Reports: Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in western China

A YouTube video showed two men spraying fire extinguishers on what appeared to be a body at the edge of a busy street as a crowd gathered. Free Tibet acquired the video from a witness who posted it on social media, according to the group.

If confirmed, it would be at least the 148th recorded case of a Tibetan self-immolating since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet. At least 125 have died, according to monitoring groups.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for more than seven centuries and regards the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, as a dangerous separatist. Many Tibetans insist they were essentially independent for most of that time and have protested what they regard as China’s heavy-handed rule.

Before lighting themselves on fire, many have cried out for Tibetan independence or prayed for the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet to India in 1959 during an abortive uprising, witnesses have been quoted as saying. Chinese forces have occupied the Himalayan region since 1950.

“While I keep hoping every one will be the last one, I suspect they will continue as long as the repression continues,” Byrne-Rosengren said.

Chinese officials last week lashed out at India for hosting the Dalai Lama near their disputed border and said that, by allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit, India was violating its commitment to respect China’s claims to the region.

The Dalai Lama has said he simply wants a higher degree of autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule. He said in an interview last month shown on HBO that “self-killing” through immolation is not good from a Buddhist viewpoint, but he could not openly condemn it out of respect to surviving family members.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap

Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Reports: Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in western China

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