Palden Gyatso, a Drepung monk, joined in the first demonstration. Later sent by abbot of Loseling with a contingent of monks to guard north gate of Norbulingka.

Palden and five other monks went all around Lhasa putting up the posters which called on the Chinese to leave Tibet and declared Tibet’s independence. He was later arrested and imprisoned and endured more than 30 years of torture and imprisonment in Chinese prisons.

The Dalai Lama described Palden’s life as “one of the most extraordinary stories of suffering and endurance,” saying that he was “an inspiration to us all.” “Individuals like Palden Gyatso,” the Dalai Lama wrote in a foreword to Palden’s book “Fire Under the Snow,” “reveal that the human values of compassion, patience and a sense of responsibility for our own actions that lie at the core of spiritual practice still survive.”