Tag Archives: Tibet
Tibet’s Desperate Toll Keeps Climbing
New York Times
Dec. 4, 2012
By MARK MCDONALD
HONG KONG — What pushes them to do it, these desperate Tibetans, more than 90 of them, dozens in recent days and another one on Monday, the ones drenching themselves in gasoline, sometimes even drinking the fuel beforehand, and then setting themselves on fire, their robes bursting into pennants of flame as they die such painful deaths, why, what is happening here? Are they killing themselves because of politics, sadness, despair, religion, what?
We don’t yet know what drove Lobsang Gedun, 29, a Buddhist monk who burned himself to death on Monday in the western Chinese province of Qinghai. My colleague Edward Wong reported on the death, and Radio Free Asia quoted an account of the immolation: “With his body on fire, he walked about 300 steps with hands folded in prayer posture, and raised slogans before he collapsed dead on the ground.”
Lobsang Gedun’s slogans were likely in praise of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, or condemnations of Beijing’s harsh, militarized rule in Tibet and the Tibetan areas of western China. Foreign reporters, United Nations investigators and many international relief groups are almost universally barred by the Chinese authorities from entering Tibet.
Rights group: 4 Tibetans self-immolate in one day
Associated News
Nov. 7, 2012
By LOUISE WATT
BEIJING (AP) — Three teenage monks and a Tibetan woman set fire to themselves in the largest number of confirmed self-immolations protesting Chinese rule over the Himalayan region in a single day, a London-based rights group said.
Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said the group expects Tibetan protests to continue to escalate as the Communist Party’s congress — a weeklong conference that will unveil China’s new leaders — began Thursday.
The three monks set fire to themselves Wednesday afternoon outside a police office in southwest Sichuan province calling for freedom for Tibet and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Free Tibet said in a statement. It said it was the first documented case of a triple self-immolation.
Tibetan Farmer Is Eighth Protester To Self-Immolate This Month
NPR
Oct. 22, 2012
By Sophia Jones
The Tibetan Labrang Monastery in Gansu, northwestern China, is normally a place of tranquility. Now, it is also known for tragedy. Early this morning, a Tibetan farmer known as Dhondup headed to Labrang to perform the Buddhist ritual of walking around the monastery in prayer. Near the prayer hall inside the gold-roofed monastery, Dhondup lit himself ablaze in protest of Chinese rule in Tibet. This is the second self-immolation in Tibet in two days, continuing a disturbing trend among Tibetan protesters.
A picture (note: it is graphic; you may not wish to view it) uploaded by the U.K.-based human rights organization Free Tibet shows what is said to be Dhondup’s body engulfed in flames against a backdrop of white brick and blue sky. According to witnesses, Buddhist monks surrounded his charred remains so that Chinese authorities could not confiscate the body.
Stephanie Brigde, director of the organization, said in a written statement that Dhondup is now the eighth Tibetan protester to self-immolate this month. The group claims that nearly 60 Tibetans — mostly monks and nuns — have turned to suicide by fire in Tibet and bordering Chinese provinces since spring of last year. Few survived and many of their whereabouts are unknown, but activists point fingers at the Chinese government.
“China must recognize that Tibetan demands for freedom cannot be stamped out by brute force,” Brigde wrote following Dhondup’s death, adding that China “must enter into meaningful dialogue with Tibetan representatives, supported by the international community.”
