On November 8, when the 18th National Congress of the

Communist Party of China opened in Beijing, Phagpa organised more than 50 primary school students and local herders to gather in front of the Dowa township government, shouting slogans related to "Tibetan independence". Phagpa first came across self-immolation in India in 2011, the Xinhua report said. Phagpa stayed in the monastery until 2005, when he heard schools in India were free and he would have a chance to see the Dalai Lama there. He went to Lhasa in May 2005 after resuming to secular life, paying 3,000 yuan to a trafficker, who sent him to the border with Nepal. Phagpa crossed the mountains together with two peers and arrived in the Nepal reception office of the "Tibetan government-in-exile." They were transferred to Dharamsala via New Delhi. It was arranged for Phagpa to study at the Birig School run by the "exile government. Phagpa returned to China in September 2011, after he learned that his mother was sick. He continued to keep close contact and exchanged information about Tibetan regions with his classmates of Soggar School. He also sent a photo of Jinpa, a 23-year-old man who burned himself to death on November 8, in Tongren, to Kam Tsenpo, a member of the Tibet Youth Congress in India.