Self-immolation protests by Tibetans in China

As of May 2022, 160 monks, nuns, and ordinary people have immolated themselves in Tibet and surrounding regions since 27 February 2009, when Tapey, a young monk from Kirti Monastery, set himself on fire in the marketplace in Ngawa City, Ngawa County, Sichuan. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), "Chinese police have beaten, shot, isolated, and disappeared self-immolators who survived."

In 2011, a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans in Tibet, as well as in India and Nepal, occurred after the self-immolation of Phuntsog of 16 March 2011 in Ngawa County, Sichuan. Protests are ongoing. In 2016, an 18-year-old monk in Tibet and a 16-year-old Tibetan student living in India both immolated themselves in protest of Chinese control over Tibet. In response, Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje said that nearly 150 Tibetans had self-immolated at that time as a form of protest, and he pleaded with Tibetans worldwide to use other forms of protest instead.