Surviving a tibetan gulag

Surviving a tibetan gulag: Ngawang Sangdrol talks to the

Ngawang Sangdrol, a former political prisoner in Tibet, only smiles once during our hour-long interview. London, UK -- She had been asked how long a particular torture method - being hung by the arms after they are tied behind the back - would be used during incarceration. Ms Sangdrol served 12 years in prison before she was released in She is still only in her late 20s.

She was first imprisoned aged 13, after she joined her fellow nuns in Garu Nunnery in shouting "Independence for Tibet" and "Long live the Dalai Lama" during a protest outside the Summer Palace in Lhasa. She served nine months in Gutsa detention centre before she was released. But her freedom did not last long. In , she was rearrested for joining another protest and taken to the notorious Drapchi jail.

Even when I first went to prison I knew this sort of torture was taking place The penalties at Drapchi were severe. Ms Sangdrol was forced to suffer beatings with iron rods and rubber pipes, electric cattle prods on the tongue, knitting and spinning until her fingers blistered, and six months in complete darkness while in solitary confinement.