Ani Pachen, nun and campaigner: born Gonjo, Tibet c1933; died Dharamsala, India 2 February 2002.

Ani Pachen was a remarkable and brave champion for Tibetan freedom from Chinese rule. Every night, in exile, she used to pray to return to Tibet with the Dalai Lama: in this, she was thwarted.

She was born Pachen Dolma around 1933 - she did not know her exact date of birth - in Gonjo in Kham (eastern Tibet). As the only child of a powerful chieftain family, she was the pride and joy of her father, Pomda Gonor, and his Lemdha clan. But Pachen Dolma was more interested in a spiritual life. At the age of 17, when she overheard plans to marry her off to the son of another chieftain, she fled to a monastery three weeks away on horseback and became a Buddhist nun. She became known as Ani Pachen which, literally translated, means "Nun Big Courage".

With the death of her father in 1958, however, she inherited the leadership of the Lemdha clan and took up arms against the invading Communist Chinese, who had already started to desecrate monasteries, redistribute property and murder Tibetan families. She proved an effective leader and led a guerrilla campaign against the invaders until she was captured in late 1959.

For the next 21 years, Ani Pachen endured barbarous treatment as a political prisoner, punished for her faith and her steadfast refusal to denounce the Dalai Lama. She was beaten and hung by her wrists for a week, spent a year in leg irons and was flung for nine months into solitary confinement in an unlit cell. The last 11 years of her sentence were spent in the infamous Drapchi prison in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. During the Cultural Revolution, frequently on the verge of starvation herself, she saw friends and compatriots summarily executed or dying of hunger. She saw the smoke rise from the Three Great Monasteries of Tibet (Drepung, Sera and Ganden) as they were ransacked.

After her release from prison in January 1981, Ani Pachen went on resisting the Chinese. Instead of returning home to Gonjo, she remained in Lhasa and took part in the three major demonstrations led by monks of Drepung, Sera and Ganden Monasteries in 1987 and 1988 demanding human rights for Tibetans and for the Chinese to leave Tibet.

Following a tip-off that she was at risk of re-arrest, she fled for the border, wandering for four days in deep snow before chancing upon a friendly villager, and then walking for 25 days to Nepal. Her lifelong dream to meet the Dalai Lama came true when she was granted a personal audience soon afterwards. She subsequently settled in Dharamsala in India.

Ani Pachen's autobiography, Sorrow Mountain: the journey of a Tibetan warrior nun, written with Adelaide Donnelly, was published in 2000, and she toured the US and Europe. Last year, she visited the UK at the invitation of the Tibet Society, and led the annual march on 10 March through central London to commemorate the Lhasa Uprising. Everyone who heard or met her was touched by her courage and resilience - and incredible lack of bitterness. Speaking in the rain opposite Downing Street, in strong and clear tones, she urged young Tibetans to continue the fight. She took heart from the fact that demonstrations in Lhasa today were led by young people.

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Last updated: 11-Feb-2002