Anya Sengdra, a resident of Kyangche township in Gade (in Chinese, Gande) county in the Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture was widely respected in his community for his campaigns, London-based Free Tibet said in a statement
Yonten’s protest follows the December 2018 self-immolation of DrukKho, also in Ngaba, and brings to 156 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans since the wave of fiery protests against Chinese rule of their homeland began in 2009
The protest by the two men, Yonten and Choegyal, took place at about 2:30 p.m. in front of the police station in Sershul’s Dza Wonpo village in the Kardze (Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a Tibetan monk living in India told RFA, citing contacts in the region
During 2017 and 2018, at least 4,820 Tibetan and Han Chinese monks and nuns were removed from Larung Gar, with over 7,000 dwellings and other structures torn down beginning in 2001, according to sources in the region
Nepal shares a long border with Tibet and is home to around 20,000 exiles who began arriving in 1959 when a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule forced Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in Dharamsala in India’s Himalayan foothills