At least the did not self immolated themselves which is totally wasteful. Wasting the great chance of this human life rebirth. What i see of the Tibet situation now is that, it is not going anywhere. No concrete development. That is why the Tibetans were angry and maybe this is what they can only do now and not any more concrete or anything more purposeful. Many would think these protests is wasteful but from the Tibetans' point of view, this is only that much they can do now.
There is also the more logical but harder to walk road of actually being friends with the Chinese, and then working their way up to a position where they can actually help the local Tibetans, but many Tibetans do not want and rather take the 'easy' way of praying, protests and hoping that a foreign power would help them with their woes. This is a recurring pattern that we see amongst the Tibetans, from upholding the Dorje Shugden ban in hopes that it will help with the independence movement, to the whole situation in Tibet.
