For Tashi Choezom, a Tibetan studying for a nursing degree in New Delhi, the string of suicides by Tibetan monks who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese religious repression are a sin.
“I express my solidarity with those who have committed self-immolation, but it is terribly wrong to take one’s own life,” Choezom said at a recent demonstration by exiled Tibetans.
Yesterday, a Tibetan nun burnt herself to death in southwest China, Xinhua reported, becoming the 11th Tibetan this year known to have set themselves on fire.
Qiu Xiang, 35, set herself on fire at a road crossing in Sichuan Province, Xinhua said, citing the local government.
The nine Buddhist monks and two nuns who have set themselves ablaze this year — chanting for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama to his homeland — have brought international attention once more to the Tibetan campaign.
“We are getting support from various countries through this, but these acts of self-immolation must stop. Buddhism does not allow this,” said Choezom, who has never been to Tibet.
The protests began in March when a 21-year-old monk called Phuntsog set himself on fire at the influential Kirti monastery in Si-chuan, which borders Tibet and has a large Tibetan population. At least another six have died since then, and their actions mark a new phase in resistance to Chinese rule.
However, they have also divided opinion in the exile community: Some feel the ends justify the means, others are staunchly opposed to suicide or attempted suicide on religious grounds.
A culture of self-censorship because of heavy Chinese security and restrictions placed on reporters in the remote Himalayan province make measuring opinion inside Tibet extremely difficult.
Geshey Lobsang, a monk at the monastery of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, the Tibetan spiritual leader’s home-in-exile in India, said when it comes to suicide the teachings of Buddhism are ambiguous.
“It is sin to destroy one’s body, but Buddhist philosophy also states that every action should be driven by good motivation and reason,” he said. “So, if the Tibetans self-immolated with a good motivation and to fulfill a higher cause, it cannot be counted as sin.”
The spate of self-immolations has also posed a dilemma to the government-in-exile, which cannot be seen to encourage a protest movement that costs lives.
The prime minister of the Tibetan government--in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, has paid tribute to the “courage” of the protesters and held a day of prayers in solidarity.
“The real question is why are these young Tibetans doing this?” said Samphel Thubten, a spokesman for the government-in-exile.
“Their actions grow out of really repressive measures put in place and the fact that the victims of that repression have nowhere to turn,” he said.
While views on whether suicide is a legitimate form of protest vary among exiles, the diagnosis of why monks are taking their own lives is unanimous.
“I’m personally against this way of protest. In Buddhism, it’s a big sin. But they don’t have a choice because they are not allowed to practice their faith,” said Tsewang Dolma, a 28-year-old Tibetan refugee in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Others echo the widely held belief that the self-immolations are a cry of desperation from a people who fear that their religious identity and culture are losing a battle for a survival.
Many Tibetans feel the region is being “colonized” by ethnic Chinese Han and fear for the future of their language and customs.
In 2008, riots broke out in the capital Lhasa, other areas of Tibet and neighboring Chinese provinces with Tibetan populations. Chinese Han and Muslim Hui and their businesses were targeted in unrest.
At the Kirti monastery, the focal point of the recent troubles, Kate Saunders from the International Campaign for Tibet said religious ceremonies have been halted there since March, with even the burning of incense prohibited.
“For some of the monks, their religious identity is more important than life itself,” she said.
The Dalai Lama, who Tibetans look to for guidance on religious and political developments, is yet to comment on the self-immolations, although he did take part in public solidarity prayers.
The spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has held nine rounds of fruitless talks through his envoys with Beijing about the status of his Himalayan homeland.
“We follow His Holiness’ path of peace and non-violence, but now we have no choice left,” said 30-year-old Kyenrab Nawa, who works at a Tibetan cultural center in New Delhi.
“These supreme sacrifices do not mean we are veering away from our way of life,” Nawa said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to