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Most victims abandoned the idea of self-immolation after their families, local government officials and police officers intervened.
Lorang Konchok had pressured Zhaso and Sogdoi, both 28, to light themselves on fire. After Zhaso and Sogdoi decided to abandon the suicide attempts, Lorang Konchok continued to harass them, urging the two to commit self-immolation as soon as possible. Fearing for their lives, Zhaso and Sogdoi escaped Aba and did not return until Lorang Konchok and Lorang Tsering were apprehended by the police.
Though the two suspects spared no effort to incite others to self immolate, they lacked the courage to do so themselves.
"I am afraid of death and I cannot bear the pain of self-burning," Lorang Konchok said, "I don't want to be a self-immolation hero."
The two suspects will be charged with intentional homicide, local police said.
With 130 years of history, the Kirti Monastery is home to 1,000 monks, including more than 100 teenage monks.
It is a tradition for local people to send children to the monastery to become acolytes who grow up barely knowing the world outside their cloisters. Separatists like Lorang Konchok have many opportunities to instill poisonous ideas in their highly impressionable minds. Thus, young monks go to such extremes without any apprehension.
"In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a classic saying that the human body is precious. This is a fundamental thought of Buddhism," said Xiong Kunxin, a professor studying ethnic culture and policy at Minzu University of China in Beijing.
Abstaining from killing and suicide is one of the primary precepts in Buddhist monastic discipline, according to Xiong.
"If the Dalai Lama could stand out and make an explicit statement to oppose self-immolation, that would be the effective way to stop these suicides," Xiong said. "But the Dalai Lama appears very ambiguous on the issue, which actually encourages such extreme behavior."
During a visit to the United States in October, the Dalai Lama told NBC that he was "quite certain" that if people sacrificed themselves with sincere motivation, "from the Buddhist viewpoint, from the religious viewpoint, it is positive."
Recently, the Dalai Lama even declared it should be made clear to every Tibetan that those who burn themselves to death under the rule of the Communist Party will be reborn in the world of free Tibet in the future. Such absurd remarks illustrate the Dalai Lama's strong support for suicidal acts.
In addition, Lobsang Sangay, head of the so-called "Tibetan government in exile" in Dharamsala, north India, which is not acknowledged by any state in the world, announced his support for self-immolation many times. At a meeting in October 2011, he called on followers to spread self-immolation from Aba to other Tibetan-inhabited areas. Moreover, Lobsang Sangay said that the media liaison team worked well during a conversation with the exiled Kirti tulku. In October, Lobsang Sangay continued his encouragement for self-immolation and told followers not to lose confidence at a Buddhist gathering.
"Most of the self-burning victims are young people around 20 years old. Young people are generally naive and innocent and vulnerable to being cheated by their deeply believed spiritual leaders," Xiong said.
According to the professor, because of their very young age, the victims in self-immolation accidents have not established mature values on life and religion.
"The Dalai Lama and his followers make use of these characteristics to achieve their political purposes," Xiong said. "They neither accord with Buddhist doctrine nor conform to humanitarian principles."
The self-immolation incidents disturbed the stability in Aba. The local government has made effort to save victims and prevent such incidents from re-occuring.
"We have increased patrol to stop self-immolation attempts," said Garang Phontsug, a police officer in Aba. He witnessed a young monk attempting self-immolation in the street on March 16 and rushed to the man with a fire extinguisher.
"It was within five minutes we sent the burning man to a hospital. The only thing we wanted was to save his life," said Garang Phontsug. Unfortunately, the man died in the hospital.
Song Guangjun is a surgeon with the People's Hospital in Aba. He has treated several victims of self-immolation.
"The victims are very young. Though some of them survived thanks to immediate treatment, their lives have been ruined," Song said.
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