On the morning of January 8, 2012, the Buddhist monk Sonam Wangyal, also known as Lama Sobha, prepared to end his life by self-immolation. Living at a monastery in Darlag county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai (in the Tibetan area of Amdo), Lama Sobha was a well-respected and popular tulku (reincarnated teacher). That morning, he recorded a message to explain the purpose of his sacrifice, and put the tape in a pocket in his monk’s robe. He then went to a hill where he lit incense, said prayers and distributed leaflets in which he explained that his self-sacrifice was a selfless act: not for his own glory, but for the people of Tibet and the country’s future. He proceeded to the police station in Darlag and whilst outside the building is reported to have drunk kerosene and then poured the liquid over himself before setting himself on fire. Dressed in his maroon-colored monk’s robe, he burned to death in front of the police station.2
Lama Sobha was thus the first tulku to sacrifice his own life in a fiery political protest. He was not, however, the first Tibetan to do so, but his suicide was one in a series of many self-immolations which began in 2009 and escalated in 2011 and 2012 to the point that even experts on Tibet were surprised by the extent of the sacrifices. Between March 2011 and November 2013, over 120 Tibetans have self-immolated, as reported by the International Campaign for Tibet. Although self-immolation has gained media attention, only a minority of cases have been reported in the global media.
The recent wave of self-immolations mark a new development in the Tibetan nationalist struggle, as auto-cremations have historically never been part of Tibetan culture and religion, neither as a part of devotional practices nor as political protest. How is it that the self-immolations have escalated since 2011—how were they at all possible, and what could have triggered them? Was it the Arab Spring, the revolutionary wave of demonstrations in Arab countries that began with a self-immolation in Tunisia in December 2010, that served as a model? Or did the Tibetan self-immolators draw inspiration from Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc, who in 1963 was the first to use auto-cremation as political protest? Were there religious connections? Could the deaths be explained by other cultural, historical, geographical or political events? Religion has been employed by researchers to help explain the self-immolations, but the responses differed as to what degree religion had explanatory value.3 Some believe that self-immolation could not be linked to Tibetan Buddhism simply because the human torches were Tibetan monks and nuns. Shakya states: “Self-immolation as a form of protest is not intrinsically a Buddhist act any more than suicide bombing is an Islamic act. What links the current incidents to religion is that most of the Tibetans who have committed self-immolation have been monks or nuns” (Shakya 2012). However, others, such as Craig, argued that Tibetan Buddhism plays an important role in understanding how these actions are meaningful in a Tibetan context; that they can be seen as an altruistic healing practice in which the individual, by his or her actions, believes they can affect the surrounding environment and how this act can also be understood as a manifestation of a bodhisattva ideal, in which one’s own death becomes a selfless act for the good of others (Craig 2012).
This chapter will trace the genealogy of self-immolation through the Buddhist textual and ritual heritage that led to the prototypical act of burning oneself to death as a political protest—the auto-cremation of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963—and how this in turn has inspired others to use self-immolation for political purposes. Self-immolations appear clustered in time and space, and this important aspect makes it relevant to include self-immolation when discussing suicide cults, even though the act in itself is usually individual and not collective.
This chapter is based on secondary sources, principally reports from journalists and exile Tibetan networks. Since access to primary sources (in the form of interviews with surviving self-immolators and eyewitnesses) is lacking, the chapter focuses on contextualizing self-immolations in Tibet by analyzing Lama Sobha’s posthumous message, and tracking the specific Buddhist elements that have historically contributed to the use of auto-cremation as a political protest.
Lama Sobha’s auto-cremation contains several elements typical of political self-immolation: a sacrifice of oneself through suicide for a greater cause, public display, and an action that has no intention of harming anyone else. Self-immolation as political protest has a distinct religious character, since it is the body that is sacrificed. An important aspect that distinguishes self-immolations from other political suicides is that the intentional killing of oneself is done without harming others. This non-violent aspect differentiates self-immolations from other political suicides. Unlike suicide bombers, whose bodies become weapons, self-immolators do not inflict physical or material harm on people or buildings (Biggs 2005: 173). As an act of protest, self-immolations aim to be public in at least one of two ways: the act occurs in a public place where it is witnessed by onlookers, or a message is left behind addressed to politicians or to the public (ibid.: 175).
Self-immolation has religious connotations, as “immolate” means sacrifice and, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, it originates from the Latin word immolatus (past participle of immolare “to sprinkle with sacrificial meal”, from in- (upon) and mola (meal). Immolation is thus an act of sacrificial offering, and self-immolation therefore means a sacrificial offering of oneself. Since the 1960s, the term “self-immolation” has had political overtones. Above all, it has come to be associated with death by fire after the Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc set himself alight during the Vietnam War (see below in the section “The Prototype of Auto-cremation as Political Protest—the Death of Thich Quang Duc”). Yet self-immolation does not necessarily include a fiery death; Biggs’s (2005) thorough analysis of reported self-immolations between 1963 and 2002 shows that other methods of self-sacrifice include jumping from tall buildings or ingesting poison. Benn distinguishes between auto-cremation and self-immolation, stating that the latter is a wider set of religious practices in which the body is given as a gift (Benn 2007). I follow Benn’s distinction in this chapter to establish how auto-cremation is part of the wider theme of Buddhist self-immolation, mindful that distinction differs from popular conceptualizations where associations of death by fire have become linked to self-immolation.
