Edited Image Shared as Real One of Time Magazine Showing Sonam Wangchuk on Cover

The image is an edited one, and does not authentically show Sonam Wangchuk on TIME Magazine's cover.

An image showing activist Sonam Wangchuk on TIME Magazine's cover, depicting him during his hunger strike in an hourglass is being widely shared on social media.

The claim: The image is being shared to claim that the reputed publication expressed support for Wangchuk by featuring him on the cover along with the text, "TIME is running out. The clock isn't his. It's ours (SIC)."

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, TIME has never featured Wangchuk on its cover.

• The viral image is edited and was first shared on an Instagram page to show support for Wangchuk's cause.

How did we find out the truth?: We started off by looking for all the covers TIME Magazine had in July 2026, given the fact that Wangchuk's hunger strike started towards the end of June.

• In July 2026, the magazine ran five covers globally for two issues dated 6 July and the upcoming issue for 27 July.

• The issues for 6 July featured the New York Knicks, marking their win in the 2026 NBA championship, while the second one featured an illustration resembling the Statue of Liberty.

The three covers for the upcoming issues feature the Dalai Lama, an image depicting the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and content creator Alix Earle.

• Neither of the issues (links here and here) featured any stories about India, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), or Sonam Wangchuk.

• A keyword search with Wangchuk's name, supplemented with 'TIME Magazine', led us to feature from 2025, where TIME ran a list of the world's top 100 climate leaders, which predates the CJP and Wangchuk's participation.

• It listed Wangchuk among them, calling him an engineer, educator, and activist, and spoke about his work in Ladakh and his arrest in September 2025.

Where is the image from?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral cover, which led us to an Instagram page of an artist called Sujan Kudari, who had shared this image on 14 July 2026.

• In the caption, he mentioned that he made the "independent conceptual artwork" to "raise awareness" about the protest.

• "It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with TIME or TIME Magazine," he noted.

Conclusion: An edited image is being shared to falsely claim that TIME Magazine featured Sonam Wangchuk on its cover during his recent hunger strike.

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