The abbot of Longen Monastery and principal of a large vocational school closed by the government in 2021 got in trouble after his cold welcome to the false Panchen Lama.
by Lopsang Gurung
On April 2, 2025, authorities summoned the abbot and seven monks of Longen Monastery to sign a document stating that their abbot, Humkar Dorje Rinpoche, had passed away. They provided no details about the location of the body or the circumstances of the abbot’s death.
Longen Monastery is located in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, which is part of historical Tibet but not of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Humkar Dorje Rinpoche was a well-known high lama and Buddhist educator. He was born in 1969 in Dga’de Dzong, Golog Prefecture.
He studied in several Tibetan monasteries, as well as in Beijing and the United States. In 2002, he was appointed as the 10th abbot of Longen Monastery with the permission of the government.
In 2004, he founded the Qinghai Provincial Gesar Charity Foundation. In 2007, the county government and the education department approved the establishment of the Humkar Dorje National Technical High School, a large vocational school.
As part of the government’s crackdown on Tibetan schools, the educational establishment was closed in 2021.
The monk also promoted the Buddhist practice of releasing into rivers fishes that would otherwise die, a century-old practice recently criticized and limited by the Chinese regime.
Humkar Dorje Rinpoche was “disappeared” at the end of 2024, after he gave a cold reception to the visiting false Panchen Lama, recognized as such by the Chinese authorities but not by the Dalai Lama.
He was not in poor health, was only 56, and his death is highly suspicious.
Source: BITTER WINTER
