gemi10689
Joined: 16 Sep 2011
Posts: 75
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 Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 6:22 am Post subject: Who is fanning Tibet's flames? COMMENTS (115) The self-immo |
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Who is fanning Tibet's flames?
COMMENTS (115)
The self-immolations have taken place near Tibetan monasteries like this one in Sichuan province
It was just a few minutes to one in the afternoon last Thursday.
Standing at a road junction in a town in Sichuan, in south-western China, was a young woman.
Without warning, she doused herself in petrol - she may even have drunk some - and then set fire to herself.
Tibetans say her name was Palden Choetso; she was 35 years old and had been a Tibetan Buddhist nun since the age of 20. Official Chinese reports gave her name in Chinese as Qiu Xiang.
Her death, it is thought, was swift and, one can only imagine, agonising.
So what drives someone to such an awful, desperate step? In fact, what drives 11 people to willingly burn themselves like this?
'Desperate situation'
That is what has happened so far this year in Aba and Garze (known in Tibetan as Ngaba and Kardze), both Tibetan areas of Sichuan.
Two of those who set fire to themselves have been nuns; nine of them were men, monks or former monks. Six of the eleven have died, the fate of the others is not know.
Palden Choetso (or Qiu Xiang) was the oldest; the youngest was 18.
This wave of self-immolations is unprecedented. So what is happening in these Tibetan communities? Who or what is fanning the flames?
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