Tagyal was among eight signatories of an open letter criticizing the government’s response to the 14 April 2010 earthquake in the western province of Qinghai that left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Tibetans, and was arrested later that month for ‘sedition’.

“The Chinese gave the order to close our bookstore on April 12 and took away all the books by my husband,” his wife Lhatso said in an interview. “On April 23, five police officers, including two Tibetans, came to our home and took away my husband.”

“We took some food for him but the authorities didn’t allow us to see him-they wouldn’t even accept the food.”

His daughter said the arrest warrant accused her father of “sedition [to] split the country.”

Letter
The letter Tagyal signed had urged people to help victims by offering food, clothing, and medicine, but warned them to avoid official relief channels.

“Tibetans have strong religious beliefs, and they would never believe or trust the communists,” said Shao Jiang, a rights activist based in Britain who has worked for better ties between majority Han Chinese and China’s ethnic minorities.

Shao said the letter might seem threatening to the government’s relief efforts and credibility, because it would likely encourage people to use local, grassroots non-government organizations (NGOs).

“NGOs would bypass local bureaucracy, which is widely believed to be corrupted, to handle the disaster relief funds,” Shao Jiang said.

“The government is always concerned about the development and growth of grassroots NGOs that understand the local situation more than anyone else, and these NGOs are trusted by local people.”

Background
Tagyal, aged 45, is a Tibetan writer. He  worked at the Qinghai Nationalities Publishing House, in the provincial capital, Xining.

He is a leading intellectual who in the past has written books that largely aligned with the Chinese government’s views on modernization, religion, and culture in Tibet.

However, his most recent book published this year Namsa Ko Jed (The Separation between Sky and Land), which deals with the crackdown in Tibet of March 2008, is said to be more critical.

For further information, see:
Radio Free Asia
The Guardian
Tibetan Review
High Peaks Pure Earth

English PEN asks to send appeals to Chinese authorities calling for immediate and unconditional release of Tagyal. Find more details here.