Human Torches of Tibet Our World

suicide. Viewers may find some of the video in this film disturbing.

5th of (MUSIC PLAYS) in monastery scattered across the Indian

Himalayas, Tibetans try to keep alive an ancient religion and

culture. After half a century of exile, and with reports of

increased repression and the violent deaths coming from their

homeland, they are running out of hope for a Free Tibet. The prayers

and music which echo across the hills of dams Sala in northern

India have hardly changed since Buddhism was introduced to to to

get in the 7th century. Insight the monastery, these monks who both

fled to bet a few years ago used the tours of the 21st century to

get the news from back home. They've just been told that another

Tibetan has set fire to himself in despair about the Chinese

occupation of the country. They are told the police through his body

into a truck, he was still raising his arm and shouting, Free Tibet.

He died the next day. Once a year from three different sources, they

send the news to a Tibet Support Group and journalists. TRANSLATION:

Our greatest concern is to protect sources inside Tibet. We are aware

of the risks they take. Since 2008, people have been arrested for being

in touch with us. Four years ago, saw an abrupt downturn in Chinese

treatment of Tibetans. Beijing's Olympic torch was met in every city

on its Junee, London included by demonstrations in support of

freedom for support and the Dalai Lama. A man has tried to grab the

torch. He has been pulled to the ground by police officers. As an

use of the demonstrations reached the rooftop of the world, Tibetans

rose up against brawlers. And the protest spread from Lassa in the

Tibetan autonomous region to the millions of Tibetans who live in

other provinces in China. It was here that the most brutal

crackdowns took place. Locals claim that dozens were killed and

hundreds arrested. Numbers which we cannot verify because the area was

the end and is now forbidden to journalists. A monk who has since

fled China was there at the time. TRANSLATION: Since 2008 and the

crackdown, young Tibetans have become politically aware. All those

monks who made themselves into human torches are my age. They are

18 years old. We saw the suffering of our people in 2,000. A day. We

watched his monks were taken away to prison for up to 18 years. We

saw bodies piled up in court yards of the monasteries. As children, we

learnt what injustice means. Monks from this monastery, the largest

and most refined monastery in the area led the protest in 2008. Here

at the twin monastery in India, fellow monks anxiously look for the

faces of those killing themselves today. They have been more self-

inhalations than anywhere else. -- self-immolation. This is the head

of the monastery here in India and China. TRANSLATION: The recent

suicides express the pain not just of the monks but the entire Tibetan

people. It was Chairman Mao who once said, when there is repression,

the people will revolt. This is the Tibetan way of revolt. Since 2008,

hundreds of monks have been arrested, religious services

disrupted, they have hung posters of Chairman Mao next to the border.

If the Chinese continue like this, the suicides will continue. We are

about to show disturbing images of some of these suicides which

tightens have smuggled out of the area at great personal risk. --

Tibetans. Their 20-year-old man set fire to herself on a street in

October. She was the 10th to do so. Since they began a year ago, there

have been more than 30 suicides most of them a monks and nuns. They

swallow kerosene first and cover themselves with barbed wire to

prevent anyone stopping them from burning to death. They if you may

have survived, no-one is sure. -- a few. TRANSLATION: I was shopping

when suddenly two monks ran down the street in flames. One was

holding a Tibetan flag. One shouted, we want freedom for Tibet and the

return of the Dalai Lama. After a few minutes, police and soldiers

arrived. They put out the flames and put the monks in the back of an

army truck. We were told they were treated at hospital but none has

been allowed to visit them. We do not know if they are alive or dead.

I found this monk amongst the latest arrivals from to bet at this

reception centre in daily. They were exhausted but relieved. Some

of them had walked 18 days across the Himalayas to get here. A few

years ago, several thousand Tibetans fled to India every year.

Now they tell me more want to escape, but with tighten security,

only a few hundred succeeded. He does not want to be identified

because he still has family in China. TRANSLATION: There are three

military camps surrounding the monastery and plainclothes police

everywhere. Checkpoints on every row, Internet cafes have been close

and so have the public telephone Office. It is as if we have been

shut in a room and the Chinese lock the door. They won the Dalai Lama

to return to Tibet. He has been living in India since he fled

Chinese rule 50 years ago. At 76, he has announced his retirement as

a political leader. He is leaving their role to a Prime Minister in

the government in exile. He retains his role as spiritual leader of 5

million Tibetans. He has remained strangely quiet on the subject of

the suicides. There is a spiritual leader, there is some surprise you

have not come across more strongly to condemn what they are doing?

