leader Nancy Pelosi at a reception attended by representatives and dignitaries.

Dhondup Wangchen was hosted in Washington DC by the International Campaign for Tibet and accompanied by his cousin Jamyang Tsultrim, his son Tenzin Norbu and Dechen Pemba.

Full testimony 

Washington Post article with Dondup Wangchen

Testimony of Dhondup Wangchen at the Hearing by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on “Tibet “From All Angles”: Protecting Human Rights, Defending Strategic Access, and Challenging China’s Export of Censorship Globally”

February 14, 2018

United States Congress

Washington, D.C.

Honorable Senator Rubio and Representative Smith,

I am very grateful for this opportunity to testify before the Congressional Executive Commission on China on my experiences in Tibet under the Chinese authorities.

My name is Dhondup Wangchen. I was born on October 17, 1974 to a family of Tibetan farmers in Bayen which is in the province we call Amdo. In today’s administrative divisions, Bayen is in Tsoshar prefecture, Qinghai province, People’s Republic of China.

I arrived in USA on December 25, 2017 and it was the first time in many years that I felt safety and freedom. The reunion with my family in San Francisco was a wonderful moment that I had looked forward to in the past years, with a mixture of anxious joy and the hesitation a man feels who was hindered to be the husband he ought to be for his loving wife; a man who was not given the chance to stand by with fatherly advice to his children in a world full of challenges, and a man denied being the son needed for his aging parents, tormented by the thought that they wouldn’t see each other again in their lifetime.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank every individual and organization who has helped to bring me back to my loved ones and who supported me since I was arrested in March 2008.

Early Activism

Growing up in the remote village of Khotse in Amdo, 2000 km east of Tibet’s capital Lhasa, I started the discovery of my people’s history with little knowledge but with an insatiable and juvenile curiosity about what life has to offer me.

Our family lived a simple life right on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, bordering the Chinese mainland. I was aware of repression in the past. I had lost members on both my mother’s and my father’s sides of my family as a result of China’s atrocities towards Tibetans. However, it wasn’t until I made my journey to Lhasa in the early 1990s as a young adult, that I saw first hand resistance to China’s occupation and political symbols such as the Tibetan national flag. In 1992 when I was 18, I witnessed monks from Ganden Monastery carry out a street protest in Lhasa, some nuns also protested. I saw armed police and military forces quell the protest in a heavy handed manner and detain the monks and nuns.

It was also in 1992 that I decided to go to India to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama and receive some education. At that time, there were many Tibetans escaping to India. However, I only stayed a year and returned to Tibet in 1993 where I was involved in activism such as helping former political prisoners. I would like to acknowledge my cousin Jamyang Tsultrim who mentored me in my formative years and who is here at today’s Hearing.

In 1996, my good friend Ganden monk Jigme Gyatso – a true Tibetan hero – was arrested on charges related to the 1992 protest. Jamyang Tsultrim was also arrested and they both served prison sentences. I was working in Jamyang Tsultrim’s restaurant in Lhasa, which the authorities threatened to close down as it was the centre of many of our activities.

I spent many years involved in various forms of activism and was detained several times. The longest that I was held in detention for was for about 30 days in Lhasa in 2003, but I was never formally charged and was always released.

Jamyang Tsultrim fled to exile in 2002, but we kept in close touch and continued to plan and carry out underground activities. We had started a project in 2001 to print and distribute books to Tibetans all over Tibet for free, books related to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings, Tibetan politics, history and the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way Policy. The books we printed were both in Tibetan and Chinese.

By 2004, we were printing books in Xining and Lanzhou, sometimes printing as many as 10,000 copies at a time. Among those who joined me printing and distributing the books; was a monk from Labrang Monastery, Jigme Gyatso (known as Golog Jigme), who I first came to know in 2006 and who would become my helper when making the movie Leaving Fear Behind. This was our first collaboration, but many people were involved whose names I can’t reveal for safety reasons.

Making Leaving Fear Behind

As the 2008 Olympic Games were fast approaching and it was always being reported in state media, I told Jamyang Tsultrim that I wanted to do something that would have a big and long-term impact and that would reflect the true feelings and wishes of Tibetan people. This was when we first started thinking about making a documentary film from inside Tibet that would later be known as Leaving Fear Behind.

