Toll rises to 107

Phayul[Tuesday, February 26, 2013 16:16]

DHARAMSHALA, February 26: In confirmed reports coming out of Tibet, a monk set himself on fire yesterday in Ngaba region of eastern Tibet in protest against China’s continued occupation of Tibet. Sangdag, a monk of the Dhiphu Monastery, set himself ablaze on a main road in Ngaba district at around 10 am (local time). According to the exile base of Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, Sangdag’s present condition is unknown. “Soon after Sangdag carried out his fiery protest, Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene and doused the flames on his body,” Kirti Monastery said in a release today. “He was taken a hospital in Ngaba but shortly after that the Chinese police bundled him away to another place.” The release added that details of Sangdag’s self-immolation protest and his current condition and whereabouts are not available. The Dhiphu Gon Gelek Terzoe Ling Monastery, founded by Dhiphu Choeje, currently has around 500 monks. Also yesterday, another Tibetan, Tsezung Kyab, 27, passed away in his self-immolation protest in front of the Shitsang Monastery in Luchu region of eastern Tibet. The large number of Tibetans who were taking part in religious rituals at the Monastery surrounded Tsezung Kyab’s body and rescued it from falling into the hands of Chinese security personnel.  Since 2009, as many as 107 known Tibetans living under China’s rule have self-immolated demanding the return of Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile and freedom in Tibet. 11 Tibetans have self-immolated since the beginning of this year with eight of those fiery protests occurring in February. Last month, the Tibet Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the exile Tibetan administration in a white paper on the crisis in Tibet noted that the self-immolations were a "stark judgment of Chinese rule in Tibet."  The report titled, Why Tibet is Burning? said China’s policies of political repression, cultural assimilation, social discrimination, environment destruction, economic marginalisation were the principle reasons for Tibet’s fiery protests.