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Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire. It is mostly done for political or religious reasons, often as a form of protest or in acts of martyrdom, and known for its disturbing and violent nature.
The human body has an inflammatory response to burnt skin, which happens after 25% is burnt in adults. This response leads to blood and body fluid loss. If the self-immolator is not taken to a burn centre in less than four hours, they are more likely to die from shock. If no more than 80% of their body area is burnt and the self-immolator is younger than 40 years old, there is a survival chance of 50%. If the self-immolator has over 80% burns, the survival rate drops to 20%.
There are several well-known examples from antiquity to modern times. Kalanos, also spelled Calanus () Plutarch, Life of Alexander, §8 ( – 323 BCE), was an ancient Indian Gymnosophists, and philosopher from Taxila who accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and later, after falling ill, self-immolated by entering into a pyre, in front of Alexander and his army. Diodorus Siculus called him Caranus (). Diodorus Siculus, Library, 17.107.1 Zarmanochegas was a monk of the Sramana tradition (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who, according to ancient historians such as Strabo and Dio Cassius, met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch around 22 BC and burnt himself to death in Athens shortly thereafter.Strabo, xv, 1, on the immolation of the Sramana in Athens (Paragraph 73).Dio Cassius, liv, 9; see also Halkias, Georgios "The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic world". Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. VIII, 2015: 163–186 [6]
The monk Fayu (c=法羽) (d. 396) carried out the earliest recorded Chinese self-immolation.Benn (2007), 33–34. He first informed the "illegitimate" prince Yao Xu (c=姚緒)—brother of Yao Chang who founded the non-Chinese Qiang people state Later Qin (384–417)—that he intended to burn himself alive. Yao tried to dissuade Fayu, but he publicly swallowed incense chips, wrapped his body in oiled cloth, and chanted while setting fire to himself. The religious and lay witnesses were described as being "full of grief and admiration".
Following Fayu's example, many Buddhist monks and nuns have used self-immolation for political purposes. While some monks did offer their bodies in periods of relative prosperity and peace, there is a "marked coincidence" between acts of self-immolation and times of crisis, especially when secular powers were hostile towards Buddhism.(2007), 199. For example, Daoxuan's (c. 667) Xu Gaoseng Zhuan (l=Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks) records five monastics who self-immolated on the Zhongnan Mountains in response to the 574–577 persecution of Buddhism by Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou (known as the "Second Disaster of Wu").Benn (2007), 80–82.
For many monks and laypeople in Chinese history, self-immolation was a form of Buddhist practice that modeled and expressed a particular path that led towards Buddhahood.
Historian Jimmy Yu has stated that self-immolation cannot be interpreted based on Buddhist doctrine and beliefs alone but the practice must be understood in the larger context of the Chinese religious landscape. He examines many primary sources from the 16th and 17th century and demonstrates that bodily practices of self-harm, including self-immolation, were ritually performed not only by Buddhists but also by Daoism and literati officials who either exposed their naked body to the sun in a prolonged period of time as a form of self-sacrifice or burned themselves as a method of procuring rain.
During the Raskol, entire villages of Old Believers burned themselves to death in an act known as "fire baptism" (self-burners: samosozhigateli). A 1973 study by a prison doctor suggested that people who choose self-immolation as a form of suicide are more likely to be in a "disturbed state of consciousness", such as epilepsy.
Self-immolations are often public and political statements that are often reported by the news media. They can be seen by others as a type of altruistic suicide for a collective cause, and are not intended to inflict physical harm on others or cause material damage.
On 2 November 1965, Norman Morrison, an anti-war activist, doused himself in kerosene and set himself on fire below the office of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at the Pentagon, to protest United States involvement in the Vietnam War. "The Pacifists", Time Magazine, 12 November 1965; accessed 23 July 2007.
In 1972, Romas Kalanta, a 19-year-old Lithuanian student self-immolated to protest against the Soviet regime in Lithuania, sparking the 1972 unrest in Lithuania; another 13 people self-immolated in that same year.
In 1978, Ukrainian dissident and former political prisoner Oleksa Hirnyk burnt himself near the tomb of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko protesting against the russification of Ukraine under Soviet rule. On 2 March 1989, Liviu Cornel Babeș set himself on fire on the Bradu ski slope at Poiana Brașov as a sign of protest against the Communist regime.
On 25 February 2024, Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty U.S. Air Force service member, self-immolated outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in protest against the United States' ongoing support for Israel. He lit himself on fire while shouting "Free Palestine". It was filmed and livestreamed on Twitch. Bushnell died of his injuries on 26 February.
On 11 September 2024, a man named Matt Nelson self-immolated outside the Israeli consulate and the Four Seasons hotel in Boston in protest of the United States' ongoing support for Israel. He recorded a video urging the United States government to stop sending weapons to Israel.
On 5 October 2024, a photojournalist named Samuel Mena Jr. attempted to self-immolate in front of the White House in Washington DC at a pro-Palestinian protest. He survived with burn injuries to his arm and was taken to a hospital.
Other cases of self-immolation:
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