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Exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks protesting Chinese rule of Tibet at a rally in India in April 2011. AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia

Tibetan monks injured in self-immolation protest over Chinese rule

China’s official news agency reports that the two men suffered slight burns and are in stable condition.

TWO TIBETAN monks set themselves on fire today in a protest over China’s tight rein over Buddhist practices, a rights group said as the Chinese government reiterated it will choose the next Dalai Lama.

The London-based Free Tibet campaign said Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchok, both believed to be 18 or 19 years old, self-immolated today at the Kirti Monastery in Sichuan province’s Aba prefectuture.

The monks allegedly called for religious freedom and said “long live the Dalai Lama” before they set themselves on fire, Free Tibet said in a statement.

The official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that did not identify the monks by name that both were rescued by police, suffered slight burns and were in stable condition.

Lobsang Kelsang is the brother of Rigzin Phuntsog, a 21-year-old Kirti monk who died March 16 after setting himself on fire, said Free Tibet. Phuntsog’s death was seen as a protest against China’s heavy-handed controls on Tibetan Buddhism and provoked a standoff between security forces and monks.

A man who answered the phone Monday at the Kirti Monastery’s Administration Committee said he was not aware of any reports of monks setting themselves alight. He refused to give his name.

Calls to the county and prefecture-level Public Security Bureau in Aba both rang unanswered today.

Protests

Aba has been the scene of numerous protests over the past several years against the Chinese government. Most are led by monks who are fiercely loyal to Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled the Himalayan region in 1959 amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and is reviled by Beijing.

Also on Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that it has never been up to the Dalai Lama to pick his own successor and that Beijing will identify who is the next incarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

China reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist and wants to pick a pro-Beijing successor. The Dalai Lama insists he is only seeking increased autonomy for Tibet, not independence, and opposes Beijing’s involvement in selecting its leaders.

On Saturday, the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that if he is to be reincarnated he will leave clear written instructions about the process. He said in a statement that when he is “about 90″ he will consult Buddhist scholars to evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue at all.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news conference that Dalai Lamas have never decided on their own successors.

“I would like to point out the title of the Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is otherwise illegal. The 14th Dalai Lama was approved by the then republican government,” Hong said. “There has never been a practice of the Dalai Lama identifying his own successor.”

China has said that religious law requires that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama be born in a Tibetan area under Chinese control. The Dalai Lama has said his successor could be born in exile and has even floated the idea of choosing his own successor while still alive — perhaps even a woman.

In his statement Saturday, he said if the institution of the Dalai Lama were to continue, then he would leave behind “clear written instructions about it.”

“Bear in mind that, apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

The Dalai Lama has lived in the Indian hill town of Dharmsala since fleeing Tibet. China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the region was virtually independent for centuries.

Read: Tibetan monks jailed over immolation death >

Read: Tibetan monk dies in self-immolation protest over Chinese rule >

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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:31 PM

    Come on students of UCD, don’t tell us you have forgotten what a full scale student protest is

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:37 PM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: normally you can’t prevent them marching- not one to the Chinese embassy in last two years Spend some time with us at Orwell Road too

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:36 PM

    Good man Ben- proud of you.

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:55 PM

    @Jonathan O’Riordan: he resigned from one position

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:57 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: and a part time one at that

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:23 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: so he is still making a point, more than most

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    Mute Alan Leahy
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:04 PM

    Does his resignation come with a pay cut or is it the same pay package, now with less responsibility?

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:36 PM

    @Alan Leahy: Might it be a mealy mouthed resignation?

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    Mute diarmuid
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:45 PM

    You might mention that he’s a director of the Irish Defence and Security Association, a lobby group for the arms industry in Ireland.

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:30 PM

    @diarmuid: don’t see the relevance, but glad to hear that Ireland is making €38m off software and technology as an industry. If not us then it would be someone else

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    Mute Fergus Quinlan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:56 PM

    The western media have won the day….war has come in one door as truth and reason fled out the other..NATO…who have worked hard for this moment …wine and dine with the arms salesmen…

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    Mute Jim Monaghan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:55 PM

    Russia treats Ukraine in the same way the USA treats Cuba. It is the equivalent of Ireland to Russia. The invasion has to be opposed. Putin’s war of aggression has damaged us all. Aside for economic consequences, it could lead to a world war.

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    Mute Roger Bond
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:35 PM

    @Jim Monaghan: Do you remember the Cuba crisis where America threatened Nuclear war if Russia didn’t get out of Cuba.
    Russia now doesn’t want NATO, US with bases in Ukraine.

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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:39 PM

    @Roger Bond: that’s because the USSR had placed and threatened to place, nuclear arms facilities on thr Island of cuba, so its not the same, not by a long shot

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:45 PM

    @Disco Inferno: the USSR was placing nuclear weapons in Cuba because the US had placed them in Turkey. So it was tit for tat only the US weren’t going to have any tat and instead threatened all out war. Russia’s anxiety regarding Ukraines potential membership of NATO is that the US will place missile systems, which they have already placed in other NATO countries, which are capable of neutralising Russia’s nuclear deterrent and therefore unbalancing the MAD status quo. Their reasoning is sound but their actions are appalling. But the world has a history of powerful countries acting appallingly simply because they can. There are other countries with whom we are closely aligned who have acted in the exact same manner but do not receive our condemnation. The wests hypocrisy is also appalling

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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Mar 2nd 2022, 6:44 AM

    @Roger Bond: do you? Remember the Cuban missile crisis or is it something you’ve just read about in your schoolbooks so you “know” about it! History is different if you’ve lived through it to what shows up in books 40 or 50 years later when the hindsight is 20/20 and everyone has died….

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    Mute Gerard Collins
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:59 PM

    Delores Cahill!?

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