On Monday, November 15th, we will be honoring the 40th anniversary of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. The Day of the Imprisoned Writer was started by PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee in 1981. It serves to honor, recognize, and support the imprisoned writers who resisted repression of basic human rights, freedom of expression, and stood up to attacks made against their right to impart information.
Today we would like to highlight the story of Dharamshala: A Tibetan writer who was arrested by the Chinese authorities two years ago continues to remain untraceable at a secret location in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province. Lobsang Lhundup, known popularly by his pen name Dhi Lhaden, was taken into custody in June 2019, Tibetan sources say.
Lobsang Lhundup aka Dhi Lhaden is a former monk, intellectual, and writer from the Tibetan province of Amdo. At the age of 13, he became a monk at a local monastery and after two years, he joined the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serta (Ch: Seda) County. At 27, he traveled to Lhasa to pursue further studies in Drepung and Sera monasteries. After the 2008 pan-Tibet protests against the Chinese government, he traveled to various places in Tibet to record the observations of fellow Tibetans about the protests. Lhundup has written and published a number of books and articles.
We are pleased to be partnering with PEN International for an extraordinary one-hour presentation celebrating the launch of its centenary book, PEN International: An Illustrated History. Co-author and President of PEN international Jennifer Clement will be joined by Editor and Executive Director Carles Torner discussing the struggle to preserve Tibetan language rights.
Joining via Zoom will also be special guest speakers Golok Chakmo, Foreign Secretary of PEN Tibet on behalf of PEN Tibet in Dharamsala, and Bob Thurman, Founder and President of Tibet House US.