Self-immolation as a political protest need not necessarily be a solitary act: two or more individuals can coordinate their sacrifices. Biggs notes that self-immolations are distinct actions that distinguish themselves from suicides and martyrdoms. Martyrdom may resemble self-immolation, in that death is faced voluntarily, usually at the hands of another (as in the case of the Archbishop Romero of El Salvador, who died in 1980 after denouncing military repression); however, it is not the same as suicide. Nor can the Hindu form of marital sacrifice, sati, in which a widow burns to death on her husband’s pyre, be termed self-immolation as it lacks a collective dimension. Personal suicides often have private reasons and they are rarely carried out for a collective cause. Suicide in a cult can be a collective action, but if believers seek to achieve a more exalted existence in the afterlife instead of bringing about political change, this also cannot be included in the definition of self-immolation. Hunger strikes, however, do resemble self-immolation, even though few actually starve themselves to death (Biggs 2005: 174).
Politically motivated self-immolations are grouped in both space and time and they are more common in Buddhist and Hindu contexts. The individual’s personal religiosity seems not to play a role, whereas the individual’s religious affiliation does: ‘What matters is the proportion of Hindus and Buddhists. Both of these are positively correlated with the rate of self-immolations, whereas the proportions of Christians and Muslims are not’ (ibid.: 186). In his review of 553 politically motivated self-immolations between 1963 and 2002, Biggs found no reports of self-immolations in Africa or the Middle East. Instead, 75 per cent of Biggs’ material included reports of self-immolations in Asia and, specifically, India, Vietnam, and South Korea. A quarter of the reports came from cases in Europe and North America.
The significant difference between Indic religions (Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist) and Abrahamic religions (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic), Biggs argues, can be traced both to the scriptures as well as to practices regarding the handling of dead bodies. Hindu and Buddhist texts contain several examples of self-immolations and, as will be shown, sacrifice of the body or a part of the body is an established form of devotional practice in some East Asian branches of Buddhist tradition. The treatment of dead bodies also plays an important role in understanding the differences in Abrahamic and Indic religions. Fire is a central component of death practices and burning evokes reverence among Buddhists and Hindus:
Cremation is deeply rooted in Indic religion. By extension, death by fire seems sacred—in a way that is still utterly repugnant in the West, despite the recent importation of cremation … Whatever the precise effect of religious tradition, the difference between the Semitic West and the Indic East remains inescapable. (Ibid.: 187)
However, it is not only cremation in itself, but also beliefs about death and what follows that have led to diametrically different practices linked to a shared eschatology. The belief in the resurrection of the dead body at the end of the world—shared by Abrahamic religions—necessitates an intact body and thus the burial of the whole body.
Self-immolation seems to be a phenomenon that comes in waves. It is more likely that an individual chooses to sacrifice him- or herself if someone else has already done so (ibid.: 188). This pattern also emerges clearly in the self-immolations in Tibet, where the burning Buddhists inspire other Buddhists to burn themselves to death.
Self-immolation as an act of political protest is a new phenomenon in Tibet, and did not occur inside the country before 2009. This fact contributed to experts on Tibet being overwhelmed by the intensity of self-immolations that has taken place since 2011. Most auto-cremators have been male, and a large proportion come from Ngaba, in the northeastern region of Tibet (and the northwestern parts of Sichuan province). Several of the self-sacrifices have been by young monks or former monks connected to the Kirti monastery in Ngaba. In addition to these young men, nuns, laymen and laywomen have also burnt themselves in political protest, as well as the tulku, Lama Sobha, who was in his forties (McGranahan and Litzinger 2012). A few cases of self-immolations among Tibetans in exile have also been reported. The recent political history of Tibet has contributed to Tibetans making these sacrifices, which are probably not so much an attempt to appeal to the Chinese authorities to change its policy on Tibet, as a means to inspire Tibetans to continue their nationalist struggle.
Tibet (officially the Tibet Autonomous Region) is an ancient and autonomous region in western China. The country’s inaccessible location in the Himalayas resulted in little contact with the outside world. This meant that Tibet could develop into a distinctive cultural and religious community marked by the Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhism. This changed dramatically in 1950 when the People’s Republic of China sought to incorporate Tibet. The Chinese regarded Tibet as historically part of China and argued that the country needed to be released from oppression and poverty. The incorporation of Tibet has become a highly charged issue not only in Tibet, but also worldwide and among exiled Tibetans.