This is very sensitive political issue. If I get involved that, then

retirement from political power is meaningless. You cannot say

anything? What do I say? To the Chinese government. As far as the

government is concerned, they are hardened. They do not understand

what is the Tibetan feeling. Children sing of a Tibet they have

never seen. A third generation is being born in India to where their

parents and grandparents fled to be close to the Dalai Lama and four

children to be taught about the language, religion and culture. He

has little opportunity for that inside Tibet. -- There is. Older

children who have arrived more recently as the late the lack of

freedom of expression in Tibet which makes young children take

desperate action. We used to help the older ladies and bring the

water. This teenager was a friend of an 18-year-old who died last

November. He has no opportunity to express what the Chinese are doing

and Tibet. If we say something you will go to prison or be killed. If

he writes something, his writings will go nowhere. They will be

confiscated. It will make trouble for the family. Why have made him

kill himself? It is the only option may have, whether it is good or not.

When he was on fire, the police caught him and beat him. The police

are demanding compensation for Some 150,000 Tibetans have fled to

join the Dalai Lama in India. They seldom question his policy of non-

violence and the middle way. That is to abandon any claim to restore

an independent to bed but to appeal to Chinese goodwill to grant them a

real autonomy within China. Repeated meetings between his

representatives and successive Chinese governments have come to

nothing. We want some understanding with the Chinese government an

improvement with Tibet. They are narrow-minded authoritarian type of

people. They never listen. Chinese are listening. The Dalai

Lama moves around even here at home with armed protection. His support

team claimed the Chinese are using electronic weapons of the 21st

century to get at the leader they accuse of being a split test. Of

wanting to separate Tibet from the motherlaermine

any attempt by the Tibetans to seek help from the international

community. If the Dalai Lama had requested a meeting with Barack

Obama or David Cameron, the Chinese would intervene to stop it. That is

what has happened in the past. We have noticed any number of strange

coincidences. They have intercepted e-mails. The threat that keeps me

awake at night is more to do with ordinary Tibetan people who might

return to Tibet and are caught up in events will be on the borders of

China and Tibet. Another attack begins. Conflict between China and

Tibet goes back centuries. The Chinese just survived the most

racing invasion in 1950 by claiming they were liberating from a feudal

theocracy. -- justified the most recent innovation. The Dalai Lama

admits there was a lot that was wrong with to bed at the time. As a

young man he was committed to reform but he never got the chance.

-- Tibet. In 1959 the Tibetans rose up against Chinese rule. His life

was deemed to be at risk and he fled to India. He has promoted the

idea of a government in exile Withe and unelected parliament and Prime

Minister. -- with an unelected. Such a prospect has never looked

more remote. As one MP says, the self-immolation of one young man in

Tunisia in 2011 set off a chain of revolutions in the Middle East

supported by the international community. They point out that more

than 30 in Tibet during the same period have been largely ignored.

We really appealed to the international community,

particularly the general secretary of the United Nations to send a

fact-finding mission to the ground and find out what is going on.

is a grim situation. The Chinese leaders ought to rationalise and

realise if they really want to be a respected rising power in the world,

they ought to demonstrate respect to the Tibetan people. It is a two

way process. Until the respect Tibetans, others will not respect

you. They might feel you, but they will not respect you. -- fear.

Chinese show no inclination to reopen negotiations or show respect

to Tibetan leaders in exile. Only the Dalai Lama remains the eternal

optimist, still believing they will change. Any sensible leader will

not continue this blind destruction policy. This I am quite sure. In 5-

10 years, I think things would change. I am sure. In the 20 years

I have been coming here and interviewing the Dalai Lama, he has

never given up hope. Among the ordinary people, I have never

before come across such despair. I have not come across so many who

are now prepared to criticise their spiritual leader. Even those the

Dalai Lama's age, demonstrating with those taking desperate

measures in Tibet. I question the current position of His Holiness.

Not to face reality and forcing Tibetans... After trying peaceful

means for the last 53 years, many might say in desperation we should

opt for violence. Tibetan activist Tenzin Chokey monitors the latest

pictures coming out of the Tibetan region of the star she points out

the demonstrations after each self- immolation a growing. -- region.

There were more than 8,000. We do not know if it was that number, but

it was a lot. There were Hallam at -- paramilitary who came there.

When they saw the huge presence of Tibetans they chose to withdraw.

anger increases so does the daring of people's demands. The people

have spoken. They are calling for freedom. We are very scared, it has

been a non-violent message until now. But we do not know when it

will spiral out of control. That evening news of another self-

immolation reaches of Dharamsala. It used to be the Dalai Lama and

his team in exile who gave the direction in which his people

should go. Now Tibetans into bets are asserting themselves. -- in

Tibet. What else can they do? It is 53 years since the Dalai Lama fled

Tibet. People think that are further away than ever to a