Wednesday marks Losar, or the Tibetan New Year, but there will be no music, chanting, spectacular costumes or pageantry this year.

Instead, Tibetans across the world plan to observe Losar with the solemnity their government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, has proclaimed it deserves.

Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, issued a statement asking Tibetans to refrain from celebration.

“But do observe traditional and spiritual rituals by going to the monastery, making offerings and lighting butter lamps for all those who have sacrificed and suffered under the repressive policies of Chinese government,” Sangay said.

Sangay asked for a somber New Year because of the “grim news” that continues to stream out of Tibet, he said.

In the past year, 22 monks, nuns and other Tibetans set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule, according to the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.

The latest incident occurred Saturday when an 18-year-old monk self-immolated in front of a monastery in the village of Barma village in China’s Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, according to a statement from the government-in-exile.

He apparently died shouting, “May His Holiness the Dalai Lama live 10,000 years!” and “Freedom for Tibet,” the International Campaign for Tibet said.

The government-in-exile also said it has had news of arrests of Tibetan writers and intellectuals.

China accuses Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting unrest and trying to divide China.

But monks who spoke secretly to CNN said they want China to allow the Dalai Lama to return to a free Tibet. In their pouch, they carry a sacred keepsake of their leader.

In 1950, Chinese troops occupied Tibet, enforcing what Beijing says is a centuries-old claim over the region. Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in Lhasa left 85,000 people dead.

Pro-Tibetan groups say Chinese persecution and torture has killed hundreds of thousands of Tibetans over the years. They also say Han Chinese, China’s main ethnic group, have migrated to the region and turned Tibetans into a minority in their homeland.

Sangay urged Tibetans to protest non-violently and legally, especially on March 10, the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising.

“We once again fervently urge the Chinese government to give serious consideration to our legitimate demands and appeals we have made so far,” the government statement said.

Sangay said he wanted to make sure Tibetan voices were heard loud and clear in Beijing.

Tibetans all over the world began posting Sangay’s message on websites. In the United States, several Tibetan associations canceled Losar celebrations, one of the biggest annual festivities for Tibetans.

“It means much more than Losar,” said Tsepak Rigzin, program director at the Drepung Loseling center in Atlanta.

This year, he said, Losar would truly signify unity, solidarity, compassion.

“It’s a symbol of our integrity,” said Rigzin, 51, who has lived in the United States since 2005. “It means sharing the suffering and pain of our brothers and sisters of Tibet.”

He, like Tibetans everywhere, will begin the year 2139 with quiet contemplation — and dreams of a homeland.

 JIUHUANG FIRST VILLAGE, China — Police don’t travel far to monitor the goings-on at the Gami Temple at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The police station sits inside the monastery, just outside the gates to the main prayer hall.

Smothering security has become a fact of life in China’s Tibetan areas, from police stationed around monasteries to document checks at roadblocks. The heavy policing is driving some to radical acts to protest Chinese rule.

Most dramatically, at least 21 Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year. The immolations have set off a cycle of further repression that in turn has touched off large-scale protests in recent weeks. Some turned into deadly clashes between protesters and police.

Intense security is one reason Tibet’s exiled government in India called on Tibetans this year to shun celebrations for their traditional new year, which started Wednesday. Instead, Tibetans are urged to pray for those living under Chinese rule.

“The threats and Chinese policies and Chinese military in Tibet are becoming more abusive,” said Kanyag Tsering, a monk who left China 13 years ago for exile in India. He has become a channel for information from his home, Aba, a corner of Sichuan province where many of the immolations have occurred and which roadblocks and squads of riot and paramilitary police have effectively sealed off to foreigners.

One of the latest to self-immolate was an 18-year-old Buddhist monk in Aba whom Kanyag Tsering and another exiled monk said shouted blessings to their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, and “Freedom for Tibet” when he lit himself on fire on Sunday.

