Patrols of five policemen, with four on the outside of the patrol with machine guns and one in the middle with a fire extinguisher," Saunders said.Through the Tibetan city of Amdo Ngaba, posters have been appearing promising more cases of self-immolation
Rex K. (0) Thursday October 20, 2011, 7:49 am
A wave of protest has fanned across the Tibetan region recently: the self-immolation of Buddhist Monks. Five Tibetan teenagers have self-immolated in just one week, and a further three self-immolated and died since March of this year. The cases of protest are occurring in Tibetan ethnic regions of China's Sichuan province, largely around Kirti Monastery of Eastern Tibet, which has witnessed a large security crackdown by Chinese forces since the immolations began in March, and a forced exodus and ‘patriotic re-education programme' of around three-hundred Tibetan monks.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx ... +measures#
The protesters, all reportedly monks or ex-monks, are calling out in the most powerful manner they can without harming others, highlighting the growing discontent and need to address the situation in Tibet, for an international intervention for basic human and religious freedoms, and for Tibetan freedom.
Through the act of burning themselves to death, by going against the very wishes of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama- and by performing violence against themselves, the monks sin against Buddhism itself - what is the symbolism of their desperate actions. And why immolation?
The notion of a devout Buddhist monk considering taking a life is inconceivable to many, and Tibetan Buddhists particularly are renowned for their pacifist, mild manner. This is a view that aligns with their spiritual leader - the Dalai Lama. Yet with mounting suppression of cultural and religious identity, Tibetans remain vigilantly unwilling to hurt the very people that harm them, a stance that, in other situations, remains alarmingly rare in the 21st century.
The act of immolation does not intend to hurt anyone but the perpetrator. It is both solemn and macabre.
The young monks who take their lives, all of whom are aged below 30, have turned to themselves as a means of expressing their anguish, to their own bodies as a tablet on which to write their message to the world.
The symbolism of the body being destroyed in such a public, excruciating manner, highlights the need for a voice among the voiceless, an identity among the masses. It ties in symbolically with the Buddhist belief, that one should be the selfless, and the impermanent nature of one's body. It reflects the deep seated belief of the revered Bodhisattva Medicine King, who repeatedly set his body ablaze for twelve hundred years, in an effort to spread the light of Dharma, according to the Lotus Sutra.
http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/outlook/ ... immolation
