CNN recently ran a story on their website entitled… An Act of faith, desperation or protest: Self-Immolations through time, featuring the famous picture of Thich Quang Duc burning himself to death while meditating in Vietnam in 1963. Here is the link to that story: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/19/self.immolation.history/
The article makes reference to a book by James A. Benn entitled… Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Mr. Benn is an Associate Professor of Religion at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The book was published in 2007. Portions of it are available on Google Books; here is the link: http://books.google.ca/books?id=dWL6EEkL8goC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Burning+for+the+Buddha:+Self-Immolation+in+Chinese+Buddhism&source=bl&ots=uWxRf0cuKk&sig=ouCtIBzMgk-dxLvdJETaUyKgQ7Q&hl=en&ei=qbU-TeyTAYnagAeFydjkCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false
The book was reviewed by the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Here is the link to that review: http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/1/198.full
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