In Lhasa, the capital of Chinese-controlled Tibet, fears ran high in recent days with a bigger police presence and officials calling on individual Tibetan homes, said the International Campaign for Tibet. Hundreds of Tibetans returning home were detained after attending teachings by the Dalai Lama in India, adding to anxieties, the Washington-based lobbying group said.

Photos of Lhasa dated Saturday and posted Tuesday on the blog of Tibetan writer Woeser showed columns of marching troops, an armored personnel carrier and police checking passengers on a bus.

“The continuing attack on the Dalai Lama and separatist troublemakers, greater surveillance of monasteries and nunneries, heavy military and security presence – all these mean that China is prepared to rule Tibetans through force,” said Dibyesh Anand of the University of Westminster in London. That determination, he said, is radicalizing Tibetans.

Behind the distress lies a fear that the Tibetan identity, so tied to their faith, is under threat. After more than a half-century of at times heavy-handed Chinese rule, Beijing is accelerating a policy of religious control, repression and economic inducements.

The program, affirmed at a top-level meeting in 2010, aims to extinguish Tibetans’ devotion to the Dalai Lama through forced denunciations, to deter protests through heavy policing and to raise living standards by pumping in investment that has brought double-digit growth rates but also Chinese migrants.

Monasteries, which for Tibetans are akin to universities, have become occupied ground, with police and officials moving in alongside monks.

At the Gami monastery complex, which hugs a wind-lashed hillside of pine at 10,500-feet (3,100-meters), police watched earlier this month as monks dressed in demon masks and colorful robes performed a purification dance for the new year before an audience of mostly well-dressed, older farmers and herders. When thousands of Tibetans circled a sacred mountain behind the temple in another new year ritual, police watched the paths.

Checkpoints dot the roads, though the area is 300 miles (500 kilometers) to the northeast of the recent troubles. The temple itself does not belong to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s main schools, but is Bon, a pre-Buddhist sect, and the area has not had a history of large-scale demonstrations in recent decades.

Security weeds out foreign journalists, who were followed on a recent visit by uniformed and plainclothes security and ordered not to report in the area. But it’s also directed at Tibetans.

Monks in particular are being closely scrutinized and need to produce identification and sometimes letters of explanation to travel outside the immediate environs of their monasteries, according to people in Sichuan and overseas Tibet groups.

Kanyag Tsering decided to flee Kirti, Aba’s most prominent monastery in 1998, when the first denunciation campaigns hit. This year, he said, several hundred political instructors and other officials moved into Kirti “to monitor everything that is going on” during an important festival. The number of monks, he said, has fallen to around 2,000, from more than 2,500.

Heavier security and tighter religious controls have seemed to fueled protests, rather than quell them. Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University, said that security spending in Tibetan areas of Sichuan began soaring above that in non-Tibetan areas in 2006 and reached four times the average by 2009. Yet in 2008, the largest uprising against Chinese rule in 50 years occurred. Swarms of security came to the region and never left.

“Roughly speaking, China now seems to be facing increasingly cohesive discontent across an area twice the size of that it faced 10 or 15 years ago,” said Barnett.

Despite attempts by authorities to stifle information, including shutting some communities’ phone and Internet service, the immolators have become heroes. Accounts and snippets of their acts, usually captured by mobile phones, have circulated by Internet, instant messaging, homemade DVDs, foreign shortwave radio broadcasts and even posters.

Kanyag Tsering and other exiled activists said sometimes calls from public phones manage to get information of an immolation or a protest out quickly. More often, however, word seeps out days later, as people smuggle mobile phone images out of cordoned-off areas.

The government has signaled no intention of changing tacks. A senior official overseeing policy on Tibet, Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun of the United Front Department, called this month for full-throttle assimilation of minorities through migration, economic development and the spread of Mandarin.

“Our policy orientation should conform to this trend and deepen this trend so that it is irreversible,” Zhu wrote in the Study Times, the newspaper of the Communist Party’s top training academy.

