The Chinese officials expelled at least 26 Tibetan nuns from Jhada Nunnery, a well-regarded nunnery in the eastern region of Tibet, since October.
According to a release from Dra-Sog-Drisum Association Monday, the Chinese officials intensified restriction of “unpermitted” admission of nuns after the nunnery refused to denounce the Dalai Lama in September.
The nunnery is officially allowed to host 140 nuns, but many more nuns from a various Tibetan areas come to study.
“Normally when the Work Team visits the nunnery, the nuns who don’t have official residential permit go into mountains to hide,” said Ngawang Tharpa, the secretary of Choshi Gangdrug in Dharamsala to VOA's Tibetan Service on Monday.
But he said when the nunnery refused to denounce the Dalai Lama in September, the officials with “work team” came to stay in the nunnery and as the nuns eventually returned to the nunnery, they were expelled.
Jhada Nunnery, originally built in 1477, was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in 1984 by the local nuns in Driru County. 'Today it becomes a rare nunnery as it offers Tibetan language and literature up to 9th class,' added Mr. Tharpa.
Driru County has remained one of the most restricted areas in the Tibetan areas since 2012.
The exiled Tibetan observers say today the main communication channels, including Wechat, are completely shutdown in the county and its neighboring counties of Sog and Drachen, which falls under Tibetan Autonomous Region.