JAIPUR, India — An American man died after setting himself on fire in an abandoned Buddhist center in northwestern India, leaving a cryptic suicide note that blamed his death on "cruel incidents" in his homeland and India, police said Thursday.
The charred body of Jeff Canabel, a 72-year-old Californian, was found by villagers at a meditation site in Rajasthan state, said Mohan Singh, a superintendent of police.
North Africa and the Middle East have seen a series of self-immolations since a Tunisian man burned himself last month, triggering a popular uprising that deposed the government there. Self-immolation has also been used by Buddhists as a form of protest —American man burns himself to death in India most notably by monk Thich Quang Duc, who sets himself ablaze on a Saigon street became an iconic image of protest against the Vietnam War.
Canabel's note, however, did not reference Tunisia. "I am killing myself because of cruel incidents in both the US and in India," he wrote, according to police.
