40,000 Signatures on Petition for Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's Release
Dharamshala: Tibetans and their supporters came together for a global day of action today for the release of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a highly revered religious leader and community organizer from eastern Tibet who is currently serving a life sentence in a Chinese prison. In cities around the world, demonstrators delivered a 40,000 signature petition to Chinese embassies and consulates denouncing China's unjust imprisonment of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. In Dharamshala alone, more than ten thousand petition signatures were sent by fax and courier to Chinese authorities in Beijing and to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi. The petition text mirrored a similar petition signed by 40,000 Tibetans in Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's home region of Lithang in Kham, eastern Tibet (Chinese: Sichuan Province ). Members of Tenzin Delek's family have made previous attempts to deliver the petition to the Chinese government in December 2009 but were stopped when en route to Beijing.