I set to work finding collaborators and travelling all over Tibet to interview ordinary Tibetans. Thanks to our activism in the past, we had many contacts and trusted friends we could work with. We would record interviews in isolated places so as not to arouse suspicion and we were always careful to ask whether the interviewees wanted to have their face shown on camera or not. We carried with us DVDs of the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony which showed US President George Bush awarding His Holiness the Dalai Lama in October 2007 – we showed this to many people who became very emotional upon seeing it.

My helpers, including Golog Jigme, and I travelled for several months in the cold winter of 2007 recording interviews and sent our footage to Zurich in several batches via trusted friends. Interview after interview, village after village, we recorded a never ending stream of untold stories of past atrocities, complaints against the current discrimination of Tibetans, their frustration and anger about the hypocrisy of the Olympic games and finally their fervent wish to see the Dalai Lama back in Tibet. More people than we could manage lined up to tell their story and witness their unbroken will to fight for truth and right to express their free will. Looking back, I wonder why we hadn’t foreseen their longing for freedom explode some few months later, in the most forceful uprising Tibet had seen since 1959.

Our final footage was taken in Xi’an on March 10, 2008, and handed over to a UK born Tibetan who helped to ensure that it reached Zurich. We spent that day together unaware that protests had broken out in Lhasa the same day and would continue over the next days and months all over Tibet.

Detention

Even though I was aware that I was being followed and was under surveillance, it wasn’t until 26 March 2008 that I was arrested and interrogated by secret police. I was not kept in a police station or prison, but a in hotel and my family was not informed of my whereabouts. The torture started as soon as I was detained. I was forced to sit in the “tiger chair”. For seven days and eight nights I was given no food and was not allowed to fall asleep.

On 13 July 2008, I was able to escape from this detention for 24 hours only. In a phone call with Jamyang Tsultrim I learned that they had received all the footage and were in the process of finishing editing the film. It wasn’t long before I was back in detention. Leaving Fear Behind was released and distributed online just before the Olympic Games started in August 2008 by the non-profit Filming for Tibet registered in Zurich. Even though I didn’t know for sure, I was hopeful that everything had gone according to plan. I suspected that the authorities were building their case against me. I was often interrogated and told I had to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that if I admitted my wrongdoings I would be released. I always refused to do these things.

I was shown Leaving Fear Behind while I was in detention in December 2008, a few months after it had been released. I will remember this moment forever.  The interrogator wanted to know how I knew the people I had interviewed. And then the showed me the edited film and wanted me to confess. For the first time I watched Leaving Fear Behind, in a Chinese prison! While the interrogator continued to force me to confess my wrongdoings, I just enjoyed in my inside the train scene, the music with the auspicious lyric and felt immensely proud.

I thought that even if I received a 10-year sentence it would have been worth making the film. I felt happy for the interviewees who had taken great risks to appear in the film and we had promised them that the film would be seen by the outside world and His Holiness would know about the film as well. So, I was happy that I had been able to keep that promise to the interviewees.

In July 2009, I received a visit from Li Dunyong, a Chinese human rights lawyer from Beijing who had been appointed by my sister to represent me. Another lawyer Chang Boyang also came to visit me later and I told them about the maltreatment of political prisoners and about how I had been placed in solitary confinement for 85 days. Even though according to law, I should have had access to a translator, none was made available and I had to communicate with the lawyers in Chinese even though it’s not my first language and my Chinese isn’t very good. A few days after I had spoken to the lawyers, outside authorities came to speak to me in prison and asked me many questions about the lawyers and why they wanted to represent me. The authorities had told the lawyers appointed by my family that they weren’t allowed to defend me and they were pressured and threatened to have their licenses revoked. The authorities told me that I wasn’t allowed to have my own lawyers and had to accept the lawyers that they had appointed. Even though I told them clearly that I didn’t want their lawyers, in reality I had no choice. The authorities then lied to my sister and told her that I had refused all legal representation.

Sentencing and Imprisonment

I remained in informal detention until I was tried and sentenced on December 28, 2009 to 6 years in prison for “subversion of state power”. The case against me mentioned the projects I had been involved with printing and distributing books as well making Leaving Fear Behind.

During my time in various forms of detention, I had to do manual labour which differed depending on where I was. I had been made to do many different tasks such as peeling garlic or stitching military uniforms and was given only two meals a day, which were barely adequate. The day would start at around 6:30am and we had to work until 11pm, we never went outside and I was in constant pain with headaches and hurting arms. I always witnessed a difference in how prisoners and political prisoners were treated. When it came to Tibetan prisoners, we were never allowed to speak Tibetan to each other.

On 6 April 2010, I was transferred to Xichuan prison, a labour camp, which operates as an industrial manufacturer under the name of “Qinghai Xifa Water and Electricity Equipment Manufacture Installment Limited Liability Company”. My physical condition declined here and I contracted hepatitis B. Even though doctors did visit prisoners regularly, apart from draining blood from me many times, I never received a diagnosis or any medical treatment. My family members sent me some medicines, but it was only after my release from prison in 2014 that I received proper treatment and was able to spend 15 days in hospital.

While in prison, I wrote many letters to my sister and family members and the prison authorities took them, saying they would be sent on. After release, I discovered that none of the letters had arrived. In March 2012, it was discovered that I tried to smuggle a letter to the outside world. This letter was a long appeal to the then Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, outlining the corrupt prison system and the discrimination that Tibetan prisoners suffer. I was punished, by being placed in solitary confinement for 84 days.

In August 2012, I was transferred from Xichuan labour camp to Qinghai Provincial Women’s Prison, the main prison for women. Conditions there were an improvement on Xichuan.

Release

I was released from prison on 5 June 2014 very early, at around 4am. Unexpectedly, I was suddenly taken somewhere – to what looked like another prison. I was worried as I thought I was being transferred to another prison and not being released. There were lots of police and authorities there from Labrang, they said they wanted to take me to Labrang, but I told them I wanted to go to Khotse. It all took a long time and I didn’t get to my sister’s home in Khotse until late afternoon that day.

Following the release I was always monitored closely and the police would contact me on my phone constantly. I didn’t feel free at all as I was not allowed to contact or meet my friends. Even those friends who were in touch with me or visited me, would be harassed by authorities. I wanted to study and improve my Tibetan and I wanted to work, but in those 3 ½ years I couldn’t do anything. Feeling frustrated and increasingly isolated, I decided that it would be better to escape from the PRC rather than stay there under those circumstances without any freedom.

With the help of Jamyang Tsultrim, I made a plan to escape unnoticed from the authorities. It was a long and risky journey to safety, but it was worth it when I arrived in San Francisco on 25 December 2017 and was re-united with my family.

While in Tibet, I had some information that the outside world, including that the United States Government, was concerned about my situation. The Swiss, Dutch and the German governments, were also concerned about me. The attention from outside, from civil societies around the world as well as from governments, definitely helped me. This was reflected for example in the way my prison inmates and the prison administration treated me. Though I suffered from being restricted in my communications with my relatives to the effect that I was isolated from the outside world, I was less subject to arbitrary punishments and beatings.

I feel your support for cases like me and Tibet in general could be of greater effect if we regularly recall the ground reality.

1. There are thousands of Tibetans like me, actively involved in the struggle. Tibetans in Tibet are not victims but agents of change trying to explore and use every opportunity to fight for a better future. We need support and partnership from the outside world.

2. Every attempt for more freedom or democracy is oppressed by China. It is against the nature of this regime to tolerate freedom and democracy, be it in China, in Tibet and ultimately in the rest of the world.

I am very aware about the support the United States Congress and Administration has given to the Tibetan cause, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in the past. I know that there is the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues in the State Department, who I would have liked to meet.  But I am told no one has been appointed to this position as yet.  I am also informed about some important legislations on Tibet that are introduced in the Congress, including the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act.

