Drapchi 14 Reunion UK - Former Political Prisoners of Tibet

In 1993 in Tibet’s Drapchi Prison fourteen young nuns – all prisoners of conscience imprisoned for taking part in peaceful demonstrations calling for Tibetan independence – had their sentences extended by between five and nine years each for recording freedom songs that would later be heard around the world.

Of the “Drapchi 14”, or “Tibet’s singing nuns” as they became known around the world, one died in custody, seven remain in Tibet and six are now living in exile in India, Belgium, Switzerland and the USA.

Singing Louder: In the run up to and during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the world will be scrutinising the human rights situation in China as never before despite her authoritarian regime’s best attempts to gloss over their appalling record. To help raise awareness of Tibet's critical situation and the plight of Tibetans, the Tibetan Community in Britain has organised a UK reunion during March and April 2008 of the six ‘singing nuns’ now living in exile. Despite years of inhumane treatment including interrogation, torture, solitary confinement, beatings and years of malnutrition, the spirit and determination of these former political prisoners remain unbroken. According to Ngawang Sangdrol one of the six former political prisoners coming to the UK:

Whilst in the UK the six will re-record some of the songs they sung in prison in 1993 and will speak to the British public of their time in prison, their exile from Tibet and their ongoing struggle against Chinese rule of their homeland, and will appeal to the British government and the public to support His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is visiting the UK in May 2008, and the Tibetan people in their efforts to find a resolution to the Chinese occupation of their country.

Singing Louder will also commemorate the 10th anniversary of protests inside Drapchi Prison in 1998, after which five nun inmates died as a result of beatings and maltreatment at the hands of the prison authorities. A decade later, things have not improved in Tibet.
The Tibetan Community in Britain aims to ensure that these former political prisoners have an opportunity to have their voices heard as loudly as possible.