The first Tibetan to burn himself in a political protest was Thubten Ngodup, an exiled Tibetan who set himself on fire in New Delhi in 1998. The protest was a reaction to Indian police interrupting a hunger strike that had continued for 50 days against Chinese rule in Tibet. When police moved the hunger strikers to hospital, Thubten Ngodup set himself alight and died from his injuries two days later, according to the biography issued by the Canada Tibet Committee. His action was not followed by more auto-cremations; it would be more than ten years before the next Tibetan set fire to himself. This time it was in the aftermath of massive worldwide protests against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, which were triggered by the news that the 2008 Olympic Games were to be held in China. This also led to demonstrations inside Tibet, the largest protests since the Dalai Lama had escaped in 1959. As a result of the repressive response from Chinese authorities, a young monk called Tapey set fire to himself after prayer ceremonies were cancelled at the Kirti monastery in Ngaba county. The Ngaba region was initially the focus for auto-cremations, with a majority of the self-immolations taking place there (30 of 50 between March 2011 and August 2012), and many of those committing suicide being either young monks or former monks at Kirti monastery, according to the International Campaign for Tibet. Ngaba is in eastern Tibet, in the traditional regions of southern Amdo and northern Kham, an area located on both sides of the Sichuan-Qinghai border. Ngaba has been affected over the past decade by resettlement programs, where Chinese authorities have forced nomads to settle in small towns, which has resulted in widespread unemployment and social problems. This may be a contributing factor that explains why so many young monastics have set themselves on fire in these areas. According to Fischer:
it is clear that the resettlements have been profoundly disruptive to local communities in this region and have added to the already existing pressures for young people to move out of farming and herding and into small towns where employment conditions are dire and there are worsening social problems. In this context of dislocation and alienation, it is understandable that the ordained—as vanguards of an indigenous moral order—might feel the need for extraordinary measures. (Fischer 2012)
The fact that so many self-immolations have occurred suggests that Tibetans have incorporated the notion of self-sacrifice in the nationalist struggle for a free Tibet (Shakya 2012). There is no word in Tibetan expressing a sacrifice of one’s own body for political purposes, and Tibetans are seeking new ways to integrate political meanings with existing terms:
The closest term used recently for self-immolation in the sense of an act of sacrifice is “rang srog blos btang” (giving up one’s life), but this does not have a sense of offering oneself for a greater cause. Nor does the Tibetan term lus sbyin, meaning “offering of the body,” which is used for the Buddha’s offering of his body as alms. The offering of the self as a religious gift holds no connotation of protest or disavowal. Thus, the search for new terminology reflects the shifting nature of political discourse among Tibetans and its permeation everywhere by the global language of protest and resistance. (Ibid.)
It is difficult to discern the individual motives for self-immolation, since few of the Tibetans who set themselves alight have left messages. It is, however, apparent that auto-cremation has become a communicative tool in a repressive environment where individuals have few other options. The lack of democratic influence distinguishes, nevertheless, the Tibetan protests from most other self-immolations, which usually take place in political environments with a higher degree of democracy, and where self-sacrifice is likely to have a greater opportunity to make an impact (Biggs 2005: 187). The Tibetan auto-cremations can therefore be understood primarily as a means of communication directed to other Tibetans to inspire them further in their nationalist struggle, rather than a statement addressed to the Chinese authorities. Thus it is possible to intepret the last message of Lama Sobha, which entails both a clear political and religious motive, and where his self-sacrifice is understood in tantric terms.
According to Tibetan exile sources such as the International Campaign for Tibet, Lama Sobha left behind a final message to explain his. After Lama Sobha’s death, the recording, approximately nine minutes in length, was transcribed and translated from Tibetan into English and Chinese, and published on the Internet in order to reach a global audience. Lama Sobha’s self-sacrifice is framed in a ritual setting and with a soteriological interpretation of what he wanted to convey to the audience. In his message he switches between explaining his sacrificial act and reciting prayers to ensure the Dalai Lama a long life so that he can return to Tibet. His message is addressed to all those Tibetans who live within and outside Tibet’s borders; it is not a message to the Chinese authorities to end their repressive rule.
This gives his self-sacrifice a nationalistic dimension, which he reinforced by presenting his action as a continuation of previous auto-cremations and expressing his solidarity with the earlier “heroes.” He calls upon his fellow Tibetans to continue building a Tibetan nation, to continue protecting the Tibetan language and its culture, and to do this by being a devout Buddhist: “It is extremely important to genuinely practise Buddhist principles in order to benefit the Tibetan cause and also to lead all sentient beings towards the path of enlightenment.” The message also indicates a Buddhist interpretive framing in which Lama Sobha explains his sacrifice as a form of tantric practice. Tantra is based on the notion of correspondences between one’s own body and the universe, with the idea that one’s body can be used to affect the surrounding world. In the message, Lama Sobha explains how his self-sacrifice is a way to transform darkness into light for the well-being of others. By sacrificing his own body and turning it into a burning torch, he wants to create a light that reaches and affects all living beings in a positive way so that they can be reborn in the western paradise of Amida Buddha, the Pure Land, and there reach Buddhahood.
