Dharamshala — A Tibetan woman has self-immolated at Sera Monastery Lingkhor (circumambulation path), Dzoge County, Amdo, northeastern Tibet, in an apparent protest against Chinese rule.
This incident marks the second known self-immolation protest in the region since March.
Sonam Tso, a 50-year-old Tibetan woman and mother of three daughters, carried out a self-immolation protest at approximately midday on 23 March 2016 on the Lingkhor (circumambulation path) of Sera Monastery in Dzoge County, Amdo, northeastern Tibet.
As she was engulfed in flames, she reportedly shouted the slogans "Freedom for Tibet" and "May His Holiness the Dalai Lama Return to Tibet," framing her act as a direct protest against Chinese rule. Her husband and local monks immediately attempted to extinguish the flames and carried her to nearby monastic quarters before efforts were made to transfer her to a hospital; however, despite these attempts to save her life, she succumbed to her burn injuries.
In a recording from the scene, a Tibetan woman standing nearby as an eyewitness is heard chanting prayers: "May the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama be upon you," "May you not be born to an evil destiny," and "No fears during the Intermediate State." Her protest remained unconfirmed to the outside world until May 2016 due to extensive security measures. According to TPI sources, Chinese authorities responded swiftly by subjecting her husband and the monk Tsultrim, who had assisted in trying to save her life, to repeated interrogations and periods of detention. Both were compelled to delete photographs and other materials relating to the incident from their mobile phones.
Local sources further reported that authorities significantly intensified surveillance over Sonam Tso's family, her native village of Motsa in Akyi Dhotsa Township, and the surrounding community through the deployment of additional security personnel and local informants. Residents were warned that, should information concerning the self-immolation be transmitted outside Tibet, government assistance, subsidies, and welfare benefits could be withdrawn. These extensive security measures, together with the widespread fear they generated, substantially delayed the reporting of reliable information to international media and human rights organisations.
This latest incident brought the total verified number of self-immolations in Tibet to 146 since February 2009; of them, 126 have been verified as deceased, while the status of the rest remains unknown or critically injured. Most of the Tibetan self-immolators have called for freedom for Tibet and the Tibetan people and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. While many of the initial self-immolations were carried out by monks, a growing number of laypeople—including women, mothers, nomads, and farmers—have since taken part, illustrating that the underlying grievances extend well beyond monastic communities to reflect wider concerns regarding political repression, restrictions on religious freedom, and the preservation of Tibetan national identity.
In Tibet today, residents face arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, and torture for merely expressing their suffering or exercising basic freedom of expression and opinion—rights nominally guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and international conventions.
Tibetans state that since Communist totalitarian China invaded in 1949, over 1.2 million out of 6 million Tibetans have been killed, over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed, and systemic acts of violence, arbitrary imprisonment, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment have been inflicted on the population. China continues to officially term this historical transition a "peaceful liberation".
