Wangdu (activist)
Wangdu (Tib: དབང་སྐུད་, dbang sdud ; Chinese: Wangdui) is a former Tibetan monk who became an HIV/AIDS activist at the age of 41. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for "endangering state security", and in 2012 he was in hospital. Wangdu was born in the Dagzê County about 25 kilometres east of Lhasa. He was a monk of the Jokhang monastery and who was fluent in Chinese and led tours of the monastery. He participated in the 1989 Tibetan unrest in Lhasa and was arrested on 8 March 1989, the day martial law took effect in Lhasa after three days of protest. He was sentenced to three years "reform through labour" but his sentence was extended to eight years' imprisonment after he and 10 other political prisoners signed a petition stating that the 1951 17-Point Agreement was forced on an independent Tibet. Thus he became a political prisoner, and he was released from prison in 1995. However, he was prohibited by Chinese law from re-entering his monastery because he had received a prison sentence. Wangdu went on to work with a British NGO on social development issues, and he subsequently became a health worker in Lhasa, working on