Lobsang Kunchok

Twin self-immolation

Name: Lobsang Kunchok

Age: 18

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Kirti Monastery

Date of Self-Immolation: 26 September 2011, around 10:30 am (local time)

Location: Ngaba County Town, Ngaba, Amdo, Eastern Tibet

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Reportedly alive but legs amputated and whereabouts unknown

Their slogans: “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “We Want Religious Freedom”

Lobsang Kalsang

Name: Lobsang Kalsang

Age: 18

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Kirti Monastery

Date of Self-Immolation: 26 September 2011, around 10:30 am (local time)

Location: Ngaba County Town, Ngaba, Amdo, Eastern Tibet

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Deceased

As monks Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Kunchok set themselves on fire in the market of Ngaba County’s central town, they were reportedly waving the banned Tibetan flag and shouting slogans. People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) personnel tried to douse the flames and remove them from the scene. Lobsang Kalsang is the brother of Lobsang Phuntsok – the second monk from Kirti Monastery to self-immolate. According to unconfirmed but reliable sources, Lobsang Kalsang is reported to have passed away while Lobsang Kunchok is reported to have been hospitalized in Ngaba County. Although there are no reports of anyone having met him, it is rumoured that Lobsang Konchok’s legs and arms have been amputated. In an undated propaganda film created by Beijing to discredit the selfimmolations, Lobsang Kalsang can be seen talking on camera.

His slogans: “We Tibetan People Want Freedom”, “Let the Dalai Lama Return to Tibet”, and “Long Live the Dalai Lama”

Name: Tsewang Norbu

Age: 29

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Tawu Nyitso Monastery, Kandze County, Kham, Eastern Tibet

Date of Self-Immolation: 15 August 2011, around 12:30 pm (local time)

Location: Tawu County, Kandze, Kham

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Deceased Around noon on 15 August 2011,

29-year-old monk Tsewang Norbu of Tawu Nyitso Monastery, drank petrol and doused himself in it. For 10 minutes he was heard shouting slogans before setting himself alight. He carried out this protest near a bridge in front of local government buildings. He had earlier scattered flyers with similar messages on Chume Bridge in the centre of Tawu County. When his fellow monks carried his charred body back to the monastery to perform the last Buddhist rites and rituals, armed Chinese troops attempted to take the body away from them by force. But monks at Nyitso Monastery refused to surrender Tsewang’s corpse.

His slogans: “We Tibetan People Want Freedom”, “Let the Dalai Lama Return to Tibet”, and “Long Live the Dalai Lama”

Name: Tsewang Norbu

Age: 29

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Tawu Nyitso Monastery, Kandze County, Kham, Eastern Tibet

Date of Self-Immolation: 15 August 2011, around 12:30 pm (local time)

Location: Tawu County, Kandze, Kham

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Deceased Around noon on 15 August 2011,

29-year-old monk Tsewang Norbu of Tawu Nyitso Monastery, drank petrol and doused himself in it. For 10 minutes he was heard shouting slogans before setting himself alight. He carried out this protest near a bridge in front of local government buildings. He had earlier scattered flyers with similar messages on Chume Bridge in the centre of Tawu County. When his fellow monks carried his charred body back to the monastery to perform the last Buddhist rites and rituals, armed Chinese troops attempted to take the body away from them by force. But monks at Nyitso Monastery refused to surrender Tsewang’s corpse.

Name: Lobsang Phuntsok

His slogans: “Long Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama” and “Allow His Holiness to Return to Tibet”

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Kirti Monastery

Date of Self-Immolation: 16 March 2011, at around 4 pm (local time)

Location: Ngaba County Town, Amdo, Eastern Tibet

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Deceased 17 March 2011, 3 am, at his monastery

Lobsang Phuntsok set himself ablaze on 16 March 2011 at around 4pm. It is widely believed that this action was to commemorate the March 2008 uprisings, which swept across Tibet, protesting against China’s illegal and detested occupation since 1950. At the same time as extinguishing the flames, the armed police assaulted Lobsang. Lay Tibetans intervened and rushed him to Kirti Monastery. When the rescuers tried to transfer him to hospital, Phuntsok was still alive. But the hospital refused to admit and treat him without prior government permission. Phuntsok passed away at Kirti Monastery the next day in the early hours.

Name: Lobsang Tashi (aka Tapey)

His slogans: Unreported.

His actions; held aloft the banned Tibetan national flag and a photograph of the Dalai Lama

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Profession: Monk at Kirti Monastery, Ngaba County, Ngaba, Amdo, Eastern Tibet

Date of Self-Immolation: 27 February 2009, early afternoon

Location: Ngaba County Town, Ngaba County, Amdo

Current whereabouts/wellbeing: Alive but whereabouts unknown

In 2008, when spontaneous protests against Chinese rule erupted across Tibet, Ngaba Prefecture suffered bloody and fatal crackdowns by the local authorities and PLA (People’s Liberation Army) paramilitary forces. A year later, on 2 February 2009 — the third day of the Tibetan New Year — after prayer ceremonies were cancelled at his monastery, Tapey ran into the town’s streets and lit his already gasoline-soaked robes. From within the flames he raised a Tibetan flag and a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Both the flag of Independent Tibet and images of the Dalai Lama are illegal under Chinese law). He was immediately shot and felled by the military police. Eyewitnesses report that paramilitary People’s Armed Police personnel extinguished the flames and instantly removed his body.

Tapey shot while in flame

apey was first transported to Ngaba County People’s Hospital and then to Chengdu’s West China Hospital of the West China Medical School. Bullets had incapacitated his legs and penetrated his right arm, which he was unable to lift. Extensive burns on his face and right arm left deep scars. It is reported that the hospital in Chengdu intended to amputate the injured limbs to destroy any evidence of military firing, but Tapey’s mother intervened and saved his limbs . In 2011, he was back in the military hospital of Ngaba Prefecture’s capital city, Barkham, unable to leave nor receive relatives — except his maternal uncle — or fellow monks. With Ngaba region under lockdown, in early 2013 his condition and whereabouts were unknown. Apart from his 45-year-old mother, Tapey has an older brother, Tsebo, and a younger sister, Tsering Kyi.