Tibetans Self-Immolate In Front Of Monastery, Group Says

BEIJING -- An overseas activist group says two lay Tibetans have set themselves on fire in front of a monastery in eastern Tibet.

London-based Free Tibet says Sonam and Choephak Kyap self-immolated together Thursday in front of Jonang Dzamthang monastery in Dzamthang county. The two, who are in their 20s, were taken away by local residents and appeared to be critically injured.

Thirty-two people have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas over the past year to draw attention to China's restrictions on Buddhism and to call for the return from exile of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Chinese authorities have confirmed some of the self-immolations but not all.

Beijing has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of inciting the self-immolations.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[Liban CZ]

08:21 AM on 04/20/2012

Still immolating...

[Aeryn Reid]

06:33 PM on 04/19/2012

Beijing will no more surrender Tibet than we will surrender the SouthWest to Aztlan. It is unfortunate for the Tibetan people, but the U.S. really has no choice but to accept the situation.

[kwyang]

12:30 AM on 04/21/2012

Well it's none of our business. All those meetings with the Dalai Lama has brought us no additional security or economic growth while poisoning the relationship with China, which frankly is critical to both. Our national interests do not lie with something as fantastic as Tibetan independence. It lies with stability and a working partnership with China. Honestly if the Tibetans stopped doing these ridiculous stunts, there would be less repression by the CCP too. It's kind of a two way street. We used to mobilize the National Guard to shoot college students during Vietnam, so it's not like repression is unique to China.

[Maosome]

05:11 PM on 04/19/2012

This year's winners of the Darwin Award?

[AIIegroTroppo]

04:56 PM on 04/19/2012

More senseless victims of nationalist indoctrination.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

07:06 PM on 04/19/2012

Agreed.

The nationalist indoctrination of the CCP, whose awful legacy goes back to Mao and his invasion of Tibet, which is echoed in Party agitprop to this day, victimizes Tibetans on an everyday basis. The opposite of such petty nationalist indoctrination is the drive for self-determination like what happened in Ireland, the former Western colonies, and recently and miraculously in East Timor.

[kwyang]

12:14 PM on 04/20/2012

I'm pretty sure that guy was talking about the indoctrination behind setting yourself on fire for some hopeless political cause. But hey whatever you want to filter through your narrow world view...

[pcs5141]

03:56 PM on 04/19/2012

At first glance I thought this was to protest high gas prices.

[sachazg]

03:49 PM on 04/19/2012

Chinese oppression must be really bad if peaceful Tibetan monks are resorting to this kind of extreme act to draw attention to their cause.

[Ayesha Khan]

03:36 PM on 04/19/2012

I don't understand why China is doing this to the Tibitant's, how can they ask them to stop their religion, what harm they have brought to the Chinese people, and hy Dalai Lama was exiled? If China wants to capture the Tibet, that's a different issue but this is not fair---They have all the rights to practice their religion--------

[kwyang]

12:16 PM on 04/20/2012

Religion can be very dangerous, as these people just demonstrated. Sort of like how we didn't exactly go easy on the Branch Davidians in America just because they were a religious movement. Anyway the Dalai Lama wasn't exiled. He fled Tibet after a failed coup against the central government. Things aren't always as black and white as Richard Gere wants you to believe.

[Nyingje]

11:42 PM on 04/20/2012

I think you mean "rebellion" or "uprising." (Does anyone except CCP apologists and 50 cent partisans like yourself actually hold it against the Dalai Lama that he tried to throw off the yoke of the Chinese invasion? Does anything else think that's actually incriminating, somehow?) A "coup" would be if HHDL had tried to take over the Chinese government and all of China. I guess maybe English isn't your first language.

[ThugsDeserveHugs]

12:50 AM on 04/21/2012

Atheism can be very dangerous, as the Chinese invasion and occupation has demonstrated. Their lock step ideology not only led to such a catastrophe in Tibet, but slaughtered tens of millions of Chinese as well.

Applauding such invasions and occupations can be dangerous to one's mind as well as your post just demonstrated by hysterically and desperately trying to link Branch Davidians to Tibetan Buddhism. Good for you using gross error to rise above being black and white.

[myopinion2]

02:49 PM on 04/19/2012

Mom always said don't play with matches.

[Leon Engelun]

01:43 PM on 04/19/2012

China don't kill people. OH wait, Guns kill people. Oh wait. fire kills people. Oh wait. Religion kills people. Oh wait. I am confused.

[Devaron Namsaar]

01:29 PM on 04/19/2012

"Beijing has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of inciting the self-immolations." Of course... Beijing would never accept responsibility for its inhumane acts and words. that would be decent and the entire world knows the government of China is no where near decent let alone humane. Immature humans always blame someone else for their mistakes, never accept responsibility for their own actions. May the Divine bless those who have sacrificed their lives.

[kwyang]

12:19 PM on 04/20/2012

Well, the Chinese government sure didn't set those poor people on fire. Who else could motivate their fanatical religious followers to do it except for their God-King, the Dalai Lama? If some guy blows up a federal building in America, is the first instinct to blame America? Or does the blame rightfully lie with the fanatics who did the deed? Talk about not accepting responsibility!

[Nyingje]

11:49 PM on 04/20/2012

Since it seems your bulb burns dimly, let me explain it to you. Tibetans are burning themselves to protest their horrific abuse at the hands of your cousins. The notion that they are receiving orders from their "god king" (a totally inappropriate designation) to do so is a bizarre conspiracy theory. Secondly, a Tibetan burning him/herSELF as an act or protest is in no way comparable to a bomber who harms OTHERS. This sort of false equivalency of the self-immolaters with "terrorists" (which seems to mean "people China does not like") is a signature of CCP propaganda. Looks like you've got the party message down pat.

[kwyang]

01:03 PM on 04/19/2012

When will people stop this futile and self destructive behavior? Religious fanaticism has never made the world a better place.

[Nyingje]

02:14 AM on 04/20/2012

It's not about religious fanaticism; it's about political self-determination and Tibetans' right to keep their traditional way of life without being crushed by the Chinese occupiers.

[kwyang]

12:21 PM on 04/20/2012

Let me know how this helps Tibetans receive political self-determination. I'd really like to see your non-religious, non-fanatical logic on that. Right now it looks something like:

Step 1. Set self on fire.
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit.