As I write this piece, 119 Tibetans have set themselves on fire, choosing to end their lives to further the cause of the Tibetan people. Tupten Ngödrup, a former monk and the first Tibetan to immolate, took his own life in India in 1998. The next such act would not take place until 2009…
José Cabezón
José Ignacio Cabezón is Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is also chair of the Religious Studies Department. The author of more than dozen books on Buddhism — most recently The Buddha’s Doctrine and Nine Vehicles — he is currently completing a book on Buddhism and sexuality.
