TIBETANS STRUGGLE AS THEY DEAL WITH
AN ORWELLIAN GOVERNMENT
By Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho (ngier@uidaho.edu)
To execute images go to www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/tibet.htm
In 1999 I visited the Drepung Monastery, 3 miles outside of Lhasa. There I saw firsthand evidence of Chairman Mao's Red Guard attack in 1966. Political graffiti defaced the walls of the huge temple complex in which 10,000 monks used to reside. The Red Guards destroyed two of the four colleges, and they either killed or exiled all but 500 of the monks. Since 1959, an estimated 1 million Tibetans have died and 6,000 monasteries destroyed.
Everywhere I went Tibetans either flashed a picture of the Dalai Lama, or asked if I could give them a picture. Possessing his picture is illegal, so I was surprised to find several his pictures on open display in a travel office I visited.
The Drepung monastery was in the news again in October, 2007, when monks openly celebrated the Dalai Lama's receipt of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Chinese police sealed off the monastery and arrested an unspecified number of monks. President Bush was the first U.S. president to appear in public with the Dalai Lama, and Chinese authorities were understandably irate.
Always ready to defend Tibetan rights, over 300 Drepung monks marched on Lhasa on March 10, 2008. Half way to the capital city, they were stopped by the police, many were beaten, and 50-60 were arrested. At Lhasa's Sera monastery, where I watched dramatic philosophy debates in 1999, 500 monks took to the streets shouting "we want an independent Tibet." Tibetan sources in India set the death toll at 99, but Chinese officials claim that their forces in Lhasa never opened fire. Western reporters confirmed that they did not hear any gunfire for at least 24 hours.
On March 14, Tibetans in Lhasa reacted to the suppression of the monks by throwing rocks at the police and setting fire to cars and Chinese businesses. About 1,000 Chinese shops were destroyed, and James Miles, reporter of The Economist, gave this eye-witness account: "Almost every business was either burned, looted, smashed into, the property therein hauled out into the streets, piled up, burned." One policeman, 11 Chinese, and one Tibetan were killed in this incident.
The protest spread to other parts of Tibet and contiguous provinces with large Tibetan populations. Upwards of 30,00 Tibetans may participated in 96 protests. The Chinese government reported one policeman and 16 Tibetans were killed, but Tibetan sources estimate that between 40-100 Tibetans lost their lives.
The monks timed their protests to coincide with the 49th anniversary of the first major uprising against Communist rule and Dalai Lama's flight from his home country. On March 31, 1959, after a grueling 15-day trek from Lhasa, the Dalai Lama crossed the border into India, where he set up a government in exile in Dharmsala in the foothills of the Himalayas.
On March 13 Indian police arrested 130 Tibetans, who had begun on a protest march from Dharmsala over the Himalayas to Lhasa. Earlier, on September 30, 2006, Chinese border police opened fire on group of 70 Tibetans attempting enter their country over a 18,735 ft. pass. A 17-year-old nun was killed in the attack.
Observers believe that the Beijing government has been measured in its response because of the upcoming Olympic Games and the pressure that the government is under about its human rights record. The government has announced that it does not plan to drop the plan to take the Olympic torch over the Himalayas.
Chinese officials have blamed the Dalai Lama for the protests, but he has always been committed to a peaceful solution to Tibet's status. On March 18 the Dalai Lama declared that he would step down as political leader of the Tibetan exiles if his followers in Tibet could not use nonviolent methods.
Much to the distress of many Tibetans, the Dalai Lama has given up the idea of an independent Tibet. He is willing to work with the Chinese authorities as long as there is a democratic vote to determine his status and other basic issues. The Beijing government, however, refuses to meet with him, and there have been no talks of any kind since 1993.
After a disastrous attempt to wipe out religion in China, the Communist government established an ingenious but oppressive compromise. Through the State Administration of Religious Affairs, the government carefully controls the religious lives of Chinese Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists.
Catholics may not pay allegiance to the pope, and Buddhists may not appeal to the authority of the Dalai Lama. Most of China's Christians, numbering perhaps as many as 40 million, attend illegal "house" churches.
In 1992 I was invited to present a paper at a Beijing conference sponsored by the religious affairs ministry. When I arrived in Beijing, I found out that the conference had been cancelled. The topic they chose—Christianity and Confucianism—had evidently become too hot for them to handle. The Chinese organizer and conference participants held private meetings in his home.
In August, 2007, the ministry of religious affairs, in a proclamation right out of George Orwell's 1984, declared that no Tibetan lama could be reincarnated without its permission. This was a very stupid and clumsy way for the government to determine who the next Dalai Lama will be. In announcing the new law an official explained that it was "an important move to institutionalized management of reincarnation." It was an answer to the Dalai Lama's announcement in 1995 that his successor would be born outside of Tibet and China.
The Beijing government has already chosen the new Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama's right-hand man. The 6-year-old boy the Dalai Lama chose for this position was kidnapped by Chinese authorities and he has not been seen since 1995.
The Dalai Lama has become one of the world's most celebrated spiritual leaders. His simple charm and embrace of all religions has won the hearts of millions. Many have asked the Dalai Lama how they can become Buddhists, and his answer is that people ought to stay within their own religions. All of them, he claims, have a core of goodness. As he once said, "my religion is kindness," and one could not conceive of a better way to dialogue with the world's religions.
In October, 2005, I was at a Mumbai airport hotel at the start of a 6-week tour of India. As I returned to the hotel the first night, I was told to enter through a side door. I noticed that a red carpet had been laid out at the entrance and that a dozen people were standing with white Tibetan hospitality scarves in the lobby.
Just as I expected, a short, stocky man in saffron robes came through the door, accepted the scarves, and then quickly turned to walk to the elevators. The Dalai Lama walked right past me, and I had my camera ready, but I was so nervous that I managed only a couple of blurry shots. I'm sure that will be the closest I ever come to this great man of peace.