About the Immolations:

In Tibet, there has been a history of self-immolation, often seen by monks as a way of protest. Despite this trend and the support behind it, there is a lack of action that happens as a result of these self-immolations.

 

The current political situation in Tibet at the hands of China has brought about over 130 of self-immolations in the past five years, a few of which have occurred over the course of this semester, and will serve as the bulk of our focus for this project.

 

These events often occur in public places, and are most commonly performed by monks. In response to these events, the Tibetan people have even created an exhibit about this act, hoping to educate the world about the motives and history of immolation as it relates to their political situation with China and their resultant loss of culture from it.

 

Though they can encourage their people not to self-immolate, the Tibetan government has  made a point that the motivation for these acts is under the control of the Chinese government, and is not their responsibility.