Jamyang Palden succumbs to injuries six months after fiery protest

Phayul[Monday, October 01, 2012 12:00]

Tibetan self-immolator, monk Jamyang Palden, in an undated photo.  Tibetan self-immolator Jamyang Palden, a monk at the Rongwo Monastery in Rebkong, eastern Tibet, has reportedly succumbed to his injuries after an ordeal that lasted for more than six months. Jamyang Palden, 34, passed away in the evening of September 29, at his monastery quarters.  According to India based Tibetan language news portal, Tibet Times, monks at the monastery gathered in large numbers to offer prayers for the deceased, soon after news of his passing away broke out. Monks and local Tibetans had been nursing Jamyang Palden and taking care of him since his discharge from a hospital in the nearby Malho town. “Due to his severe burn injuries, he showed very little signs of improvement and finally passed away,” the report quoted an exile Tibetan with contacts in the region as saying. On March 14, Jamyang Palden set himself on fire in an apparent protest against the Chinese government on a ground in front of his monastery. Tibetans who were present at the site of his fiery protest immediately took him to a hospital but brought him back to the monastery to rescue him from falling into the hands of Chinese security personnel. A large number of monks and local Tibetans had gathered at the ground in front of the monastery to offer prayers and mark their protest. According to confirmed reports, Tibetans who had survived their self-immolation protest suffered amputations of all limbs and were subjected to verbal abuse, interrogations and maltreatment from the doctors and Chinese officials at the hospitals. Days after Jamyang Palden’s self-immolation protest, Sonam Dhargey, a 44-year-old father of three, set himself ablaze near the Rongwo town centre and succumbed to his burns at his protest site. Marching in the street, engulfed in flames, eyewitnesses said Sonam Dhargey called for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile. Sonam Dhargey had wound his torso with barbed wires, a tactic that has been earlier used by self-immolating Tibetans to restrict Chinese security personnel from getting hold of their bodies. Local Tibetans had carried Sonam Dhargey’s body to Dolma Square, the main ground in front of the Rongwo monastery, where according to reports, more than 8000 Tibetans gathered to pay their last respects and mark their protest against the Chinese government. Since 2009, there have been 52 known cases of self-immolations in Tibet, out of which now 42 Tibetans have passed away.  The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently expressed America's concerns over the increasing instances of self-immolations in Tibet and violations of human rights at a meeting with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. "The Secretary, as she always does, raised human rights concerns – notably in this particular meeting, concerns about Tibet and increasing pace of immolations," a senior US official said after Clinton met Yang on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.