Thursday, 2 February 2012Since last March, at least 16 Tibetans, mostly monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire in protest of Chinese government policies.
Although initially these self-immolations were largely isolated to a Tibetan area in southwestern China, they have spread and grown in number. Between March and the end of September last year, four Tibetans set themselves on fire in protest. From October until the end of last month, another 12 followed in their footsteps. Four occurred in January alone.
Very few of these self destructive acts have been caught on camera, but one self-immolation that has made it to the outside world was that of Palden Choetso, a nun from a Tibetan area in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. In the video, she stands as the flames engulf her body and she later falls to the ground.
Palden Choetso set herself on fire in November and was the 11th Tibetan to resort to this extreme form of protest.
In the wake of her death, nuns rallied to mark her sacrifice. And between their cries of despair came calls for Tibetan independence from China. A candlelight vigil was held and Tibetans formed long lines to pay their respects.
Robbie Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University in New York, says that as the number of self-immolations grows and spreads to more areas, Tibetan patience in China appears to be running out.
"There is more nationalism in these Tibetan areas than there was probably at any time in history. And this has come probably as a result of bad Chinese policies that have gotten more tough and more aggressive in the last 15 years especially."
The wave of self-immolations during the past year began in March, when a 20-year-old monk Phuntsong set himself on fire to mark the third anniversary of a bloody Chinese crackdown on protests at the Kirti monastery in Aba.
But Phuntsong's self-immolation was not the first. The precedent for this form of protest was set in February 2009, when a monk from the same monastery set himself on fire.
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet says that monk, named Tapey, self-immolated after local authorities banned monks at the monastery from observing a traditional prayer festival during the Tibetan New Year. During the past year, six of the first eight self-immolations were carried out by Kirti monks, but gradually the incidents have spread. |
Thursday, 2 February 2012
William Ide for VOA News
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