In one of the most gruesome murders, a Tibetan villager popular as a vlogger on social media was burnt alive by her ex-husband, a Chinese national while live streaming. This is a serious example of how Tibetans are being discriminated in their own country. The news when surfaced shocked people across the world, depicting China’s flawed policies.
Lhamo, a Tibetan farmer from Ngaba region of Tibet was budding vlogger and she lived her life mostly outdoors, sharing it online. She has been posting videos of herself cooking, singing and picking herbs in the mountains around her village. However, she had been harassed by her ex-husband and had repeatedly pleaded the local police for protection.
Surprisingly, Lhamo was told to go home by the Jinchuan county police as the matter was personal. Despite her repeated complaints and requests, they were ignored each time. So around Middle of September this year, her ex-husband broke into her house armed with a knife and petrol and set her on fire while she was streaming a live video on Chinese video app, Douyin. All of these happened while some 400 followers of Lhamo were watching her live video!
Ms. Lhamo was 18 when she met a man named Tang Lu from a nearby village. Before long they were married, and Ms. Lhamo moved in with his family and gave birth to two boys, who are now 3 and 12. According her sister’s statement in New York Times, Lhamo was a victim of domestic violence and often sustained bruises on her face and body. She used to run to her father’s home to recover from her injuries, added the report.
She divorced Tang in March but soon she was forced to remarry on threats to her kids’ life. But Lhamo’s pain did not end. She even sustained a life threatening attack in May. After long efforts to obtain divorce, Lhamo was granted divorce in June while Tang was awarded full custody of their kids. She has since been living in the mountains collecting herbs and sharing her life on the social media.
Women Empowerment Desk at Central Tibetan Administration in India slammed China’s weak domestic violence law.
“It’s high time to recognize the prevalence of domestic violence and work towards prevention, prohibition and redressal of gender based violence. It is also important to support and believe the story of the survivors so that they could trust the service provided by the government, where they don’t blame themselves for the situation they are in, where more survivors could come out and talk more about the prevalence of the issue,” said the WED.
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