His Slogans: not reported
Name: Rongtsa Tenzing Phuntsok
Age: 46
Sex: Male
Profession: Former monk at Karma Gon Monastery in Chamdo township
Date of Self-Immolation: 1 December 2011
Location: Chamdo, Kham, Tibet
Current whereabouts/wellbeing:
Deceased Slogans: Not reported Tenzing self-immolated in Chamdo and was hospitalized in Chamdo Hospital with fatal injuries. Sources report that Chamdo Township in Tibet Autonomous Region was then under lockdown and intensive military surveillance following rumours of a bomb blast at a local government building on 26 October 2011. Tenzing Phuntsok reportedly died on 6 December 2011 and, according to exile sources, even three days after his death his family members had not been given his body to conduct the final Buddhist rituals. Phuntsok’s wife, Dolma, went missing after the police detained her following Phuntsok’s self-immolation. There is no information on Dolma’s wellbeing and whereabouts. She is left with two sons and a daughter.
On 8 December, exile Tibetans received a document including a will left by Tenzing Phuntsok in which he wrote: “If Khenpo Lodoe Rapsel, Namsey Sonam and all the monks and nuns of Karma Gon Monastery, the true and unmistakable practitioners of Buddhist dharma, have to endure torture and imprisonment like this, then it is better for all of us at Karma Gon Monastery to die. I, the despicable Tenzin Phuntsok, write this with loyalty. “Brothers and sisters, don’t be sad and don’t lose your courage. My Dharma friends, think about our two khenpos and the monks and nuns who are holders of the Dharma practice. How can we believe in these rules that restrict the freedom of religion? I, Tenzin Phuntsok, wrote this. Dharma friends in Karma Gon Monastery, it is useless just to live thinking about our beloved khenpos and the monks and nuns. Stand up! Clinging to the taste of the eight worldly concerns, beings run away from these as they would from their enemies, I bow before the Buddha, who cannot be placated by small pleasures. I, the sorrow-filled, loathsome man called Tenzin Phuntsok wrote this. “When I think about the suffering throughout Tibet, and especially the pain at Karma Gon Monastery, there is no way that I can go on living.”
(Translated from Tibetan by Bhuchung D.Sonam)