Loss of life
Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture boasts 121 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, the most renowned being Labrang Monastery, one of the six great temples of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Hezuo Monastery, a Geluk monastery founded in 1673, has 147 monks.
On the morning of Jan 12 (Dec 1 in the Chinese lunar calendar) a phalanx of more than 40 monks from Hezuo Monastery were rehearsing a religious dance for a grand Buddhist ceremony scheduled for the 14th day of the lunar January (Feb 23.) Their chanting broke the morning silence.
It was a Saturday. Children in the neighborhood came in twos and threes to play in the monastery. At the sight of the sutra hall, they went in and knelt down to worship.
Believers - Tibetans and Han people alike - circled the white tower erected near the monastery, chanting prayers. Their bicycles and scooters were parked nearby.
There were no traces of the fire that cost a Tibetan woman her life about six months earlier.
On Aug 7, 2012, Trakhutso, 26, enveloped in flames, rolled on the hillside northwest of the white tower, murmuring, "Let me die. Let me die."
The fire was put out by another Tibetan woman, who had been circling the tower.
Soon after, a monk from Hezuo Monastery named Chophel arrived at the site. He took pictures of Trakhutso and with the help of some other monks, carried her to the office of the monastery's management committee.
He neither called the police nor sent the injured, but still living, woman to the hospital, thus delaying Trakhutso's treatment.
According to Chophel's police confession, he used his mobile phone to transmit four pictures of the self-immolator, her name and those of her parents and "her statements about the return of the Dalai Lama and the freedom of Tibetans" to people abroad.
The four pictures were exactly what some foreign media used in their reports of the incident.
Chophel has since been arrested on suspicion of intentional homicide.
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