Ngawang Sangdrol, the former Tibetan political prisoner, will be speaking on her experiences in Tibet at two colleges in Maine from October 29 to 30, 2004.
On October 29, 2004 Sangdrol will speak at the College of Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine (7 p.m., Gates Center. For more information, contact Andrew Campbell at 288-5015, ext. 305).
On October 30, 2004 Sangdrol will speak at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, at a program being organized by the Student for a Free Tibet (8:00 p.m. Cotter Union/151 Pugh Center Commons Room. Phone 207-872-3000).
Sangdrol had been arrested first when she was only 13 years of age and had been undergoing a 21-year sentence when she was released in 2002. Sangdrol was imprisoned for her non-violent activities, including demonstrations, against Chinese rule in Tibet.
While serving her sentence in the dreaded Drapchi Prison in Lhasa, Sangdrol and more than a dozen other fellow nuns secretly recorded songs on a tape recorder praising the Dalai Lama and criticizing Chinese rule in Tibet. When the tape was distributed throughout Tibet, the nuns were charged with “spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda” and each were given additional sentences in 1993.
Some months after her release Sangdrol was allowed to leave for the United States for medical treatment. Today, she works in the International Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C. as a human rights analyst.