Violently Peaceful: Tibetan Self-Immolation and the Problem of the Non/Violence Binary
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 app...
| 1. VerfasserIn: | |
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2015
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| In: |
Open theology
Jahr: 2015, Band: 1, Heft: 1, Seiten: 146–159 |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Tibetan Buddhism
B Self-immolation B Transgression B Violence and Nonviolence B Power |
| Online-Zugang: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Zusammenfassung: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 2300-6579 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Open theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/opth-2015-0004 |
