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Tsewang Norbu (; ; 9 October 1996 – 25 February 2022) was a Tibetan people singer who performed in Lhasa Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese, and English. He rose to national prominence in China through his performances in various .
On 25 February 2022, Norbu Self-immolation outside the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama.
His uncle Sogkhar Lodoe is a political prisoner.
In 2017, Norbu participated in the Tencent Video music variety show The Coming One, where he joined Li Ronghao's team and eventually reached ninth place in the national finals. In 2019, he took part in the music variety show Let's Band Together, produced by Youku; he was eliminated halfway.
Norbu was involved in multiple music variety shows in 2021. He participated in the CCTV-3 variety show Spring Festival Gala and performed the song "Under the Cloud" with singer Mimi Lee. On 11 June, he performed at the awards ceremony of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival as an honored guest. He later took part in Sichuan TV's Tibetan cultural program Handsome Tibetan Youth, as well as the sixth season of the reality show Sing! China. Near the end of the year, he joined singer Na Ying's team on The Voice of China, but they were eliminated among the top twenty-two contestants.
On 4 March 2022, sources outside China confirmed through local records that the self-immolator was Norbu and that he had died at the age of 25; the date and place of his death could not be immediately confirmed, however. Norbu's Sina Weibo and Douyin accounts were filled with large numbers of condolence messages and as a result, the comment function on both apps was disabled for Norbu's accounts. His last Weibo post, written on the day of his death, expressed gratitude to his fans for their comments and messages about his most recent song. Norbu's songs were removed from music platforms in mainland China. News regarding his self-immolation has been suppressed by Chinese authorities, and his biography articles on the Chinese online encyclopedias Baike Baidu and Sogou Baike do not mention any information regarding his death.
Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, the Central Tibetan Administration's representative in Taiwan, pointed out that the cause of Norbu's death was suspicious and called on the international community to intervene in the investigation of Norbu's self-immolation.
Voice of America's Tibetan channel reported in May 2022 that Norbu's father, Choegyen, committed suicide after being threatened and harassed by the Chinese police.
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