"Free" Tibet?
I don't get why is everyone so in love with the Dalai Lama, and so eager to give him the benefit of the doubt. The nation of Tibet was a religious dictatorship, led by a sixteen-year-old(!) when China annexed it.
Why all the great PR? Is it because he smiles so often and wears those bright colors? Because Buddhism is so hip these days?
We have no recent track record for how he'd govern (China invaded in 1950 and the Dalai Lama was forced to sign over sovereignty in May of 1951). The government-in-exile is a democracy, but as Yasser Arafat can tell you, it's easier to agitate for a homeland than it is to run one.
Yeah, China treats the Tibetans disgracefully, but shouldn't the "Free Tibet" crowd be as cynical as they are in other political matters?
i want to say, did u ask any tibetans who have been under the rule of the dalai lama before china annexed it..they will tell u that it was 10000 times way better then how china is ruling over tibet..if we could free tibet overselves then we would have without asking other nations for help.i feel u shouldnt be talking about the dalai lama that way unless u meet him urself and ask him what u just mentioned above, he'll answer u truthfully. and he wears those bright colors because thats way of the buddhism..all monks wear red and yellow.
I am a tibetan,my parents lost their childhood and their parents now our culture is almost lost..Dalai lama is trying his best to help save our culture,i doubt that China would give back our country but we still hope maybe oneday. i understand why u feel that way, maybe its bcos all these sudden buddhism is fashion but we certainly dont take it that way and if it is in fashion then we are happy to get our message across when we can . who knows later when buddhism is not in fashion no one would listen to us. Dalai lama does visit alot of cities in the us, canada and europe every year, I hope one day when u have the chance you should go visit him then maybe you'll understand what i have to say. i hope u wont mind what i have said to u, i meant to share my opinions only.
Yeah, China is bad. I'm just saying -- I'm skeptical about how well an unelected religious leader-for-life would govern.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg on December 4, 2006 11:19 PM | permalink10000 times better? For who? Not the slaves, I bet. I think China did a lot of things wrong, but I think there are also real issues that get ignored when talking about Tibetans' rights. In any conflict there are winners and losers. Many of the losers in this case used to enjoy immense wealth including the Dalai Lama before the conflict so of course they are bitter. I would be bitter, too. But I think promoting "free Tibet" only distracts everyone from taking steps forward and really improving the lives of Tibetans in Tibet. My boyfriend has said that mostly Westerners just say "free Tibet" because the Dalai Lama looks cool. Also, it is fashionable in the West to be anti-China even though most people don't know anything about China. It's not just the Chinese who have propaganda, you know.
Posted by: yang on August 9, 2007 10:33 AM | permalinkThis is a copy of my blog post of December 12 2007
Don't Free Tibet!
Today I saw a 'Free Tibet' bumper sticker. Free Tibet for what? A return to religious tyranny and despotism whereby 90% of the population were subjected to slavery or serfdom, coerced by the threat of mutilation, amputation and torture by buddhist priests?
Gelder and Gelder in their book, The Timely Rain, quote a chilling interview with a former Tibetan serf, Tsereh Wang Tuei, who, having stolen two sheep from a monastery had both his eyes gouged out and his hand mutilated, upon the orders of the holy lama. The Dalai Lama may have marketed himself very successfully to the West as the spiritual leader of a religion of kindness, but the historical record shows that Tibetan Buddhist theocracy is far from kind and compassionate. The Tibetan people were oppressed and abused by their priestly government.
If the history of mankind has shown anything, it is that separation of religious belief from government is a safeguard for the rights of people, be it the religion of Yahweh, Christ, Mohammed or Buddha.
Although far from perfect, under the communists slavery and serfdom were abolished, along with the crushing taxes and vile forms of physical punishment exacted by the monasteries. Land owned by the lamas was distributed to the peasants. The first hospitals were built and a system of secular education for all was instituted. The Tibetan people may yearn for liberation from the Chinese communist government, and for a return of their religious leader, but I doubt if they long for a return to the feudal, fascist, sexist, occultic cruelty that Tibetan Buddhism represents.
The Washington Post in 1999 reported
Many Tibetan farmers, for example, have no interest in surrendering the land they gained during China's land reform. Tibet's former slaves say they, too, don't want their former masters to return to power."I've already lived that life once before," said Wangchuk, a 67-year-old former slave who was wearing his best clothes for his yearly pilgrimage to Shigatse, one of the holiest sites of Tibetan Buddhism. He said he worshipped the Dalai Lama, but added, "I may not be free under Chinese communism, but I am better off than when I was a slave."
Underneath the veneer of the Dalai Lama's benign smile is an aggressive political agenda with an eschatology - an end times belief - every bit as violent and as intolerant as the Christian vision of the Apocalypse, except, of course, that Tibetan Buddhism rises in the East and conquers the evil forces of the West, under the banner of Shambhala, to impose its dominionist vision on the world.
To a western audience he downplays this as mere metaphor, to his Tibetan adherents he means it quite literally.
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