Reason for Tibetan monk's self-burning not clear

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-07 00:26

ABA, Sichuan -- It is still unclear why a Tibetan monk set himself alight last week in southwest China's Sichuan Province, a local official said Friday.

"The monk has been treated in hospital after self-immolation, and he hasn't explained to us why he did so," said Wang Jun, head of the Aba County in the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba.

"Police are still investigating the incident," he told Xinhua.

The monk who set himself alight on a street in the Aba county seat at 1:38 p.m. last Friday was 24-year-old Tashi (also called Tapey or Tape), a Buddhist student at the Kirti Monastery.

He is being treated at the West China Hospital under the Sichuan University in the provincial capital of Chengdu, one of the best hospitals in Sichuan. Doctors said he is recovering.

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Police said Thursday that another Tibetan monk, Jangkor, at the Kirti Monastery has confessed that he made up and spread rumors that police had shot Tashi.

Jangkor told police that he lied to "create greater disturbances so as to attract attention from overseas."

Witnesses have also told Xinhua Thursday that they did not hear gun fire.

"I was polishing shoes and I saw the whole thing. I heard no gun shots, only the sound of the fire extinguisher," said Li Yungui, a shoe polisher who works near the self-immolation scene.

Religious activities are normal at the Kirti Monastery. Dozens of believers were seen coming and going to turn prayer wheels here on Friday.

"People enjoy full freedom of religious belief and all the religious activities are protected by law," Namkha, head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of the Aba Prefecture, told Xinhua.

"Local authorities never interfere in their normal religious activities," he said.