How self-immolations affect Tibetans (10)

Urigtsang, a young Living Buddha of the Hezuo Monastery, says self-immolations go against Buddhist doctrine and Chinese law.

Monks should focus their attention on practicing Buddhism and cherishing life, and then they will have a good afterlife, he explains, adding that according to Buddhist scriptures, if someone ends his or her life by self-immolating, his or her soul can not be reincarnated.

"Self-immolations are individual behaviors and have nothing to do with monasteries and the general public," Urigtsang says.

After being instigated by others, some monks have deliberately hindered efforts to save self-immolators, which is also their personal choice, he adds.

According to the 1994 UN declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular communities for political purposes are not justifiable under any circumstances, no matter the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.

From his hospital bed, Sangdegye says he was too young to tell right from wrong and tended to act on impulse.

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