He also states that he performs prayers for the Tibetan self-burners to lead them towards a more favorable spiritual development, as he points out that many of those who sacrifice themselves seem to have acted in anger. The karma doctrine, which teaches that the intention of a person’s behavior will have consequences and affect the individual even in future lives, plays a crucial role in understanding why it is important for Lama Sobha to help people who died in a state of anger. Greed, hatred, and delusion are considered to be the foundations of negative karma and thereby shape the karmic repercussions in an adverse way. It was also important for Lama Sobha to clarify the intent of his own actions: that he acts selflessly with no aspirations of personal glory, and that he dedicates the sacrifice to the Dalai Lama and other lamas who are spiritual teachers in his tradition. This is especially important, since suicide is a controversial issue among Buddhists.
Additionally, Lama Sobha frames his sacrifice in relation to a heritage that indicates that he is aware of how the practice of self-immolation is legitimized in Buddhist textual tradition. Lama Sobha makes a direct reference to a jataka story, a well-known and often retold story of how the future Buddha, in one of his previous lives as Prince Mahasattva, meets a tigress with five newborn cubs. The bodhisattva sees they are emaciated and so hungry that there is a risk they will eat each other out of desperation. In order to prevent an act of matricide and infanticide (which the doctrine of karma considers to be the most serious negative actions one can perform), Mahasattva throws himself, in an act of compassion, off a cliff offering his body as food for the tigers. By referring to this story, Lama Sobha shows that his sacrifice is linked to wider Buddhist practices where the body is seen as a gift; practices found in both textual sources and documented historical practice.
The tale of Prince Mahasattva is the second story in the Tibetan collection Mdo mdzangs blun, better known as the “Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish.” The collection includes stories of Buddha’s previous lives (jataka tales) and other people’s past lives (avadanas). The stories tell how the bodhisattva was reborn either as a human being or an animal. Jataka stories have many themes and can be found in both Indian and Greek legendary material, especially fables, but their framing is distinctly Buddhist and as such they have been significant for both monks and laypeople throughout history. One of the stories belonging to the theme of the body as a gift concerns a hare who offers himself as food and jumps into the fire to feed a tired traveler. Another tells of King Sivi, who plucked out his own eyes to give the gift of sight to a blind man.
Jataka tales are widespread throughout Buddhist countries. Ethnographic and art historical studies have shown that the jatakas are extremely popular to the present day in South and South East Asia (Appleton 2010: 8–19). In Sri Lanka, a gift of the body is considered meritorious, and appeals for blood and organ donations are often framed in Buddhist idioms; both doctors and patients refer to jataka stories to reinforce donations requests. Donations of corneas are especially supported by the story of King Sivi, mentioned above (ibid.: 152).
The theme of giving one’s body or parts thereof as a gift is thus established in the jataka literature, and provides a shared heritage for both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, the latter of which Tibetan Buddhism is a part. Here, these gifts are seen as an expression of a generosity exceeding physical limits. The jataka stories tell how the bodhisattva cultivates the perfections, paramita, which will lead to Buddhahood. Stories that are concerned with how the bodhisattva sacrifices a part or all of their body have been described collectively as dehadana (“gift-of-the-body”) stories, by Ohnuma (1998) because they can almost always be classified as an example of the perfection of generosity or giving (danaparamita). Jataka stories do not, however, serve as the prototype for the fiery death by auto-cremation. Instead, another important East Asian Buddhist text has become the model of self-immolation by fire: the Lotus Sutra.
There are many theories about what led to the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism somewhere between 200 BCE and 200 CE, and today most researchers agree that the movement arose as a literary cult at a time when many new texts were added to the Buddhist canon, new texts that were considered to be the original words of the Buddha. One of the most important of these texts was the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Marvelous Dharma, or as it is usually called, the Lotus Sutra. This text has become one of the most important texts in eastern Asia, and is an object for veneration by Buddhists throughout China, Korea, Japan and other parts of Asia. When and where the Lotus Sutra was composed, and in what language, is unclear, but the first Chinese translation from Sanskrit was made around 255 CE. The Lotus Sutra has been translated into many Asian languages including Tibetan, Hsi-Hsia, Mongol, Manchu, Korean and Japanese, and is established as an important text in world literature (Watson 1993: ix–x).
The Lotus Sutra contains 28 chapters, combining prose and verse, and consists of an anthology of sermons, stories and devotional manuals. In its twenty-third chapter, “Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King,” is a passage that has come to serve as a template for the practice of auto-cremation. The Bodhisattva Medicine King, in one of his previous incarnations, is taught by the Buddha Pure and Bright Excellence of Sun and Moon (Candrasuryavimalaprabhasasri) about the Lotus Sutra. This inspired the bodhisattva to desire Buddhahood, which was possible by cultivating austerities. Therefore, he exercised diligently for 20,000 years, reached a high meditative level, and was thus satisfied with his performance. The bodhisattva then wished to make a sacrifice to Buddha Pure and Bright Excellence of Sun and Moon and to the Lotus Sutra, which enabled him to achieve the deep meditative level. He therefore meditated, and with the power achieved through his meditative state, flowers and incense appeared, which he then offered to the Buddha. However, he regarded this offering inferior in comparison to the sacrifice of his body. The text then describes the preparations for the great sacrifice, a passage that has come to give textual legitimacy for auto-cremation:
When he had finished making this offering, he rose from his samadhi and thought to himself: Though I have employed my supernatural powers to make this offering to the Buddha, it is not as good as making an offering of my own body.
