New York, July 3, 2026 – On Thursday July 2, 2026, 52-year-old Tibetan independence activist Lobsang Palden, widely known as Lobga Rangzen, livestreamed his self-immolation in front of the United Nations Headquarters at 5:49 p.m. He was declared deceased at 7:04 pm at Bellevue Hospital. Since 1998, more than 168 Tibetan monks, nuns, and laypeople have self-immolated in protest of China’s rule in Tibet. Lobga Rangzen’s death is the first known Tibetan self-immolation in the United States and the first documented outside India, Nepal, and occupied Tibet.
Prior to his self-immolation, Lobga livestreamed a message on Facebook in which he stated that his actions were motivated by his commitment to Tibet and not by any personal circumstances. He spoke about the lack of freedom under Chinese occupation in Tibet, condemned policies aimed at eradicating the Tibetan people, and called for Tibetan independence. His final words were:
“I don’t want you to mourn for me, I want you to continue the struggle for Tibetan independence, because the lack of independence is the root of all our problems. Bhoe Gyalo, Bhoe Rangzen Gyalo” [Victory to Tibet. Victory to Tibetan Independence].
A beloved, longtime Queens resident, Lobga was a committed advocate for Tibet. Born and raised in Karze, eastern Tibet, he was a Buddhist monk in his adolescence and young adulthood. He later fled to India as a stateless refugee, and eventually immigrated to the United States. He served in many local Tibetan organizations and was the President of the Tibetan National Congress NYNJ.
He dedicated his life to peaceful, nonviolent actions exposing China’s abuses in Tibet and defending the Tibetan people’s right to dignity, faith, language, and freedom. Just a day earlier, he was protesting China’s “Ethnic Unity” Law, which formalizes the Chinese government’s brutal assimilation campaign against Tibetans: Tibetan children forcibly removed from their families and placed in state-run colonial boarding schools, monasteries emptied of monks, and the Tibetan language at risk of extinction. These and other abuses are rooted in more than sixty years of occupation and genocide in Tibet. – sources