I am not a politician and my knowledge about the specifics of your legislative process is limited. My friends from International Campaign for Tibet in Washington explained the goal and some important details of their recommendations to the Congress to me. I am happy to support these recommendations:

• Actions taken by the US Congress on Tibet send a strong message to the people in Tibet. However, the systemic suppression of free press and reporting from Tibet can only be fought with a systematic counter approach. Therefore, the Congress should pass the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2017;

• Pass the resolutions expressing the sense of Congress that the treatment of the Tibetan people should be an important factor in the conduct of United States relations with the People’s Republic of China.

• Ask the US Administration to raise Tibet in appropriate international fora, including U.N. bodies;

• Urge China to release Tibetan political prisoners, including the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima;

My wish is that whatever measures you take that you do it with the strongest possible conviction and in the most forceful and wise manner.

As a Tibetan, who tried his best to give a voice to his fellow countrymen, I can assure you the Tibetans in Tibet have not given up the struggle for freedom.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all sincerely.

Thank you.

Dhondup Wangchen meets with State Department and says: Tibetans have not given up their struggle for freedom!

Dhondup Wangchen started his visit in DC, today. He was invited by Scott Busby and Mike Kozak, who both serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and for multilateral and global issues. There was great interest for his personal story and his view on the present situation in Tibet. Dhondup Wangchen assured them: Tibetans in Tibet have not given up their struggle for freedom! He was accompanied by Matteo Meccaci (International Campaign for Tibet) and by Jamyang Tsultrim and Dechen Pemba who represented Filming for Tibet.  He had further meetings with Laura Stone (Dep Ass. Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific) and other sections of the State Department.

Tibetan Activist Dhondup Wangchen to testify before United States Congress, during first visit to Washington DC

Tibetan video activist Dhondup Wangchen is visiting Washington, D.C. from February 9 to 15, 2018 to testify at a Hearing organized by the Congressional Executive Commission on China and will meet Congressional and Administration officials. The Hearing will take place on Wednesday, February 14 from 10am to 12pm in 301 Russell Senate Office Building. In addition to calling on the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he will also meet with Washington based NGOs as well as the Tibetan community.

Detained by Chinese authorities in Tibet in March 2008 for making the documentary film “Leaving Fear Behind” (in which ordinary Tibetans expressed their feelings about their situation in the light of the Beijing Olympics), Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six years in prison for “inciting subversion”. His friend and assistant, Tibetan monk Golok Jigme, suffered from detention and torture, too. Dhondup was released at the end of his sentence in 2014, but continued to be deprived of his freedom.

After an arduous and risky escape from Tibet and China, he arrived in the United States on December 25, 2017, to be united with his wife and children in San Francisco, who escaped from Tibet before his arrest in 2008 and reached the United States in 2012.
Dhondup Wangchen became a face of 2008 and his courageous non-violent work earned recognition and support throughout the world, among civil society, parliaments and governments. Dhondup’s case was a priority for the United States government, and it has now been almost 10 years since he was first arrested. During his visit to Washington, D.C., he will be personally thanking many of the key actors who called on the Chinese authorities to end his unjust detention.

The International Campaign for Tibet and Zurich-based Filming for Tibet (which released the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind”) are organizing Dhondup Wangchen’s Washington, D.C. visit. For more information on the two organizations, visit www.filmingfortibet.org/ and www.savetibet.org.

San Francisco, 27 December: Tibetan video activist Dhondup Wangchen arrived to safety in San Francisco on the afternoon of 25 December, after an arduous and risky escape from Tibet and the People’s Republic of China.

A clearly tired but relieved Dhondup Wangchen, 43, said on arrival, “After many years, this is the first time I’m enjoying the feeling of safety and freedom. I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for me to hold my wife and children in my arms again. However, I also feel the pain of having left behind my country, Tibet.”

Dhondup Wangchen will address the media fully in due course.

“Dhondup Wangchen is a courageous individual who never gave up his beliefs in basic human rights and freedoms. He felt he had no choice but to flee Tibet which was an extremely risky and dangerous escape. The fact is that he should never have been detained, imprisoned and tortured by China for filming and giving air to Tibetan grievances. Now he’s finally free to speak out”, said Wangpo Tethong, spokesperson from Filming for Tibet.

