Phuntsog Self-immolation Incident
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The Phuntsog self-immolation incident occurred when a
Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
monk by the name of Rigzin Phuntsog
self-immolated The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...
on March 16, 2011 in
Ngawa County Ngawa County (, ), or Aba or Ngaba, is a county in the northwest of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. It is located in the remote northwestern part of the prefecture, on t ...
,
Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba (; Qiang: ; ), is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in Barkam, and it has an ar ...
,
Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
province,
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. This was followed by another self-immolation incident on September 26, 2011. By March 2012, more than thirty other Tibetans had self-immolated as a protest against Chinese rule of Tibet.


March incident


Self-immolation

On March 16 afternoon, Rigzin Phuntsog, a 16-year-old monk at Kirti monastery set himself on fire. He was sent to the hospital, but a group of monks hid him inside the monastery until after his death. After long hours of negotiations Phuntsog's mother finally took him to the hospital.


Controversy over circumstances surrounding Phuntsog's death

The death of the monk is reported differently. Radio Free Asia and
International Campaign for Tibet The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is a non-profit advocacy group working to promote democratic freedoms for Tibetans, ensure their human rights, and protect Tibetan culture and the environment. Founded in 1988, ICT is the world's larges ...
quoted local Tibetans who said the police put out the fire and then beat the monk to death. According to ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' and accounts of people from the monastery, police and plain clothes officers turned up and extinguished the fire within 15 minutes and beat and kicked the monk. According to
Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
the death was due to delayed treatment as the monks prevented Phuntsog from going to the hospital. Phuntsog was reported to be 16 years old. Radio Free Asia gave a different name and age, saying the monk's name is Lobsang Phuntsog, aged 21. Other sources have also reported Phuntsog to be 24 years old.


Aftermath

A demonstration protest took place near the scene of the incident with nearly 1,000 monks shouting slogans. In
Dharamshala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. The ...
another demonstration took place with about 500 people present. Three monks were sentenced to prison for helping Phuntsog with the immolation; their sentences were 10, 11 and 13 years. One of the monks was Phuntsog's uncle.


September incident


Self-immolation

Two more monks, Lobsang Kalsang, aged 18, and Lobsang Konchok, aged 19, set themselves on fire on September 26. Lobsang Kalsang is the brother of Rigzin Phuntsog. Advocacy groups said the two monks called for religious freedom and shouted "Long live
Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...
" before self-immolation. The incident occurred at Kirti Monastery in the Ngawa region.


Aftermath

Tibetan settlers in the
Chandragiri Chandragiri is a suburb and neighbourhood of Tirupati and located in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a part of Tirupati urban agglomeration and a major growing residential area in Tirupati It is the mandal headqua ...
area of
Gajapati district Gajapati district is a district of Odisha State in India. It was created from Ganjam District on 2 October, 1992. Gajapati district was named after Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, the King of the Paralakhemundi estate and the first Prime ...
launched a three-day-long protest against the actions of the Chinese towards Tibetans on October 19, 2011. Mass prayers and
fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...
were organized by different Tibetan local groups.


See also

* Self-immolation in China


References

{{reflist 2011 in China 2011 suicides History of Sichuan Deaths by person in Asia Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Self-immolations by Buddhists Suicides in the People's Republic of China