Two self-immolations reported in western China

A 26-year-old Tibetan woman and a 21-year-old monk were reported to have set themselves on fire in the Gansu and Sichuan provinces of western China this week, overseas groups said on Tuesday.This raises the number of self-immolations in Tibetan areas to at least 46 since the wave of protests began in March 2011.

The woman, Dolkar Kyi, was reported to have lost her life on Tuesday after she set herself on fire close to the Tso monastery, an important Tibetan Buddhist centre in the predominantly Tibetan Gannan prefecture in western Gansu province.

Only a day earlier, a 21-year-old monk, Lobsang Tsultrim, set himself on fire near the Kirti monastery in Aba, in northwestern Sichuan, which has emerged as the centre of the protests in recent months.

According to exiled Kirti monks who are now in India, Lobsang was alive but badly burnt when he was taken to a hospital by the police. He had set himself on fire on a crowded market street which,they said, is now known by many locals as the “Hero’s Road” as it has been site of several such protests this past year.