Dhondup Wangchen

Dhondup Wangchen is a Tibetan filmmaker imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Made with senior Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the 14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Han Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.

Dhondup Wangchen was born in 1974, in Bayen in the Tsoshar region of Amdo. His family were farmers. He later moved to the capital of Lhasa. There Dhondup Wangchen witnessed a proindependence demonstration repressed by security authorities, an experience that a relative would later describe as critical to his political awareness. In 1993, he and a cousin crossed the Himalayas into India to receive the blessing of Tibets exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Dhondup returned to Tibet shortly after to act as an activist for the Tibetan cause.

Source: Wikipedia