CD-cover of ‘Torture
without Trace’

The album titled ‘Torture Without Trace’ contains 13 songs expressing nostalgia for the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and remembering the Chinese government’s crackdown on Tibetans in March 2008, with lyrics such as:

“The pain that there is no freedom in the land of Tibet.
The pain that the heritage of our ancestors has been taken away.”

‘Torture Without Trace’ was banned by Chinese authorities in central Henan province in November 2009 after 3,000–5,000 copies of the album had already been sold within a month after its October-2009-release in the Amdo region of eastern Tibet. A member of the Henan Mongolian Autonomous Region Arts Troupe, Tashi Dondrup is a popular music star in the region.

Tashi Dondrup went in hiding in Xining, where on 3 December 2009, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, he was arrested at a restaurant, held at gun-point while his wife wept and grabbed one of the police officer’s legs in an attempt to hold him back.

He was held two months in a detention centre in Sog County, until on 30 January 2010, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, a Chinese court in Sogpo Mongol Autonomous County, Malho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, sentenced him to one year and seven months’ imprisonment for “producing a music album with subversive songs”.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia on 5 March 2010, Tashi Dhondup was already on on 5 January 2010 sentenced to 15 months of re-education through labour for ‘separatist activities’ related to his music. Court documents obtained by Radio Free Asia say that Tashi Dhondup and “some other associates copied about 3,000 CDs and distributed them in 11 counties in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu”.

‘Counter-revolutionary content’
Tashi Dhondup had also previously been detained, in September 2008, according to sources of the International Campaign for Tibet, accused by authorities of including‘counter-revolutionary content’ in a song entitled ‘The Year of 1959’, the year of the Lhasa Uprising and the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile. He was detained and allegedly beaten for over seven days by police in Xining.

“Our root-lama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Please stop the life of exile in the land of others
and come home as soon as possible
All the devoted men and women are around your golden throne waiting for you”

01: Waiting With Hope
02: Western Land of Scolars
03: Torture Without Trace
04: Unable to Meet
05: For That I Shed My Tears
06: Pain of Missing
07: Go
08: Unbearable Fate
09: Unable to See
10: Tibet Has Good Karma
11: No Regrets
12: Think
13: A Sad Life

Lyrics of the song ‘Torture Without Trace’
“First, a sad tune for my brother hasn't returned from afar
Second, the pain because there is no harmony for people
Third, the occupation and denial of freedom for Tibetans
This is all torture without trace

First, the regret as our ancestral wealth is lost to outsiders
Second, the pain that we aren't the owners of our resources
Third, the practice of sterilisation to wipe out our race
This is all torture without trace
This is all torture without trace

First, the hurt from being denied my parents' love
Second, the failure to hear the inner voices of my people
Third, the grief that our mountains are belittled
This is all torture without trace”

Translated by Bhuchung D. Sonam of Tibet Writes

I will sing for the rest of my life
For which even if I am killed
I have no regrets

From the song ‘No Regrets’ by Tashi Dhondup
Source: High Peaks Pure Earth