Detained by Chinese authorities in Tibet in March 2008 for making the documentary film “Leaving Fear Behind”, Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six years in prison for “inciting subversion”. His friend and assistant, Tibetan monk Golok Jigme, suffered from detention and torture, too. “Leaving Fear Behind” was released worldwide by Zurich-based Filming for Tibet lead by Dhondup Wangchen’s cousin, Gyaljong Tsetrin.

Dhondup Wangchen’s arrest and imprisonment sparked one of the most intensive campaigns for a Tibetan activist. He contracted Hepatitis B in prison and was made to undergo manual labour. Even though he was released from a prison in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining on June 5, 2014, he remained under strict surveillance with his movements and communications constantly monitored. Dhondup Wangchen was able to successfully evade the authorities and flee from his home area in Tibet and then the People’s Republic of China altogether.

After many years of tireless campaigning for her husband, Dhondup Wangchen’s wife Lhamo Tso and their children were granted political asylum in USA in 2012. Golok Jigme was able to escape from Tibet, reaching the Tibetan Reception Centre in Dharamsala, India in May 2014. He was granted political asylum in Switzerland in 2015.

Dhondup Wangchen’s journey to safety has taken over ten years and Filming for Tibet would like to acknowledge the help and support of numerous private individuals, artists, groups, organisations and governments along the way. Dhondup Wangchen was recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award in 2012 and the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent in 2014.

Contact:

Wangpo Tethong (English, German): +1 415 802 7216
Dechen Pemba (English): + 44 20 3286 5186
Gyaljong Tsetrin (Tibetan): + 41 76 462 67 68

Media enquiries: media@filmingfortibet.org

STATEMENT ON ARREST AND DETENTION OF TIBETAN FILMMAKER PEMA TSEDEN
by Filming for Tibet

We are shocked to hear that on Saturday 25 June 2016, internationally acclaimed award-winning filmmaker Pema Tseden was forcefully arrested by police at Xining Airport, Qinghai, China. Pema Tseden was treated harshly and sustained injuries, in addition to high blood pressure. He was admitted to hospital on the afternoon of June 27th. As of now, his exact status in unclear, but reports state he is still in custody.

In an altercation at the airport pertaining to missing luggage, Pema was arbitrarily arrested on charges of disturbing public order, but there have been no official statements made or clarifications on the nature of the laws broken by him. Tibetan netizens inside Tibet and abroad only received news of his arrest today June 29, four days later.

We thank the Film Directors Guild of China for publicly showing their concern and applaud their call for a swift resolution of this unfortunate situation.

At Filming for Tibet we believe in the power of films to tell stories and Pema Tseden is one of the foremost Tibetan storytellers who has received recognition and respect both domestically as well as internationally in the global film fraternity. He is one of Tibet’s most well-known, authentic, and creative filmmakers. We have had the honour to screen his films The Search, Silent Holy Stones and Old Dog at Tibet Film Festival both in Zurich, Switzerland and Dharamshala, India over the years. Pema Tseden’s films represent a refreshing new voice that gives nuanced commentary on contemporary Tibet and China. Voices such as his need to be nurtured, encouraged and protected.

We at Filming for Tibet strongly deplore the arrest and detention of Pema Tseden, and demand that he be released and that the provincial authorities investigate this upsetting incident of police encroachment.

Filming for Tibet
Zurich, Switzerland  &  Dharamshala, India

SEND US YOUR FILM

The theme for this year’s short film competition is “Food”, and we are curious and excited to see how our filmmakers will treat this subject.
The winners of the Jury Prizes and the Audience Prizes will be awarded with THE YAK PRIZE, a sculpture made by Tibetan artist Thubten Purang and 500/300/200 USD (Jury Prizes) and USD 200 (Audience Prize Dharamsala and Zurich).

For the submission rules check here:  The general eligibility requirements!
(http://tibetfilmfestival.org/short-film-competition/general-eligibility-requirements/)

Zurich/Dharamsala – The organisers of the Tibet Film Festival are proud and very happy to announce that the Tibet Film Festival 2016 will be held in Zurich on 16 and 17 September 2016 and in Dharamsala on 17 and 18 September 2016.

