Young Tibetan Mother Dies After Self-immolation - RTT News

8/8/2012 8:27 AM ET
(RTTNews) - A young woman self immolated in Tibet in protest against China curtailing freedom in the region that is seeking autonomy.

Dolkar Kyi, a mother of two, set fire to herself and died near Tsoe Gaden Choeling monastery in Kanlho in Gansu Province on Tuesday. It comes a day after the self-immolation of a young monk of the Kirti monastery who is believed to have survived.

Dolkar Kyi, who is in her mid-twenties and from a farming family, set fire to herself early Tuesday afternoon near a white stupa (reliquary building) at Tsoe Gaden Choeling monastery in Tsoe City, the Washington-based human rights group International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said on its website. It quoted Tibetan sources in exile from her city as saying that she called out for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, and shouted that there was no freedom in Tibet.

Monks of a nearby monastery rushed to the scene and extinguished the flames. They carried Dolkar Kyi's blackened body to hospital, but the doctors and medical staff could not save her. Dolkar Kyi leaves a four-year old son and two-year old daughter.

Tibetans from the Tsoe area have been active in expressing peaceful opposition to Chinese rule, with known protests in 2008 and 2010 by local people and in particular Tibetan students and school children.

Almost a year ago, a respected scholar monk who made the first video testimony from inside Tibet to be uploaded onto Youtube detailing his detention was arrested in Tsoe. Jigme Guri was detained on August 20, 2011, and held for some time for interrogation in a hotel in Tsoe. His current whereabouts is unknown and there are fears for his welfare.

Twenty-one year old Kirti monk Lobsang Tsultrim set fire to himself on Monday in Ngaba town in Sichuan province.

The area where he self-immolated has become known locally as 'Heroes Street' following Tapey's self-immolation in February, 2009, the first in Tibet.

According to the exile Kirti monks, Tsultrim attempted to walk along the main street towards the office building of the Forestry Department before he fell to the ground. Police extinguished the flames. A local Tibetan told the Kirti monks in Dharamsala that Tsultrim was still alive when police took him away. He is believed to have been taken to the local government hospital, and his current whereabouts are not known.

by RTT Staff Writer

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