Tibetan nun self-immolation Ngaba October 2011
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TWA holds global solidarity actions in honor of Tibetan martyrs

Tibetan nun self-immolates in Ngaba, Tibet: below image shows charred body of nun Tenzin Wangmo, after seven minutes of acute burning. Fellow nuns from the nunnery rush to the scene in Amdo Ngaba. We thank Mr. Jonang Shangpo for entrusting TWA with this photo.
Tibetan nun self-immolation Ngaba October 2011

Dharamsala, October 19: Today the Tibetan Women’s Association and its 56 chapters spread across the globe have organized and participated in global solidarity actions – peace rallies, candle light vigils, prayer services and fasting – in honor of the Tibetan martyrs who have sacrificed themselves by self-immolation, a powerful form of non-violent protest. The most recent was Tenzin Wangmo, aged early 20’s, who died after a seven minute self-immolation protest; she is the first known Tibetan female to take this drastic and tragic action. View this press release in Tibetan here (PDF)

News emerged from reliable sources in Tibet that on October 17, around 1 pm (Tibet time), nun Tenzin Wangmo lit her body and did rounds of the sumo bridge, at a cross roads near her nunnery, 3 kilometers away from the Ngaba County market. Tenzin Wangmo raised the slogans: “We want the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama back to Tibet,” and “We want religious freedom in Tibet.”

Tenzin Wangmo belonged to Ngaba Mamae Dechen Choekorling Nunnery, the largest nunnery in Amdo Ngaba with 350 nun residents.

Wangmo’s death is the fifth case of self-immolation deaths and is the tenth self-immolation case in Tibet, the ninth in 2011; there has been a spate of self-immolation in Tibet with seven such cases in less than three weeks.

Of the ten self-immolations, the whereabouts and conditions of five of them are still not known.

52 years of Chinese subjugation of Tibet and the beefed up violent clampdown on Tibetans inside Tibet in the aftermath of the 2008 peaceful protests inside Tibet, have aggravated the growing resentment and frustration in Tibetans who out of sheer desperation resort to desperate measures such as taking one’s life, to express their true aspirations: the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet, freedom to practice their religion and greater degree of freedom inside Tibet.

News has also emerged that on October 16, Chinese police fired gun-shots at seven Tibetans who protested in front of a police station in Kham Serta.

The Tibetan Women’s Association expresses its deepest concern for the catastrophic conditions in Tibet and the heightened suppression in Tibet amidst an overwhelming presence of armed security personal in Tibet, particularly in Amdo Ngaba.

The TWA and its 16,000 members urge the Chinese government to withdraw the troops from Tibet and allow Tibetans their basic human rights: the freedom of speech, movement and religious practice.

We call on China to withdraw their 52 years of failed policies on Tibet and instead heed to the genuine aspirations of the Tibetans inside Tibet and accordingly engage in meaningful negotiations with the exile leadership to peacefully resolve the long -standing issue of Tibet.

To express your support please organise protest events in solidarity in your town or country, and sign/share the petition here (or sign this petition to the White House, USA). Also share this video of the Chinese military lockdown in Ngaba.

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