Ngawang Choephel

Tibetan Filmmaker
Fulbright Scholar, Middlebury College
Arrested in Shigatse on September 15, 1995
Sentenced to 18 years in prison for violating Article 4 Section 2 (5) of National Security Law on December 26, 1996

Ngawang Choephel, a former Fulbright Scholar at Middlebury College who studied and taught ethnomusicology, returned to Tibet in 1995 to make a video about traditional music and dance. Shortly thereafter he was detained and held incommunicado for 15 months. In December 1996, Mr. Choephel was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a secret trial.

Before he was detained Mr. Choephel sent many hours of video footage to India, which reportedly deals only with traditional music and dance. Other than his alleged "confession," the Chinese never produced any evidence to support the charge that Mr. Choephel engaged in espionage.  The Vermont Congressional Delegation fought tirelessly to obtain Mr. Choephel’s release, which finally occurred on January 20, 2002.  Since his release, I remain in close contact with Ngawang Choephel to this day.