Dharamshala, India— A young Tibetan man died this week after setting himself on fire in Meruma township of Ngaba County, north-eastern Tibet to protest Chinese rule of occupied Tibet and its hardline policies against the people of Tibet.
"The young man, Yonten, 24, has died after setting fire to herself in the latest of a wave of Tibetan self-immolations, on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, in a village close to Meruma Yultso of Ngaba county, northeastern Tibet," Kanyak Tsering and Lobsang Yeshe, spokespersons of the exile seat of Kirti monastery here in Dharamshala, India told the Tibet Post International.
"it is quite difficult to confirm right now whether he has shouted slogans or writing in a document left behind. Yonten's self-immolation photograph indicates that there aren't many people around when he set himself alight," the source added.
Yonten joined Ngaba Kirti Monastery at a young age but he later disrobed and followed a traditional nomadic lifestyle. But other details of protest are unknown due to heavy security clampdown in the region, tightened their grip on communications, including the internet and mobile text messaging.
A total of 155 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese Government's policies on the plateau and to call for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese ilegal rule in Tibet and its continued occupation of Tibet.
His father's name is Sodhon and mother's name is Tsekho Kyi and there are residents of Village No. 2 of Nomadic township of Meruma in Ngaba county in Tibet’s traditional province of Amdo, Tibet.
China-Tibet: The one thing you need to know
1.2 Million Tibetans have been killed in this conflict since Tibet was violently and illegally occupied, according to international law, by China in 1949/1950. More than 100,000 Tibetans have been forced to flee their homeland and now live in Exile communities around the world. Until today, rule of law or basic human rights are non-existent in Tibet. Surveillance, repression and arbitrary arrests are daily routine. Despite the continued suppression, the Tibetan people choose the path of non-violent resistance and for that, they deserve our utmost respect and full support.
Over the past 70 decades, there has been ongoing political repression, social discrimination, economic marginalization, environmental destruction, and cultural assimilation, particularly due to Chinese migration to Tibet which is fueling intense resentment among the people of occupied Tibet.
The communist-totalitarian state of China began its invasion of Tibet in 1949, reaching complete occupation of the country in 1959. Since that time, more than 1.2 million people, 20% of the nation's population of six million, have died as a direct result of China's invasion and occupation. In addition, over 99% of Tibet's six thousand religious monasteries, temples, and shrines, have been looted or decimated resulting in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures.
Until 1949, Tibet was an independent nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse — unifying theme among the Tibetans — as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.