The niece was watching the World Cup on TV in Queens when she heard from a friend that her uncle had "burned himself" in front of the United Nations in Manhattan.Tenzin Choekyi, 21, at first imagined a minor accident, but then came the details "and a wave of absolute terror hit me."Rangzen, a longtime Tibetan activist aged 52, had set himself ablaze -- and died.The shocking incident barely registered in the US news, dominated that balmy July 2 night by the wedding of pop superstar Taylor Swift at Madison Square Garden on the other side of Manhattan.But Rangzen’s fellow exiled Tibetans, who have struggled to win international attention for their opposition to Chinese communist rule, greeted his passing with anguish -- and respect.
A month after his death, a rally for Tibetan independence and a vigil for Lobga Rangzen was held at Times Square in New York © Angelina Katsanis / AFP/File
They swiftly erected a makeshift shrine at the scene of his "self-immolation," heaped with flowers and ceremonial white "khata" scarves. It has become a rallying point for Tibetan activists, below the turquoise-windowed facade of the UN."His passing has left many of us Tibetans with the fervor to act," said Jampa Choedup, a monk who had known Rangzen since 1997 and saw him the day before his death.History of self-sacrificeRangzen was emulating the 170 monks and others who have set themselves on fire between 2009 and 2022 -- mostly in China, but also in India and Nepal -- in a last-resort protest after a bloody crackdown on mass demonstrations in Tibet in 2008. Beijing, which considers Tibet an inalienable part of its territory, has only tightened its control since. On the eve of Rangzen's death, it adopted an "ethnic unity" law that critics say will further degrade minority rights."It wasn't something he did abruptly," said Jigme Ugen, president of the exiled Tibetan National Congress, where Rangzen led the New York and New Jersey chapter and was a mainstay at protests at the UN and Chinese consulate. "He clearly prepared himself."
