Honour Pawo Lobga Rangzen: stand up for Tibet at the Chinese embassy

His sacrifice must not be forgotten. His message must not be ignored.

Date: Sunday 2 August 2026 Time: 13.00 – 15.00 Location: Chinese embassy, Adriaan Goekooplaan, The Hague

One month after the tragic self-immolation of Pawo Lobga Rangzen we gather again — this time not on Dam Square, but at the gate of the state that drove him to this act.

On 2 July 2026, Lobga Rangzen (52) set himself on fire outside the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. He died a short time later from his injuries. His final protest was directed at China’s Law on the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Progress: a law that no longer conceals the policy of erasing the Tibetans as a people, but anchors it in legislation.

From Dam Square to the embassy

On 7 July, around 250 Tibetans and supporters stood on Dam Square in Amsterdam to commemorate him. Beside them stood Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and Hong Kongers — peoples who endure the same policy in their own lives. That day we addressed Dutch politics, putting three benchmarks to Minister Sjoerdsma during his trade mission to China.

Now we address Beijing directly. Adriaan Goekooplaan is no ordinary street: it houses the representation of the government that separates Tibetan children from their parents in state boarding schools, that drives the Tibetan language out of the classrooms, that places monasteries under state supervision, and that since 2009 has driven 159 Tibetans to self-immolation. What is enforced with violence in Lhasa is defended with a diplomatic smile in The Hague.

A law with a racist core

Behind the mellifluous name of the Ethnic Unity Law lies an assimilation programme with a racist core: a legally codified hierarchy of cultures, in which the identity of the Han Chinese majority is the norm to which Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other peoples must conform. Anyone who holds on to their own language, faith, or history is henceforth breaking the law.

This is not an internal Chinese affair. It is a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights, and it is the reason a 52-year-old man used the only body he had to wake the world.

Come to The Hague

Tibet Support Group Netherlands calls on you to join the commemoration protest on Sunday 2 August. We demand that the Dutch government name the forced assimilation of the Tibetan people for what it is, that it publicly hold China to account, and that it attach consequences to the continuation of this policy. Fifty years of quiet diplomacy has brought Tibet nothing.

Come to Adriaan Goekooplaan. Stand with the Tibetan community. Show the Chinese embassy that the Netherlands does not stay silent.

Honour his sacrifice. Amplify his message. Stand up for Tibet.

Tibet Support Group Netherlands works for the rights, culture, and political representation of the Tibetan people.