The cornerstone of this year’s festival will be films from Tibet and new productions by Tibetan filmmakers in exile. We very much look forward to seeing many great entries for our short film competition and take this opportunity to encourage all Tibetan filmmakers to take part in this segment of the festival. In previous years, the short film competition has had tremendous response and support from young, aspiring and established Tibetan filmmakers.

For more information see here our official announcement.

Zurich, 5 June 2015

Today, 5 June 2015, marks the one year anniversary of Dhondup Wangchen’s release from prison in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining. Dhondup Wangchen had served a six year prison sentence for making the documentary film “Leaving Fear Behind”. However, far from being a free man, Dhondup Wangchen has endured a year of surveillance and closer monitoring, with his movements and communications restricted.
Lhamo Tso, wife of Dhondup Wangchen who was granted US asylum in 2012 and now lives in San Francisco, can’t  to travel to China or Tibet to see her husband due to her asylum status. She said: “I, as well as his aged parents, had hoped that Dhondup Wangchen’s release from prison would bring our family closer together again. But this year has been just as hard as the previous years as we are still separated. My children and I are incredibly frustrated that their father hasn’t been allowed to join us in USA.”

Gyaljong Tsetrin, Zurich-based cousin of Dhondup Wangchen and producer of “Leaving Fear Behind” said: “I have very limited contact with Dhondup Wangchen as the authorities are monitoring his every move. I know from my own experience how hard it is upon release from prison and to be in ill health. The authorities apply all kinds of restrictions on former political prisoners. I hope that I will be able to meet him again when he is truly free.”

Dhondup Wangchen has been generally staying with relatives in Khotse in Tibet since his release. He is not recovering his health and is still suffering from his liver problems and high blood pressure which is a constant source of concern for his family and friends abroad.

Contact:
Lhamo Tso, San Francisco (Tibetan only) +1 (510) 680-3244 (please note Pacific Time!)
Gyaljong Tsetrin, Zurich (Tibetan only)  +41 76 462 67 68

(1) Khotse (ཁོ་ཚེ), (in Chinese, 科却 Keque) Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/9MRH4 ;

Golog Jigme on Arrival in Zurich Airport, with Members of Filming for Tibet
(Photo by Filming for Tibet)

Zurich, 24 January, 2015

Tibetan monk, filmmaker and social activist Golog Jigme, aka Jigme Gyatso, arrived in Switzerland on the morning of 24 January 2015 from India. Approximately 40 Tibetans gave Golog Jigme a heroes welcome at Zurich airport upon his arrival at 7am with Tibetan flags and welcoming banners.

Representatives from the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Tibetan Women’s Association, and from the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe Filming for Tibet, took turns to present Golog Jigme with a khata (a Tibetan white ceremonial scarf).

Golog Jigme addressed the assembled crowd with a few words, “I’m extremely touched to see so many of you here today, thank you for welcoming me to Switzerland. I’d like to thank you for welcoming me. I will seek medical consultation and treatment. While I am here I also plan to explore ways in which I can continue my work for Tibet”.

This is Golog Jigme’s first trip to a Western country. Golog Jigme was jailed by China for assisting filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen in the making of the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind” in 2008. He was arrested in 2008 and released after months of torture. However, he suffered from continued harassment by the police and then disappeared in 2012 after the police started a hunt for him under false charges. After spending almost one year and 18 months in hiding, fearing for his life, Golog Jigme fled to India and finally reached the Tibetan Reception Centre in Dharamsala on 18 May, 2014.

Gyaljong Tsetrin, President of Filming for Tibet and old friends with Golog Jigme said, “It’s wonderful that Golog Jigme has reached Switzerland, a safe country with excellent medical facilities. It’s important that Golog Jigme rest and recuperate after all the torture and hardships he has suffered over the last few years.”

On 25 January, 2015, there will be a welcome event for Golog Jigme in Zurich where he will also give a talk.

In May 2014, Golog Jigme was listed by Reporters Without Borders among their list of “100 Information Heroes” on World Press Freedom Day.