Humkar Dorje RINPOCHE
Tibetan writer, educator, and religious leader Humkar Dorje Rinpoche died in suspicious circumstances while in custody in Vietnam in March 2025, raising serious concerns about transnational cooperation in repression between Vietnamese and Chinese authorities.
According to UN experts, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche had left the Lung Ngon Monastery in the Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province in September 2024 after he was interrogated for failing to show sufficient deference during a visit by the CCP-appointed Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu. He reportedly travelled to Vietnam, where he was reportedly arrested on 25 March 2025 in Ho Chi Minh City by Vietnamese authorities in the presence of Chinese government agents and subjected to enforced disappearance.
Four days later, at the age of 56, he died in custody. Vietnamese officials reportedly informed Rinpoche’s institute on 29 March 2025 that he had died of a heart attack. According to sources, on 1 April 2025, monks at his monastery were shown a certificate confirming his death but were given no details about the circumstances surrounding it. On 3 April 2025, the monastery issued a statement, which was widely condemned as coerced, claiming he had travelled to Vietnam on a religious retreat and died of illness. He was cremated without his family’s consent on 18 April 2025.
His death has drawn comparisons to previous cases involving Tibetans who died shortly after detention, including language rights activist Gonpo Namgyal. In addition, Vietnamese authorities have collaborated with Chinese authorities in the forced return of at least two political dissidents from Vietnam in recent decades, including Wang Bingzhang in 2002 and Dong Guangping in 2022.
Born in 1969, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche was a prominent spiritual leader, writer, and advocate for Tibetan language and culture. He authored more than 20 works and was widely respected for his calligraphy. He believed that education was a means of cultural preservation, and oversaw the establishment of schools and a vocational centre that provided free education to Tibetan children.