Chinese authorities in Tibet have over the past month continued and expanded demolition of the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, satellite imagery analyzed by Radio Free Asia shows. It is the latest in a series of moves by Beijing to downsize the major center of Tibetan Buddhist learning which at its peak in the early 2000s was home to 40,000 Buddhist monastics. Last year, Chinese authorities expelled thousands of Tibetan monks and nuns from Larung Gar, which is in Serthar county (Seda in Chinese) within the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture…
Tag: Tibet
Zhu Rongji used economics to exert greater control over Tibet
The late former premier of China Zhu Rongji wielded the economic hammer during China’s rapid economic rise in the 1990s and 2000s to increase Beijing’s influence over Tibet, an expert told Radio Free Asia shortly after Zhu’s death on Wednesday. Zhu, 98, died at 11:06 a.m. in Beijing of an unspecified illness, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. As premier alongside President Jiang Zemin from 1998 to 2003, Zhu had spearheaded China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and ushered in an era of rapid economic growth and full integration…
Lobga Rangzen, the Tibetan Activist Who Set Himself on Fire in Manhattan
It was 91 degrees in Manhattan and even hotter on the pavement, but the Tibetans gathered as planned outside the Chinese Consulate. Amid the waving flags and synchronized chants, one of the protesters, Ngawang Tashi, looked for his friend Lobga Rangzen. Lobga Rangzen was a stalwart of events like this. His friends joked that he was happier at protests than on his birthday. At protests, he felt most useful to the cause of Tibetan independence from China — a cause to which he was so devoted, he had even put…
Explained: China’s ‘ethnic unity and progress promotion’ law
It’s called the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress—China’s newest law under President Xi Jinping, passed on March 12, 2026, and in effect since July 1, 2026. The law contains 65 articles, many of which have raised concerns among Tibetans and rights groups. In this explainer, we focus on four key areas of the law that have drawn the most attention: identity, language, religion, and its reach beyond China’s borders. First, it seeks to reshape how ethnic identity is understood in China. The law calls on Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians,…
Tibetan Man Dies After Self-Immolation Protest in New York
A Tibetan activist lit himself on fire and outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday to protest China’s control over his homeland, declaring in a video before his self-immolation that Beijing’s policies were “destroying the Tibetan people.” He later died. Friends of the activist identified him as Lobsang Palden, known as Lobga Rangzen, a 52-year-old resident of Queens. Originally from eastern Tibet, Lobga Rangzen had been an advocate of Tibetan independence for more than a decade. The police said that around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday they…
Tibetan activist dies after setting himself on fire outside UN headquarters
Content warning: This story contains language that readers may find disturbing. A Tibetan activist died Thursday after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in New York. Lobsang Palden, popularly known as Lobga Rangzen, a longtime Tibetan activist based in New York, died at Bellevue Hospital after succumbing to his injuries, Jamphel Choesang, president of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of New York and New Jersey, told Radio Free Asia. The self-immolation comes one day after China’s new ethnic unity law went into effect, with critics warning that…
Tibetan man dies after setting himself on fire outside UN in New York, activists say
Police in New York said a man has died from severe burns near the United Nations headquarters, and activists and a media outlet of exiled Tibetans identified him as a Tibetan who set himself on fire in an appeal for independence. A New York City police department spokesperson said police found the man badly burned after responding to an emergency call made at about 6.30pm ET . He was taken to Bellevue hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said, adding they were still investigating the death. Police did not…
Dalai Lama undergoes left knee surgery in New Delhi
NEW DELHI, India — The Dalai Lama has undergone surgery on his left knee on Monday, his personal physician confirmed. Dr. Tsetan D. Sadutshang, the Tibetan spiritual leader’s longtime personal physician, appeared in a video statement from New Delhi, where the Dalai Lama, 90, is recuperating following the procedure. “Today, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had a very successful knee surgery on his left knee, and his right knee was done in New York in 2024,” Dr. Sadutshang said. “I am here to relay this message to all the…
‘They have built a machine that pulls out their mother tongue’: why Tibet’s children think they are Chinese
Weeks after a Tibetan-speaking five-year-old started preschool, she had “completely stopped speaking Tibetan”, according to her mother. Nine months later, although the child could still understand Tibetan, she only answered in Mandarin, and at best a few single-word answers in Tibetan after some time. Instead the girl “keeps saying that she can only speak Chinese … that she is Chinese and not Tibetan”, according to a researcher who met the family. “The mother thinks that the daughter is just repeating what she is constantly told at school and that the…
China’s rubber-stamp parliament set to approve ‘ethnic unity’ law
China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the state legislature, will vote on Thursday on a suite of new laws agreed at this year’s annual two sessions gathering, including a piece of legislation that will diminish the role of minority ethnic languages in the education system. NPC delegates are expected to approve a new ethnic unity law, along with a new environmental code and the 15th five-year plan, the economic planning document for 2026-2030. Delegates have spent the last week debating Beijing’s proposed bills, which they are all but certain to approve.…