Thereupon he swallowed different perfumes … and he also drank the fragrant oil … and doing this for a period of twelve hundred years. Anointing his body with fragrant oil, he appeared before the Buddha Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue, wrapped his body in heavenly jewelled robes, poured fragrant oil over his head and, calling on his transcendental powers, set fire to his body. The glow shone forth, illuminating worlds equal in numbers to the sands of eighty million Ganges. The Buddhas in these worlds simultaneously spoke out in praise, saying: “Excellent, excellent, good man! This is true diligence. This is what is called a true Dharma offering … Good man, this is called the foremost donation of all.” … The body of the bodhisattva burned for twelve hundred years, and when that period of time had passed, it at last burned itself out. (Translation by Watson 1993: 282).
After this great sacrifice, the bodhisattva performs another offering in which he burns his forearms for 72,000 years, whereby he inspires other beings to reach perfect awakening. The chapter concludes by noting that this form of bodily offering—to burn part of one’s body, or to give one’s finger as a sacrifice—is not reserved only for advanced practitioners, but is a practice available to ordinary people who want to aspire to Buddhahood. However—as is noted at the same time—religious merits stemming from memorizing a single verse from the Lotus Sutra far exceeds any other reading or practice.
Preparations for the sacrifice, as well as the burning of the body, have left echoes in history. Some aspects of the text are especially important for understanding the theme of self-immolation. The Lotus Sutra describes how the sacrifice was done as a consequence of the bodhisattva having reached a deep meditative state, and self-immolation was understood in the text as an advanced procedure made possible by this state. The sacrifice was performed to develop and strengthen the perfections (paramitas) necessary to reach Buddhahood, but in this case it was not danaparamita, associated with selfless generosity, but the perfection of vigor (virya). It was also a sacrifice performed for the Buddha, in order to reach the full awakening of Buddhahood. This aspect, says Benn, is important for understanding the ultimate goal of self-immolation and why it could be said to benefit others: “By becoming a Buddha rapidly the self-immolator would soon find himself in a position to rescue sentient beings from suffering by means of a Buddha’s salvific powers” (Benn 2009: 111). This approach is reflected in Lama Sobha’s message when he describes his auto-cremation as a tantric practice to help release those in pain from their suffering.
The theme of giving one’s body as a worthy form of practice is not unique to the Lotus Sutra or to the jataka stories. The theme is found elsewhere in Mahayana literature, and especially where the perfection of generosity (danaparamita) is emphasized. In one of the most influential texts in medieval China, the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, attributed to the prominent Indian philosopher Nagarjuna (c. 150–250 CE), there is an explanation of why a bodhisattva must be prepared to selflessly give parts of their own body:
What is to be understood by the fulfilment of the perfection of generosity appertaining to the body which is born from the bonds of karma? Without gaining the dharma body [dharmakaya] and without destroying the fetters, the bodhisattva is able to give away without reservation all his precious possessions, his head, his eyes, his marrow, his skin, his kingdom, his wealth, his wife, his children and his possessions both inner and outer. But his mind remains unmoved. (Quoted by Benn 2009: 119).
There are also other texts where auto-cremation is described, for example, the King of Samadhi Sutra, as well as in a collection of short texts The Lotus of Compassion, which describes in detail how the Buddha inflicts extreme violence on the body.
The theme of self-immolation was popular not only in medieval China, but also in other parts of the Buddhist world. A Burmese text in Pali which was compiled during the eleventh or twelfth century CE, Knowledge of the World (Lokapannatti), tells how King Ashoka wrapped his body in an oil-soaked cloth and burned it in front of a stupa containing relics of Sakyamuni. In another more recent Pali text, Birth Stories of the Ten Bodhisattvas, many stories can be found where children, heads, eyes, and so on are given as offerings (ibid.: 120–23). To sum up, it is clear that the theme of self-immolation both could be and was construed as a legitimate bodily path to complete awakening in Buddhist literature. In addition to these textual passages that describe auto-cremation and self-immolations, these themes are also documented as a part of Buddhist religious practice.
There is evidence from various sixth-century CE sources that Chinese Buddhists burned their bodies with the Lotus Sutra (Jan 1965, Benn 1998, 2007, 2009). This evidence can be found in biographies about eminent monks and nuns, in popular miracle stories associated with the sutra, and in epitaphs inscribed on stone for self-immolators. The biographies of Chinese monks who had auto-cremated show that many were careful to mimic the drinking of incense and oil, as well as draping the body with oil-soaked cloth, before they burned themselves in front of a stupa or before a large audience (Benn 2009: 114). Auto-cremations were public performances and have continued to be so.
