Ajaja, formerly a monk at Kirti monastery in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was released on Dec. 10 and returned to his family home, Tibetan sources living in India said
The evictions will clear the way for the creation of the Mount Qilian National Park, a 50,200 square kilometer parkland and wild animal preserve straddling parts of Qinghai and neighboring Gansu, with the greater part lying in Gansu
The Shoton, or Yogurt Festival, runs this year from Aug. 19 to 24 and features the unveiling of a large embroidered thangka portrait of the Buddha on a hillside outside Lhasa’s Drepung monastery, with Tibetan devotees flocking to see the precious relic
The shared document was “a recognition letter from His Holiness the Dalai Lama regarding the reincarnation of [religious figure] Choedon Rinpoche from Sera Je Lhopa Khantsen,” he added
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