Expressing concern over reports of continuing self-immolations in Tibet, the US appealed to Tibetans to refrain from drastic actions according to an article published on the Global Post on Feb.15, 2013.

According to the article, Victoria Nuland, spokesperson of the US State Department said in Washington on Friday: “We remain deeply concerned by the reports that these immolations are continuing.”

“We call on those who are immolating, or those who might be considering this, to think hard about whether it's the best way to express yourself,” Nuland said.

It is not the first time that US have appealed to Tibetans to stop committing self-immolations in 2013.

On Feb. 2, 2013, the New York Times, the major US media published an article titled “As Self-Immolations Near 100, Tibetans Question the Effect”, asking whether it is worth it.

As reported in the article that it was uncertain for the "leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile" whether the rest of the world was paying attention at all.

Yet even as the self-immolations have become central to the "protest movement" of the "Tibetan government-in-exile", a quiet debate has also been under way among Tibetans who are anguished over the deaths of their young men and who question how the acts reconcile with Buddhist teachings, the article said.

Again and again, speakers emphasized that the people who have self-immolated harmed only themselves.

According to Jin Canrong, vice-president of the School of International Studies of Remin University of China, in the spirit of Tibetan Buddhist commandants, life should be cherished. The self-immolation goes against the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, which is unadvisable.

In the recent open trial on instigated self-immolation cases, Phagpa, who is convicted of goading a monk to self-immolate and inciting splitting the state, was sentenced to 13 years in prison and repented his crime in a court in Qinghai Province.

Lyu Benqian, deputy chief of the Qinghai Provincial Public Security Department, said “some of the victims were frustrated and pessimistic in life, and they wanted to earn respect by self-immolation."

"Meanwhile, a few individuals with a strong sense of extreme nationalism showed sympathy with the self-immolators and followed their example," he added.

The self-immolation cases were influenced by the separatism of the Dalai Lama clique, as the Dalai Lama has prayed for self-immolators and Tibetan separatists overseas flaunt them as "heroes", according to the officer.