Lobsang Choedon (lay name: Myima), a 29-year-old Tibetan nun from Toelung Dechen Dzong, was raised by her widowed mother and had one brother. Her father died when she was thirteen years old. In February 1996, large contingents of Chinese work teams arrived at Chubsang Nunnery and accused its head monk, the Venerable Palden Dhondup, then seventy-three years of age, of inciting the nuns to participate in the 1995 Spring demonstrations. The nuns, including Lobsang Choedon, strongly protested the authorities’ attempt to remove their revered teacher, who was the founder and spiritual pillar of their monastery. They asserted that the state had no authority to interfere in the internal religious affairs of the nunnery.

In response, the authorities issued severe threats, warning that the nuns would be imprisoned in Drapchi Prison if they failed to comply. In the eighth month of the Tibetan calendar that year, Venerable Palden Dhondup was expelled from his position along with two other monks, although the Chinese authorities claimed the removals were voluntary. At the same time, the work teams confiscated the Venerable’s personal possessions and declared them state property.

Lobsang Choedon also witnessed further acts of repression at Kyabchi Phabong Labrang, where officials ordered the destruction of a thangka depicting the banned deity Shungten and accused the nuns of involvement in “political offenses.” Although the nuns later obtained a replacement thangka, the authorities rejected it, and several nuns were subjected to severe punishment.