
Mass suicide is a form of
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves. Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. In war, defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured.
Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of depressed or hopeless people. Mass suicides have been used as a form of political protest.
Attitudes towards mass suicide change according to place and circumstance. People who resort to mass suicide rather than submit to what they consider intolerable oppression sometimes become the focus of a heroic myth. Such mass suicides might also win the grudging respect of the victors. On the other hand, the act of people resorting to mass suicide without being threatened – especially, when driven to this step by a charismatic religious leader, for reasons which often seem obscure – tends to be regarded far more negatively.
Historical mass suicides
* Following the destruction of the Iberian city of
Illiturgis by Roman General
Publius Cornelius Scipio in 206 BC, people of
Astapa – knowing they faced a similar fate – decided to burn the city with all of its treasures and then kill themselves.
* According to Roman historians, after the
Battle of Aquae Sextiae
The Battle of Aquae Sextiae (Aix-en-Provence) took place in 102 BC. After a string of Roman defeats (see: the Battle of Noreia, the Battle of Burdigala, and the Battle of Arausio), the Romans under Gaius Marius finally defeated the Teutones ...
in 102 BC, 300
Teuton
The Teutons (, ; ) were an ancient northern European tribe mentioned by Roman authors. The Teutons are best known for their participation, together with the Cimbri and other groups, in the Cimbrian War with the Roman Republic in the late seco ...
women committed mass suicide following their loss.
* At the end of the fifteen months of the
siege of Numantia
The Celtiberian oppidum of Numantia was attacked more than once by Roman forces, but the siege of Numantia refers to the culminating and pacifying action of the long-running Numantine War between the forces of the Roman Republic and those of ...
in summer 133 BC, many of the defeated
Numantines preferred to kill themselves instead of surrendering to the Romans and set fire to the city.
* The 960 members of the
Sicarii
The Sicarii were a group of Jewish assassins who were active throughout Judaea in the years leading up to and during the First Jewish–Roman War, which took place at the end of the Second Temple period. Often associated with the Zealots (altho ...
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
community at
Masada
Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising ov ...
collectively killed themselves in 73 AD rather than be conquered and enslaved by the
Romans. Each man killed his wife and children, then the men
drew lots and killed each other until the last man killed himself. Some modern scholars have questioned this account of the events.
* In the 700s, the remnants of the
Montanists
Montanism (), known by its adherents as the New Revelation, was an early Christian movement of the mid-to-late 2nd century, later referred to by the name of its founder, Montanus. Montanism held views about the basic tenets of Christian theo ...
were ordered by Byzantine Emperor
Leo III to leave their religion and join orthodox Christianity. They refused, locked themselves in their places of worship, and set them on fire.
* In
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, the mass suicide, also known as
Jauhar
Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was a Hindu Rajput practice of mass self-immolation by women and girls in the Indian subcontinent to avoid capture, sex slavery, enslavement, and rape when facing certain defeat during a war. Some repo ...
, was carried out by women and men of the defeated community, when the fall of a city besieged by the enemy forces was certain. Some of the known cases of Jauhar of
Rajput
Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...
women are at the fort of
Chittaur in Rajasthan, in 1303, in 1535, and 1568.
* In 1336, when the castle of
Pilėnai
Pilėnai (also ''Pillenen'' in German) was a hill fort in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its location is unknown and is subject to academic debates, but it is well known in the history of Lithuania due to its heroic defense against the Teutonic O ...
in the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...
was besieged by the army of the
Teutonic Knights
The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...
, the defenders, led by the Duke
Margiris
Margiris or Margis (died 25 February 1336) was a Grand Duchy of Lithuania, medieval Lithuanian/Samogitian prince, mentioned by Caspar Schütz, via Wigand of Marburg, as the heroic defender of Pilėnai fortress in 1336. Not able to defend the fort ...
, realized that it was impossible to defend themselves any longer and made the decision to kill themselves, as well as to set the castle on fire in order to destroy all of their possessions, and anything of value to the enemy.
* In 1792,
Revolutionary France abolished
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
in its Caribbean colonies. However, in 1802
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
decided to restore slavery. In
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
, former slaves who refused to be re-enslaved started a rebellion, led by
Louis Delgrès, and for some time resisted the French Army sent to suppress them – but finally realized that they could not win, and still they refused to surrender. At the
Battle of Matouba on 28 May 1802, Delgrès and his followers – 400 men and some women – ignited their gunpowder stores, killing themselves while attempting to kill as many of the French troops as possible.
