Seven Tibetan self-immolations hit China in a week

[ahfatzia]

Your assertion that the biggest problem is Dalai lama is the biggest problem that the chinese have. Well Dalai lama is a part of solution and the Chinese need to discuss the solution with him instead of demonizing him.

What you are saying is like this: On the first day at a Hijack scenario being the chief negotiator, you are trying to convey this message to Hijackers "Well i don't know who you are but i am going to find you and kill you". This doesn't work. The chinese is a recipe of disaster. You gotta work it out with HM Dalai Lama. He is the spiritual and sole leader with mass recognition and who is capable of leading the Tibetans at a negotiation which gives enough autonomy to TAR and it's monks to practise religion and free speech. You are so wrong on so many accounts.

Neither you nor me really know the ground situations with the monks but I known they would listen to and is the responsibility of their spiritual leader. If the Dalai Lama wants to negotiate in good faith he must stop the immolation first because no country would accept this kind of extortion.

 

[ahfatzia]

To begin with he has never asked anyone to self-immolate. Secondly unless and until he is recognised by the Chinese as representative of Tibetans instead of demonizing him, he can not dictate terms here as people are self-immolating out of sheer desperation when they have seen that no other non-violence method is working with the CPC. And self-immolation is non-violent unlike what other muslim members have asked for here which is suicide bombing. You negotiate from an equal level so unless CPC recognizes HM Dalai lama and welcomes him, the Dalai lama can do little as he is also answerable to Tibetans who may ask for the reasoning behind any decree banning Self-immolation.

No one say, including the Chinese government, that he orders the immolation but, as a father and godlike figure to these unfortunate ones, he can stop them.

No government in the world negotiate with a civilian on equal terms. But if the Dalai Lama gives the government a face saving gesture by preaching publicly for the immolation to stop, I'm sure, the government will soften its stand and arrangement can be made.

 

[ahfatzia]

That doesn't happen in democratic and free world. He is not a civilian, he is a religious and spiritual leader. So he is a leader of 6 million Tibetans. And in free world govt. do negotiate with civilian leaders unlike CPC. Ain't nobody is going to give CPC a face saving gesture. Ain't no body. It should have realized this by now.

China government is a secular government and like any secular government in the world, democracy notwithstanding, treats spiritual leaders somewhat special but not in a way they can use their positions to undermine the government. Not many governments in the world speak for the immolators anymore so it's his call.

 

[SinoChallenger]

Good to see self immolation. Any Tibetan who doesn't want to be a part of China should self immolate. Massive Han migration is inevitable. We were too soft. PLA is here to stay. Ruthless is our middle name, baby.

 

[JSCh]

Tibetans probably possess a suicide gene in their gene pool. If they are really aggrieved at Chinese rule why don't they carry out a suicide attack.

Self-immolation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest. Michael Biggs compiled a list of 533 "self-immolations" reported by Western media from the 1960s to 2002, though in this work his definition is generalized to any intentional suicide "on behalf of a collective cause." [1]

Self-immolation is tolerated by some elements of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism, and it has been practiced for many centuries, especially in India, for various reasons, including Sati, political protest, devotion, and renouncement. Certain warrior cultures, such as in the Charans and Rajputs, also practiced self-immolation.

The Buddhist god of healing, the "Medicine King" or "Medicine Buddha" (Bhaisajyaguru) was associated with auto-cremation. The Lotus Sutra describes the Medicine King drinking scented oils, wrapping his body in an oil-soaked cloth, and burning himself as an offering to the Buddha. His body flamed for 1,200 years, he was reincarnated, burned off his forearms for 72,000 years, which enabled many to achieve enlightenment, and his arms were miraculously restored.

Self-immolation has a long history in Chinese Buddhism. The relevant Chinese terms are: wangshen 亡身 "lose the body" or 忘身 "forget the body", yishen 遺身 "abandon the body", and sheshen 捨身 "give up the body". James A. Benn explains the semantic range of Chinese Buddhist self-immolation.

But "abandoning the body" also covers a broad range of more extreme acts (not all of which necessarily result in death): feeding one's body to insects; slicing off one's flesh; burning one's fingers or arms; burning incense on the skin; starving, slicing, or drowning oneself; leaping from cliffs or trees; feeding one's body to wild animals; self-mummification (preparing for death so that the resulting corpse is impervious to decay); and of course, auto-cremation.[6]

James A. Benn concludes that, "for many monks and laypeople in Chinese history, self-immolation was a form of Buddhist practice that modeled and expressed a particular bodily or somatic path that led towards Buddhahood."[8]

The widespread coverage of the self-immolations of the Buddhist monks in western media established the practice as a type of a political protest. Self-immolations are often public, dramatic, political, and thus newsworthy. They can be seen as a type of altruistic suicides for the collective cause. Unlike suicide attacks, self-immolations are not intended to inflict physical harm or material damage.[1] They attract attention and become glorified as martyrdom, because of the perception of great pain, but they do not guarantee death for the burned. While the burning of vital tissue can be very painful during self-immolation, shock or asphyxiation quickly make the event painless,[18] as do the onset of third-degree burns which destroy the nerve endings.Suicides by self-immolation have led to numerous copycat suicides: researchers have counted almost 100 self-immolations covered by the New York Times and The Times between 1963 and 1971.[21] Most of these suicides occurred in the United States protesting the Vietnam War and Asia.In 1968 the practice spread to the Soviet bloc with self-immolation of Polish accountant and Armia Krajowa veteran Ryszard Siwiec, as well as that of Czech student Jan Palach. As a protest of Soviet rule in Lithuania, 19-year-old Romas Kalanta set himself on fire in Kaunas. Non-political suicides by fire also became more prevalent.

The practice continues with India leading – as many as 1,451 and 1,584 self-immolations have been reported in 2000 and 2001, respectively.[22] A particularly high wave of self-immolations in India has been recorded in 1990 protesting the Reservation in India.[1]Tamil Nadu has the highest number of self-immolations in India till date.It is considered to be the capital of Self-immolation in India

At least 54 [23] Tibetans have self-immolated to protest Chinese rule and continued occupation of Tibet, 40 have died [24][25][26] since protests began in 2011.[27] [28] [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The Dalai Lama has said he does not encourage the protests, but he has praised the courage of those who engage in self-immolation. However, the Chinese government claims that he and the Tibetan exiled government are inciting these acts.[39]

I would have thought that someone from south asia would have a better understanding.