DHARAMSHALA, March 24: Despite repeated attempts by Tibetans, their supporters and representatives, the body of Drupchen Tsering aka Druptse, a Tibetan who set himself on fire in Kathmandu, the Nepalese authorities are reportedly planning to declare his body ‘unclaimed’.
According to Kathmandu-based newspaper The Himalayan, “Government officials are preparing to declare the body of a Tibetan monk, who set himself ablaze on the premises of Boudhanath Stupa, unclaimed after his kin failed to approach the police to receive the body.”
On March 9, Kathmandu District Administration Office had issued a public notice in Gorkhapatra asking the family members or relatives of the monk to receive the body within seven days from the date of the notice.
“After no one approached us to claim the body within the given time, we are preparing to declare it unclaimed and will either bury it or provide it to a medical college,” The Himalayan quotes an official saying.
Druptse, 25 set himself ablaze on the path around the holy Boudhanath stupa in Nepalese capital city Kathmandu on February 13. He passed away on the same day after suffering 96 percent burns.
Since then his body has been kept in the mortuary of TU Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj.
Tibetans all over the world have appealed to the government of Nepal and its embassies and consulates around the world to handover Druptse’s body back to Tibetan in order to carry out traditional religious ritual.
Earlier this month, Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the exile Tibetan administration, expressed sadness over the Nepalese government’s decision to continue to hold back Druptse’s body.
