{"id":169752,"date":"2014-03-03T13:31:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T21:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=169752"},"modified":"2014-03-03T13:32:58","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T21:32:58","slug":"woeser-tibets-enduring-defiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/woeser-tibets-enduring-defiance\/","title":{"rendered":"Woeser: Tibet’s Enduring Defiance"},"content":{"rendered":"
At The New York Times, Tibetan writer Woeser marks the recent fifth anniversary of the first of well over 100 Tibetan self-immolations<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n On Feb. 27, 2009, three days into the Tibetan New Year, a 24-year-old monk in his crimson and yellow robe emerged from the confines of the Kirti Monastery into the streets of Ngawa, in a the Tibetan area of southwestern China. There, in the shadow of a 98-foot-tall monument to the gods of longevity, the man burst into flames \u2014 thus sparking the first of many self-immolations that spread across the Tibetan regions of China.<\/p>\n [\u2026] The number of self-immolations peaked at 28 in November 2012, when a new slate of national leaders was installed during the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing. It was evident that the self-immolators were hoping that they could spur the new leaders toward a policy shift on Tibet.<\/p>\n But these hopes soon faded. Once the party\u2019s chosen ones assumed their positions, they declared war on self-immolation, with harsh measures against \u201caccessories,\u201d meaning family members and relatives, villagers and even the monastery associated with any self-immolator. Since then, several hundred Tibetans have been arrested and imprisoned; many more have been given stiff fines and even barred from making pilgrimages to holy sites.<\/p>\n Of late, there have been far fewer self-immolations. But it would be wrong to see this as a sign that Beijing has gained the upper hand. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Read more from Woeser on Tapey’s case<\/a> at High Peaks Pure Earth, and on the self-immolations in general<\/a> and Woeser herself<\/a> via CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At The New York Times, Tibetan writer Woeser marks the recent fifth anniversary of the first of well over 100 Tibetan self-immolations: On Feb. 27, 2009, three days into the Tibetan New Year, a 24-year-old monk in his crimson and yellow robe emerged from the confines of the Kirti Monastery into the streets of Ngawa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":169753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[15200,14659,15009,69,3619,4674],"class_list":["post-169752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-18th-party-congress","tag-kirti-monastery","tag-self-immolations","tag-tibet","tag-woeser","tag-xi-jinping","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n\n