However, Benn notes that one of the Chinese terms used for self-immolation—sheshen, “abandoning the body”—does not always have to refer to death or self-mutilation. The term is also used to describe what was believed to happen just prior to death, before the next life began on the samsaric wheel. It could also be synonymous with abandoning everyday life and becoming a monk. The Chinese term “abandoning the body” also includes a broad range of extreme acts (not all of which result in death):
feeding one’s body to insects; slicing one’s flesh, burning one’s finger or arm; burning incense on the skin; starving, slicing or drowning oneself; leaping from cliffs or trees; feeding one’s body to wild animals; self-mummification (preparing for death so that the resulting corpse is impervious to decay); and of course auto-cremation. (Benn 2007: 9–10)
What historical origin then does the burning of the body actually have? Its roots probably lie in indigenous Chinese practices that are documented to have taken place long before the Lotus Sutra was translated. It can thus be seen as an “apocryphal practice” in Chinese Buddhism (Benn 1998), for example, indigenous Chinese medicine made use of mugwort which was ignited on the skin, and there are documented ritual auto-cremations to pray for rain. But the passages in the Lotus Sutra, as well as other texts, have been used to legitimize the burning of the body as part of Buddhist devotional practice. Benn summarizes:
The Lotus Sutra may be a unique scripture, but the auto-cremation of Medicine King within it is by no means sui generis. The analogous cases of gifts of the body in many other forms of Buddhist literature must have convinced Chinese Buddhists that this was a perfectly orthodox form of offering, and that, furthermore, auto-cremation was an option open to the ordinary practitioner … An appreciation of the complex interplay between text and practice in Chinese Buddhism shows that auto-cremation was far from the extreme or deviant practice that it might first appear to be, and that it possessed a logic and aesthetic that could be appreciated by the larger Buddhist community. (Benn 2009)
The burning of the body is an accepted feature of Buddhist devotion in East Asia, to this day. Auto-cremations have been documented in China and Japan in the nineteenth century (Williams 2002: 155), and the practice of sacrificing one’s fingers and burning incense on the skin is still carried out in countries like China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan (Bundy et al. 1991). The ordination ritual for Chinese and Korean male and female monastics also includes burning small marks on the shaved head or the forearm, a practice ultimately derived from the example of the Medicine King (Benn 1998). The Lotus Sutra text not only created a template for auto-cremation by showing how and why it is performed, but when performing the act of self-immolation, the immolators also chanted the chapter on the Medicine King. The scripture was thus a kind of performative speech (Benn 2009: 108). However, self-cremations as political protest constitutes a fairly new phenomenon.
Political self-immolations can be found prior to 1963. These were, however, isolated incidents that did not prompt people in other places to mimic the practice. The death of Thich Quang Duc changed this and his fiery end inspired people elsewhere in the world. This was facilitated by the new mass media opportunities (where images could be quickly reproduced in various media), as well as by the availability of flammable liquid, which made the act of burning oneself in a public political protest possible (Biggs 2005: 178).
Thich Quang Duc’s suicide can be contextualized in the domestic political situation in South Vietnam. The war between North and South Vietnam began in 1959, with North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem, as a Catholic, favored the Catholic Church, despite the fact that Buddhists represented about 80 percent of the population in South Vietnam. Catholics were given senior positions in the public sector and the military, they received preference in business contexts, and even tax reductions. Diem banned the flying of the Buddhist flag in conjunction with the May Vesak celebration (Buddha’s birthday), which led the monk Thich Quang Duc to carefully prepare his suicide, together with two other monks, in an attempt to direct the attention of the international community to the oppression of Buddhists. On June 11, 1963, the trio traveled together by car to an intersection outside the Cambodian Embassy in Saigon, where they staged the auto-cremation. One monk helped Thich Quang Duc to place a cushion for him to sit on, and the other poured gasoline over him. Sixty-seven-year-old Thich Quang Duc then took a match and set himself alight. He died within minutes. In a letter he left behind, he urged Diem to sympathize with all the people of Vietnam, and to implement religious equality. He also invited the Buddhist sangha and lay Buddhists to demonstrate their solidarity and make sacrifices in order to protect Buddhism in Vietnam.
Though Thich Quang Duc’s actions were not sanctioned by the sangha, his suicide had the desired effect. Diem was forced to sign a document to strengthen the position of Buddhism in the country; however, this was never actioned, leading to more tension. Protests, including marches, fasting and strikes, resulted. The auto-cremation carried out by Thich Quang Duc gained followers among male and female monastics, and subsequently they came increasingly to focus on ending the war (Topmiller 2005).
