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New Delhi. For Tashi Choezom, a Tibetan studying nursing in New Delhi, the string of suicides by monks who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese religious repression are a sin.

“I express my solidarity with those who have committed self-immolation, but it is terribly wrong to take one’s own life,” Choezom said during a recent demonstration by exiled Tibetans.

The nine Buddhist monks and two nuns who have set themselves ablaze this year — chanting for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama to his homeland — have drawn international attention to the Tibetan campaign.

“We are getting support from various countries through this, but these acts of self-immolation must stop. Buddhism does not allow this,” said Choezom, who has never been to Tibet.

The protests began in March when a 21-year-old monk called Phuntsog set himself on fire at the influential Kirti monastery in Sichuan province, which borders Tibet. At least six more have died since then.

The latest death came on Thursday, when a 35-year-old Buddhist nun set herself on fire along a road in Sichuan province’s Garze prefecture.

The actions mark a new phase in resistance to Chinese rule. But they have also divided opinions in the exile community: Some feel the ends justify the means. Others are staunchly opposed to suicide or attempted suicide on religious grounds.

A culture of self-censorship due to heavy Chinese security and restrictions placed on reporters in the remote Himalayan province make measuring opinion inside Tibet extremely difficult.

Geshey Lobsang, a monk at the monastery of the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, the Tibetan spiritual leader’s home-in-exile in India, says when it comes to suicide the teachings of Buddhism are ambiguous.

“It is sin to destroy one’s body, but Buddhist philosophy also states that every action should be driven by good motivation,” he said. “So, if the Tibetans self-immolated with a good motivation and to fulfil a higher cause, it cannot be counted as sin.”

The self-immolations has also posed a dilemma to the government-in-exile, which cannot be seen encouraging a protest movement that serves its political aims but costs lives. The prime minister of the government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, has paid tribute to the “courage” of the protestors and held a day of prayers in solidarity.

“The real question is why are these young Tibetans doing this?” Samphel Thubten, a spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile. “Their actions grow out of really repressive measures put in place and the fact that the victims of that repression have nowhere to turn,” he said.

While views on whether suicide is a legitimate form of protest vary among exiles, the diagnosis of why monks are taking their own lives is unanimous.

“I’m personally against this way of protest. In Buddhism, it’s a big sin. But they don’t have a choice because they are not allowed to practice their faith,” said Tsewang Dolma, a 28-year-old Tibetan refugee in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Others echo the widely held belief that the self-immolations are a cry of desperation from a people who fear that their religious identity and culture are losing a battle for a survival.

Many Tibetans feel the region is being “colonized” by ethnic Chinese Han and fear for the future of their distinct language and customs. In 2008, riots broke out in the capital Lhasa, other areas of Tibet and neighboring Chinese provinces with Tibetan populations. Chinese Han and Muslim Hui and their businesses were targeted in unrest.

The Dalai Lama, who Tibetans look to for guidance on religious and political developments, has yet to comment on the self-immolations, although he did take part in public solidarity prayers.

The spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has held nine rounds of fruitless talks through his envoys with Beijing about his Himalayan homeland.

“We follow His Holiness’s path of peace and non-violence, but now we have no choice left,” said 30-year-old Kyenrab Nawa.

AP, AFP