A week after Tenzin Delek’s death the Chinese authorities announced that he had died from a heart attack. According to a statement issued on 18 July by the state-run news agency Xinhua, the cause of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s death was “sudden cardiac arrest”.

On 20 July, China Daily, another state-run outlet, published a report on Tenzin Delek’s death with the headline “Separatist leader’s death not worthy of lament”, exemplifying the government’s hardline attitude towards the monk and to the Tibetan people in general.

Further reading: China Daily