Dalai Lama in UK as self-immolations of Tibetan nomads rise

June 21, 2012

Dalai Lama in UK as self-immolations amongst Tibetan nomads rise

Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will visit Scotland this Friday, amid growing concern over the rise of self-immolation amongst Tibetan nomads.

More than 30 Tibetans are known to have set themselves on fire in the last year in an unprecedented protest at China’s invasion and brutal domination.

Of this number, half have been nomads, collectively known as Drokpa.

Last week, the European Parliament raised their ‘growing concern’ at the deteriorating situation and the negative impact China’s resettlement program was having on Tibetan nomads.

Some MPs in Britain have also tabled a motion in Parliament, sharing the Dalai Lama’s fear that walled compounds will lead to ‘the cessation of the traditional Tibetan nomadic way of life.’

China’s forced resettlement program began in 1998. So far, it has forced about 1.5 million people into permanent state-controlled villages.

About one-third of the six million Tibetans are Drokpa. This is a larger proportion of nomads than in any other country in the world apart from Mongolia.

The Drokpa have lived over much of the Tibetan plateau for at least 4,000 years, largely from their herds of yak, horse and sheep.

The latest wave of self-immolations amongst Tibetan nomads has taken the lives of two men, Jamyang Palden and Tamdrinthar. The latter was a Tibetan nomad in his early 60s from Markethang Town in Eastern Tibet. Tamdrinthar and his family were made to live in a fixed urban settlement a few years ago due to the Chinese policy of forcing nomads off their land.

Chinese authorities have tried to suppress news of these incidents reaching the outside world, by stopping photographs being taken, and breaking up the demonstrations.

Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said today, ‘Tamdrin’s act was a clear and absolute rejection of Chinese rule: he set fire to himself at a location that represents to Tibetans the brutality of China’s occupation.’

The Chinese army first invaded Tibet shortly after the end of China’s civil war in 1949 and has ruled the country with great brutality since 1959.

The Tibetans have fought back on several occasions, but with little success.

Free Tibet is an international campaigning organisation that stands for the right of Tibetans to determine their own future. It campaigns for an end to the Chinese occupation of Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected.

ENDS

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