Self-immolation

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This is an article on the ritualistic suicide practice. For the record company, see Self Immolation.
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Thích Quảng Đức pictured during his self-immolation.
Thích Quảng Đức pictured during his self-immolation.

Self-immolation is the act of self-sacrifice by fire. Literally, “immolation” implies suicide by fire, but the term also includes other forms of self-sacrifice.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

Self-immolation, while tolerated by Buddhism and Hinduism, was practiced by 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) to signify the pain Jesus endured while upon the cross. [2]

Alfredo Ormando, an Italian writer, burned himself alive in Saint Peter's Square, in Vatican City on the 13th January 1998, in protest against the Roman Catholic Church's policy of condemning Homosexuality as sin.

A number of Buddhist monks (including Thích Quảng Đức, pictured) 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.

On November 2, 1965, Norman Morrison used kerosene to burn himself to death outside The Pentagon as a protest against the Vietnam War. Roger Allen LaPorte did so one week later outside the United Nations headquarters.

Jan Palach, Jan Zajíc and Evžen Plocek were Czech students who committed suicide by self-immolation in 1969 as a political protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia of August 1968. Sándor Bauer and Marton Moyses were Hungarians who committed self-immolation as a political protest respectively against the Hungarian and Romanian communist regimes in 1969-1970.

Lutheran pastor Oskar Brüsewitz killed himself by self-immolation August 22 1976, protesting the East German communist regime.

Artin Penik, a Turkish-Armenian set himself on fire protesting the 1982 ASALA attack at Esenboğa International Airport in which they opened fire on travellers in a crowded waiting room.

Sebastián Acevedo was a Chilean miner who committed self-immolation on November 1983 as a protest against the kidnapping of his children by the Chilean police during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet[3].

On April 29, 1993, Graham Bamford doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in front the British House of Commons in London. Bamford did it in hope to draw attention to atrocities committed the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina particularly the Ahmići massacre.

Kathy Change was a West Philadelphian performance artist and activist who killed herself in an act of self-immolation on the University of Pennsylvania campus in 1996.

In 2001 a group of people self-immolated in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China. China Central Television broadcast the event nationally on Chinese new year and claimed the immolators were practitioners of the Falun Gong. Falun Gong supporters point to inconsistencies in state media reports and maintain it was setup by the Chinese government to persecute the group.[4]

Malachi Ritscher was a Chicago musician and anti-war protestor who committed suicide in 2006 by self-immolation as a political protest against the War in Iraq.

In 2008 Son Jong Hoon attempted self-immolation to halt the Olympic torch however he was intercepted by police before he could set fire to himself.

[edit] In fiction

  • The ancient legends of Heracles 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 camerlengo self immolates after Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra expose him as the head of the illuminati. Oddly he is, technically, voted into office as the pope just before he dies.
  • Denethor committed 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, had driven him to madness and death.
  • In Carol Shields' 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 the monster, overcome with remorse at Victor's destruction, declares his intention to self immolate.
  • In the M*A*S*H episode "The Most Unforgettable Characters," Corporal Klinger threatens to immolate himself unless he is sent home, while pouring "gasoline" over himself.
  • In Sunshine the crew of the Icarus I exposed themselves to the sun to kill themselves.

[edit] In popular culture

In the 'X Files' episode 'Pusher', an FBI agent is forced into setting fire to himself by a man seemingly capable of bending people to his will.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ self-immolation - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  2. ^ Coleman, Loren (2004). The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines. New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-8223-9. 
  3. ^ Tribute to Sebastián Acevedo
  4. ^ Sunderland, Judith. (2002). From the Household to the Factory: China's campaign against Falungong. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1564322696

[edit] External links