Self Immolation is a deliberate and willing sacrifice of oneself; often through fire. The conflict between Tibet and the Chinese has been going on for 63 years and counting. It all started after the Chinese civil war and the Republic of China was founded. Soon there after, General Mao brought the peoples liberation army to Tibet. The invasion took place because the Chinese felt that Tibet should be given back to the people’s republic of China. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, accepted their request barring one condition; the Chinese would not change the political, social and religious structure of Tibet. The agreement did not last long. Unrest began to take place and in 1959 a rebellion occurred in which the Chinese government brutally suppressed the Tibetans, leading to a lot of bloodshed. The whole situation escalated and got out of control, causing the Dalai Lama to flee his homeland before being captured by the Chinese. After the Dalai Lama fled, more than 100,000 Tibetans followed in his footsteps and fled to neighboring countries before the Chinese could suppress them.
After the Dalai Lama fled, the Chinese appointed the Panchen Lama as the leader in place of his holiness. However, this did not work out in the Chinese favor because the Panchen Lama after 5 years of leading made a public address stating that the Dalai Lama is the true leader of Tibet. In 1965, a region of Tibet was given to the Tibetans and promised autonomy to that region for the Tibetans. However, the promise was broken and the land given to the Tibetans was not safe guarded for very long. Soon after the region was given back to Tibet, monasteries began to be destroyed, books were burned and treasures were destroyed. The Chinese population began to take over various regions ultimately the culture and indigenous language began to be suppressed. The Chinese began to implement the communist aspect of their government to Tibet and the culture.
The conflicts began to die down a little, but in 1987 revolts began to stir up again as “Free Tibet” campaign. In response to these revolts, Chinese authorities shot into crowds of people while the military and police officials’ were suppressing revolution acts done by the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama from a far urged his people to stay calm and take the non-violence approach towards the Chinese. The outside world was closed off from what was happening in Tibet for five years. In 1992, the circumstances somewhat improved and the two sides began to ease a little towards each other.
The Self Immolations did not start occurring until early 2009. Since then, a total of 92 people have self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule in Tibet. Out of those 92, 75 have given their lives for this cause. The Tibetans are self-immolating themselves in hopes that the Chinese stop suppressing them and allow Tibetans to rule their own land once again. Both sides are pointing fingers at each other, blaming each other for what is happening. No matters whose fault it is, if nothing changes with the current situation, the self-immolation will continue.