The auto-cremation of Thich Quang Duc protested against how the dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, was being oppressed and threatened. The action—even though it had not been performed for centuries in Vietnam—could be understood both culturally and religiously by other Vietnamese. A bodhisattva is expected to defend the dharma. Even though taking one’s own life is a controversial issue for Buddhists, the doctrine of skilful means, upaya, permits a bodhisattva to take life in order to save life if done with an altruistic and pure intention. The motivation to self-sacrifice outweighs the negative karma of the deed (King 2009: 78–9).4
Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in 1963 became a template for similar protest actions, and was adopted around the world, not only among Buddhists. His auto-cremation was well-orchestrated; foreign journalists and photographers had been summoned to document the self-sacrifice. Self-immolation through fire usually receives media attention, as there is a powerful visual appeal generating strong emotions. In Tibet, however, few visual documentations have reached the global media, and the Tibetan immolations must primarily be seen as a way of communicating with other Tibetans to inspire them to pursue a nationalist struggle. After the death of Lama Sobha, photographs of his charred body were disseminated on Internet forums, as well as photographs and footage of other Tibetan self-immolators, who were portrayed as heroes.
When Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death, it was to draw the international community’s attention to the oppression that Buddhists were subjected to by the ruling Catholic president of South Vietnam. Media reportage of burning Buddhists in Tibet have a similar effect, to make others aware of the Tibetan experience of subjugation. This reflects two primary goals of self-immolation: appealing to bystanders and inducing sympathizers (Biggs 2005: 175). The burning body evokes strong emotions in the audience, both those close to the deed as well as global viewers who experience the event partially through newspapers, television, and the Internet. A photograph or film of a human in flames is a powerful image. For those at the scene, other strong sensations also have an effect: the smell of burnt skin and the sight of a body reduced to ashes. The act of self-immolation becomes a fiery imperative, urging bystanders and sympathizers to take action, to react, to contribute to change. Seeking publicity, Lama Sobha also set fire to himself in the sight of other Tibetans in an urban context. His taped message was reproduced on exiled Tibetan websites. Not all self-immolators leave messages, which makes it impossible to know what triggers them to carry out the act and how they perceive and interpret it. The message of Lama Sobha demonstrates an awareness of self-immolation as part of Buddhist tradition, but to what degree other self-immolators make this connection is not clear. There is thus a risk of over-interpreting the religious dimension and heritage. The extent to which auto-cremations take place in one region of Tibet shows that geographical and regional political conditions are important factors for understanding these fiery self-sacrifices.
This chapter has tried to show the history of Buddhist and pre-Buddhist ideas and devotional practices that have turned the gift of the body and auto-cremation into an expression of political protest. Self-immolation is more common in Buddhist and Hindu cultures, but has been adopted as a form of political protest in other contexts. However, there is a significant religious and cultural divide between Abrahamic and Indic religious traditions, which is apparent when linking the frequency of auto-cremation to geography. Self-immolation through auto-cremation is rare in Christian or Muslim cultural contexts. This can partly be explained by different beliefs about death and what follows after death, and it has led to diametrically different practices of how a dead body is handled and what role cremation might play. In Abrahamic religions, it is customary to bury the entire body. This practice is linked to a shared eschatology: the belief in the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world which necessitates an intact body.
In Hindu and Buddhist contexts, however, cremations are a common occurrence, and death by fire contains a sacred and pure dimension. To sacrifice one’s body or parts thereof is an established theme in religious literature and the practice of both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist traditions, and is interpreted as pure and selfless, as well as a bodhisattva act whose ultimate purpose is to relieve people from suffering, or to protect the Buddhist dharma when it is threatened.
Self-immolation is not an ordinary suicide or self-destructive act, but has a religious dimension, since one’s own body is a gift for a greater cause. Usually, auto-cremation is an individual act that is rarely a part of a collective or cultic practice. However, since one of the characteristics of self-immolation is that they occur in clusters, one event seems to inspire others to mimic the action. Those individuals who are drawn to self-immolation do not use suicide terrorism or alternative acts that may harm others: self-immolations and auto-cremations are distinctively nonviolent in character and intend no injury to either people or property. Instead, their ultimate aim is to gain reactions from onlookers and supporters, reactions that lead to a stronger moral position and the desire to take action. Auto-cremations are thus a sort of burning imperative of action. The burning Buddhists in Vietnam in the 1960s intended to save Buddhism at a time when it was perceived as being threatened in South Vietnam, and later focus shifted towards ending the Vietnam War. As a result, their sacrifices were addressed to Vietnamese politicians and to the global community. Nearly fifty years later, a new wave of self-immolations have occurred in Tibet—with previously no tradition of self-immolation—and this time, the fiery suicides by Tibetan monks and laypersons can be understood as an expression of the nationalist struggle for a free Tibet. The posthumous message from the incarnate tulku Lama Sobha also shows how he incorporates his sacrifice into a Tantric Buddhist context and interprets his action as a tantric practice and as a way to transform darkness into light.
Appleton, N. (2010). Jataka Stories in Theravada Buddhism: Narrating the Bodhisattva Path. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Benn, J.A. (1998). “Where Text Meets Flesh: Burning the Body as an Apocryphal Practice in Chinese Buddhism,” History of Religions, 37(4): 295–322.
