Contact is taking a holiday!

Contact is taking a break after 25 years of bringing you news of Tibet and Tibetan issues. We are celebrating our 25 years by bringing you the story of Contact and the people who have made it happen, and our archive is still there for you to access at any time, and below you can read the story of Contact, how it came into being and the wonderful reflections of the people who have made it happen over the years.

When and how Contact will re-emerge and evolve will be determined by those who become involved.

Kalsang Yeshe

December 23, 2014;

Kalsang Yeshe, 38, a well respected Tibetan monk, set himself on fire at 11.20 am local time outside the Tawu Nyitso monastery in Kardze in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Tawu county. Tibetans nearby rushed to prevent him being taken away but police dispersed the crowd by firing warning shots and took Yeshe for medical treatment at Dartsedo hospital, but he died on the way. Later, Yeshe’s family tried to retrieve his body from authorities to bury him according to traditional Tibetan rites, but they were told that the monk had been cremated and his ashes discarded in a river in Dartsedo, although it has been since reported that the ashes have been returned the family. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “He self-immolated in protest against Chinese policies in Tibet and called for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet.” Yeshe, a resident of Thewa village in Tawu county’s Kunor township, had studied at the Ganden Jangtse monastery in South India before returning to Tibet where he began a campaign against illiteracy among the elderly and taught Buddhism and the Tibetan language. At the time of his self-immolation, Yeshe was holding a Tibetan flag, and it was later discovered that he had placed a ceremonial scarf underneath the image of the Dalai Lama in his room with a caption reading “The six million Tibetans are waiting for you.”

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