Dolma Kyab

Who is Dolma Kyab?

Dolma Kyab, born in 1976, is a writer and teacher in his native Tibet. He is currently imprisoned at Chushur Prison, which is located in a rural area south-west of his native home, Lhasa, Tibet. On March 9, 2005, he was arrested in Lhasa at the middle school where he was employed as a history teacher. On September 16, 2005 he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Lhasa People’s Intermediate Court for the crime of stealing and/or passing on “state secrets.”

Dolma Kyab has received an extensive education having attended his local primary school and then his county middle school. He joined a Teachers Training Center in 1995 and taught at a school in Qilian County. He later continued his studies at Peking University where he received a Masters Degree in 2002. In 2003, he traveled to India to learn English and Hindi. He is fluent in both his Native Tibetan and Chinese, as well as Japanese. As a writer he maintained a commentary manuscript written in Chinese, entitled Sao dong de Ximalayshan. It has 57 chapters written on various topics such as: democracy, the sovereignty of Tibet, Tibet under communism, colonialism, and religion and belief. He also began writing another manuscript which focused on his increasing concern for Tibet’s environment and makes mention to sensitive topics like the geographical alterations that China has brought to Tibet as well as the location of various Chinese Military camps in the Tibet Autonomous Region.