{"id":31725,"date":"2013-01-01T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=31725 "},"modified":"2013-01-01T22:22:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T22:22:00","slug":"31725-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=31725","title":{"rendered":"Tibetan Activists Seek Attention, Action With Self-Immolations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/flashembed.aspx?t=vid&amp;id=1575451&amp;w=640&amp;h=429&amp;skin=embeded\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" height=\"429\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tibetan Activists Seek Attention, Action With Self-Immolations<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>December 31, 2012<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>WASHINGTON &#8212; The government in Beijing is reported to be tightening controls in parts of Tibet where residents have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. Nearly a hundred self-immolations have been reported in a wave that began in 2009, and most are said to have ended in death. Tibetan activists outside the region are seeking to draw attention to the plight of their people.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A group of Tibetan activists recently went door to door at the offices of U.S congressmen. They were rounding up signatures for a petition about the self-immolations in Tibet.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We&#8217;re actually here to ask Congress members to sign a letter that was headed by Congress members Wolf and McGovern to be sent to Barack Obama about what&#8217;s been happening inside of Tibet,&#8221; said Dadon Ngodup, who was born in India and has never known the land of her parents.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Fighting authoritarian rule<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As an amateur cell phone video shows, young people have been setting themselves on fire in the streets of Tibet with hundreds of monks turning out for a funeral of one of their own. Kirti monastry is said to be the focal point of the movement.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>These activists in Washington say Tibetans are despairing after more than 60 years of Chinese occupation.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Honestly for me it&#8217;s no longer about, &#8216;We want a free Tibet, We want a free Tibet.&#8217; We&#8217;re just talking about human lives that are being burned because they feel like they can&#8217;t do anything else,&#8221; said Ngodup.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Respect and sacrifice<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of Buddhism&#8217;s key teachings is one must not kill any living being. The exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, preaches non-violence.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But Buddhism also includes the ideal of the Bodhisattvas &#8211; who sacrifice their own salvation for the greater good.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tenzin Dorjee is with the International Tibet Network.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;When Tibetans look at the self-immolations, the way we see this is as an act of compassion, as an act of altruism. And every single Tibetan who has done this has not harmed a single other human being in the process,&#8221; said Dorjee.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Obama administration has said it believes the self-immolations have been exacerbated by tough Chinese policies in the region.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Increasing pressure<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>China has regularly made strong shows of force, and images of the Dalai Lama are banned. And that&#8217;s who Beijing blames for the immolations.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Maiming and destroying human life in order to reach a Tibetan independence separatist political goal will never succeed,&#8221; said Hong Lei, a spokesman for China&#8217;s foreign ministry.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>State television recently showed an interview with a suspect who allegedly confessed to promising immolators they will become heroes abroad. Which they have, most certainly, for these activists.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Their vigil continues with a peace prayer as night falls at the White House.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The unprecedented wave of immolations is increasing international attention toward Tibet. These activists are hoping it will lead the Obama administration to increase pressure on the Chinese government.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><strong style=\"color: #2d2d2d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;\"><strong>&nbsp;<span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\">Continue reading the<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/content\/tibetan_activists_seek_attention_action_with_self_imolations\/1575465.html\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #034af3; text-decoration: initial;\">&nbsp;original article.&nbsp;<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;The government in Beijing is reported to be tightening controls in parts of Tibet where residents have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. Nearly a hundred self-immolations have been reported in a wave that began in 2009, and most are said to have ended in death. Tibetan activists outside the region are seeking to draw attention to the plight of their people.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}