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Pegyal is the 146th Tibetan to self-immolate and the first reported in 2017. This is the second self-immolation from the region – Nyarong. The 24-year-old bachelor was the sole breadwinner of his family of six in Tibet. Within minutes the police of the communist regime arrived and took away the charred body, so that the news does not spread or catch the attention of people. Here’s a report by Eswar, in the regular column, exclusively for Different Truths.
On March 18, 2017, when the world was getting ready making weekend plans, in the roof of the world, Tibet, a 24-year-old young man sacrificed his life – for his nation.
Pema Gyaltsen (Pegyal) self-immolated at around 4 pm local time near the Tsoga monastery in the Kham region of Tibet.
Just like the hundreds, who did the ultimate sacrifice of their lives before, he too called for the return of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama to Tibet and for the country’s freedom. Within minutes the police of the communist regime arrived and took away the charred body, so that the news does not spread or catch the attention of people.
Pegyal was a bachelor, a farmer and lone breadwinner for his family of six.
It’s cruel and inhumane that the relatives were not allowed to see the mortal remains of Pegyal and even worse they were beaten up and detained and forced them to stand the whole night.
They have snatched away their land, their rights, their dignity their speech, their freedom and now even their death. Communication through popular messaging system was blocked in the region making sure there was no inward or outward communication.
Pegyal is the 146th Tibetan to self-immolate and the first reported in 2017. This is the second self-immolation from the region – Nyarong, the first was an 18 year-old-monk, Kalsang Wangdue, who self-immolated, on February 29, last year. The day is a sad one because on the same day a 15-year-old student Dorjee Tsering self-immolated in our country.
We have a country to call ours, a nation that welcomes with open hands people from all over the world, a 
nation we are free to live, free to express. My heart goes to the people who have lost their nation to ‘liberation’. Living life in their nation by being pushed aside and their farms, livestock, land stolen. My heart goes to the people who are forced to leave their traditional lives and are forced to build roads and beg in the streets, the very streets which should belong to them.
This is something one needs to look deep into. The three cases of self-immolation mentioned above are young men who are yet to live a life. What they know about their country is hushed talks at home, because the glorious past is not allowed to be discussed in public. Probably they have not even seen photographs of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, because the draconian forces made sure that no photographs of His Holiness is kept at home or in public. Probably they know more Chinese than Tibetan because the history is re-written in schools to 
brainwash the generation. Even after all this, they still sacrifice for their nation. This shows that they are leading a life in a place where atrocities and public censure is to the maximum.
Whenever I hear about the gratification of development support provided by the Chinese regime to other nations, what comes to my mind is the source of such wealth and economic power. When the whole world is walking towards freedom and independence, we have a ‘powerful giant’ of a regime still keeping under its tight leash many nations which do not belong to them, and they are not ashamed to call those nations part of their ‘motherland’. But it’s even more shameful when the world nations support such claim, even though its people do not.
It’s time we open our eyes, it’s time we start thinking how the roof of the world can be made free because it’s not long before when there will be no roof.
©Eswar Anandan
Photos sourced by the author.
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