The Tibet Post International: Chinese Author Hu Ping Analyses Self-Immolation Actions

From Ruta Vilkaite in Tibet Post International, "Chinese Author Hu Ping Analyses Self-Immolation Actions":

Human Rights in China (HRIC), a non-governmental organization of scholars and activist focusing on human rights issues, have interviewed famous Chinese writer, critic, and publisher Hu Ping on Tibetans self-immolation acts as a form of non-violent resistance in regards to historical and religious context.

The number of self-immolations has increased in the last few years in Tibet; moreover, the Chinese authorities blame the exiled Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama for not trying to stop these suicides. They are accused of attempting to turn Buddhism into a religion of self-immolation and of violating the sanctity of life.

This claim was denied by Hu Ping who also presented a number of historical protesting events that involved self-sacrifice despite the religious classifications. Such examples included Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, who burned himself in protest of the persecution of Buddhist by the Ngo Dinh Diem government in 1963; monk Laingqing, during the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966, self-immolated in order to avoid the destruction of Famen Temple. Consequently, self-sacrifices are not new to the world.

Although some people and the Chinese authorities might consider self-immolation action as being violent, and while "Buddhism opposes killing and suicide, it does not oppose dying for a just cause, or scarifying oneself for one's faith or ideal", said Hu Ping. This action is considered as non-violent since the violence is inflicted on oneself and does not physically harm others.

[read the rest of the article at Tibet Post International]

View Hu Ping's commentary on Tibetan self-immolations at HRIC's YouTube channel, subtitled in English and Tibetan.