World Tibet Network News Saturday, May 2, 1998

A Tibetan mourner, in New Delhi Friday May 1, 1998 , places a sacred scarf on a makeshift memorial with a portrait of Thupten Ngodup, a former monk who died of self-immolation while protesting the decades-long rule of Tibet by China. Thousands gathered in the mountainous area of Dharmsala for Ngodup's funeral. The memorial was set up on the site where Ngodup set himself on fire. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar)

DHARMSALA, India, May 1, 1998 (AP) More than 5,000 Tibetan protesters turned the funeral of a former monk who died after self-immolation into a rally Friday against China's rule over their Himalayan homeland.

Traffic halted for two hours as a slow, somber procession accompanied Thupten Ngodup's body from a temple in Dharmsala to the cremation site. Mourners chanted slogans against China and the police, and appealed to the international community for help.

Some mourners shouted "Shame, shame, United Nations!'' to protest the U.N.'s refusal to reopen a debate on China's occupation of Tibet.

Ngodup, 50, died Wednesday, two days after he intentionally set himself alight in New Delhi when Indian police forcibly ended a six-week hunger strike by other pro-independence Tibetans.

Five new Tibetans replaced the six fasting protesters who were hospitalized against their will. Ngodup was to have been among the replacement group.

"China should free Tibet because it is our right,'' said Yang Chek Sekh Dolker, a spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress.

Friday's demonstration came a day after the Dalai Lama the religious and spiritual leader for many Tibetans worldwide warned while visiting the United States that other Tibetans might try desperate forms of protest to wrest their homeland from 48 years of Chinese rule.

After the funeral, demonstrators gathered at Dharmsala's town square and demanded a plebiscite in Tibet. One young man stood in the middle of the square and carved the words "Free Tibet'' on his chest with a knife.

Dharmsala, 250 miles north of New Delhi, has been the home of the Dalai Lama since he fled Tibet in 1959 during an abortive anti-China uprising. Ngodup also came to India the same year and worked for the Dalai Lama's administration.

The Dalai Lama visited Ngodup in a New Delhi hospital the day before he died, saying he admired his determination. But he did not condone the self-immolation and hunger strikes, which violate the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of nonviolence.

The hunger strikers vowed to fast until the U.N. General Assembly reopens debate on China's 1959 annexation of Tibet. They also demand that the United Nations appoint a human rights observer for Tibet and supervise a referendum on whether Tibetans want independence, greater autonomy or some other option.