Peering thoughtfully into the camera, her mouth curved into the faintest of smiles, 17-year-old Sangay Dolma looks the picture of youthful promise. But by the time she took this photograph in the darkness of her bedroom, her plans were already in motion to travel to a Chinese government office building in eastern Tibet, douse herself in [...]

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A serene smile for her last picture

Haunting story of nun, 17, who scrawled final message on her hand and then set herself on fire in bid to free Tibet
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Peering thoughtfully into the camera, her mouth curved into the faintest of smiles, 17-year-old Sangay Dolma looks the picture of youthful promise. But by the time she took this photograph in the darkness of her bedroom, her plans were already in motion to travel to a Chinese government office building in eastern Tibet, douse herself in petrol and light a match.

The only clue to her final act are the haunting words, scrawled roughly on her hand in Tibetan script: ‘Tibet is an independent nation’. By then she knew this act of self-immolation would be her last, so she left a will in an envelope, alongside this picture, written in the form of a poem.

At the head of the note, she wrote: ‘Beloved children of the Snow Lion, sons and daughters of the Land of Snows, warriors of the snow mountain, don’t forget your are Tibetans.’ She became the latest of a string of young Tibetans to set fire to themselves in the name of independence when she took her life in a ball of flame on November 26.

Since March 2011, around 90 people are known to have set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. There were 25 in November alone, according to campaigners.

This wave of self-immolations reveal the desperation among Tibet’s youth after 60 years under Beijing’s thumb and underlie a harsh crackdown in recent years by the Chinese government any who dare question its sovereignty over the mountain nation.

Until her tragic and violent death, Sangay Dolma had been a nun at the Gonshul Nunnery near the Sangag Mindrol Dhargeyling Monastery.

There she would have been well schooled in Buddhist teachings, in particular its emphasis on non-violence, even in the face of conflict. Indeed, the first of the five precepts that all Buddhists should follow is ‘avoid killing, or harming any living thing’.

Her death serves as a stark reminder of the passion that fuels this spate of self immolations and the lengths young people in Tibet are prepared to go in order to raise awareness of their region’s plight.
She goes on with a call to arms to her countrymen to join her fight for a free Tibet.

The first stanza reads: ‘Look up, fellow Tibetans, look at the blue twilight above, Like a heavenly tent of white mountain, My lama has returned.’ In the fourth stanza, goes on: ‘Look up, Tibetans, look at the snow mountains. The snowland’s era has begun. And Tibet is free and independent.’

In the two closing stanzas, she pays tribute to the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, who has been missing since 1995, spirited away by the Chinese government at the age of six after he was officially named the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama.

‘His Holiness the Dalai Lama, when he lived far away, he travelled around the world, praying for the end of suffering of the red-faced Tibetans, and released us from darkness, at a time when Panchen Lama is in prison, he looks out from his prison cell, prays for “the dawn of peace and happiness in my land of snow”.’
She becomes the sixth person to set herself on fire in Tibet in as many weeks.

The Chinese government has sought to crack down on Tibetan dissidents issuing a stern warning to the authorities of eastern Tibet to punish all self-immolators and their relatives – and even those who send condolences to bereaved families.

It said all government aid would be removed from the families of self-immolators while development projects in communities that have been home to such protesters would be cancelled.
The charity and campaign group Free Tibet says it has documented multiple cases of collective punishment, imposed against the communities and families were individuals who have set themselves on fire, or were other forms of protest have taken place.

It says punishments have included homes being ransacked, development projects which were planned for a village cancelled and ‘public criticism’.

Of the 90 protesters who have set themselves on fire, the majority have died of their injuries. Those who survive, are arrested and taken away. They are rarely seen again, say campaign groups.
Stephanie Bridger, director of Free Tibet, said: ‘Tibetans from all walks of life, young and old, mothers, nomads, students, monks and nuns are rejecting China’s occupation of their homeland.
‘China is trying to crush protest through arbitrary detention, collective punishment, communications blackouts, bribery and much more – this has only strengthened the resolve of the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom.

‘Free Tibet is receiving reports of protests inside Tibet on an almost daily basis. These protests will only continue until each and everyone one of us stands with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and our Governments stop kowtowing to an unelected Chinese regime.’

But it is also a moral and policy dilemma for Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and a new generation of exiled politicians.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 with hundreds of followers and they set up base in Dharamsala, a town in the Himalayan foothills about 400 km (250 miles) north of New Delhi.

The deaths raise theological questions about non-violence and highlight a long-standing schism between the elderly Dalai Lama’s softly, softly approach to China and activists who want to fight for independence.

İDaily Mail, Lonodn




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