According to media reports, several self-immolations have occurred recently in Tibetan-inhabited regions in west China's Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces bordering Tibet. These were due to others' incitement, instigation and coercion, according to the master.
The self-immolators include both monks and lay people, which "makes me extremely sorrowful and regretful," the eminent monk said.
Buddhist doctrine opposes killing and suicide and it preaches protecting lives, he said, stressing, "Buddha explicitly bans and scolds suicides."
The belief that self-immolations do not violate Buddhist doctrine is "completely ungrounded," said Chuan Yin, who instead described inducing, encouraging or even praising suicides as "an extremely severe crime."
2012 highway traffic emergency drill held in C China's Hubei