His Holiness presides over Tsedhor, the official religious ceremony on the First day of Losar at Tsuglha Khang, Dharamsala (Photo: OHHDL)

DHARAMSHALA: The Tibetan New Year begins with Tsedhor, the official religious ceremony attended by the officials of the Central Tibetan Administration. His Holiness the Dalai Lama presides over the religious ceremony on the rooftop of Tsuglha khang, Main Cathedral in Dharamshala. 

 After the religious ceremony, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile started A Day long Solidarity Hunger Strike for the victims of Chinese police firing and Self Immolations in Tibet at Tsuglha khang courtyard. Head of the three pillars of Central Tibetan Administration, Parliamentarians, officials of Central Tibetan Administration, and hundreds of public gathered to observe the hunger strike. The Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Penpa Tsering delivered the Losar Message. 

 Earlier in his Losar Message, Kalon Tripa strongly urged all the Tibetans not to celebrate this year’s Losar, but to observe traditionally and spiritually by offering prayers to all the Tibetans, who had sacrificed and are suffering under the repressive policies of China.

 In Dharamshala, Losar celebration is not visible as it is silently observed to show solidarity with the Tibetans inside Tibet. Whereas in Tibet, it is reported that the Lhasa Authority is forcing Tibetan officials and public to perform dances to celebrate Losar. If they fail to oblige with the orders, they are subjected to punishable. The Lhasa authority is also restricting the mobility of Tibetan pilgrims visiting Lhasa with tightened security. 

Speaker Mr. Penpa Tsering delivering the Statement of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile during the Solidarity Hunger Strike on the first day of Tibetan Losar at Tsuglhakhang, Dharamshala

 Amongst the patriotic Tibetan men and women who have been committing the heroic act of self-immolations in Tibet under the two main slogans demanding “the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet” and “freedom and human rights for the Tibetan people”, Venerable Tapey of Kirti Monastery set the trend on 27^th of February, 2009. Since then, between the 16^th of March, 2011 and 19^th of February, 2012, some 23 Tibetans both lay and ordained, have committed self-immolation in Tibet for the sake of Tibet and its people. Two Tibetans have done the same outside of Tibet totaling 25 so far. Fifteen of them including three nuns have lost their precious lives in the process and we have not been able to ascertain the condition and whereabouts of the rest.

We have also come to know from reliable sources that on the 23^rd of January, 2012 which was the occasion of the celebration of the Chinese New Year, Tibetans in Tibet observed it as a day of mourning by holding peaceful demonstrations. But the Chinese police and the militia opened indiscriminate gun-fire on them and 4 Tibetans in Draggo, 2 in Serta and 1 in Zamthang totalling 7 were massacred. We have further come to know that on the 8th of February of this year, the same type of peaceful demonstrations had taken place in other places like Nangchen, Trindu, Zatoe, Golok, Chuchen, Chabcha etc while observing ‘White Wednesday’ which is the favourable prayer day for the long life of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. However, as the Chinese government had sealed of all internet and phone connection in most of the places in Tibet and especially those where demonstrations had taken place, we have not been able to ascertain the scale of oppression and the number of people killed, tortured or arrested. There is in effect, an unapparent military rule in Tibet at present and the Chinese government has declared an open “war” on the Tibetan people as whole.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile has continuously been appealing to the Government of China and the International Community regarding the urgent situation in Tibet through its series of press statements. Recently, a special delegation of the TPiE travelled to New Delhi to brief a number of Embassies of different countries about the fast deteriorating conditions in Tibet. We also wrote an open letter to the Chinese President.

Through this statement, we once again appeal to the Government of China and the International Community as follows:

Appeal to the Chinese leaders:

1. Withdraw the large reinforcement of military to reduce tension immediately and take measures to give due consideration to the aspirations of the Tibetan people.

2. Allow independent, non-partisan fact finding delegations to ascertain the ground realities. If you have issues with that, allow a Tibetan fact finding delegation to visit Tibet.

3. Stop the policies and programs aimed at destroying the identity of the Tibetan people. Provide religious freedom and undertake reconciliation measures to assuage the hurt sentiments of the Tibetan people.

