News / Asia

Teenage Tibetan Girl Dies from Self-Immolation

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VOA News

Tibetan sources say a 17-year-old girl set herself on fire Sunday to protest Chinese rule in ethnic Tibetan areas.

Witnesses say Wanchen Kyi shouted slogans in support of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet as she was engulfed in flames.  She died at the scene.

More than 3,000 Tibetans and monks later gathered at the site of the self-immolation protest and recited prayers.

A day earlier, two young monks also died after setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.

Ninety-five Tibetans have now self-immolated in western China since 2009, with 28 cases reported in November alone.  The acceleration of self-immolations has coincided with Tibetans staging several anti-China rallies, despite a heavy Chinese security presence.

On Sunday, Chinese state media quoted police in Sichuan province as saying a detained Tibetan monk and his nephew had confessed they incited eight people to set themselves on fire in anti-Chinese protests.  Three people died in the self-immolations.

According to the police, the men say they were acting on the orders of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Beijing accuses the India-based Dalai Lama of inciting the self-immolations to promote Tibetan separatism, a charge he denies.

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by: victory from: us
January 03, 2013 6:43 AM
The fact is that Dalai does not care about the Tibetans. Those who are immolating themselves are monks who have been ordered to immolate themselves as part of their religious duties. The other Tibetans, who represent 95% of all the Tibetans, live happily in China and they do not care about the Dalai Lama clique of terrorists.


by: kj from: canada
December 24, 2012 4:15 AM
a japanese canadian artist living in dharamsala has produced a collection of work memorializing the people who have self immolated in the name of freedom for tibet
http://tomoyoihaya.blogspot.ca/


by: Jonathan Hunag from: canada
December 10, 2012 10:02 PM
whatever Taliban or Tibetan they just love suicide seems. Either suicide bomb or suicide immolation. They must be brothers and sisters and has the same mentality.

In Response

by: Ian from: USA
December 16, 2012 2:00 PM
Buddhist Sutras describe 6 realms of existence that one is reborn into by the karma that one creates while living in previous lives:

-the heavenly beings' realm
-the Asura realm
-the hungry ghost realm
-the hell realm
-the animal realm
-the human realm
The way I see it, the greedy chinese invaders may slide back into the hungry ghost , animal or hell realms if they only seeking gain in this life.
Jonathan, have you ever wonder how hard it is to regain a future human rebirth while living in those realms! ( however I heard that communists do not believe in religions, so there is not much hope for them to admend themselves)

In Response

by: Wangchuk from: NYC
December 14, 2012 11:11 AM
Sounds like a typical comment from a CCP agent or 50 Cent Party propaganda lackey. The CCP doesn't want the world to know what's really going on inside Tibet, so they ban foreign journalists, they ban the UN, they ban human rights NGOs and even ban tourists from some areas. Chinese colonialism & repression are responsible for the Tibetan self-immolations. It's time for Tibet to be free.


by: NWO6bi2die from: USA
December 10, 2012 7:13 PM
Considering we have theTSA, the Patriot Act and the NDAA to "protect" us here in the States, we are almost in the same situation as the Tibetian and Chinese populations. Our "Freedom" is an illusion


by: Anonymous
December 09, 2012 11:29 PM
Gods bless her soul


by: Anonymous
December 09, 2012 8:42 PM
Why are people on the other side of the world praised and idolized for self immolation, yet when a soldier from our own army sets himself on fire so people will hear his pleas to be a father, "our" media turns a deaf ear upon its own citizens?

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/the-organized-silencing-of-a-man-publicly-burned-to-death/

In Response

by: Jonathan Huang from: canada
December 10, 2012 10:06 PM
@ Indian from Pune. Tibet is free already, free from slave master Dalai Lama and free from the slavery control of those monks. Just look the history how those monks oppress and slave Tibetans. No wander where they kill themselves since they lost their privileges.

In Response

by: Ian from: USA
December 10, 2012 9:18 PM
As much as I agree that the law is unfair and sometimes does not protect the father equally and I am sad that a man has to sets himself on fire to protest the unfairness of the law.
We do have to distinguish the action of sacrifice oneself for a noble cause (such as what the tibetans did) and an act to protest the mistreatment to oneself

In Response

by: Indian from: Pune
December 10, 2012 1:35 AM
TIbet is going to get free. It is unavoidable to the china and world. The only thing is timing for its freedom. And there is only one country which has the power in the region to do so that is India. India is already hosting dalai lama from long time and waiting for exact time to give them there land. TIBET WILL BE FREE and india is looking for perfect timing.