The self-immolations in Tibetan areas are continuing. Over the weekend, two more people set themselves alight, reportedly in protest of China’s policies in Tibet: a young student in Gansu and a mother near Kirti Monastery in Aba, Sichuan. From the AP:
The student set herself ablaze Saturday at a vegetable market in Gansu province’s Maqu county and died at the scene, the report said, without giving the girl’s name or age.
Chinese market vendors threw stones at the girl’s burning body, the broadcaster said, citing an unidentified Tibetan exile with connections to the community in Maqu. It didn’t say why they attacked her.
The girl was described as a middle school student, but it was unclear whether she was in regular middle school, where students range from 13 to 16 years old, or senior middle school, where students can be up to 19. Calls to local Maqu schools rang unanswered.
On Sunday, a woman identified only as Rinchen set herself on fire in front of a police station by the main gate to the Kirti Monastery in Aba prefecture in Sichuan province. Radio Free Asia said she was a mother of three young children. A report Sunday by the London-based Free Tibet group said Rinchen had four children.
Read more about recent self-immolations in Tibetan regions, including a discussion of whether self-immolation can be considered a Buddhist act.
