Respected Tibetan Monk Burns Himself to Death in Gansu
2013-12-19
A respected Tibetan monk burned himself to death in Gansu province on Thursday in protest against “suppressive Chinese law,” saying in a suicide note that he wanted to “sacrifice” his life for the interest of the Tibetans, according to sources.
Tsultrim Gyatso, 43, self-immolated at a road junction in Sangchu (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture after penning his one-page suicide note at his monastery in which he also called for the return of the exiled Tibetan spirtual leader the Dalai Lama, the sources in the area said.
“Before his self-immolation at a cross-section in Sangchu, he went to his room after lunch break, lit a lamp, opened a book on the teachings of Buddha and wrote his one-page suicide note,” a Tibetan lecturer at the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education (DLIHE) in Bangalore, India, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Tibetan treasures of gold and silver have been looted under suppressive Chinese law,” Gyatso said in his note, according to the lecturer, citing contacts in the region. “All citizens are driven to sufferings,” Gyatso said.
“Tears drop from my eyes when I dwell on this state of sufferings [of the Tibetans],” according to Gyatso’s note. “For the return of the Dalai Lama, and the release of the Panchen Lama, and the well being of six million Tibetans, I sacrifice my precious life in self-immolation.”
The Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was just six years old when he was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities in 1995 after he was identified as the reincarnation of the second-highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism by the Dalai Lama, who is living in exile in India.
A Tibetan source in Sangchu told RFA that Gyatso, known locally for his accomplishments in the study of Buddhism and Tibetan culture, died on the spot and his body was taken to the Achok monastery where more than 400 monks conducted funeral prayers.
Prayers stopped by police
Chinese police ordered the monks to halt the prayers but the monks continued the prayers in a different section of the monastery, the Tibetan lecturer in Banglore said.
“Over 400 monks of Achok monastery were saying prayers for the late Tsultrim Gyatso but a group of 10 Sangchu police arrived at the monastery and interrupted the prayers. The monks [in a different section of the monastery] continued the prayers,” he said.
Gyatso’s burning protest was the 125th Tibetan self-immolation in China since the fiery campaign began in 2009 calling for Tibetan freedom and for the return to Tibet of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 following a failed national uprising against Chinese rule.
Before Gyatso’s burning protest, a Tibetan herdsman had self-immolated on Dec. 4 in protest against Chinese rule at Ngaba county’s Meruma township center in Sichuan province.
He died on the way to the hospital and his remains were secretly cremated by the authorities.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
Controls tightened
Chinese authorities have tightened controls in a bid to check self-immolation protests, arresting and jailing Tibetans whom they accuse of being linked to the burnings. Some have been jailed for up to 15 years.
The authorities have also attempted to pressure local Tibetans to sign an official order that forbids any kind of activities to support or sympathize with self-immolation protests, residents said.
In the latest crackdown, the authorities detained two monks and a government worker on suspicion they were supportive of 20-year-old Tibetan monk Tsering Gyal, who burned himself to death in Qinghai province last month in protest against Chinese rule, according to sources this week.
The two monks were dragged at night from their quarters, while the government worker was beaten and detained for possession of Gyal’s photo on her mobile phone, the sources said this week.
Reported by Yangdon Demo and Chakmo Tso for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

 Tibet talks could take place in Iceland, Iceland MPs suggest China
Tuesday, 03 December 2013
The Cameron Hickert, Tibet Post International
Dharamshala: – Denouncing the atrocities perpetrated against Tibetans in Tibet, a group of MPs from all Icelandic political parties except Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party have submitted a parliamentary resolution encouraging the Chinese government to resume peace talks with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representatives, ruv.is and Iceland Review Online report.
The resolution urges the Icelandic parliament to highlight concerns over growing violence against and oppression of Tibetans by the Chinese government.
It calls on parliament to condemn the crackdown on peaceful protests in Tibet and insist that the Chinese government not stand in way of the UN sending a delegation to investigate human rights abuses in Tibet.
Encouraging the Chinese government to initiate peace talks with the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the MPs suggest that talks could take place in Iceland.
A statement accompanying the resolution said that many parliaments around the world have passed resolutions regarding the critical situation in Tibet.
Twelve Nobel Peace winners have sent letters to the Chinese government encouraging peace talks with the Tibetan people.
The MPs believe that the Icelandic parliament should take a stance, particularly given that senior officials of the Chinese government have visited Iceland on a regular basis.
“We Icelanders have a moral obligation under our free trade agreement with China, which takes effect in early 2014, to highlight that we will not accept human rights violations of the kind outlined in the statement.”
Last week Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, the democratically-elected leader and political successor to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, reiterated commitment to dialogue to find a solution for the issue of Tibet within the framework of the Chinese constitution.
“The situation in Tibet is tragic and unfortunate. Over 122 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against the Chinese government’s policies of political repression, religious persecution, cultural assimilation, economic discrimination, and environmental destruction in Tibet,” the Tibetan political leader told reporters in Shimla.

Editorial
Desperation in Tibet
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: November 29, 2013
On Nov. 11, Tsering Gyal, a 20-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in China’s Qinghai Province. Mr. Gyal’s death brings the number of Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 to 123. Letters some have left and eyewitness accounts of dying words leave no doubt about the cause of these horrible deaths: anguish over Chinese repression.
Today’s Editorials
Tibet has suffered spasms of violence at different points in its history since China took over in 1950 and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, fled the region in 1959. But the current wave of self-immolations is a new and tragic trend. Many Tibetans feel forcibly estranged from their language, culture and religion by repressive Chinese policies that have intensified since a wave of protests engulfed the region in 2008.
These policies include replacing the Tibetan language with Chinese as the language of instruction in schools; sending some 21,000 Chinese party officials into Tibetan monasteries to keep an eye on monks; forcing monks to denounce the Dalai Lama; banning the display of the Dalai Lama’s photograph; having a heavy armed police presence in Tibetan towns, villages and around monasteries; closing monasteries; and clamping down on demonstrators with arrests and shootings by police officers.
China blames the Dalai Lama for the self-immolations. But the Dalai Lama has condemned them. In fact, many fear that unless preparations begin to ease Tibetans’ feelings of estrangement while the 78-year-old Dalai Lama is still alive, Tibetans may resort to more violent forms of protest when his tempering presence is gone.
After President Xi Jinping assumed power last year, there was hope that China might retreat from its hardened stance toward Tibet. The sweeping reforms pledged recently during the Communist Party’s plenum meeting show his willingness to tackle domestic challenges. He should move now to ease some of the most damaging policies on Tibet.
China also should resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama, which broke off in 2010. Without these steps, the Tibet Autonomous Region and the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, where many Tibetans live, will remain troubled territory, unable to participate fully in China’s economic development.
New York Times