Tibetan monk sets himself on fire - activist group

[struggle4progress]

Source: Reuters


Tibetan monk sets himself on fire - activist group
Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:13pm GMT

BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest on Friday during a prayer festival in a part of western China that erupted in deadly riots a year ago, an activist group said.

The monk started the blaze after walking out of a monastery in Aba county, an ethnic Tibetan area in Sichuan province, carrying a Tibetan flag with a picture of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, said Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign.

The monk was surrounded by armed police, three gun shots were heard and he was carried away in a van after falling to the ground, Whitticase said, citing unidentified sources. It was not known whether the monk was dead or alive, he added.

Reuters reached three people by phone in the town outside the Kirti monastery, where the monk had been based, but was unable to obtain confirmation of the protest ...

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKPEK233080

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Tibet Monk Shot by Chinese Police After Setting Himself on Fire
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 27, 2009; 12:10 PM

... Witnesses told the activist groups that the monk's protest came shortly after he and about 1,000 other monks were refused entry to the main prayer hall at the Kirti Monastery in Aba because local authorities had forbidden observation of Monlam, a traditional prayer festival held after Losar, as the New Year is known. In defiance of the order, the monks sat down outside to begin their prayers about 1 p.m. while older monks pleaded with them to disperse, according to Students for a Free Tibet and the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet ...

The monks complied, but then a monk in his 20s named Tapey came out of the monastery, took out a homemade flag bearing a photograph of the Dalai Lama and at 1:40 p.m. walked to a nearby street market. He had doused himself with oil by the time he reached an intersection in the market, where he set himself on fire, the activist groups said.

Witnesses said police then fired three shots at Tapey. At the first shot, he fell, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign For Tibet, and officials removed him from the scene. Eyewitnesses said they believed he was dead, but his condition has not been confirmed. After the incident, 500 monks from the monastery immediately began funeral rites for the monk.

The Kirti Monastery in Sichuan has strong links to the Kirti Monastery in Dharmsala, India, where monks said multiple eyewitnesses in Tibet had reported the self-immolation and the shooting, the activist groups said ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701425.html



Chinese police 'shot burning monk before putting him out'
Free Tibet group says condition of victim is unknown after protest in Sichuan province
Tania Branigan, China correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 14.25 GMT

... Free Tibet said witnesses saw Tabe, a monk aged in his 20s, walking from Kirti monastery into town this afternoon. He was carrying a hand-drawn Tibetan flag with a picture of the Dalai Lama at its centre.

"He doused himself in petrol. The armed police could not get near him because he was burning," said Matt Whitticase, a campaign spokesman. "Witnesses heard three gunshots fired. The monk fell to the ground and the police managed to put the flames out. He was immediately put into a van and taken to an undisclosed location. His present condition is unknown."

The claims could not be confirmed independently, but Whitticase said the group had indirect accounts from three witnesses. Tibetans have been heavily punished for passing details of incidents to outsiders.

Free Tibet said up to 800 monks had reportedly gone to Tabe's home village of Trinkin to say prayers, believing him to be dead ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/27/china-police-shoot-burning-monk

[Cleita]

1. I never realized why self immolation is acceptable in the ordinarily

non-violent Bhuddist faith. This is partly how we got involved in Vietnam. A monk set himself on fire to protest the government in power at the time. It got our attention and we started sending military in at first as only advisors because we were supporting the corrupt government in charge then.

[struggle4progress]

3. The US was actively supporting Ngo Dinh Diem in June 1963 when Thich Quang Duc set himself alight

in Saigon to protest the Diem regime's attitude towards Buddhism. Thus the event could not have sparked US involvement: the US was already involved. But the self-immolation probably did erode US support for Diem, who was increasingly regarded as an embarrassment to the US and who was assassinated rather soon after during an early November 1963 coup

[struggle4progress]

4. "... a nun named Nhat Chi Mai .... On May 16, 1967 .. burned herself to death outside

the Tu Nghiem Temple. In a letter to the U.S. Government she wrote:

I offer my body as a torch
to dissipate the dark
to waken love among men
to give peace to Vietnam
the one who burns herself for peace ...

http://www.americanbuddhist.net/self-immolation-and-buddhist-practice



... Before her death, she had a conversation with Buddhist Sister Cao Ngoc Phuong, which is recorded in Phuong’s autobiography:

“Mai,... I asked the Executive Council of the Buddhist Church to support eight of us in a fast until death as a prayer for peace. But the Council did not approve, and, without their backing, we knew that our act would be useless.”

“Of course they wouldn’t approve!” she interrupted. “Who would care for your agedmother?”

“I know that I would commit the sin of impiety towards my mother by killing myself, but if my death should help shorten the war and save lives, I would be willing to pay for the sinof impiety in another life.”

A Question of Violence: Buddhism and Acts of Self-Immolation during the Vietnam War Aaron Romeo Slosberg
<pdf link:> http://www.history.ucla.edu/undergrad/pat/Journal2004/Slosberg.pdf
<google html; from pdf:> http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:7GlGUPnwpmAJ:www.history.ucla.edu/undergrad/pat/Journal2004/Slosberg.pdf+Nhat+Chi+Mai+1967&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us

[applegrove]

5. I talked with regular Tibetans and asked them about that. Their view was those

who set fire to themselves were sick. So I don't think it is acceptable amongst regular Tibetans.

[Julian_the_apostate]

7. The monk who sets him/herself on fire is the sick one?

Not the cops/military who see this spectacle, follow the order to pull out their guns, aim carefully, and fire upon a monk just sitting there in flames? I hope the "regular" Tibetans have a problem with how the military responded to this--it's called murder.

[applegrove]

10. Just sitting there, minding his own business, on fire ???? No doubt

how bad the chinese are with human rights results in self-immolation. It is still a violent way to commit suicide and there is nothing wrong with saying such people are sick and not worthy of admiration or emulation.

[No Elephants]

8. Truman began financial aid to Vietnam right after WWII and Ike added so-called "advisors" in 1950.

[Mari333]

9. because he considered the body merely an illusion?

and chose to let go of it in protest. makes sense to me.

[mikelgb]

2. why waste bullets?

had to end his demonstration quickly

[xchrom]

6. deprive people of every choice and things like this will happen. nt

[MrSlayer]

11. As a form of protest, setting yourself on fire is just idiotic.

You are accomplishing absolutely nothing by setting yourself on fire and dying. You are doing nothing more than removing yourself from the dialogue and helping your enemy by making the number of those on your side of the argument smaller. Wouldn't it be better to be alive to protest again the next day? Maybe bring a few friends? It's ridiculous and futile to protest in this manner.