Truth behind blaze: how self-immolations affect Tibetans(3)

TERRORISM

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.

"I really regret it," he says, adding that he wants to get artificial limbs in the future so he will be able to walk.

After his failed self-immolation on Dec. 2, he was sent to a hospital and received a "critically ill" diagnosis, as there were burns across a large surface of his body as well as in his respiratory system. After four major surgeries, his organic function gradually returned to normal.

"At first, I thought I was a hero, but now, I am an idiot," he wrote in his notebook by a picture of a sunflower.

Doctors and nurses accompany him around the clock, and when the nurses change his dressings, he always thanks them, says Deng Jinju, China's top burn care expert who supervises Sangdegye's medical treatment. The Gansu Provincial Hospital covered his medical fees.

"I feel sad when I see him, as he is at the tender age of 18," Deng says.

Namgyal, Sangdegye's grandfather, hopes that other families will not have to deal with such a tragedy.