Lobsang Palden’s public death at the United Nations draws urgent attention to China’s occupied territories.
On the evening of July 2, the front grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York—well known for political meetings and demonstrations on international issues—witnessed a dramatic and tragic event unprecedented in their history. A Tibetan activist, Lobsang Palden, popularly known as ‘Lobga Rangzen’ among the Tibetan community in the United States, committed self-immolation.
Lobga’s death came just a day after the Xi Jinping government officially implemented China’s new law, euphemistically titled the “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.” In effect, the law formalizes and legalizes what Tibetans and many China watchers describe as the ongoing process of “cultural genocide” in China’s occupied territories, including Tibet, Xinjiang (originally known as East Turkistan), and Southern Mongolia.
The new law has attracted worldwide criticism as yet another move by President Xi Jinping aimed at erasing the cultural and ethnic identities of China’s occupied territories and ethnic minorities. The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machinery presents today’s China as the home of “56 Sisters.” According to China’s own official census figures, the Han Chinese constitute nearly 92 percent of the country’s population, while the remaining 55 “sisters”—including Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongols from Tibet, East Turkistan, and Southern Mongolia respectively—together account for only about 8 percent.
Unlike more than 170 previous known cases of Tibetan self-immolation inside Tibet in recent years, where the authorities leave virtually no scope for issuing public statements through social media, Lobga publicly explained both his decision and the reasons behind it by recording a video message. Posted on his personal Facebook account shortly before the act, the video contains a detailed political statement addressed to Tibetans in exile and the international community. In it, Lobga strongly criticized China’s repressive policies in Tibet and called upon Tibetans in exile to unite and work collectively for Tibetan independence.
What astonished even an observer like me, who has closely followed the Tibet-China situation for over five decades, marked by frequent non-violent but angry public demonstrations, was Lobga’s remarkable composure throughout his six-minute statement in Tibetan. His message remained consistently focused on the unity of the Tibetan exile community and its struggle for Tibetan independence.
Lobga’s was the 171st known case in recent years of self-immolation by Tibetan monks, nuns, youths, and ordinary citizens who have consigned themselves to flames to express their deep resentment against China’s occupation of Tibet. China occupied Tibet in 1951, and since then the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have maintained an iron grip over Tibet and its people.
Two earlier incidents also received worldwide attention despite China’s tight control over the flow of information. On March 27, 2022, an 81-year-old Tibetan known as ‘Taphun’ immolated himself in front of a local police station in Ngaba, a town famous for the Kirti Monastery. Just a month earlier, Tsewang Norbu, a celebrated 26-year-old Tibetan singer with nationwide fame across China, had also taken his own life by self-immolation in front of the historic Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. Like many other Tibetan self-immolators, both men reportedly shouted slogans in support of a “Free Tibet” and called for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet as the flames engulfed them.
Norbu was a multilingual singer who performed in Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese, and English, and remained in the national spotlight from 2014 until the day he chose self-immolation to protest China’s occupation of Tibet. In 2017, he finished ninth in the nationwide Tencent Video music variety show The Coming One. He also performed at the awards ceremony of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2021.
Although Norbu self-immolated before a large crowd outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the pervasive fear created by China’s security apparatus ensured that no eyewitness dared post a video of the incident online. Under prevailing Chinese laws and security practices, anyone sharing what the authorities deem “provocative” or “anti-national” content about a self-immolation inside Tibet on social media can face punishment more severe than that imposed for many serious crimes.
That explains why more than 170 Tibetan youths, monks, and nuns have resorted to solitary acts such as self-immolation to express the deepening anger of ordinary Tibetans against their colonial rulers. On the one hand, this series of self-immolations reflects the growing resentment of Tibetans toward Chinese rule. On the other, the silence of governments around the world reflects a painful indifference to their plight.
*Author is a senior journalist, Tibetologist, and Chairman, Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE).
