Contact is taking a holiday!

Tsewang Norbu

Tsewang Norbu, 25, a popular contemporary Tibetan singer who attempted self-immolation in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa on February 25, has died, reports Radio Free Asia. Their initial report said that his attempt was thwarted by police, however their update has confirmed his deathal though there are no details of where, and the exact date. Norbu becomes the 158th Tibetan who has died by self-immolation in protest against the Chinese government’s rule of Tibet.

Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, is one of the most restricted regions within Tibet, with heavy police presence and no access for international visitors and journalists without a Chinese permit. The Potala Palace, the former winter residence of the lineages of the Dalai Lamas until the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, is one of the most sacred places for pilgrimate in Tibet and has also become a tourist destination as a museum and world heritage site. The Potala Palace and its surrounding area is subject to heavily surveillance with both police presence and online cameras.

Tsewang Norbu shouted slogans as he attempted to set himself alight and timed his protest to coincide with the runup to March 10, Tibetan Uprising Day. The initial reports said that the singer’s attempted self-immolation in front of the Potala Palace was immediately thwarted by police whoremoved him from the spot and blockaded the surrounding streets, deploying extra soldiers.

Tsewang Norbu was a multi-genre singer and composer within Tibet and abroad; he participated in Chinese national level reality singing competitions. His hit songs include Tsampa, Dress Up and Except You.

Owing to the strict restrictions on communication imposed by the Chinese, there are very limited exchanges of information between Tibetans living in Tibet and those in exile, so that apart from his career as a singer, there are no details about Tsewang Norbu’s family or their reaction to his death.

According to the Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) Human Rights desk, Norbu was son of “a popular and award winning female singer, Sonam Wangmo who was later recruited to Chinese government’s ‘Song and Dance Troupe’.” Their report further confirmed that the last known self-immolation protest before Norbu’s was Yonten, aged around 24, from Ngaba, Tibet’s traditional province of Amdo on November26, 2019.

Tibetans in Dharamshala, the seat of CTA, which is also known as Tibetan Government-in-exile, mourned the death of the singer and expressed solidarity with his suffering with prayers and a candle-lit vigil in the streets of McLeod Ganj.