BEIJING (Reuters) - A wave of self-immolations by Tibetan Buddhist monks at a monastery in southwest China is a form of extremism that degrades the religion, state media reported a senior monk at a Beijing-backed organisation saying on Monday.
Eight young men in ethnically Tibetan parts of Sichuan province have set themselves on fire since March in opposition to religious controls by Beijing, which labels their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a violent separatist.
"The recent chain of self-immolation attempts by monks has triggered public bewilderment and repulsion, causing the public to gradually lose faith," said Gyalton, vice president of the Sichuan Provincial Buddhist Association, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
"Tibetan Buddhism stresses benevolence and caring, and is a complete system of faith and sublime values as a result of its opposition to blind superstition," said the monk, who Xinhua called a Living Buddha.
Gyalton said suicide for any reason is against human nature and deviates from the tenets of Buddhism.
China last week criticised the Dalai Lama for not denouncing the spate of self-immolations, calling his stance a violation of Buddhist principles.
The latest man to set himself on fire on Saturday was a 19-year-old former monk at the Kirti monastery in Aba prefecture in Sichuan province, an exiled Tibetan activist and the London-based Free Tibet group said.
Police extinguished the flames and beat the man, the activist said, adding that he did not die in the course of his protest but that his whereabouts were unknown.
China in August jailed three monks for their involvement in the March self-immolation by another monk named Phuntsog, which spurred a crackdown and the month-long detention of about 300 Tibetan monks.
At least three of the eight monks who have set themselves on fire are believed to have died.
China has controlled Tibet since Communist troops marched in 1950. It says its rule has bought much needed development to a poor and backward region.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama denies being a separatist and says he wants autonomy and not independence for Tibet.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
