Mr Lobga Rangzen Offered Up His Life For Tibetan National Freedom

Image: Taken From Facebook

This was Mr Lobga Rangzen, a 52 year-old Tibetan exile. At about 6.30 PM on July 2nd he arrived at 42nd Street and 1st Avenue NYC. He then doused himself in gasoline and self-immolated. In what has been described by those who knew him, as a protest against the illegal and brutal occupation to Tibet and its ongoing program of cultural erasure. He was a determined and dedicated advocate of Tibetan national freedom, a strong voice for his people’s cause, and like many Tibetans, disappointed and deeply concerned that the plight of Tibet has become increasingly abandoned by governments and institutions such as the United Nations. (UN). With the flag of Tibet at his side his life was consumed by flames at the foot of the UN building.

His sacrifice was, in part, directed at a UN – which aside from human rights platitudes, and the occasional delegation to Tibet, maintained a decades long silence; as China invaded, then occupied, Tibet. It was unmoved to oppose the clear cultural genocide which has intensified over the years, and offered neither condemnation or opposition; when Tibetan women were rounded up across Tibet to be forcibly sterilized. It has shuffled papers and issued the occasional statement, while Tibetan children are stolen from their family and homes, forced into indoctrination centers, where they are subjected to what can, most accurately be described as a cultural lobotomy.

Lobga was very aware of such horrors, and the inertia of the UN. Like his exiled compatriots he saw the cynical and callous disregard of governments and politicians on the issue of Tibet. He noted a world fixated on appeasing China, driven by the prospect of trade and the flow of huge profits. During his time also he must have mourned the death of international law and respect for human rights, when seeing innocent women, children and in Gaza and Lebanon, subjected (by Israel and the United States) to war crimes and a genocidal slaughter.

What are Tibetans to think on seeing the actions of governments, supposedly champions of freedom and democracy, behaving like tyrants? As Tibet is being terrorized and singled out for eradication, the so-called international rules based order has been torn to shreds. Now civilians are legitimate targets across the USA, Europe and elsewhere. What was once reasonable and justifiable dissent against oppression and atrocities now disfigured into support for terrorism. No longer is the Chinese regime alone in the enforcement of censorship, mass surveillance, arbitrary arrests and torture, but nations who gave shelter to Tibetan exiles are inflicting such oppression upon their own citizens, while happily partnering and enabling the killing of Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese children.

Which begs the question, who can the Tibetans turn too in their struggle for national freedom and human rights? A corrupt and indifferent United Nations? A morally bankrupt and compromised US Administration, or a Europe that is fixated on Ukraine, while denying the genocide against Palestinians? Our world has been turned upside down.

Yet within such chaos and insanity, in the face of China’s silent genocide of Tibetan identity, a profound and pervasive resistance remains in the hearts of Tibetans. They hold dear to the truth and justness of their cause, despite the contemptuous disinterest from the political world or a mainstream media that cares little for non-violent freedom campaigns. Lobga Rangzen in his decision to self-immolate represented in honesty, courage, determination and hope, the political aspiration of Tibetans.

His action, though easy to misread as one of frustration or despair, was of supreme and selfless resistance, like all those other Tibetans who have set themselves ablaze he was sending the most powerful of messages. Not to venal politicians, or apathetic administrators within the UN, but firstly to Tibetans around the world. To stand with Tibet and support its national freedom. Secondly his sacrifice, though tragic, was an immensely potent display of defiance to the Chinese Regime, a reminder that no matter the oppression and dire circumstance the Tibetan struggle for independence endures, in the hearts and hopes of each Tibetan.

Our sincere condolences and sympathy to the family and friends of Lobga Rangzen, a Tibetan patriot.