Tibetan Center For Human Rights And Democracy, an advocacy group based in Dharamsala, India, have confirmed that the singers Pema Trinley, 22, and Chakdor 32, were secretly sentenced to a two year prison term in February, 2013 in Ngaba County, Sichuan Province. Family members of the two men were notified of the sentencing through a letter from the local authorities, which also stated that the singer’s imprisonment would take place in Mianyang Prison, Sichuan Province. However, when the family members visited the detention center, the officials told them that the men were no longer there, and refused to respond to the family's inquiry on their whereabouts.
The two singers originally from Meuruma nomadic village in Ngaba Prefecture, were detained in July 2012, at Machu County in Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. They were apprehended for recording and distributing a music DVD titled “Agony of Unhealed Wound.” The album contained songs about the self-immolations in Tibet, and lyrics that praised the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, and Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan administration in exile. Chakdor, one of the sentenced singers is said to be a close cousin of Choepa, a 24 year old man who died of a self-immolation protest in Ngaba County, Sichuan Province on August 10, 2012.
Two other Tibetan artists, Khenrap and Nyadompo, who collaborated on “Agony of Unhealed Wound” have gone missing since the singers sentencing in February.
Following is an excerpt from Chakdor’s song, “This is how it is.”
Our rich natural resources,
Are being destroyed and exploited by coercion,
Our land is being robbed of its resources,
Against our wishes.
The legacies left by wise ancestors,
In the form of ten traditional wisdoms,
Are being systematically annihilated,
Against our wishes.
The snow covered mountain ranges,
The brave young patriots of Tibet,
Have been mercilessly murdered and slaughtered,
Against our wishes.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
The living Buddha of our snowland,
Has been forced to go into exile,
Such is our tragic fate.