4. Stop sedentarization of Tibetan nomads and include Tibetan participation in environmental stewardship by using their centuries old wisdom of having lived on the Tibetan Plateau.

5. All developmental activities in Tibet must give due consideration to Tibet’s fragile environment and should accrue due benefit to the native Tibetans.

6. Release all political prisoners including Panchen Rinpoche Gedun Choekyi Nyima, just as Burma did so to create more trust between the people and the government.

7. Resume dialogue with the Tibetans with the commitment and conviction to seek a lasting solution to the Issue of Tibet, and peace and stability in the whole geo- strategic region.

 Similarly to the International Community, we call upon the leaders of the free world to not only express your concern but also seek your intervention in de-escalating the prevailing dangerous situation inside Tibet and help find a lasting solution to the Issue of Tibet for a mutually beneficial agreement through dialogue.

We are confident that while engaging constructively with China, you will not refrain from voicing your concern for the values of democracy, equality, justice and basic human rights that you so very much cherish.

Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile

Dharamsala: Dated: February 22, 2012

Video Message of Mr. Penpa Tsering, Honourable Speaker of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile is viewable in tibetonline.tv

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has expressed concern for Tibetans who have long suffered oppression under Chinese rule, according to a DPP think tank Tuesday. 

 In a meeting with Dawa Tsering, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsai said it is painful to see Tibetan monks and young people choosing self-immolation in the fight against political and religious oppression, the think tank said. 

 The DPP chairwoman expressed concern over the current status of Tibetans and voiced support for the Free Tibet movement, said Hsiao Bi-khim, vice president of the DPP’s New Frontier Foundation. 

 The statements were made in response to a letter written by the Dalai Lama to the DPP chairwoman, expressing his positive view of Tsai and the DPP’s efforts in the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections. 

 Dawa Tsering presented the letter to Tsai during their meeting Tuesday. 

 In a separate statement, Tsai said she appreciated the Dali Lama’s interest in Taiwan’s democratic development and his advocacy for human rights. 

 Although the Dalai Lama is no longer a political figure, he continues in his spiritual role to promote the universal value of human rights, Tsai said. 

 Human rights and democracy should be given prominence by the Taiwan government in its interactions with China, said Tsai, who lost the Jan. 14 presidential election to the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang. 

 She urged the Ma administration to break its silence on the Tibet issue and condemn China’s oppression of the Tibetan people. 

 (By Lin Shen-hsu and Nell Shen) 

Transcript 

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Prime Minister of the exiled government of Tibet is Lobsang Sangay. He’s currently visiting the US, and he joins us tonight from Boston. Lobsang Sangay, thank you very much for being there.

 LOBSANG SANGAY, PM, TIBETAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE: Thank you very much.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Young monks and nuns, teenagers, setting themselves on fire in the streets – what is so desperate that is leading them to resort to such violent protests?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: It’s really tragic and sad to see, so far, 24 Tibetans – some very young and some old – giving up their lives for freedom in Tibet and return of his holiness the Dalai Lama. What they’re saying is the occupation of Tibet should not continue; the repression of Tibetans should not continue. They would choose to die than leave. This is a sad commentary on the failed policies of the Chinese government.

