BEIJING - A Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze in western China in an apparent protest against government restrictions on religion, and security forces shot him, international Tibetan advocacy groups reported Saturday.
The monk, identified as Tapey, was shot Friday afternoon in the Tibetan county of Aba in Sichuan province, according to Free Tibet, the International Campaign for Tibet, and phayul.com, a news site affiliated with the Dalai Lama's India-based government in exile.
They said Tapey was carried to a van and driven away, possibly to a hospital. No details were available on his condition.
China's official Xinhua News Agency said a man set himself on fire in Aba on Friday and that he was being treated in a hospital after police put out the fire. Xinhua did not say if he was a monk, give a reason for the fire or mention any shooting.
"The man suffered burn injuries on his neck and head," Shi Jun, secretary of the Communist Party committee of Aba prefecture, was quoted as saying.
The region is sealed off to journalists and foreigners and it was not immediately possible to confirm the shooting incident.
The groups said Tapey was a resident of Aba's Kirti monastery; a man who answered the phone there denied anything had occurred. The man refused to give his name. Another man who answered the phone at the official Aba Buddhism Association said there had been no incidents. Calls to the local police headquarters were not answered Saturday.
Local authorities have banned the monastery from celebrating a traditional prayer festival called Monlam, held every Tibetan new year, and Tapey was protesting that ban by waving a Tibetan flag and holding a picture of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, according to the Washington, D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet.
A thousand monks gathered at Kirti monastery earlier Friday to demand permission to celebrate the prayer festival, Phayul.com said.
It quoted a monk at an affiliated Kirti monastery in Dharamsala, India as telling Voice of Tibet radio service that Tapey poured gasoline over himself and set himself on fire on a main road in Aba.
"Bystanders said he held high a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and chanted something but couldn't be heard," the monk, identified as Tsering, was quoted as saying.
Bystanders saw the monk collapse to the ground after they heard three gunshots, Tsering was quoted as saying. He was reportedly taken in a vehicle to a nearby hospital, the site said.
Dharamsala is the home of the self-proclaimed Tibet government-in-exile.
The reported self-immolation comes amid a high-pressure campaign by authorities to block gatherings of monks, a year after the largest anti-government protests in decades spread across a huge swathe of Tibetan inhabited western China.
Adding to the tensions, next month marks the 50th anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama's flight into exile.
In the sprawling southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, police maintained a visible presence in the heavily Tibetan neighborhood of Wuhouci Saturday. Special police forces stood at some corners, with at least one holding an automatic weapon across his vest and about two dozen paramilitary police sat inside two olive drab trucks parked on the side of the road.
Many Tibetans reportedly heeded calls to boycott of festivities marking the start of the Tibetan new year on Wednesday, to protest last year's crackdown. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has said celebrations would be "inappropriate" under the circumstances.
China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries and that Beijing's tight control is draining them of their culture and identity.
