This morning I happened to look out of my window and see a small group of people at Wellington Place. Nothing unusual there but looking closer I saw was clearly a number of Tibetan flags. Oh yeah, that dude is in town today. I headed out and saw the group gathered at the entrance to where the Yorkshire International Business Convention was being held on Whitehall Road. The group was made up of Tibetan diaspora, Tibet supporters, and curious onlookers.

After hanging around for a little while His Holiness’ motorcade pulled up everyone was trying to see which car he was in. And then something special happened. Rather than drive in as I think we all expected, his car stopped and he got out. He got out and came directly to group I was standing in and well, it all got pretty special. The Dalai Lama went over and held the hand of a Tibetan guy who just burst out in tears. I managed to get a couple of snaps, which were posted earlier here and here. I had to disappear shortly after but it seems from this photo that he took time to bid the crowd farewell after his speech.

Meanwhile, back in Tibet the self-immolations continued today with the news that at 6:30am Tibetan time, an elderly man by the name of Tamding Thar set himself alight in front of a Chinese People’s Armed Police base, as you can see from the image below.

In the wake of the self-immolation, Tibetans gathered to honour him. His body was covered in khatas (silk scarves) and carried his body away.

The site of the self-immolation has become a shrine to Tamding Thar, as seen in this photo posted by Woeser.

According to the International Campaign for Tibet, Chentsa is now under lockdown following the arrival of riot police.

ICT also report that Tamding Thar is one of many TIbetan nomads that have had to give up their nomadic life:

Tamdin Thar and his family moved to the county due to the Chinese government policy of relocating nomads off their land. At the time of his self-immolation, Tamdin Thar’s family had been out of town collecting caterpillar fungus (yartse gunba). After the loss of their land and livelihoods, and ill-prepared to compete with Chinese migrant workers for employment, more Tibetans in Tibet depend on collecting the fungus to earn a living.

Kate Saunders (@katesictibet), ICT’s director of communications, also tweeted this:

Tibetan Geshe says that Tamdin Thar had visited other Amdo areas where Tibetans had self-immolated; VOA Tibetan voanews.com/tibetan-englis…

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Kate Saunders (@katesictibet) June 15, 2012

After Amdo pilgrimage, Tamdin Thar returned home and told his young relative to study hard, be good. Chentsa now under lockdown

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Kate Saunders (@katesictibet) June 15, 2012

A day marked by joy at the visit of the Dalai Lama but tragedy at the 39th self-immolation.