Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (Reuters)
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (Reuters)Reuters

The Dalai Lama encourages 'deluded' Tibetans to self-immolate and has put up a 'Self-immolation Guide' on the Internet, China has said in a white paper released on Wednesday.

The paper says the Dalai Lama is 'duping' Buddhists into believing that 'self-immolation does not go against Buddhist doctrine' but is 'martyrdom and Bodhisattva deeds', according to China's Xinhua news agency. 

The white paper, titled 'Tibet's Path of Development Is Driven by an Irresistible Historical Tide', was issued by the Information Office of the State Council on Wednesday. 

It says 'the Dalai group leadership began to incite Tibetan lamas and lay followers inside China to engage in acts of self-immolation, leading to a series of such incidents in a number of regions'. 

Chinese public security agencies which investigated the rising cases of -self-immolation found that the people were being 'manipulated at the highest level by the Dalai group', it says. 

The paper has also accused the Dalai Lama group of publishing a 'Self-immolation Guide on the Internet' to serve as 'an instruction manual to incite Tibetans in China to burn themselves'. 

It says the Tibetan leader's group was losing public support for its 'use of violence' and resorted to the strategy of 'provoking incidents of violence' to pressurize the government, while maintaining an image of non-violence in the international domain. 

The paper also claims that the Chinese government had offered the spiritual leader to 'repent his ways', but he continued to push for Tibetan independence. 

"They have unilaterally broken off contacts and negotiation with the central government on several occasions. When they thought the situation was working to their disadvantage, they would call for contacts with the central government; when they thought the situation was in their favor, they would break off these contacts," the paper said of the Dalai Lama and his supporters. 

The paper lists a series of violent incidents that it attributes to the 'Dalai party'.