13 February 2026
Prominent Tibetan environmental defender and community leader A-nya Sengdra has been released from Mianyang prison after an extended seven year prison sentence. The 55-year old nomad, who fought against local corruption, returned to his home in Kyangche (Chinese: Jiangqian) Township, Gade County, in Qinghai (the Tibetan area of Amdo), on 7 February. Initial reports suggested he is in poor health, suffering from kidney disease, vision problems, and high blood pressure after enduring torture and poor conditions in prison.
Popular Tibetan singer Asang, who shared a song called Prince of Peace during the Dalai Lama’s birthday period last July, has posted a video that demonstrates he has been released from a period of detention. The Chinese authorities are increasingly targeting Tibetan artists, writers, and intellectuals as part of an intensified campaign to suppress identity and culture, recognising that those who articulate collective memory, spiritual values and lived experience pose a particular challenge to the state’s efforts to reshape Tibetan society along Communist Party-defined lines.
A-Nga Sengdra before and after his prison sentence.
Environmental defender released
A-nya Sengdra was due for release from his seven year sentence last September, but Tibet Watch learnt that his sentence was abruptly extended, although the circumstances remain unknown.
A-nya Sengdra and his family remain under constant surveillance and severe restriction. In Tibet, even the perception of contact with the outside world — or of speaking about prison experiences — can result in re-imprisonment. This creates a pervasive climate of fear, isolating not only the individual but also family and friends, and casting a shadow over every relationship.
A-Nya Sengdra is widely known in the community for his courageous campaigning against local corruption, illegal mining, illegal hunting and poaching of endangered animals in his home area of Golok in eastern Tibet.
A-Nya Sengdra was held mostly incommunicado during his imprisonment. His family were allowed to visit him for the first time in six years in mid-August 2025, when they were together for only minutes before prison authorities ended the conversation between them.
A-Nya Sengdra was detained by the Gade County Public Security Bureau in Golok, Amdo, in September 2018, charged with “gathering people to disturb public order”, a reference to his community leadership on environmental protection with local nomads, and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. A-Nya Sengdra’s Chinese lawyer stated at the time that he believed these charges were false and were instead related to an ongoing government-led campaign targeting Tibetans involved in political activity or celebrating their culture, which the Chinese government publicised as a crackdown on ”underworld forces”. During his initial detention, his wife was refused permission to see him.
The injustice of the case against A-Nya Sengdra was recognised internationally. In an unusual public statement, nine UN human rights experts in 2020 told the Chinese government that they should drop the charges against A-Nya Sengdra and release him, saying: “We are deeply concerned by what appears to be the criminalisation of the legitimate work of a minority community member and human rights defender. We are also concerned about the reports of deterioration of his physical and mental integrity due to poor detention conditions.”
‘Non release release’ of popular singer
Popular Tibetan singer Asang, who shared a song called ‘Prince of Peace’ during the Dalai Lama’s birthday period last July, has posted a video that demonstrates he has been released from a period of detention.
The singer remains under constant surveillance and heavy restrictions. The situation of fellow singer Palchung, who was detained with him last July, remains unknown. The detention of the two singers in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) in Amdo was part of a broader and deeper crackdown witnessed across Tibet during the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday period.
Asang, who is from Barma township in Ngaba county, present-day Sichuan, is believed to have been released on around 23 January from police custody. In a video that pictured him sitting next to his wife at home, Asang did not refer directly to his imprisonment, but apologised to his parents, relatives and friends for causing them to worry, and said that he was well.
Asang and Palchung were detained by Ngaba authorities in early July 2025 and held incommunicado. Many of their fans believe that their detention was linked to a song posted on social media and entitled ‘Prince of Peace’, including lyrics that expressed devotion to the Dalai Lama.