* During the
Turkish rule of Greece and shortly before the
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...
, women from
Souli, pursued by the
Ottomans
Ottoman may refer to:
* Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire
* Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II"
* Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...
, ascended the mount
Zalongo, threw their children over the
precipice
In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are co ...
and then jumped themselves, to avoid capture – an event known as the
Dance of Zalongo.
* During the
Battle of Okinawa
The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...
, many of the island's civilians committed mass suicide using grenades or jumping off cliffs rather than be captured by the invading American forces.
* In the final phase of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...
, many of the fighters besieged in the "bunker" at
Miła 18 killed themselves by ingesting poison rather than surrender to the Nazis.
* Germany was stricken by a series of unprecedented
waves of suicides during the final days of the Nazi regime. On 1 May 1945, about 1,000 residents of
Demmin
Demmin () is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in north-eastern Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Demmin.
Geography
Demmin lies on the West Pomeranian plain at the confluen ...
, Germany,
committed mass suicide in the advent of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
's capture of the town.
* A
Balinese mass ritual suicide is called a
puputan. Major puputan occurred in 1906–1908 when Balinese kingdoms faced overwhelming
Dutch colonial forces. The root of the
Balinese term ''puputan'' is ''puput'', meaning 'finishing' or 'ending'. It is an act that is more symbolic than strategic; the Balinese are "a people whose genius for theatre is unsurpassed" and a puputan is viewed as "the last act of a tragic dance-drama".
* During the final days of the
Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was an amphibious assault launched by the United States against the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War, Pacific campaign of World War II between 15 June and 9 July 1944. The initial invasion triggered the Battle of the ...
, over 1,000 Japanese citizens would die in mass suicides, many throwing themselves off the "
Suicide Cliff" and "
Banzai Cliff".
* 90 women committed mass suicide by drowning themselves during the
partition of India
The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
.
Religiously motivated suicides
Old Believers (17th–18th centuries)
During the
Great Schism of the Russian Church, entire villages of Old Believers burned themselves to death in an act known as "fire baptism". This act took place over several decades. At least 20,000 Old Believers would die due to this practice.
Bekeranta (1840s)
In 19th century
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...
, Awakaipu, an
Arekuna shaman, established a settlement of indigenous tribesmen called ''Bekeranta'' (
Berbice Creole Dutch
Berbice Creole Dutch (also known as Berbice Dutch) is a now extinct Dutch creole language, once spoken in Berbice, a region along the Berbice River in Guyana. It had a lexicon largely based on Dutch and Eastern Ijo varieties from southern Nig ...
meaning "Land of the White People") at the base of
Kukenán-tepui
Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is a tepui in Bolivar State, Bolívar State, Guayana Region, Venezuela. It has an estimated surface area of 2185 hectares (equivalent to 21.85 square kilometres). It is high and about 3 km (1.9&n ...
. In approximately 1843 or 1844, Awakaipu instructed his followers to violently murder each other in order to
reincarnate
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan in a different physical form or body after biological death. In most be ...
themselves as white people. Unofficial figures put the death toll at around 400, which included men, women, and children.
Yogmaya's Jal Samadhi (1941)
Yogmaya Neupane and her group of 67 disciples committed the biggest mass suicide (Jal-Samadhi) in Nepali history, by jumping into the
Arun River (China–Nepal) in 1941.
Peoples Temple (1978)

On November 18, 1978, 918 people died in
Peoples Temple–related incidents, led by
Jim Jones
James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrat ...
, in
Jonestown
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious movement under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became in ...
and
Georgetown in Guyana. Using cyanide and tranquilizers, more than 200 children were murdered in the incident, and many of the elderly were forcibly injected with poison. Many of the adults seem to have died willingly, though this is contested and there was dissent. Jones declared the act a "revolutionary suicide", which had been used as a term within the group even prior to the massacre.
