The Dalia Lama has blamed Beijing’s repressive policies for monks and nuns committing suicide.
Eleven young Tibetans set themselves on fire this year in protest against controversial rules in China.
The spiritual leader said that hard-line officials, whose policies include a crackdown on monastries and the Tibetan language, had created a “desperate” situation.
He said, “Chinese communist propaganda create (a) very rosy picture, but actually, including many Chinese from mainland China who visit Tibet, they all have the impression (that) things are terrible”
“Some kind of policy, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place”
The most recent suicide saw a nun in Dawn county die after setting herself on fire.
Most of these incidents have taken place in the Aba county, near the Tibetan Kirti monastery.
Nine monks and two nuns are reported to have set themselves in fire in Sichuan province this year.
“(In the) last 10, 15 years, there were some kind of hard-liner Chinese officials,” the Dalai Lama said. “So that’s why you see these sad incidents have happened due to (this) desperate sort of situation.”
China had introduced a policy to reduce the number of religious institutions.
The Tibetan government in-exile has asked the international community to urge Beijing to review its policies in Tibet, as well as Tibetan regions of western China.
However, China has blamed the Dalai Lama for the sucides, suggesting that they were “masterminded and instigated by (his) clique”.
“Not condemning self-immolations but playing them up and inciting others to follow examples is challenging the common conscience and moral bottom line of human kind,” Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told the BBC.
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