By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, MAY 20: A Tibetan monk has reportedly perished after he self immolated yesterday evening in an apparent protest against Chinese rule in the Kangtsa County in Qinghai’s Tsojang Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province in Eastern Tibet.
A Tibetan monk Jamyang Losal, aged about 22, set himself ablaze at around 5:00 a.m. on May 19 near the People’s Hospital in Kangtsa, a source cited by Radio Free Asia said. The self immolation by the young Tibetan monk placed the toll of self immolation by Tibetans to a staggering and unprecedented 150.
“Losal’s body was taken away by the police, and when his family members went to the police station to claim his remains, the police refused to comply with their request. He did not survive his protest,” RFA’s anonymous source said.
The young Tibetan monk hailed from Dong Gya village in Kangtsa County’s Nangra Township and belonged to the Gyerteng monastery in Kangtsa’s Nangra town, situated about 30 kilometers south of the Kangtsa County seat.
Earlier this month on May 2, a Tibetan youth Chagdor Kyab, 16, from Bora Township, in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Amdo, set himself on fire near Bora monastery shouting slogans such as ‘Tibet wants freedom’ and ‘Let His Holiness the Dalai Lama come back to Tibet’.
The spate of self immolation that began since 2009 is a form of protest unprecedented in the recent history of the modern era with Tibetans monks, nuns, teenagers, mothers burning themselves in protest over China’s repressive control over Tibet. The majority of the self immolators demanded freedom in Tibet and the return of the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland.
Despite international outcry from leading nations of the free world and international establishments, China has resorted to cruder measures against the fiery protests by standardizing tactical anti-self immolation gear among authorities in the Tibetan plateau and policy wise, criminalizing the act of self immolation and subjecting friends and family of victims to prison terms and punishments.