 EMMA ALBERICI: What is it exactly, what are you hearing about the individual stories of these people, the personal battles that have led them to this point?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Yes, in Tibet, Tibetans cannot protest, they cannot peacefully gather. If you do, you might get shot at; and you can’t have hunger strike, you can’t have rallies, and Tibetans see this the only or most drastic way of protesting against the repressive policies – because, let’s say, in monasteries, photograph of his Holiness the Dalai Lama is banned there overall, but you’re made to denounce the picture of the Lama who they revere. So much restriction is imposed that many choose to leave or expelled. Hence, they’re saying, given the circumstances – political, economic, social – they’re saying it’s so repressive they will give up their lives, and made a commentary that freedom be restored in Tibet.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Has the Chinese government been moved by these brutal public suicides?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Unfortunately there is blatant discrimination as to how the Chinese government treat Chinese people and their protest, and Tibetan peoples’ protest. For example, the local party official in Lhasa has declared quote-unquote ‘war’ on protestors and Tibetans. Which government in the world would declare war against their own people? They have sent hundreds and thousands of troops to Tibetan people. As it is, Tibet is under undeclared martial law. There’s a Chinese writer who says that in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, there are more Chinese than Tibetans, there are more civilians’ cameras than windows, and there are more – if I may add – more guns that [inaudible] for Tibetan people. Under such circumstances the Chinese government and its hardline policies is discriminating and treating Tibetans quite badly.

 EMMA ALBERICI: China’s vice president Xi Jinping visited the United States last week. He’s expected to take over the country’s leadership next year. Now, Barack Obama rolled out the diplomatic red carpet for him. Are you shown that same respect of office in Washington?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Well, you know, we always want good relationship between China and any other country – be it US or Australia – and the president Obama and the state department – the congress leaders particularly – raise issues about Tibet to the vice president Xi Jinping. And we also appreciate foreign ministers – Kevin Rudd’s January 15 statement on Tibet, and him raising the issue with Xi Jinping in 2010. But we would urge international community not just to raise statements, and not just to raise issues and issue statements, but to take concrete action. We want the Australian government or the US to send delegations to Tibet as to find out what exactly is happening, why Tibetans are self-immolating. Why they’re protesting, why the repressive policies of the Chinese government is resented by Tibetan people. This kind of fact-finding delegation will provide a better light as to what are the main grievances of the Tibetan people, and how best to find solutions.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Have you specifically asked the Australian government to do that given this is our region?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Yes, we have actually, from the Tibetan parliament and [inaudible], and we have written letters to different heads of state urging them, and we have issued open statements to international community to send fact-finding delegation to the United Nations as well – to send special investigator to Tibetan areas, and for journalists to have access to the area so we know exactly what is happening. If the Chinese government is so suspicious, they should allow liberal Chinese scholars to Tibetan areas and do investigation and report to the Chinese government, so that we can find a win/win peaceful solution to the Tibet issue so that these vicious cycle of violence after violence and repression not continue in Tibet.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Why is it then that countries like Australia and the US aren’t sending those delegations in on fact-finding missions, as you’ve requested?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Well, the US consulate in Chengdu did try to send some staff members to Tibetan areas, but they could not access the area. And I also urge the Australian Government to, you know, send fact-finding delegation to Tibet, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been quite strong on human rights, and the Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd when he visited Beijing he said, you know, ‘Human rights is equally important to economic rights’, which should be the basic principle on which international communities should approach the Chinese government.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Trade with China is significant for Australia. It’s adding millions of jobs here over the past decade. To what extent do you think that economic dependency compromises the Australian Government’s ability to condemn Beijing’s human rights record and do something about it?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: I hope not, because the Australia was founded on the principle of human rights and universality of freedom. If economic interests takes priority over everything else – and what is really is the purpose of a government and a state if basic human rights are not respected in one’s country and not respected and commented in other places as well. So, basic human rights and freedom has to be one of the core principles of any government, so Australian Government and Australia, as much as they have trade relationship with China, they must take a stand on human rights – because again, if I remember correctly, Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Aboriginals in Australia. This sort of action should be urged to the Chinese government so they will be healing, so that the president Hu Jintao’s call for harmony within China will be practised in reality. To have real harmony, there has to be healing, and there has to be a way to solve this issue of Tibet. Not through guns and violence.

