After a lull of more than a month, a Tibetan man is learnt to have died after self-immolating himself in the Tibetan Autonomous Area in western China, rights group said on Saturday. London-based Free Tibet said in statement that the deceased, in his early ‘20s, was identified by only his first name, Tsebe.

“The first confirmed Tibetan self-immolation protest of 2013 took place at 1 pm on Saturday in Achok Township, Sangchu County, Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Eastern Tibet. Tsebe, a layman from a nearby village, is thought to have died at the scene,” the statement said.

Free Tibet added that following the protest suicide, local people carried his body back to his home village which is around 3-4km away.

The last reported self-immolation was reported in the first week of December when Lobsang Gendun, 29, a monk in the Penak monastery in Qinghai province in eastern China died after setting himself on fire at a busy intersection in a county town.

It was the last reported self-immolation since the beginning of November during which period as many as 28 Tibetans had set themselves afire protesting China’s hardline rule and demanding the return of the Dalai Lama.