A man who runs a grocery store near the monastery claimed he witnessed the whole event from the window.

"I saw a monk on fire running from the Kirti Monastery. The flames were raging and he collapsed on the street near the store," the man said on condition of anonymity. "Then police arrived and put out the fire."

The monastery's Living Buddha Jampel Gyalmotso lamented Rigzin Phuntsog's death Friday. "The doctors did all they could, but there was no way to save his life."

A county government spokesman blamed Rigzin Phuntsog's death on treatment delays.

Shortly after police sent him to a nearby hospital Wednesday afternoon, a group of monks from the Kirti Monastery forcibly took Rigzin Phuntsog out and hid him inside the monastery.

After long hours of negotiation, the monks allowed Rigzin Phuntsog's mother to take him to hospital at 3 a.m. Thursday.