Spark for self-immolation unwilling to do the same

Family shattered by self-immolation

"Life is better than before, but he is gone. Every dinner I am heart broken, because I miss him," said Palho, father of the 19-year-old Jokba.

"I don't know if he is a hero. For me, my heart is broken," Palho said, unable to hold back his tears.

"I am already 60 years old. I thought I could depend on him for the rest of my life," he said of his youngest son.

Jokba had no schooling. He had gone to the mountains with his father to forage for herbs since he was six years old. He got along well with his peers, and he was not a bad guy, Palho said.

Jokba told Lorang Tsering in March this year that he was interested in self-immolation and asked him if he could help to send his personal information overseas. Lorang Tsering said his uncle, Lorang Konchok, could help.

On August 9, Lorang Tsering encouraged Jokba to carry out the self-immolation sooner. He called his uncle in Jokba's presence, asking Lorang Konchok to help bring attention to Jokba overseas.

On the same afternoon, Jokba met Lorang Konchok in the Kirti Monastery. Lorang Konchok promised he could spread propaganda overseas. He wrote down Jokba's personal information, family background and took photos of Jokba with his cell phone.

Jokba burned himself to death the next day.

His father never knew his plan of self-immolation. "I hate the instigators," said Palho.

Khobi also could not figure out how his grandson Gepal could kill himself in such a cruel way on March 10.

"Nobody wants their sons to self-immolate. I don't know what problems they have," said Khobi.

"His parents have not made troubles for him. They have good clothing and food, how could they end their lives?" he added.

Gepal, 17, was greatly affected by some monks in the Kirti Monastery who supported "Tibet independence." He kept photos of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Kirti Living Buddha and self-immolation practitioners on his cell phone.

He gradually developed the notion that would become a hero through self-immolation. Spurred on by his peers in the monastery, Gepal burned himself in a meadow in Kaxi Village in the town of Longzang.

Song Guangjun, director of the surgical department at Aba County People's Hospital, has received dozens of victims of self-immolation.

"They are all young boys, around 16 or 17," he said. "Their skin gets thinner and rots after being burned."

The patients are not willing to talk to doctors at first, but they talk more later, Song said. "If they say they feel nervous, that means they are thirsty and want to drink. They have a strong desire to survive."

"When they leave the hospital, they thank us," he said.

"We feel also pain as doctors. Our children are the same age as them."  he said. "Their lives are ruined after being burned."