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The man identified as Tashi, 32, part of the large Tibetan minority population concentrated in the western province of Sichuan, targeted a building used to monitor local residents, the report on Monday said, citing India-based Tibetans with contacts in the area.
"He died in the explosion that also damaged the building. The extent of damage on the government building is not clear," an India-based friend of Tashi told RFA.
The report did not say whether there were other people or casualties in the building at the time, nor report the extent of the damage to the building.
The state-controlled media in China normally does not report on ethnic unrest, so reports like this one typically get out by word of mouth. Radio Free Asia is a U.S. government broadcaster that beams news into undemocratic countries in the region.
Such acts of violence are rare in Tibet and Tibetan-populated areas, though the conflict with the Han Chinese authorities has been more severe since 2008, when a series of protests and demonstrations spread from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to other Tibetan areas and descended into rioting. The violence was largely aimed at Han civilians and was harshly suppressed by China’s paramilitary. The clashes left at least 10 dead officially and dozens more wounded — though some Tibet watchers say that the casualties were many times higher and that thousands of Tibetans have been arrested.
A more common form of protest among Tibetans has been self-immolation. According to records kept by The International Campaign for Tibet, a group advocating for human rights and democracy in Tibet, 10 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the months of January and February alone.
China severely represses actions or expressions of support for Tibetan independence. The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetans, fled in the early days of China’s Communist rule, where he has lived in exile ever since.
Ethnic tensions have increased in the past decade with Beijing’s "Open up the West" economic development campaign which has systematically increased the population Han Chinese living in traditionally Tibetan and other minority areas.
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The only reason the Chinese (PROC) are concerned with Tibet is it the source of the most important river providing water to the plains of China's interior. Their fears of being held hostage to manipulation of that water resource will and has allow them to justify any amount of force to maintain their illegal, unjustified occupation of the independent nation of Tibet.
What China wants to avoid is any hint that their importation of foreign technology is the on saving grace which fuels their ascendancy as a Global State.
These fears of being left behind are also the cause of friction as they seek to covet Singapore, Ti wain and bring them into the fold as "way ward" provinces of China who have some how gone astray. The facts is, these prosperous states could not have survived had they remained a part of China in its unquenchable thirst to control all aspects of life within their sphere of influence.
Despite their progress as a manufacturing base, nothing of importance has been realized without sending their country men for education, essentially importing knowledge and technology from those they wish to supplant, or importing whole industries - lock, stock and barrel as well as technical staff to teach them how to use it. The cause, cost and benefit of this import based technological exercise is retarded grow of services to the nation at large... where most of the benefits are sequestered in the hands of very few - state sanctioned "pirates" who have a single job of bringing anything of value - back to the hive, then slapping a "Made in China" label on it.
The problem with the people of Tibet is their stone age religion. even weirder than Islam. They still believe the Dali Lama is God On Earth.
Want to also comment on Catholics and the Pope
The Emperor of Japan?
- or is that off-limits?
Most Royalty have an Origin history which includes being given the right to rule by some Deity.
Your comments, leroy, only underscore your ignorance of Buddhism. There can be no "God on earth" for Buddhists, because there is no "God" to begin with! I am a Tibetan Buddhist, and the religion isn't based on a god which created everything and every one. It's based on compassion and understanding of the mind. To the West, it does seem an 'odd' religion, just as Western religions seem 'odd' to the East. Unlike Christianity, it's an evolving religion, based as much on science as anything else. It's not a religion which draws lines between 'believers and non-believers', either. Where Christianity and Islam seem to focus on how 'others' are to be viewed, Buddhism focuses on each individual minding their own and how THEY influence others... be it positive or negative. It also focuses on how every being is interconnected with each other instead of looking and the differences and demanding conformity. Not simply a religion, but a way of life. Not for the dim or the followers, but for the educated thinkers. Instead of continuing to not know (yet comment) on this subject, why not read some before hand?
Striving to be 'better' than your neighbor, as your goal, means you are willing to be lazy. the test is whether you are willing to try to better today - than you were, yesterday. The quest exceeds the journey. You failed your own test ... because... you didn't set your goal high enough.