— (2007). Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolations in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
— (2009). “The Lotus Sutra and Self-Immolation,” in Readings of the Lotus Sutra, eds. S.F. Teiser and J.I. Stone. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 107–31.
Biggs, M. (2005). “Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations, 1963–2002,” in Making Sense of Suicide Missions, ed. D. Gambetta. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 173–208.
Budny, P.G., P.J. Regan, P. Riley, and A.H.N. Roberts (1991). “Ritual Burns: The Buddhist Tradition,” Burns, 17(4): 335–7.
Canada Tibet Committee (1998). “Biography of the late Thubten Ngodup”. Accessed September 7, 2012. At <http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=1998&m=4&p=29_4>.
Central Tibetan Administration (2012). “Self-Immolator Lobsang Lozin Laid to Rest”. Accessed September 7, 2012. At <www.savetibet.nethttp://tibet.net/2012/07/19/self-immolator-lobsang-lozin-laid-to-rest-entire-region-in-mourn>.
Craig, S. (2012). “Social Suffering and Embodied Political Crises,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-Immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 10. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/97-social-suffering-and-embodied-political-crisis>.
Do, Thien (1999). “The Quest for Enlightenment and Cultural Identity: Buddhism in Contemporary Vietnam,” in Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-century Asia, ed. I. Harris. London: Continuum, pp. 254–84.
Fischer, A.M. (2012). “The Geopolitics of Politico-Religious Protest in Eastern Tibet’, Cultural Anthropology, Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 9. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/100-the-geopolitics-of-politico-religious-protest-in-eastern-tibet>.
Gyatso, J. (2012). “Discipline and Resistance on the Tibetan Plateau,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 8. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <www.culanth.org/…/96-discipline-and-resistance-on-the-tibetan-plateau>.
Hoad, T.F. (ed.) (1996). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press/Oxford Reference Online. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192830982.001.0001/acref-9780192830982>.
International Campaign for Tibet (2012a). “Harrowing images and last message from Tibet of first lama to self-immolate …”. Accessed July 21, 2012. At <http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/harrowing-images-and-last-message-tibet-first-lama-self-immolate>.
— (2012b). “Self Immolation Fact Sheet”. Accessed September 7, 2012. At <http://www.savetibet.org/resource-center/maps-data-fact-sheets/self-immolation-fact-sheet>.
Jan, Y.-H. (1965). “Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China,” History of Religions, 4(2): 243–68.
Kelly, B.D. (2011). “Self-immolation, Suicide and Self-harm in Buddhist and Western Traditions,” Transcultural Psychiatry, 48(3): 299–317.
Keown, D. (2012 [2004]). A Dictionary of Buddhism. Oxford References Online.
King, S. (2009). Socially Engaged Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
McGranahan, C. and R. Litzinger (2012). “Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 8. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://culanth.org/fieldsights/93-self-immolation-as-protest-in-tibet>.
Ohnuma, R. (1998). “The Gift of the Body and the Gift of Dharma,” History of Religions, 37(4): 323–59.
Paldron, T.M. (2012). “Virtue and the Remaking of Suffering,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 8. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://culanth.org/fieldsights/98-virtue-and-the-remaking-of-suffering>.
Radio Free Asia (2012). “Angry Tibetans Parade Corpse”. Accessed July 21, 2012. At <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/burn-01082012101534.html>.
Sangster, L. (2012). “The Afterlife of Images,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 10. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://culanth.org/fieldsights/114-the-afterlife-of-images>.
Shakya, T. (2012). “Transforming the Language of Protest,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 8. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://culanth.org/fieldsights/94-transforming-the-language-of-protest>.
Sperling, E. (2012). “On the Question of Why and to What End,” Cultural Anthropology. Hot Spot: Self-immolation as Protest in Tibet, April 9. Accessed April 2, 2014. At <http://culanth.org/fieldsights/106-on-the-questions-of-why-and-to-what-end>.
Topmiller, R. (2005). “Struggling for Peace: South Vietnamese Buddhist Women and Resistance to the Vietnam War,” Journal of Women’s History, 17(3): 133–57.
Watson, B. (1993). The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press.
Williams, P. (2002). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London and New York: Routledge.
1 An earlier version of this chapter was published as Katarina Plank, “Living Torches of Tibet—Religious and Political Implications of the Recent Self-Immolations,” Journal of Religion and Violence, 1(3) (2013): 343–62.
2 The description is based on information reported by Radio Free Asia on January 9, 2012, and from the International Campaign for Tibet report, “Harrowing images and last message from Tibet of first lama to self-immolate,” February 1, 2012 https://www.savetibet.org/harrowing-images-and-last-message-from-tibet-of-first-lama-to-self-immolate.
3 In the spring of 2012, a special issue of the online journal Cultural Anthropology was compiled in which self-immolation was discussed by researchers on Tibet from various scientific disciplines. Refer to this issue for more detailed comments. See McGranahan and Litzinger (2012).
4 See also Kelly (2011), for a discussion on altruism as a motivating factor for a bodhisattva.