A woman in her thirties named as Manga made a bold solo protest on March 1, marching down the main street of the town of Me’uruma in Ngaba holding up a photograph of the Dalai Lama, according to exile monks from Kirti monastery.
Manga was immediately detained and taken away by police and her current situation is not known. In 2008, according to the same sources, Manga was detained for eight months and severely beaten after arguing with officials who came to compel every household in the village to fly the Chinese flag. The incident led to an increased deployment of armed forces in the Me’uruma pastoral area in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous County in Sichuan (the Tibetan area of Amdo).
According to the same sources, “Internet service has been suspended in Ngaba county since September 10 last year, with the exception of government offices. The owners of businesses and restaurants and so on have appealed to the authorities to restore them, but this appeal has been ignored.”
The protest is the latest in a number of lone protests in Tibetan areas where self-immolations have previously been prevalent. On December 19 (2015), a young man called Tashi Dhondup carried a photo of the Dalai Lama and wore a Buddhist flag on his back while walking along a road in Dzoege, Ngaba; his whereabouts is still unknown.
The one-person demonstrations are a new trend in the Ngaba area of Amdo, in Sichuan province, the same area where the wave of self-immolations began in 2009 when Kirti monk Tapey set himself on fire. There have also been a number of solo protests in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi), also in Sichuan province, where a number of self-immolations have occurred, demonstrating the continued determination of a young generation of monks and lay people to make strong statements of loyalty to the Dalai Lama.[1]
Footnote:
[1] ICT report, ‘New solo protest by young man in Ngaba is part of emerging trend’, December 21, 2015,
https://www.https://savetibet.org/new-solo-protest-by-young-man-in-ngaba-is-part-of-emerging-trend/