Chinese Court Sentenced Two Men to Death for Killing Well-Known Tibetan Buddhist Monk

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Two men is sentence with death penalty by a court in Mainland China following the murder of a famous religious Tibetan Buddhist monk. The Tibetan Buddhist monk is known as the founder of the first Western Tibetan monastery as well as for his international spiritual retreats and charities.

According to Yahoo News, Thubten Kunsal, a Tibetan man who worked as an artist for the well-known religious figure, Akong Rinpoche in his United Kingdom-based monastery stabbed him to death including his nephew and driver. Kunsal, worked at the said monastery for nine years, argued with him at his home in Britain regarding the money that the lama owed him for his work.

Thubten and his companion, Ciren Bayue were sentence both to death. Their accomplice, the man who hide the murder weapon was sentenced to three years imprisonment, China Post reported. Their court documents also stated that the two men planned to appeal. Kagyu Samye Ling is Akong's monastery based in southwest Scotland said the lama does not owe Thubten any money.

The Tibetan monk was killed and died at the age of 73. Akong Rinpoche is also believed to be the incarnate lama since he was a young child in Tibet, according to the Guardian. He is also the abbot of the Dolma Lhakhang monastery. He fled to India after Chinese forces moved in to stamp out the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He moved to Britain several years later, studied at Oxford University and founded his Buddhist center in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1967.

The monk became a British citizen, he maintained a friendly relations with the mainland China leaders. He also visited the said country to look after charity projects. Akong was on a fundraising trip when he was stabbed.

Brussel's deputy mayor and Belgium's Buddhist Union's president has known the lama for 42 years. Despite Akong's death, he said that his brother, the abbot of Samye Ling, and the Karmapa, the head of the Kagyu school of Buddhism to which the victims belonged had both wish that death penalty would not be given on the defendants if they are convicted.

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