“The press talked about suicide at the time, but essentially that’s not the case. It’s not even a protest,” Thich Nhat Hanh wrote of the monks, adding that “burning oneself by fire is to prove that what one says is paramount. There is nothing more painful than burning yourself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with the utmost courage, candor, determination and sincerity.
David Buckel, a prominent civil rights lawyer turned environmental advocate, also set himself on fire in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in 2018 to protest climate change and died. In a preliminary letter, Mr. Buckel alluded to the spiritual roots of self-immolation in protests, including in Tibet.
Mr Bruce had recently edited a 2021 comment on his own Facebook page nearly three weeks before his act — below his 2020 post warning of “irreversible” climate change — to include the date of his planned self-immolation with a fire emoji. The apparent announcement of his plans was buried in his account’s timeline.
Other posts from Mr. Bruce’s Facebook account dating back to April 2020 criticized “war profiteers,” President Donald J. Trump and collective inaction in the face of a worsening climate crisis. He also praised young climate activist Greta Thunberg, quoted Dr. King, and spoke of the “compassion” of Ukrainian refugees in March.
dr. Kritee said the last time Mr. Bruce communicated with her was in a Facebook message he sent in January asking if she’d seen his message about Ms. Thunberg. She added that if she or any other Buddhist teacher in Boulder had known of his plan to set himself on fire, they would have discouraged him from doing so.
There have been previous instances of public self-immolation in Washington. Arnav Gupta burned himself in front of the White House in 2019 and later died of his injuries. A motive has never been established in that case. Mohamed Alanssi, a Yemen-born FBI informant, set himself on fire outside the White House in 2004 to protest his treatment by the government, but he survived. Norman R. Morrison, a Quaker man, burned himself outside the Pentagon in 1965 to protest the Vietnam War.
