A 20-yr-old monk of Kirti Monastery set himself on fire in the county town of Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County, Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Lobsang Tsultrim self-immolated at around 5 pm (Tibet Time) on 16 March 2012 while shouting protest slogans against the Chinese government, sources told TCHRD.
Engulfed in flames, Lobsang walked up the main road of the town when he saw armed security officers coming towards him. He then turned back and ran down the road, according to sources. The security officers then knocked him to the ground. They extinguished the flames and threw him into a police vehicle. Even as security officers held him down, Lobsang raised his arms and continued to shout slogans, said sources. However, it is not immediately known what slogans he shouted.
Lobsang Tsultrim was the eldest of his parents’ (father Yeshe and mother Tsedron) four children. He was born in the Yeshe Tsang household at Soruma village in Choejema Township, Ngaba County. He became a monk at the age of 8 at Kirti Monastery and studied at the monastery’s ‘Buddhist Youth Academy’. After the closure of the academy in 2003, he joined the monastery’s Tantric college.
In the aftermath of the incident, armed police presence at the main gate of the monastery has been increased. Additional police checkpoints have been set up on all the roads leading to Ngaba County town, in an unusually heavy security presence, presumably aimed at preventing protests on the first anniversary of Phuntsok Jarutsang’s self-immolation protest in 2011.