By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 23: An unidentified person has reportedly self immolated in the eastern Tibet’s Ngaba town in Ngaba County, Sichuan Province, Saturday evening.
A video circulating on social media sites shows a person engulfed in flames and moving about through what was reported by RFA to be the infamous “martyr’s lane” in the restive Ngaba town where many Tibetans have self immolated since 2009. The video was most likely taken from inside a vehicle with a mobile phone. The incident was reported to have taken place around 6:30 pm local time. Chinese police is reported to have taken the self immolator away.
There is no information whatsoever on the victim’s gender, whether he was a lay or a monastic, or if the self immolator has survived or not.
The official stand by the exile Tibetan government on the issue of self immolation has been to urge Tibetans to refrain from the act. Central Tibetan Administration run Tibet.net today quoted the President as saying “The Chinese government should address the legitimate grievances of the Tibetan people and review their failed policies that has engendered the grim situation and Tibetans resorting to self immolation to protest the Chinese rule in Tibet.”
Just last month, on Nov. 26, an elderly monk named Tenga self immolated and perished in Kardze County in eastern Tibet’s Kham region. The unidentified self immolator in Ngaba today takes the toll of self immolation to 151.
