Rigzin Hungkar Dorje was missing since August last year 

Chinese authorities of Gade County yesterday declared the death of Rigzin Hungkar Dorje, a prominent Tibetan abbot of Lung Ngon Monastery in Golog,  who had been missing since August last year.

Information about his death swiftly became public knowledge, with many Tibetans sharing the abbot’s photos on WeChat with eulogies honoring the lasting legacy of the 56-year-old leader’s dedication to Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture. 

Widespread concerns and speculations were circulating about his whereabouts when his disappearance was first reported by Tibetan-exile media outlets in December last year. No details are known about where the abbot had been, nor is there any information about his body having returned to the family or Lung Ngon Monastery to carry out funeral ceremonies.

A source Tibet Watch spoke with accused the Chinese authorities of killing Abbot Hungkar Dorje, and explained that the Abbot was arrested for refusing to provide a lavish reception to the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama during his 2024 visit to the area.

The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, was reported to have left Golog for Lhasa on 25 June last year.

“He [Abbot] faced accusations of establishing a private school and advocating for Tibetan rights”, the source added.

Rigzin Hungkar Dorjee (རིག་འཛིན་ཧཱུྃ་ཀར་རྡོ་རྗེ།) was born in 1969 in Gade County, Golog region to Lama Pema Tumpo (སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་པདྨ་གཏུམ་པོ།) and Kaza Dukkar Dolma (ཀ་བཟའ་གདུགས་དཀར་སྒྲོལ་མ). From 1980 to 1989, he studied Tibetan culture and Buddhist philosophy at Lung Ngon Monastery (མགོ་ལོག་ལུང་སྔོན་དགོན་པ།) in Golog, which was founded by Tulku Pema Tumpo. He then left for India, where he studied at the Tibetan refugees-led Drepung Monastery in South India from 1989 to 1994. He spent two years in the United States before returning to Tibet. In 2002, with Chinese government approval, he was enthroned as the tenth abbot of Lung Ngon Monastery.

In 2004, he founded the Qinghai Provincial Epic of King Gesar Foundation (མཚོ་སྔོན་ཞིང་ཆེན་གེ་སར་གཞན་ཕན་ཐེབས་རྩ།) to preserve Gesar culture, and studied Buddhism in Beijing from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, with approval from Qinghai provincial and Golog prefectural government and the Education Department, he established Hungkar Dorje National Vocational Senior Middle School (ཧཱུྃ་ཀར་རྡོ་རྗེ་མི་རིགས་ལག་རྩལ་མཐོ་འབྲིང་།). The school provided free education to hundreds of Tibetan students with an environment grounded in preservation and restoration of Tibetan religion, culture, and language.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​