(TibetanReview.net, Aug21’26) – Prayer services as well as peace and protest marches have been held by Tibetan communities and supporters across the free world Over Aug 19-20, marking the end of the seven weeks since Lobsang Palden, better known by his independence-activist name Lobga Rangzen, carried out his protest self-immolation in front of the UN Headquarters in New York city and succumbed to his injuries on Jul 2. The events highlighted China’s current move to forcibly assimilate the Tibetan and other “ethnic minority” peoples through its recently implemented Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, which Lobga Rangzen had highlighted in his last message, with a call for Tibetan unity to fight for independence.
The 49th day is significant in the Tibetan Buddhist funerary service as the day by which a deceased person is believed to have left their intermediate state for their rebirth. Enlightened beings are believed to determine their own rebirth, although China has sought to upend this by requiring reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist leaders to be determined only by its atheist leaders’ choices, opening every possibility for making of wrong choices.
In Dharamshala, the exile Tibetan headquarters, the Kashag (cabinet) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile jointly organized a prayer service in the Tsuglakhang, the main Buddhist temple in the area, followed by a peace march from there to the downtown Police Ground, both of which reportedly saw participation by over 5,000 Tibetans. Top exile Tibetan leaders led both those events.
On the same day, the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), which campaigns for Tibet’s independence, concluded a 33-day relay hunger-strike near the gate of the Tsuglakhang, with the campaign action scheduled to be continued in front of the UN Headquarters in New york City from the following day. The day also saw a Regional TYC group, with 13 participants, from the Tibetan settlement in Poanta Sahib conclude a 360-km bicycle rally in honour of and to pay tribute to Lobga Rangzen for his ultimate sacrifice. The rally was given a rousing reception.
The Kashag was also stated to have dispatched instructions to all Tibetan Settlement Offices and Offices of Tibet to organise similar prayer services in their respective regions, ensuring that Tibetans across the world could collectively remember and honour those who had made the ultimate sacrifice for Tibet.
Protests were also held in several Indian cities, including New Delhi, Kolkata, Dharamshala, Chennai and Bengaluru, among other centres, with many of the events being addressed by Indian leaders and supporters.
* * *
“Today marks the 49th day since he passed away. It is the final prayer for him and a day to reaffirm our struggle for freedom against China,” chosun.com Aug 20 quoted a Tibetan attending the “Lobga Rangzen 49th-Day Memorial Service” in New York City as saying. The report cited organizers as saying nearly 1,000 Tibetans from across North America, including New York, New Jersey, Canada, and Europe, had visited the site of Lobga Rangzen’s self-immolation.
Colourful flowers and hundreds of candles surrounded an altar set up at the site, with Tibetan monks in maroon robes seated behind them. The low chanting of Buddhist scriptures echoed through Manhattan’s city centre. Above their heads, the Tibetan snow lion flag fluttered in the wind alongside the US flag, the report noted.
It said participants sat on the ground, listening to the monks’ prayers or holding placards reading “FREE TIBET.” Next to the memorial space, large banners displayed images of Rangzen engulfed in flames alongside slogans: “UN, Do Not Turn Away,” “Lobga Rangzen’s Last Wish,” and “Freedom for Tibet, China Out.”
“We hope the international community, including the UN, will support the Tibetan people’s struggle for freedom,” the report quoted a participant handing out leaflets as saying.
On Aug 19, family members of Lobga Rangzen, joined by TYC leaders, met with the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Riley Barnes “to brief the US government on his sacrifice, his final message, and the circumstances surrounding his death.” The meeting provided an opportunity for Lobga’s family to share their concerns and to urge continued US attention to the human rights situation in Tibet and the issues that motivated his final act, the ANI report Aug 20 cited them as saying.
* * *
In the Swiss city of Geneva, which hosts the UN Human Rights Council headed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 1,000 Tibetans and supporters from across Europe commemorate the occasion on Aug 19. The event featured a large-scale prayer gathering and demonstration, which began with a march from the Palais Wilson to the United Nations Office, culminating near the Broken Chair, a longstanding symbol of opposition to landmines and violence.
Later in the evening, the participants gathered at the same location to hold a candlelight prayer ceremony in remembrance of Lobga Rangzen and his sacrifice, said the office of Tibet, Geneva, in a Tibet.net report Aug 21.
The report said the commemoration brought together Tibetan communities and organisations from Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Austria, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom, alongside the Swiss Tibetan Women’s Association, the Gesellschaft Schweizerisch-Tibetische Freundschaft (GSTF), the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (TYAE), and V-TAG.
Tibetan community leaders from across Europe have addressed the gathering. Others who gave addresses were stated to include Cédric Jeanneret, Member of the Grand Council of Geneva (the parliament and law-making body for the Republic and Canton of Geneva), and Merce, Secretary of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization). Ms Thinlay Chukki, Representative at the Tibet Bureau Geneva, has also spoken.
* * *
In the EU capital Brussels, a Prayer service was held for Lobga Rangzen at Nalanda Monastery, which was followed by a peace march at the Place de l’Albertine – the showcase square created for the Universal Exposition held in Brussels in 1910 – organised by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC), Belgium.
* * *
In Australia’s capital Canberra, The Office of Tibet of the CTA and the Australia Tibet Council (ATC) – led by Representative Karma Singey and ATC Executive Officer Dr Zoe Bedford – met with a bipartisan group of Australian lawmakers – including MPs Steve Georganas and Andrew Wallace and Senators Nick McKim and Steph Hodgins-May – to raise serious concerns over China’s new Ethnic Unity Law and its serious implications for Tibetans. They pointed out that activist Lobga Rangzen self-immolated a day after this law came into effect.
As at numerous other protest locations, some 40 Tibetans – both men and women – clean-shaved their heads on the lawns of the Parliament House and in front of the Chinese Embassy to protest Beijing’s escalating foreign interference and honour a fallen activist, noted miragenews.com Aug 20.
“The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will be at the UN in New York next month, we expect them to raise Tibet,” Dr Zoȅ Bedford, Executive Officer of the Australia Tibet Council, has said. “This is cultural genocide carried out under a false banner of ethnic unity.”
The report said approximately 300 Tibetan community members from Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle, Campbelltown, Blue Mountains and the South Coast (Nowra) travelled to Canberra to send a direct message to the Federal Government.
Members of the Uyghur, Mongolian and pro-democracy Chinese communities have joined many of those events to express their solidarity with the Tibetan people and in recognition of the sacrifice of martyr Lobsang Palden.