Comments on: 141: For Tsepey Who Self-Immolated in Tibet Six Hours From Now

By: The Fire is Still Burning | What can you do with anthropology?

The Fire is Still Burning | What can you do with anthropology? — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 13:55:11 +0000

[…] /2014/12/22/141-for-tsepey-who-self-immolated-in-tibet-six-hours-from-now/ […]

By: In the News: Paris, Witches, the CNN Apocalypse & more! | The Revealer

In the News: Paris, Witches, the CNN Apocalypse & more! | The Revealer — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:35:09 +0000

[…] McGranahan writes “For Tsepey Who Self-Immolated in TIbet Six Hours From Now” in Savage […]

By: Dolma

Dolma — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:47:51 +0000

I am finding it difficult to settle down on either of the two ideas that entail the ongoing self-immolations. Can we afford it? For Tibetans in Tibet especially, the act of self-immolations seems justifiable given their lack of rights or ways to voice their cries. However, is there really no other option? Is self-immolation in the exile an answer to the self-immolations in Tibet? I would love to be enlightened more because I seem lost in forming an opinion or thoughts around this much-attention-needed matter.

By: ashin kassapa

ashin kassapa — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:18:35 +0000

An English Tibetan Buddhist monk self-immolated in solidarity with Tibetans in 2012. That he did so, and carried the Tibetan flag in the act, was suppressed at that time. See http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/2014/04/01/buddhist-self-immolation-and-mahayanist-absolute-altruism-part-two/

By: tenkyi

tenkyi — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 06:40:59 +0000

It’s not only about tibetans residing in west but tibetans in exile as a whole, we have the rights, opportunities and facilities that tibetans in Tibet don’t have but we aren’t making full use of it so it’s our fault, all of us and we have to admit it instead of criticizing one another. And about self immolation, yes it is a means of offering but it is also a way in which it shows the intensity of desperation and helplessness that no way has been left but for me but only this one to do something for my country. For tibetans in Tibet, yes it might be the only way but for tibetans in exile, no it is definitely not the only way. So instead of self immolating, if one can spread better awareness regarding our causes then there is no right granted to anyone to demand such act..

By: tsechi

tsechi — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 01:14:09 +0000

Randy , I think at this point Tibetans inside Tibet are not burning themselves to wake the world up but to wake their snoring Tibetans in the exile community . If we are talking about government interventions in Tibet, President Truman withdrew support along with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Foreign governments use the Tibet issue for their own image and to light a fire up China’s behind but not completely burn it.

Also, if the world equates self-immolation to suicide and similar to Taliban’s killing children, the world’s mentality and logic must clearly be going backwards instead of forward. Taliban’s are representative of extreme violence and self-immolation as a protest is extreme non-violence. To question what is truly the difference between the two is compassion. Violence chooses to hurt others for one’s cause, extreme non-violence chooses to hurt oneself to help the other understand one’s suffering. When you take away every form of protest available in Tibet, this is the only form of protest left and even then the CCP are punishing people. Can you imagine a government is punishing and shaming you when you are willing to die for a cause? People do not pay attention because its happening in Tibet. Whatever, the fact I am still waiting for the Tibetans in exile to show more solidarity through similar means.

By: [LINK] “141: For Tsepey Who Self-Immolated in Tibet Six Hours From Now” | A Bit More Detail

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 01:12:52 +0000

[…] Minds’ Carole McGranahan has a terribly sad essay, with photos of victims and maps of their distribution, about Tibetans who have set themselves on […]

By: Carole McGranahan

Carole McGranahan — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:10:29 +0000

Today, Tuesday, December 23, the number of self-immolators rose to 142. The thirty-eight year old monk Kalsang Yeshe self-immolated outside Tawu Nyitso Monastery in Kardze, Kham (Sichuan province). Chinese police took his body; his status and whereabouts are unknown: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/second-12232014124427.html

By: Randy McDonald

Randy McDonald — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 04:32:34 +0000

It’s rather open to question whether self-immolations of Tibetans in the West would do anything positive for the Tibetan cause. My city of Toronto has one of the largest Tibetan diaspora communities outside of Asia, with more than four thousand Tibetan-Canadians in residence and plenty of restaurants and shops operating along Queen Street West. Tibetan-Canadians are a small but notable component of Toronto’s mosaic.

What would happen if a Tibetan-Canadian engaged in self-immolation in front of Toronto City Hall? There’d be horror, I’m sure, and plenty of attention.

Would it make more Torontonians aware that controversial things are happening in Tibet? Sure.

Would it necessarily drive public opinion in different directions? I have my doubts.

Ignore for the moment that there are many more Chinese Canadians in Toronto than Tibetan Canadians. In our particular era, fiery self-immolations are at least as often associated with suicide bombers and terrorism as they are with despairing political protest. Linking the Tibetan cause to that kind of controversial imagery, and bringing this imagery into the heart of Western cities to be endlessly reproduced across social and mass media, might well be fatal for the Tibetan cause.

By: Tshering

Tshering — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:46:31 +0000

I am waiting patiently to see if any Tibetans residing in the Western nations will self -immolate. Most of the Tibetan activists residing in the West are becoming notoriously famous for using the issue of Tibet and HHDL as a means to their own personal amibitions and fame . Not to sound skeptical but Tibetans in the west are not doing enough for Tibetans within Tibet . They are immensely detached . I understand with the comfortable lifestyle, singing , dancing, losar celebrations and one’s own personal life it becomes difficult . But atleast a few self immolations in the western nations with it’s powerful and free media would resonate more powerfully around the world than in Tibet or India . The Tibetans in the west are just warrior keyboards who use the issue of Tibet as an exotic excuse to get themselves into fancy Ivy League universities . Anyways , sorry for the negativity but the free Tibet movement in the west has become a hypocritical eye sore and I am kind of sick of Tibetans in the west glorifying and romanticizing these self- immolations just like the westerners did with the Tibetan culture . I only hope his holiness’ is doing some serious black magic behind closed doors because looking at the current state of Tibetan politics and activists , Tibet needs all the help from the other spiritual realms lol