With acts of self-immolation on the rise in Eastern Tibet, the Tibetan Students Association of Madison hosted a lecture Tuesday to raise awareness about the protests and discover the motivations behind them.
Tibetans have protested alleged human-rights violations since China gained control of the region in 1951. Since 1998 when self-immolation, a person setting themself on fire, began, 99 people have chosen to self-immolate to bring attention to their plight for a free Tibet.
University of British Columbia Professor Tsering Shakya, the keynote speaker and an expert on Tibet and its relationship with China, discussed the reasons Tibetan citizens have chosen to protest by self-immolating, and its impact on Tibetan society.
Shakya said protesters choose to self-immolate to sacrifice their body in the hopes of saving others, which is a fundamental idea in Buddhist teaching. He added activists feel the method is the best way to cause the least harm to others, as it only harms the protester.
“There is incredible [Chinese] control of the human body and movement [in Tibet],” Shakya said. “[Self-immolation] has become, clearly, the ultimate rejection of state authority.”
Shakya also explained the two competing viewpoints, Chinese and Tibetan, on the protests. He said Tibetans feel the protests are happening as evidence of a strict and repressive Chinese government, while the Chinese government sees the protests as the work of “religious fanatics.”
Due to increased surveillance in the region following past protests, activists cannot organize large group protests without raising suspicion, which causes them to feel as if self-immolation is their only option, Shakya said.
TSA Co-Chair Tenzin Dechen said the group hosted the event to raise students’ awareness about the plight of Tibetan protesters, since members feel very few students know about what is happening in Tibet.
“It took one guy in Tunisia to start the Arab Spring and Tibetans have been self-immolating for two years now,” Dechen said. “And its been a total number 99 [protesters who have self-immolated], almost reaching 100, and yet the world doesn’t necessarily know a lot about it.”