Solar Temple (1994–1997)
From 1994 to 1997, the
Order of the Solar Temple's members began a series of mass suicides and murders, which led to roughly 74 deaths. The first occurred
in Switzerland in 1994, followed by additional deaths in
France in 1995, and finally a mass suicide in
Quebec in 1997. The group was led by
Joseph Di Mambro
Joseph Léonce Di Mambro (19 August 1924 – 5 October 1994) was a French esotericist who founded and led the Order of the Solar Temple alongside Luc Jouret. Di Mambro had been associated with a variety of esoteric groups before founding OTS. ...
, alongside
Luc Jouret. Farewell letters were left by members, stating that they believed their deaths would be an escape from the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world". Members believed that a death was a "transition" to another state of being.
Heaven's Gate (1997)
In March 1997, 39 followers of
Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide in
Rancho Santa Fe, California. The group, led by
Marshall Applewhite and
Bonnie Nettles, believed that through their deaths they were exiting their human "vessels", which would allow them to advance to the "Next Level" via a spaceship they believed to be following
comet Hale–Bopp
Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.
Alan Hale (astronomer), Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp disc ...
.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (2000)
On March 17, 2000, several hundred members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in Uganda. While initially declared by the government and media a mass suicide, this was later changed to one of mass murder, due to the discovery of decomposing bodies nearby with signs of a more violent death. Anthropologist
Richard Vokes
''Ghosts of Kanungu: Fertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa'' is a book by Richard Vokes about the cult the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTC), notorious for the deaths of hundreds of i ...
, who wrote a 2009 book on the case following his own investigation, ''
Ghosts of Kanungu'', criticized the official interpretation of events (that it was mass murder); he argued that it had actually been a mass suicide and that the decomposing bodies were entirely unrelated to the group. John Walliss, in an analysis of the hypotheses relating to the group, viewed Vokes' theory as the most convincing.
Béchard Lane Eckankar (2004)
In August 2004, ten dead bodies were discovered, all in a sleeping position, inside a two-story house located at Béchard Lane in the suburb of Saint Paul,
Vacoas-Phoenix
Vacoas-Phoenix () also known as French language, French: ''Villes Jumelles'' (Twin Cities), is a town in Mauritius, located in the Plaines Wilhems District, the eastern part also lies in the Moka District. The town is administered by the Municipal ...
on the island of
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
. They had been missing for a number of days, and large loans had been contracted by some of the victims a short time before their deaths. Several of them were active members of the
Eckankar sect. The main gate and all doors of the house had been locked from the inside, and the interior was in tidy order when police broke into the house.
Adam House (2007)
In 2007, in
Mymensingh
Mymensingh () is a metropolis, metropolitan city and capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of the Old Brahmaputra River, Brahmaputra River, about north of the national capital Dhaka, it is a major financial center ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
, a family of nine, all members of a novel "Adam's cult", committed mass suicide by hurling themselves under a train. Diaries recovered from the victims' home, the "Adam House", related they wanted a pure life as lived by Adam and Eve, freeing themselves from bondage to any religion, and refusing contact with any outsiders. After leaving
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
, they fell out of boundaries of any particular religion.
Burari deaths (2018)
In 2018, eleven family members of the Chundawat family were found dead in their home in
Burari, India. Ten family members were found
hanged, while the oldest family member, the grandmother, was
strangled. The bodies were found on 1 July 2018; in the early morning after the death. The police have ruled the deaths as mass suicide, with an angle of
shared psychosis being investigated.
German cult deaths (2019)
In May 2019, five members of a "medieval sex cult" were found dead in what investigators believe to be a mass suicide or consensual homicide-suicide. Two bodies were discovered in a flat in
Wittingen
Wittingen () is a town in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is about northeast of Gifhorn, and southeast of Uelzen.
Division of the town
Wittingen consists of 27 districts:
History
The earliest identified record of Wittin ...
and three more, including the leader, in a hotel near
Passau
Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.
Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...
.
Shakahola massacre (2023)
In April 2023, 110 dead bodies were found in the
Shakahola forest, near
Malindi
Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River, lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa. The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It is the largest urban centr ...
, Kenya.
Rescued survivors stated that they had been ordered to starve themselves to death by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the
Malindi cult. As of June 2024, the death toll has risen to 448.
See also
*
Cult
Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...
*
Religious fanaticism
*
Puputan
*
Folie à deux
References
Works cited
*
*
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