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Self-immolation




pictured during his self-immolation.]]

Self-immolation is the act of self-sacrifice by suicide. Literally, “ Immolation ” implies suicide by fire, but the term also includes other forms of self-sacrifice.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/self-immolation


HISTORY

Self-immolation, while tolerated by Buddhism and Hinduism , was practiced by religious or philosophical monks, especially in India for Sati , throughout the ages, for various reasons, including political protest, devotion, renouncement, etc.. Certain warrior cultures also practiced it, such as in the case of Charans and Rajputs .

During the Great Schism Of The Russian Church , entire villages of Old Believers burned themselves to death in an act known as "fire baptism". Scattered instances of self-immolation have also been recorded by the Jesuit priests of France in the early 1600s. Their practice of this was not intended to be fatal, though. They would burn certain parts of their bodies ( Limbs such as the forearm, the thigh). The reason they did this was to signify the pain Jesus endured while upon the Crucifix . It was an alternative to Flagellation .1

A number of Buddhist Monks , including Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, self-immolated in protest of the discriminatory treatment endured by Buddhists under the authoritarian administration of President Ngô Đình Diệm in South Vietnam — even though Violence against oneself is prohibited by most interpretations of Buddhist doctrine.

Jan Palach was a Czech Student who committed Suicide by self-immolation as a political protest against the Soviet -led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 .

In 2001 a group of people self-immolated in Tiananmen Square , Beijing , China . Communist Party broadcast the event nationally on Chinese New Year and claimed the immolators were alleged practitioners of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong . The Tiananmen Square Self-immolation Incident have since been heavily debated internationally as Falun Gong supporters claimed it was a setup by the Chinese Government as part of the Ongoing Crackdown on the movement.Sunderland, Judith. (2002). From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1564322696


IN FICTION

  • The ancient legends of Heracles A.k.a. Hercules include his death by a funeral pyre he built for himself.

  • At the climax of Richard Wagner 's opera, '' Götterdämmerung '', the Valkyrie Brünnhilde throws herself into Siegfried 's funeral pyre.

  • In Dan Brown's book "Angels And Demons" the papulate self immolates after learning a dark secret.

  • Denethor committed suicide via self immolation in ''The Lord of the Rings'' by J. R. R. Tolkien. He attempted to burn his son alive on the same pyre, but the timely intervention of Peregrin Took saved Faramir. The influence of Sauron, combined with the seeming inevitability of the fall of Minas Tirith drove him to death.

  • In Carol Shield's book "Unless", Norah the daughter of the main character chooses to live on the streets in search of "Goodness" in response to having witnessed the self-immolation by a Muslim woman on a street-corner in Toronto.

  • In the final pages of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein's creation, overcome with remorse at Victor's destruction, which he knowingly brought about, declares his intention to self immolate in the farthest reaches of the Arctic wasteland, north of Archangel, Russia.



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