https://goresee.com/videos/watch/6fe2d789-4298-4114-915e-f358dfd252db On May 24, 2013, Bowatte Indarathana, a 30-year-old Buddhist monk, set himself on fire outside the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka, during the Vesak holiday. He was protesting the slaughter of cattle and the alleged conversion of Buddhists by minority faiths, and he belonged to a Buddhist revivalist group campaigning against the Muslim halal method of slaughtering animals. Before setting himself alight with gasoline, he told a reporter from the private TV station Swarnavahini, "This is a sacrifice of a life. This is not a suicide," and cited the slaughter of over 5,000 cattle daily in Sri Lanka. Bystanders, including police, threw buckets of water on the flames, but he suffered 95 percent burns and died the next day at the National Hospital in Colombo. A senior government official, Charith Herath, told the BBC that the monk had forewarned a reporter from a private TV station of his plan, and the journalist filmed the suicide instead of preventing it. The government later announced an investigation into the media's role, with the Media Ministry Secretary stating that any reporter who knew in advance should have contacted police. The incident occurred amid rising religious tensions in Sri Lanka, where hardline Buddhist groups had been campaigning against halal slaughter and targeting Muslim establishments. Dozens of monks from the same group later staged a demonstration in Colombo after authorities rejected their demand for a state funeral. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 18:08:18 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://goresee.com https://goresee.com/lazy-static/avatars/8a2d859c-3edb-47ea-baa2-45e71cb804dc.png https://goresee.com/videos/watch/6fe2d789-4298-4114-915e-f358dfd252db All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://goresee.com/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.