The 2008 protests in Tibet shocked Chinese leaders and policy-makers, leaving the notion of well-managed ethnic harmony in a state of disrepair. Not long after, Chinese scholars began to debate the effectiveness of existing minority policies that have been largely cited as reason for unprecedented protests in the course of modern political history of Tibet.
A year later on 27 February, Tapey, a young monk from Kirti monastery in Ngaba County in Sichuan Province, traditionally in Amdo region of eastern Tibet, set himself on fire as a form of protest against Chinese rule that marked the beginning of self-immolation protest in Tibet. During the protest, Tapey raised a home-made Tibetan national flag with a picture of the Dalai Lama at the center. Sadly, no details are known of what he shouted during the protest. However, many protesters of 2008 and self-immolators there after called for the return of the Dalai Lama and freedom in Tibet. This raises further questions about the decades of Chinese rule in Tibet and indicates significance of the Dalai Lama for Tibetans.[Source]