ASIA PACIFIC

Tibetan Dies After Setting Himself on Fire in Protest

By CHRIS BUCKLEYAPRIL 17, 2015

HONG KONG — A man set himself on fire in a heavily Tibetan region of southwest China this week, leaving behind a makeshift shrine that included a photo of the Dalai Lama, international groups reported on Friday. He was the second Tibetan to set himself on fire in a protest in the last two weeks and the 139th within China since the practice began among Tibetans in February 2009.

The man, Nyi Kyab, 45, was a former Buddhist monk and died on Thursday in Ngaba County in Sichuan Province, said Free Tibet, an organization that advocates the self-determination of Tibet. He left behind seven children, said Free Tibet and other groups, citing information from exiled Buddhist monks.

“He had set up an altar on the outside wall of his home, carrying family photographs and pictures of the exiled Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, the most senior figures of Tibetan Buddhism,” said Free Tibet.

As fire engulfed Nyi Kyab, he called for the Dalai Lama to be allowed back from exile and for the Chinese government to free the Panchen Lama, the second-ranking lama. In 1995, the Chinese government took a boy into custody who had been recognized by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, and appointed its own choice, whom many Tibetans reject.

Ngaba County, called Aba County in Chinese, is one of the Tibetan areas of China troubled by tension and protest over the Chinese government’s policies, especially controls on Tibetan Buddhism and the campaign against the Dalai Lama and his demands for Tibetan self-determination. The Chinese government laid out those positions in a summary of claims published this week.

“Investigations by China’s public security organs into incidents of self-immolation revealed clearly that they are being manipulated and instigated at the highest level by the Dalai group,” the Chinese summary said.

The Dalai Lama and his supporters adamantly denied any role in the protests.

Last week, a Tibetan Buddhist nun set herself on fire in a Tibetan area of Sichuan Province to protest Chinese rule and to call for the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.