On the morning of 4 November 2012, Dorjee Lhundrup self-immolated on Taglung Street, Rebkong, a few kilometres west of Rongwo Monastery, a Tibetan area of Amdo. Dorjee was calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of HH the Dalai Lama from exile. He died subsequently. A farmer from Chuma village in Rebkong, Dorjee is survived by his two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.

Thousands of Tibetans gathered to pay their last respects to Dorjee Lhundup later that day. According to a source in exile, “Many people gathered in the place where he set fire to himself, and then a number of monks went there too. They protected his corpse from Chinese police and troops, and brought him to the monastery where monks and laypeople prayed for him. His father spoke, and many people were crying. Dorjee Lhundrup was cremated on the side of a hill behind the monastery. Traditionally only high lamas were cremated there. Sonam Dargye, who self- immolated in March, was also cremated there.”