World Prisons
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China

Drapchi Prison

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Verified 29 May 2026
Fresh · 0d ago

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

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How to send mail, money, and visit Drapchi Prison

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Photograph of Drapchi Prison

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Drapchi-prison.jpg

    Photo by Blofeld of SPECTRE via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • PaldenGyatso.jpg

    Photo by Christophe Cunniet via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Nga Sang.jpg

    Photo by Nick.Gulotta via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

  • The Trapchi Regiment.jpg

    Photo by Frederick Williamson (1891-1935) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Tibetan Government official Ringang Rigdzin Dorje (Rin-sgang Rig-dzin rdo-rje) on 31 August 1933 was responsible for supplying the mint with electrical energy, from- Trabshi Lekhung (cropped).jpg

    Photo by Frederick Williamson (1891-1935) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Trabshi Lekhung.jpg

    Photo by Frederick Williamson (1891-1935) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Trabshi Lekhung2.jpg

    Photo by Frederick Williamson (1891-1935) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

Drapchi Prison, or Lhasa Prison No. 1 (Tibetan: གྲྭ་བཞི་, Wylie: grwa bzhi, lit. "four corners"; simplified Chinese: 拉萨第一监狱; traditional Chinese: 拉薩第一監獄), is the largest prison in Tibet, China, located in Lhasa. Drapchi is the Tibetan word, named after its location and was originally a military garrison until it was converted into a prison after the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. It is roughly one mile from the city centre and is the main prison for judicially sentenced prisoners in Tibet.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

1965

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1965

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources