[17. January 2012] The Atlantic

The rising practice of self-immolation follows severe government restrictions, an ebbing Tibetan identity, and reports of torture.

As international media begins to cover the burnings, the antecedents to this horrifying trend offer insight into a question that seems difficult to avoid: why would anyone chose to drink gasoline and then light him or herself on fire?

While China has had a presence in the region for the past 60 years, its codification of restrictions against traditional Tibetan practices are relatively new. Since a wave of demonstrations embarrassed the Chinese leadership around the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when hundreds of Tibetans protested Chinese rule, prefecture-level regulations have been rolled out in breath-taking detail.

While many of these regulations appear harmless or even positive, in aggregate they make for something darker. New “social security measures,” for example, ostensibly provide small cash stipends to monks as an old age benefit. But the pay-outs are contingent on meeting a state-regulated standard of patriotism. As part of this new “good behavior” allowance, the Chinese government has informed Tibet’s monks they will have no need to perform the religious services they used to be paid for. The price of being “supported” by the state, in this instance, is the effective prohibition of their religion. Read more