Tibetan Monk Burns to Death in Kardze Protest

Tibetan monk set himself ablaze and died on Monday in southwestern China’s Sichuan province in an apparent challenge to Beijing’s rule in the first such protest in a Tibetan area of China this year, a source in the region told RFA’s Tibetan Service. Kalsang Wangdu, a monk of the Retsokha Aryaling monastery, self-immolated at around 4:00 p.m. on Feb. 29 near his monastery in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Nyagrong (Xinlong) county, RFA’s source said, contacting RFA on social media and speaking on condition of anonymity. “[While he burned], he called out for Tibet’s complete independence,” the source said, adding that witnesses to Wangdu’s protest “intervened,” intending to take him to Sichuan’s provincial capital for treatment. Read more