Reclaim Our History – March 16-31
Special “Free Tibet” Edition
March 16, 2008: In Sichuan province, rioters and police clash in response to March 15 riots in Lhasa which left 18 civilians dead. In Ngawa county, traditionally Tibetan, monks stage protest, kill a policeman and set fire to several police vans. In response, 30 protesters are shot dead. Four hundred protesters in The Hague, Netherlands storm the Chinese Embassy and replace the Chinese flag with a Tibetan one. Five hundred protesters gather at the Chinese embassy in Paris and are teargassed. 2011: Tibetan monk Phuntsog, 20, self-immolates; police extinguish flames and beat him. Monks from the Kirti monastery fight off police and take him to hospital, where he dies. Police then remove 300 monks from the monastery in large trucks for “legal education,” and beat two elderly Tibetan protesters to death. 2012: Lobsang Tsultrim self-immolates; extinguished and taken away by police in Sichuan province. Current whereabouts and condition unknown.
March 17, 1959: Chinese artillery shells explode near Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace; he escapes into exile. Over the next week the Chinese troops continue to shell the palace and crush the rebellion. 2008: Tibet’s government-in-exile confirms 80 dead from March 15 riot. 2008: Tibetans storm Chinese consulate in Munich, setting Chinese flag on fire and spray-painting slogans on doors and walls; 26 arrested. 2012: Tibetan farmer and father of three Sonam Dargye self-immolates, dies, Qinghai province.
March 18, 2008: Following pro-Tibet riots in Chinese province of Gansu on March 15, 19 Tibetans are shot dead by government troops. 2008: Chinese Consulate General stated that students who replaced the Chinese flag on the consul building violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Conventions.
March 22, 2008: Police in Reykjavik surround Chinese Embassy to protect it from 40 protestors, who still manage to paint the steps red. In Tokyo, 900 Tibetan exiles and Japanese supporters protest at a temple scheduled to be starting point for Beijing Olympic torch relay.
March 23, 2008: Several hundred protesters gather in Toronto, Ontario.
March 24, 2008: A Tibetan woman covers herself with red paint and lies on route of Olympic torch relay in Olympia, Greece, forcing torchbearers to weave around her as other demonstrators shout, “Flame of shame!”
March 25, 2008: A monk at Ramoche Temple dies from starvation; the temple, along with others, had been cut off from food, water, and electricity, and the monks imprisoned inside since March 10.
March 26, 2012: At least three Tibetans in exile in India self-immolate to protest the visit to India of Chinese President Hu Jintao, scheduled for March 28 and 29.
March 28, 2012: Lobsang Sherab, a 20-year-old Tibetan monk, self-immolates and dies, Sichuan province. Paramilitary police refuse requests of family to release his body.
March 30, 2012: Tibetan monks Tenpa Darjey, 22, and Chimey Palden, 21, self-immolate, Sichuan province; current conditions and whereabouts unknown.
March 31, 2013: As of this date, at least 109 Tibetans have self-immolated protesting Chinese rule.