Dalai creating a cult group with monks' suicides: Chinese media

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As China grappled to deal with recurring suicides of Tibetan Buddhist monks calling for return of The Dalai Lama, its official media accused the spiritual leader of trying to build a cult similar to that of 'Falun Gong', which Beijing managed to contain years ago.

"It is worth noting that the Dalai group saluted the monks as 'heroes,' but they never supported suicides in the same way", state-run Global Times said today in its editorial titled 'Dalai uses suicides for political gains.'

"The fact is that the more self-immolations happen in Tibet, the more comfortable the life of the Dalai group becomes", it said referring to 15 cases of self-immolations during the last few months including by two Nuns.

Overseas Tibetan groups say that the monks shout slogans demanding the return of Dalai Lama from his exile besides protesting the curbs on monks, whose numbers were stated be around 46000. "Since last year, there have been dozens of such cases. The victims are mostly young monks. The Dalai group erected monuments and held ceremonies for those who took their own lives, claiming them to be 'heroes,' but such a scene is by no means in accordance with Buddhist tradition", the editorial said.

"It is cruel to put political pressure on young Tibetan monks. They are unable to distinguish good from evil in international politics and cannot imagine they have been used", it said.

"The Dalai group should stop sacrificing these young monks. Those young lives are much more valuable than having the title of hero. The previous round of self-immolation suicides in China was conducted by followers of Falun Gong, a cult even acknowledged as such in the West. Hopefully the Dalai group will not become another cult. As time goes by, the believers of Tibetan Buddhism will finally know the Dalai Lama's true intentions", it said.

Falun Gong a banned out fit whose members protested against Chinese government holding public performances of Tai Chi, a Chinese ancient art form, a decade ago and contained them with heavy crackdown.

"The selfishness and ruthlessness of the Dalai group are carefully packaged by the West. The so-called 'Tibetan independence' or 'high degree of autonomy' that the Dalai group is pursuing are unreachable", it said.