 EMMA ALBERICI: It was self-immolation that triggered the unrest which brought down Tunisia’s leader, and led to copycat protests in Egypt and Libya. Have Tibetans been emboldened by the Arab Spring, do you think?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Arab Spring, or for that matter, Colour Revolution, or the freeing of Nelson Mandela, or the coming down of Berlin Wall – all these are positive direction events in the world history. So, any kind of assertion of freedom is welcome, and Tibetans see this as positive direction in the world. But I can’t say Arab Spring necessarily prompted Tibetans to protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese government, because Tibetans have been doing it since 1950s. Tibet has been under occupation for the last now-60 years, so what we are protesting against is occupation and repression for so many years, and the 2008 uprising, nationwide in Tibet, made it clear that Tibetans do not tolerate and accept the continuing hardline policies of Beijing.

 EMMA ALBERICI: China, along with Russia, is blocking a UN resolution calling for the Syrian regime to step down and stop attacking its own people. It was hardly a surprise, was it, that China would push back against any precedent-setting attempt to usurp a country’s right to reject democracy?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: That’s true. As China rises – and as many countries, including Australia, are keenly analysing as to what kind of China is going to be in the international forum – one should take note of vetoing of resolution on Syria and such, you know, violent crackdown on Tibetans as to what kind of heartland policies and actions the Chinese government is capable of. So this is a sad commentary on China, and it tarnishes the image. As long as the Chinese government does not solve the issue of Tibet, their image and respect in the international community will be diminished considerably.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Now, you’re the prime minister of Tibet, albeit in exile, and yet you’ve never been to Tibet, as I understand it. When do you expect to be able to get into the country so you can more properly represent your people?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Yes, after His Holiness the Dalai Lama transferred his political power, I am the political head of the Tibetan people. Unfortunately I was not allowed to visit Tibet in 2005, but I gave up my job at Harvard Law School, where I spent the last 16 years, and I have left America, actually, and returned to Dharamsala – a beautiful hill station in India to serve for Tibet and Tibetan people. Now, I’ve given up America and Harvard to work for this cause, because I do believe, sincerely and wholeheartedly, I will return to Tibet one day soon where there will be freedom, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. 

 EMMA ALBERICI: Is there any softening of the position in Beijing that you’re noticing?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: At the moment, not. In fact, there is more hardline reaction. They’re sending more troops. They’re cracking down on more Tibetans and no tourists are allowed now, no journalists are allowed. Even Chinese visitors are discouraged from visiting Tibet. So they’re really sealed off. With the Tibetan New Year, Losar, beginning tomorrow, and the 10th March, National Uprising Day, coming soon, we are extremely worried as to what kind of hardline policies and crackdown the Chinese government is going to implement. The rest of the world will not know how many Tibetans actually suffered, maybe died… may die under such circumstances.

 EMMA ALBERICI: In what way die? You don’t mean self-immolations?

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Not just self-immolation, because any kind of peaceful gatherings is seen as threat by the Chinese government, and we have reports on January 23 and 24 where they were shot at and many Tibetans were killed and many were injured. Now, as to protests inside China, by Chinese people, they’re allowed… not only are they allowed, their grievances are addressed. As far as Tibetans are concerned, any kind of gathering is seen as threat to the national security, and they even get shot at and arrested, so these are the things we are really worried.

 EMMA ALBERICI: Lobsang Sangay, thank you very much for being there for us this evening.

 LOBSANG SANGAY: Thank you very much. 

 For Tibetan Buddhists, tomorrow is Losar, the start of the year 2139; an occasion that the Dalai Lama will mark in the main temple in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala.

But for monks living inside Tibet, and in Tibetan areas of China, there will be no celebrations.

 Instead, the Tibetan government-in-exile has said they should mourn the 22 monks, nuns and ordinary Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in the past year, some in an explicit protest at Chinese rule.

Dr Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has asked for people not to celebrate Losar, but do go to the monastery to make offerings for those who have “sacrificed and suffered under the repressive policies of the Chinese government.”

 The suicides, all of which have come outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and in ethnically Tibetan areas of China, have coincided with some of the strictest controls on Tibetans since Lhasa erupted into riots in March 2008. Around half of all Tibetans live in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

 The Chinese authorities have now cordoned off Tibetan areas to non-Chinese, imposing roadblocks and sending in trucks of paramilitary police, according to the few Western reporters who have made it to Aba, the site of one of the largest monasteries in Sichuan province.

