Published online May 31, 2012 by Radio Free Asia.
Please read the full article here.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translations by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Chinese authorities had threatened to seize the Tibetan self-immolator’s body.
Some 5,000 Tibetan monks and area residents in a Tibetan-populated county in China’s Sichuan province turned out in a heavy rain Wednesday night to honor the latest self-immolation protester to die challenging Chinese rule, according to an exile Tibetan source.
Chinese authorities forced the residents to hold the funeral of Rikyo, a 33-year-old mother of three who set herself ablaze on Wednesday, on the same day, warning that they would seize her body if the order was not obeyed.
Rikyo self-immolated near a monastery in Dzamthang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county in the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan prefecture, bringing to 38 the number of burnings so far by Tibetans challenging rule by Beijing and calling for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.