LHASA – Pema Rigdzin (also spelled Rigzin), a producer of Tibetan music and one of the artists featured in The Voice Project’s Free The Tibet 10 campaign has been released by Chinese authorities.

Pema Rigdzin is welcomed by his supporters with a khata, a traditional Tibetan scarf of well-wishing, after his release from prison in Chengdu on Friday (Radio Free Asia.)

After serving 11 months of his two-and-half year sentence for producing banned patriotic songs, Rigdzin returned to his home in the Ngaba.

Rigdzin was detained, sentenced, and fined 50,000 Yuan in May 2013 for producing ‘politically sensitive’ DVDs. Two of the most popular songs he produced, “In Memory of Tibet” and “Tears” have been banned.

The former monk of the Namtso monastery in Ngaba stopped singing in 2008 and devoted his time to producing films and songs in Chengdu. Authorities threatened to shut down his studio several times before his imprisonment.

Rigdzin was convicted on the same day as another Tibetan singer from Machu County, Kalsang Yarphel, who was sentenced to 4 years in prison for holding concerts and singing songs such as ‘Tibetans’ and ‘Lama la’ with a theme to promote Tibetan language. Kalsang Yarphel remains imprisoned today.

China has jailed many Tibetan writers, artists, singers, and educators for encouraging Tibetan national and cultural identity since 2008. Since then, 143 Tibetans have self-immolated opposing Beijing’s rule and advocating for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.

Upon Rigdzin’s return to Ngaba, monks and local Tibetans received him with the khata (a Tibetan scarf for well-wishing), and friends and relatives hosted a welcome home feast at a local hall with several Tibetan singers in attendance according to Sonam, a Tibetan living in Europe, citing local sources. The official reasons for Rigdzin’s release before the completion of his sentence are still unknown.

The Voice Project will continue to provide updates to this story as it develops.