Burning for (Sinhala) Buddhism?
Image from Sunday Leader First, I want to convey my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of late Venerable Bōwatte Indrarathana (VBI) for the shocking and untimely way he embraced his death on the most venerable day of the Buddhist calendar. No amount of academic analysis will bring a life back. However, we must move on and learn from this how to avoid such tragedies. Such learning cannot come without preliminary analyses of the reasons and backgrounds. Suicides are at least three major types: Suicide for personal reasons of shame or pain, Suicide as a military attack and Suicide as a political protest. Irrespective of the doubts if that was a pre-arranged publicity tactic, I consider the suicide of VBI as a political act embedded in the Buddhist tradition. This essay is a brief reflection on his death and the politics of it. Politics of Suicide The act of suicide is historical, supra cultural and could be reviewed from…
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