BEIJING - The Dalai Lama has openly refused to condemn the act of lamas in China's Tibetan areas setting themselves on fire.

The so-called "spiritual leader" of Tibetan Buddhists this week turned a cold shoulder to the loss of life with an abrupt "No answer" to a journalist's question about whether monks should stop their self-immolation.

The Dalai Lama is apparently basking in glory these days, after receiving the 1.77-million-U.S. dollar Templeton Prize and meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, to the indignation and protest of the Chinese government.

The remnant influence of the "spiritual leader," even after his alleged retirement last year, delighted him so much that he does not seem to care about the loss of ordinary lives.

Or maybe he never did.

The lives of ordinary Tibetans were always considered dirt cheap under the Dalai Lama's rule in old Tibet.

The 14th Dalai Lama has allegedly been fighting for the rights and interests of Tibetans since he fled China in 1959. Such claims, however, are merely meant to appease devout Tibetan Buddhists who still have faith in him and to persuade his Western patrons to continue to support his "Tibet independence" movement, which aims eventually to separate Tibet from China.

With that goal in mind, the Dalai Lama was certainly happy to see the Tibet issue become an international political issue. Furthermore, the spate of self-immolations over the past year has served him well by drawing wider international attention.

It is thus easy to understand why the Dalai Lama has remained silent and apathetic toward the deaths and injuries resulting from these tragic events.

Instead of denouncing and calling for an end to the suicidal acts that deviate from the tenets of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama even praised the "courage" of the self-immolators.

More than 20 Tibetans have died from self-immolation since March 2011. Most of whom were lamas, nuns or former members of the clergy, said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

However, none of the self-immolations took place within the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of them took place in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

Investigators have found a striking similarity among the suicidal acts: Most of the self-immolators had shouted separatist slogans such as "Free Tibet" before setting themselves on fire.

In many cases, photos of the designated self-immolators had been sent in advance to separatist forces abroad, indicating that the self-immolations had been carefully planned.

After each of the tragedies, separatist forces immediately published these photos alongside pictures of the self-immolation scenes to play up the situation.

"Tibet independence" groups then notified the press, hoping to launch a media campaign highlighting their one-sided view of the events.

To encourage self-immolations, they even offered compensation for the dead.

This is clear evidence that the chain of tragic events was politically motivated and the Dalai Lama's separatist forces were behind them.

Such apathy and cruel reality make us even more aggrieved over the loss of innocent lives. These misguided people have made senseless sacrifices for an illegal undertaking that has been wrongly painted as rosy, and for an idol who has used them just to achieve his personal goals.