Father of seven dies in self immolation protest in Ngaba

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Phuntsok Yangchen
Phayul
April 17, 2015

A Tibetan man and a father of seven has died after setting himself ablaze in Gyadey village of Adue township in Ngaba County on Thursday, said Gyaltsen, a student of Delhi university and a native of Ngaba.

Dhamkar, also known as Nekyab, aged around 45, had set up an altar with portraits of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and the late 10th Panchen Lama in the courtyard of his home before setting himself on fire a few feet away from the altar.

Dhamkar’s death comes less than eight days after a 42 year old Tibetan nun named Yeshi Khando died after immolating herself on April 8, 2015, in Ngaba, a hotbed for anti government protests by Tibetans for years.

Chinese security personnel arrived at the protest site, carried away Dhamkar’s charred body to the nearby police station, refusing to hand over the body to the family members. His brother and brother in law were also taken to the police station for questioning but released later.

There is no information as to what slogans he chanted while performing the self immolation protests or before the fiery act as it was wee hours of Thursday.

Dumkar is known for his peace loving nature. He was also awarded by an association consisting of 42 monasteries for his work in promoting peace and vow to refrain from fight or violence.

A day before his self-immolation, Dhamkar had said that refraining from fights and violence is the basic way to maintain world peace and internal harmony of Tibetans in a group conversation on Wechat, micro messaging app.

A large number of Tibetans have gathered at his house to offer prayers for him, said Gyaltsen.

Dhamkar is the 139th Tibetan to resort to self immolation as a form of protest against the Chinese government since 2009.

The Tibetan government in exile maintains that the self immolations “represent a new threshold of Tibetan despair and resentment” and attributes the current crisis in Tibet to China’s policies of “political and religious repression, economic marginalization, social discrimination, cultural assimilation and environmental destruction in Tibet.” However, China blames the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama for instigating the self-immolation protests inside Tibet.