Photo via the Tibet Post
According to Alexa Olesen of the Associated Press, two more Tibetan monks set themselves afire on Monday, calling for more religious freedom in Tibet and saying “Long live the Dalai Lama” before setting themselves ablaze. Also on Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “it has never been up to the Dalai Lama to pick his own successor” and that “Beijing will identify who is the next incarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader.”
The protests once again took place at Kirti Monastery in Sichuan province, where a 21-year-old monk by the name of Rigzin Phuntsog self-immolated and later died back in March. One of the boys who self-immolated this Monday is the brother of the deceased Phuntsog. According to a brief Xinhua News Agency report, both monks were “rescued by police, suffered slight burns and were in stable condition.”
However, according to eyewitnesses in a report from the Tibet Post, “one of the monks is feared to have died on the spot whilst the other remains in a critical condition.”
Read the original Associated Press article by clicking here.
Read the Tibet Post story here.
