On 21 October 2015, Namkyi and her sister Tenzin Dolma both wore Tibetan attire and carried large portraits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama as they marched in the crowded streets of ‘Martyr’s Road’ in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo, calling for ‘Free Tibet’ and the return of the Dalai Lama and Kirti Rinpoche to Tibet. Both were 15 years old at the time.

After 10 minutes, local police officers arbitrarily detained them in a Detention Centre in Ngaba County, then transferred them to another detention centre in Barkam city for interrogation. On 23 November 2016, following over a year and a month of detention, a court in Trochu County held a trial for them. It was the first time they saw each other since their arrest. No family members were present, but two government-appointed lawyers, one Chinese and one Tibetan. They were falsely accused of separatist activities and supporting the Dalai Lama’s group and sentenced to three years each, despite being minors at 16 years old.

After the trial, they were taken to ethnic minority prisons in Sichuan and then to Chengdu city’s largest women’s prison. For the initial three months, they underwent military training and patriotic education and learned about the Chinese constitution.

On 21 October 2018, they were released from prison. Despite their release, their freedom of expression and movement remained severely restricted. Namkyi’s cousin sister, Tsering Kyi, was summoned for interrogation several times.

Namkyi and her sister were born into a typical nomadic family of Pema Lhathang in Charo village, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo, Tibet. Like many other nomadic children, they did not receive the opportunity to go to school and spent their childhood as nomads.