Self-Immolation Footage Released by Students for a Free Tibet

Students for a Free Tibet released a video on Monday, November 21st showing 35-year old Tibetan nun Palden Choetso engulfed in flames. She set herself on fire in Dawu in Sichuan Province on November 3rd in the name of Tibetan freedom. It is the 11th case of self-immolation by Tibetans since March this year.

The video also includes footage of a memorial to Choetso, confirming reports that around ten thousand Tibetans gathered in a candlelight vigil before dawn at Nyitso monastery. It goes on to show Chinese security forces converging on the monastery to break up demonstrations.

In New York Students for a Free Tibet are eager to bring up the controversial issue of self-immolation to the public for discussion. Kirti Rinpoche is the spiritual leader of the Kirti monastic community, where many of the self-immolations have happened. He was forced to flee Tibet into exile in 1959. He says that although the Chinese regime has developed Tibet’s infrastructure, Tibetan’s have increasingly lost out in favor of Han Chinese. He speaks through a translator.

[Kirti Rinpoche, Spiritual Head of Kirti Monastic Community]:
“As for the houses that were built, many houses were built, those houses are inhabited by a lot of Chinese people and as for Tibetan people, they continue to be marginalized.”

This marginalization can also be seen in the Chinese regime’s limitations on the teaching of Tibetan language.

[Kirti Rinpoche, Spiritual Head of Kirti Monastic Community]:
“That educational policy by the Chinese is a very clear sign that the Chinese government wants to wipe out Tibetan language and culture.”

He says that self-immolation is the only form of protest Tibetans have left against the Chinese regime, because as soon as a Tibetan raises a Tibetan flag or starts a protest in a public place they will be immediately arrested.

Columbia University Professor Robert Thurman studied with the Dalai Lama for 30 years. He says the phenomenon of self-immolation gives powerful impression of the situation in Tibet, but is often distorted or covered up by the Chinese state-run media.

[Robert Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University]:
“It’s undeniable, it’s so powerful. The only problem is the media is not free in China. It would completely change the mind of many millions of people in China if they could see it, but they cannot see it.”

We asked Professor Thurman why there have been so many self-immolations in Tibet this year. He cites the influence of the Arab spring combined with an increasing military presence in the region.

[Robert Thurman, Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University]:
“The bravery of the Muslim people in North Africa and in Egypt. And I think that inspired people world-around and nowadays with the Internet world people see everything everywhere you know? YouTube. And that may have been part of the inspiration. And then the sheer stupidity of the Chinese government in sending soldiers to attack and to coerce and to brainwash monks.”

The Chinese regime started its invasion of Tibet in 1949, and has occupied the region ever since. The invasion and occupation have resulted in the destruction of 6000 Buddhist Monasteries and the erosion of traditional Tibetan culture. 2008 saw the largest uprising against the Chinese regime’s rule in Tibet for 50 years. Since then the Chinese regime has been exercising even more control over region.

Ben Hedges, NTD News, New York