The Tibetan New Yorker who set himself on fire outside the United Nations to protest the Chinese occupation of his native home livestreamed his death, officials said Saturday.
Lobga Rangzen also recorded a six-minute appeal for Tibet’s freedom and independence in his native language before putting on traditional monastic robes and walking to 42nd St and First Ave. around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
“So if I do a big action today, I want you to know it is not for any personal reason,” he said in the video. “It is not because I have nothing to eat or nothing to wear, but because I am doing this for my country. For the Tibetan nation.”
Outside the U.N. he put his phone down on the street and recorded his self-immolation.
The extremely graphic video posted online shows Rangzen walking to a spot on the street carrying a Tibetan flag. A moment later, his entire body erupts in flames.
Fliers reading “China out of Tibet” in his hands catch fire as they’re tossed onto the street.
Rangzen appears to flail and takes several steps as the fire consumes him. He stays on his feet for more than 30 seconds before he collapses, the footage shows.
EMS rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
Advocates said Rangzen, 52, was a Tibetan native who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago. He lived in Queens and worked as an Uber driver, friends said.
A U.N. spokesman said the incident happened after all scheduled meetings were finished for the day. No U.N. operations were affected, he said.
Hours after his death, dozens of Tibetans protested his death outside the U.N. A close friend of Rangzen, who would only identify herself as Tashi, held up a piece of his burned clothing as she demanded change in her native country.
“How many more self-immolations will it take before the United Nations take action,” she asked.
Rangzen’s death came a day after China began enforcing the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law in Tibet. The law creates a “shared national identity” among China’s 55 ethnic minority group and gives Beijing the legal basis to take action against them.
“(The legislation) further entrenches the state’s assimilation campaign under the guise of ‘ethnic unity,’” the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said Saturday as they mourned Rangzen’s death.
China says Tibet has been part of its territory for more than seven centuries, and its Communist Party has governed the Himalayan region since 1951. But many Tibetans say they were essentially independent for most of their history and have protested what they regard as Beijing’s heavy-handed rule.
China does not recognize Tibet’s government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration, and it has not held dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representatives since 2010.
There have been more than 150 self-immolations by Tibetans between 2009 and 2022, according to the International Campaign for Tibet.