Tibetan dies in self-immolation protest

A rights monitoring group says a Tibetan man has set himself on fire and died in a protest calling for the return of the region's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Washington, DC-based International Campaign for Tibet says 23-year-old Dorbe self-immolated on Sunday in a traditionally Tibetan region of Sichuan province.

The group reported that he wished long life to the Dalai Lama before setting himself on fire, becoming the 154st Tibetan to self-immolate since the protests began in 2009.

China insists Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say they were essentially independent for most of that time.

Protests have occasionally broken out against China's heavy-handed rule imposed after the People's Liberation Army's battled its way into the Himalayan region in 1950.