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Tibetan nun sets herself on fire to protest China’s policy

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Summary of story from The Independent, October 19, 2011

Tenzin Wangmo, a Tibetan nun and member of the Mamae Dechen Choekhorling nunnery, has burned herself to death to protest China’s treatment of and restrictions on Tibet’s Buddhists.

The 20-year-old woman is the ninth Tibetan to have set themself alight this year in protest at Chinese policies in the region and the first woman to have done so.

“In this area there is a very bad situation. This is the only way they feel they can send a message,” said Lobsang Choedak, who is based at one of the monastery’s sister establishments in northern India.

Observers say the flurry of immolations is linked to harsh tactics being employed by the Chinese authorities at Kirti, which has long been a site of vociferous protests against Beijing.

Reports suggest the authorities have made it largely impossible for the monks to go about their normal religious lives.

One former monk, who lives in China, explained: “In Buddhism, one person cannot give up for their own reasons, but it is a good thing if a person gives up his or her life for many lives.”

“Their actions look like suicide, but they died for many other people’s lives and freedoms, because they are not allowed to attack and kill anyone else.”

The Chinese response to Tibetan dissent has been swift and harsh since the March 2008 riots in Lhasa, the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

China’s only public response to the self-immolations has been to jail those assisting the monks in their acts of self-burning.

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