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10-15-1998

Tibetan monk brings instruments of torture, message of peace

University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations

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Oct. 15, 1998

Contact: Toni Daniels, (406) 327-0672.

TIBETAN MONK BRINGS INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE, MESSAGE OF PEACE

MISSOULA—

After Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso was thrown in jail for his religious and cultural beliefs 39 years ago, he became a thorn in the sides of the Chinese authorities and an inspiration to his fellow inmates.

As a result of his resistance, he was interrogated, tortured and terrorized during three decades of imprisonment.

“A prison official poked me with an electric cattle prod and poured boiling water over me because he said he did not like my attitude, Gyatso recounts in "The Autobiography of a

Tibetan Monk” (Grove Press, 1997).

Gyatso, who was released in August 1992 from Drapchi prison in , will share his experiences with a Missoula audience on Monday, Oct. 19. The free public lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in Urey Lecture Hall.

Gyatso was born and raised in a small Tibetan village. He became an ordained

Buddhist monk at one of ’s most famous monasteries, Drepung, when he was 18 years old.

In 1959, at the height of the Chinese “Cultural Revolution,” he was jailed - along with thousands of other religious leaders - in an attempt to crush Tibetan culture and enforce

“thought reform” among the Tibetan people.

-more- Tibetan, rl—2

Now, after serving more years behind bars than any other surviving Tibetan who has reached the West, Gyatso has devoted his life to exposing the atrocities committed by the

Chinese government against the Tibetan people. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, emphasizing the plight of Tibetan political prisoners.

At his Missoula lecture, Gyatso will display instruments of torture like the ones used on

him, including thumb cuffs, serrated knives and shock guns.

He has testified about the human rights abuses he suffered in Tibet before the United

Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and the U.S. Congress.

In March 1996, to commemorate Tibet’s National Uprising Day, he embarked on a

300-mile walk from the Chinese consulate in Washington, D.C., to the United Nations in New

York City.

Gyatso’s speaking tour is organized by San Francisco human rights group Global

Exchange and co-sponsored by Students for a , the Milapera Foundation and the

International Campaign for Tibet. m

PS Local Tibetan