DHARAMSHALA, March 20: Hundreds of Tibetans, including Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, Speaker Penpa Tsering, Kalons or cabinet ministers and members of the the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile attended a special prayer service today at Tsug-la Khang, the main temple in Dharamshala.
“Since the wave of self-immolation began in Tibet, the Chinese government has always called the Tibetan self-immolators as drunkard or mentally ill and it has continued the same but now, it has been clear that none of the claims made by Chinese government were proved right even after their repeated attempts to disgrace the self-immolators,” the Tibetan prime minister said while addressing the people gathered for the prayer.
The service was held in honour of the two recent self-immolators Kunchok Wangmo and Lobsang Thokmey who set themselves on fire in protest against China’s occupation of their homeland.
Kunchok Wangmo, in her 30s, set herself on fire at around midnight on March 13 in the Dzoge region of Ngaba, Northeastern Tibet. She died in the protest.
On March 16, Lobsang Thokmey, 28, a monk at the Kirti Monastety set himself on fire at around 2:40 pm (local time.
Monks and people gathered at the scene of the protest and took Thokmey to the local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
The deepening crisis in Tibet has witnessed large scale anti-China protests and a series of self-immolations that has now seen 109 Tibetans set themselves on fire since 2009. The self-immolators have demanded freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama from exile. Ninety-one of them have died.
