达赖喇嘛真的表态反对自焚吗？

11月3日，法国国际广播电台发布消息，称达赖喇嘛反对自焚。消息引述法新社的报道，说达赖喇嘛反对自焚，因为生命是神圣的。而法新社的报道只是说：The Dalai Lama, who Tibetans look to for guidance on religious and political developments, is yet to comment on the self-immolations, although he did take part in public solidarity prayers.作为藏人的精神领袖和政治进步的导师，达赖喇嘛尽管参加了公开的仪式，但至今没有就藏人自焚一事作出评论。

各媒体都存在个盲点，达赖喇嘛自始至终认为自焚源起于中共的政策，要求北京自省，这就是达赖喇嘛的表态。

以下附两则报道：

达赖喇嘛反对自焚：生命是神圣的

法国国际广播电台作者古莉/中国不断有藏人自焚抗议当局，引发世界关注。法新社发自新德里的消息说，印度流亡藏人对藏族僧人以自焚方式抗议的做法持不同意见。西藏流亡政府总理洛桑-桑盖表示敬佩这些人为了西藏事业选择将自己的肉身做为火炬点燃，而西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛则公开宣布反对自焚。

一年来，中国四川阿坝藏族喇嘛以自焚方式抗议当局的宗教政策，要求让达赖喇嘛返回西藏、要求宗教自由。对于藏族僧人的自焚做法，印度流亡藏人看法不一，有的批评这是邪道，也有的认为这是为西藏事业做出的必要牺牲。

一位在新德里求学的藏人女大学生表示，僧人自焚是罪孽行为。这位从未回过家乡西藏，音译名叫塔西-楚卓木（Tashi Choezom） 的女大学生向法新社表示，她支持中国境内的藏人，但是藏人应该停止自杀，自杀是非常坏的事情，佛教禁止自杀。

中国四川阿坝和甘孜藏族地区今年以来，已发生10起藏族僧人自焚事件，其中5人不幸身亡。

西藏运动国际协会认为，西藏僧人自焚抗议，是对当局镇压的一种新反抗方式。并说，西藏僧人的宗教信仰要比他们的生命更重要。

法新社说，印度流亡藏人领导层对自焚抗议的看法也有分歧。西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛公开宣布他反对自焚。他说，因为生命是神圣的。

而西藏流亡政府总理洛桑-桑盖却表示，他敬佩自焚的藏人的勇气，并说这些人是为了西藏事业，选择将自己的肉身做为火炬点燃。洛桑桑盖周三还呼吁美国就四川阿坝喇嘛自焚事件向中国当局施压，要求允许国际观察人士和媒体进入四川藏区观察。

西藏流亡政府发言人则表示说，问题的关键，是要问问，为什么这些年轻的藏人要自焚。

法新社报道的原文标题是《被自焚分裂的藏人》Tibetans divided by self-immolations AFP 3/11/2011

（法广的报道引用了对Tashi Choezom的采访，但法新社的报道在提及达赖喇嘛时，使用的是“The Dalai Lama, is yet to comment on the self-immolations 达赖喇嘛尚未就自焚发表评论）


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

A young monk walks past the door of a monastery in Hongyuan county in China's Sichuan province, in October 2011. The nine Buddhist monks and a nun 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.

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

The nine Buddhist monks and a nun 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 and has a large Tibetan population.

At least another five have died since then, and their actions mark a new phase in resistance to Chinese rule.

But they have also divided opinion 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 and reason," he told AFP.

"So, if the Tibetans self-immolated with a good motivation and to fulfil a higher cause, it cannot be counted as sin."

The spate of self-immolations has also posed a dilemma to the government-in-exile, which cannot be seen to encourage a protest movement that serves its political aims by pressuring China -- 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 told AFP.

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 practise 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 "colonised" 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 neighbouring Chinese provinces with Tibetan populations. Chinese Han and Muslim Hui and their businesses were targeted in unrest seen as a consequence of simmering ethnic grievances.

At the Kirti monastery, the focal point of the recent troubles, Kate Saunders from International Campaign for Tibet says religious ceremonies have been halted there since March, with even the burning of incense prohibited.

"For some of the monks, their religious identity is more important than life itself," she said of the suicides.

The Dalai Lama, who Tibetans look to for guidance on religious and political developments, is 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 the status of 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, who works at a Tibetan cultural centre in New Delhi.

"These supreme sacrifices do not mean we are veering away from our way of life."