Violently Peaceful: Tibetan Self-Immolation and the Problem of the Non/Violence Binary

• Authors: John Soboslai
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper investigates the conceptual dichotomy of violence and nonviolence in reference to the self-immolations that have been taking place in Tibet for the last several years. First using the insights of Hannah Arendt to distinguish between the categories of violent, nonviolent and peaceful, I approach the question of violence as the problem of acts that transgress prohibitions against causing harm. Using that heuristic, I examine the ways multiple ethical systems are vying for recognition regarding the selfimmolations, and how a certain Buddhist ambivalence around extreme acts of devotion complicate any easy designations of the act as ‘violent’ or ‘nonviolent’. I conclude by suggesting how any such classification inculcates us into questions of power and assertions of appropriate authority.

Keywords

EN

Self-Immolation; Tibetan Buddhism; Violence and Nonviolence; Power; Transgression

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Open Theology
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1

Dates

received

2015-02-17

accepted

2015-03-18

online

2015-06-03

Contributors

author

John Soboslai

• University of California Santa Barbara

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/opth-2015-0004