 Meanwhile a “management committee” has been established in every monastery to “oversee affairs” according to the Tibetan United Front Work department.

 In January, temples across Tibetan areas, which are forbidden from hanging portraits of the Dalai Lama, were told instead to hang portraits of China’s leaders from Mao Tse-tung to Hu Jintao, according to the Tibet Daily, a state newspaper.

 However, the new controls have failed to stem the protests. The latest self-immolation came last Friday, when Tamchoe Sangpo set himself alight during a prayer ceremony at Bongtak monastery in Qinghai.

 A spokesman for Free Tibet said it was unclear why the spate of self-immolations, which have traditionally been extremely rare, had suddenly occurred, and why they had occurred only outside the TAR.

The protests came despite a focus, in the past two years, on improving the economic livelihoods of Tibetans in provinces outside Tibet. In Sichuan, the Chinese government, keen to improve the lot of poor Tibetan herders, has dedicated 18 billion yuan (£1.8 billion) to building houses for them, and moving them off the grasslands.

 But many herders complain that they could not afford their new homes, which left them far away from their animals.

 ”The government always thinks it is helping people, but sometimes they do not know what people want. The herders have their own way of life, they cannot be fixed to one place and it is not appropriate to break this tradition,” said one ethnic Tibetan scholar in Beijing, who asked not to be named. “Tibet needs modernisation, but not in the same way as Beijing or Shanghai. It needs it in accordance with its history and cultural heritage. Money cannot solve everything.”

 At least two of the Tibetans who have set themselves alight left messages calling for independence, and some observers believe that the suicides were in part prompted by the example of the Arab Spring, which began with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia.

As the Dalai Lama ages, some younger Tibetans believe his policy of a “Middle Way” of accepting Chinese rule but asking for autonomy, does not go far enough, and that there should be firmer action to seek Tibetan independence.

 In leaflets that Sonam Wangyal distributed before he set himself on fire in January, he said he did not wish for “personal glory” but for ”Tibet and the happiness of Tibetans.” He wrote: “The day of happiness will come for sure”.

 On 19 February 2012, eighteen-year-old Nangdrol set himself on fire in front of the Samdrupling Jonang monastery in Barma village, Zamthang county, Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.  He died on the spot.

 Chinese police officers attempted to take away his body, but were prevented from doing so by the monks of Zamthang Jonang monastery. The monks later cremated him and performed all the necessary rituals and prayers for the deceased.

 According to eyewitnesses, while setting himself on fire Nangdrol folded his hands in a gesture of peace, calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. Nangdrol was the son of father Chensig and mother Nyingmo. Of the eight siblings, he was the fourth oldest.

 On 26 January 2012, Tibetans living in Barma, Zamthang county participated in a widespread demonstration against the Chinese government. The Chinese police responded by firing indiscriminately on the protestors, killing a Tibetan named Ugen and critically wounding several others. Since then the county has been kept under severe military restrictions.

 News is also emerging of the arrest of many Tibetan writers and intellectuals from all across Tibet. Tibetan parliament in exile is deeply concerned and worried about the critical situation in our homeland. We once again fervently urge the Chinese government to give serious consideration to our legitimate demands and appeals we have made so far.

 We strongly urge the international community to take more responsibility and leaders and countries of the free world to take concrete steps in helping to end the crisis in Tibet.

Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile

20 February 2012

Contact Person:

Tenzin Norbu

+91-9418106112

 On 27 February, Kalon Tripa will reach South Tyrol, Italy and has planned meetings with official dignitaries and attend program at South Tyrol and Trentino, Italy for two days.

 Later on 29 February, Kalon Tripa will visit Dublin attend the ceremony of awarding Gold Medal by the College Historical Society (CHS) of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

 Kalon Tripa will return to Dharamsala on 3 March 2012.