Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen (real name Lobsang Palden), 52, died after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday evening, protesting Chinese rule over Tibet. According to his friends and human rights organizations, the act was a political protest against Beijing’s policies toward Tibetans.
The New York Police Department said it received a call at around 6:30 p.m. about a man who had suffered severe burns at the corner of East 42nd Street and First Avenue, next to the UN building. The injured man was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he later died.
According to footage that the activist livestreamed on his Facebook account, Lobga Rangzen approached the area in front of the UN headquarters carrying a large Tibetan flag, placed the flag on the ground, then poured a flammable liquid over himself and set himself on fire. While engulfed in flames, he walked into the street before collapsing. The video was later removed from the social media platform.
In another video message published the same day, he called on Tibetans in exile to unite and intensify the struggle for Tibet’s independence, emphasizing that his planned protest had no personal motives.
“If I do something significant today, I want you to know that it is not for personal reasons. It is not because I have nothing to eat or wear, but because I am doing this for my country. For the Tibetan nation,” he said in the message.
His protest came a day after a new law on “ethnic unity” took effect in China, requiring Mandarin Chinese to be the primary language of instruction in schools, along with other measures aimed at strengthening the assimilation of minorities, including Tibetans and Uyghurs.
Since 2009, more than 150 cases of self-immolation by Tibetans have been recorded in China as protests against Chinese policy in Tibet. Authorities in Beijing have tightened security control over the region, strictly monitoring Buddhist monasteries and monks, while at the same time giving priority to Mandarin-language education over Tibetan.
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated as early as 2012 that the suppression of Tibetans’ rights had driven people to “desperate forms of protest,” calling on the Chinese authorities to allow the peaceful expression of views without repression.
🇺🇸🇨🇳: Tibetan Activist Lobga Rangzen Dies After Self-Immolation Outside UN Headquarters in Protest Against Chinese Rule
— World In Last 24hr (@world24x7hr) July 3, 2026
Tibetan activist Lobga Rangzen died on July 2, 2026, after self-immolating outside the UN headquarters in New York in protest against China's rule in Tibet.… pic.twitter.com/M7ALlVIwIR
At the same time, the self-immolations have also divided Tibetans themselves. Many have questioned how such acts align with Buddhist teachings, while the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, has said that the religious issues surrounding such protests are “very, very complex.”
According to Tenzin Dorjee of the Tibet Action Institute, this is the first known case of a Tibetan activist self-immolating in the United States. He said Lobga Rangzen had for years been one of the most active members of the Tibetan community in New York.
“He attended every protest we organized. For him, there was no greater value in life than the national liberation of Tibet,” Dorjee said.
Friends say Lobga Rangzen was born in the Kham region of eastern Tibet, fled into exile in the 1980s, studied at a Tibetan monastery in India, and later moved to the United States, where he worked in construction and later as a taxi driver. According to them, his brother had been imprisoned in China.
Later that evening, hundreds of people gathered outside the UN headquarters to pay tribute to him. Writer Jamyang Norbu described him as a man who was always helping others.
“He was witty and generous,” Norbu said, adding that through his final act he wanted to call on Tibetans to unite in the struggle for independence. According to Norbu, Lobga Rangzen’s message was that “without the struggle for Tibet’s full independence, there is no hope.”
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Source: Nova.rs; Foto: Printscreen X