Tibetan 'singing nuns' reunited in London on International Women's Day
Media Advisory issued by the Tibetan Community in Britain

London, 6 March 2008
Four Tibetan women will lead a Tibet freedom march in London on Saturday (8 March). The women along with ten other nuns imprisoned with them (the ‘Drapchi 14’) are known as the 'singing nuns' for their courage in recording banned songs about the Dalai Lama from their prison cells. The four are all former Buddhist nuns and were tortured and imprisoned for many years in Chinese-occupied Tibet. They are to be reunited on Saturday in freedom for the first time since leaving prison in Tibet. They will lead a freedom march of hundreds of Tibetans and Tibet supporters to Whitehall, delivering a petition to Gordon Brown at 10 Downing St.
Dalha Tsering, the 'Drapchi 14' reunion co-ordinator for the Tibetan Community in Britain said today:
"We are deeply privileged to bring this extraordinary group of courageous women together for the first time in freedom, and in exile. They underwent unimaginable suffering and torture whilst in prison. Their story is one of the resilience of the human spirit. It is also proof of the strength of Tibetan cultural and religious identity in the face of China’s occupation of Tibet, and the unquenchable loyalty of the Tibetan people to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
SUMMARY
The four Tibetan women, Gyaltsen Drolkar, Phuntsok Nyidron, Namdrol Lhamo and Ngawang Sangdrol were all imprisoned in Lhasa's notorious jail, Drapchi, for expressing their loyalty to Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, and calling for Tibet's freedom in peaceful protests. In June 1993, they managed to get hold of a tape recorder and secretly recorded in their prison cells moving songs about their love for their country and the Dalai Lama, to signal to their families and the Tibetan people that their spirits remained unbroken. One of the tapes was smuggled out of prison and later distributed around the world.
The prison sentences of all of the women were extended as a result by between five and nine years and one of the group, Phuntsog Nyidrol, served 15 years before her release in 23 March 2004. All of the women were released for different reasons but six of their fellow nuns in Drapchi prison died as a result of torture and maltreatment.
Four of the 'singing nuns' are reunited in freedom for the first time in London on Saturday by the Tibetan Community in Britain, which is also releasing a CD of their songs in prison. Two further members of the 'Drapchi 14' will join them in the UK later this month.

Tibet Freedom March Route and Details:
The freedom march will start opposite the Chinese Embassy (49-51 Portland Place, W1B 1JL) at 10.30am and end with a rally at around 12.30pm at Palace Street (SW1), at the junction with Victoria Street. The march will pass Whitehall at around 11.30am. At the rally, at approximately 12.45pm, the four nuns will lead the gathering in the singing of a song from prison, which led to increased sentences for all of the group. Following the march, the Tibetan former prisoners will attend a gathering of eminent women from all over the world at London's Capital Women event to mark International Women's Day in the capital.
 
Contact: Chonpel Tsering
(for press information, interviews)
Telephone: +44 (0)7823775607
Email: chonpel@hotmail.com
Notes to Editors: