The past two or three years have seen repeated self-immolations in Tibetan-inhabited areas, many of the victims being young-aged monks or herdsmen. After each case, certain media or those who support the Dalai camp would jump out and claim those brutal suicides as a sign of Tibetans’ desperation under the rule of the Chinese government.

As the number of self-immolation gradually increases, more and more people are concerned about the situation in Tibet. Nevertheless, they are put into a conundrum by entirely contrary media coverage. On one hand, they fear that Tibet might be “as dire as hell” as some media asserts. On the other hand, they see with their own eyes photos and videos of the happy life of Tibetan monks and ordinary people published in Chinese media.

Thus, as contemplations go, there appear different but intriguing opinions on the internet.

One netizen insist that those self-immolators are not pointed at by a gun. On this level, it is a voluntary act. Only if self-immolation is that simple!

Another netizen at the UK politics forum said, "You can't tell me that 13 year kid burned himself voluntarily without any incitation. These cases are no different than fanatical suicide bombers prepared as such by their puppet masters." In this respect, it is involuntary.

In Islam countries where there are nonstop barrages and tumultuous political situations, some islamists dress with bombs attached to their bodies in order to carry out clandestine missions. They are categorized as terrorism, a violent act that is intended to create fear and is perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal.

Self-immolation, as in its own case, is with political agenda. The "Tibet independence force" has, for more than one time, claimed that self-immolators appealed for "the return of Dalai to motherland". At the same time, it is a violent act creating psychological fear among people and social unrest, a mental violence indeed.

However, the reporting of suicide attacks and self-immolations are different in some western media. They call the former terrorism and the latter "voluntary act of Tibetans to protest against the Chinese rule". They blame Islam group leaders (they claim the responsibility for some of the cases) for planning suicide attacks but quick to disconnect the Dalai group with self-immolations.

In the case of Tibet, some people, as media advocate, regard the Dalai Lama as the icon and spiritual leader of Buddhism in Tibetans’ mind. True. But meanwhile please do not underestimate the role of a spiritual leader whose another identity is the then-leader of an autocratic and theocratic slavery regime before Tibet was emancipated in 1951.