Tibet Crisis

Historical Context

Then, how about Tibet and its people? What is the driving force behind these endless unrests? Is DaLai Lama the master mind? China Camp people have very limited knowledge. I grew up in a society that we were told Tibet was an uncivilized, slavery society before being liberated by Communist army. Unfortunately, many Chinese (in China and aboard) are still holding this view! Therefore, it is very important for China Camp to look at the current crisis from broader historical context.

Before 1949
Tibet was an independent state, but not an internationally recognized country . We can say it has always been part of China. But Nationalist party did not have the capability to reach Tibet (they were so busy fighting with the Communists). That was the reality back then.

Tibet was also a Buddhist state, an unique Buddhist state that religion and politics are united. The spiritual leaders were also the political leaders. Ordinary people treated these leaders almost like god out of the religious faith. Of course, these leaders lived very luxury life and ordinary people were poor, but the state was more or less governed by Buddhism principles. People lived peacefully. The so called brutal slavery accusation was entirely fabricated by the communist government back then! If you don’t believe this, look at the story of Liu Wen Chai (劉文彩), the big landlord in SiChuan province. After his execution, the government fabricated an impressive story accusing him of routinely torturing his farmers in the secret water jail. There was a huge museum displaying his “crimes” in his home town. However, the truth came out by 1990s that this was more or less fabricated!

1949-1959
After communist took over China and consolidated its power, due to its vast region and strategic location (bordering India and on the highest land on earth), Tibet became a natural target for Chinese government. The occupation was peaceful and Tibet was an autonomy governed by joined government. However, tinted with communist ideology, most party officials did not like what they saw in Tibet that ordinary people worshiped their leaders like “slave to master”. Therefore, many changes were made to Tibet against their wills. I don’t know what exactly happened in Tibet during that period. However, any people familiar with China’s modern history can recall what happened during that 10 years period in the rest of China (punishing landlords, land ownership reform, great leaps, against rightist, etc). It is easy to imagine that these endless activities “naturally” spilled over to Tibet. For people in the rest of China, they had to endure the suffering. However, for Tibetans, they viewed these activities as something imposed on them! In addition, these activities were coincided with other things such as the steady influx of Han people into Tibet (in the name of helping Tibetan people) and the severe food shortage( as also occurred in the rest of China starting 1959). Therefore, overtime, Tibetans began to resist China’s governing and eventually, turned into armed uprising. The people from China Camp all know about the uprising, but very few know what were the true causes of the uprising. There is a book, [雪域境外流亡記], by約翰. F.艾夫唐 that detailed this uprising. The book was secretly used by the government as the “internal reference” regarding Tibetan affairs.

1959-1976
After the uprising was brutally suppressed and Da Lai Lama’s escape, Tibet, along with the rest of China, walked into the darkest age in China modern history. Relentless fighting, systematic destruction of all religions, severe brain wash movements were all the routine for ordinary Chinese people . There is no reason to assume that Tibet, as part of China, could have spared from this disaster. In fact, Tibetan Buddhism and its way of life had been severely destroyed. The destruction reached its peak during culture revolution. I saw many photos showing the completely destroyed temples! Many monks/nuns were forced out of the monasteries, some were in jails. During culture revolution, there was no concept of human right!

1976-2000
After culture revolution, Tibet, along with the rest of China, enjoyed more religion freedom. However, the issue remained. Before 1976, Tibetan suffering was caused by communist ideology and social movement. After 1976, the issue was caused by the failed policy! It is true that Chinese government poured billions of dollars to Tibet for economical development and religion infrastructure restoration. Many damaged temples were either re-built or restored and regular religion ceremonies were allowed. However, Tibet remained extremely poor compared with the rest of China. In May 1980, the government decided to send a high-level fact-finding delegation to Tibet. The delegation was headed by Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of the party. Reaching Lhasa, he was shocked to see the level of poverty in Tibet. During a meeting with the Party officials, he asked 'whether all the money Beijing had poured into Tibet over the previous years had been thrown into the Yarlung Tsangpo river'. He said the situation reminded him of colonialism. Hundreds of Chinese officials were transferred back to China. However, the situation did not improve significantly and later, Hu Yaobang lost power. His death in 1989 was the direct trigger to 6/4 democracy movement .
Looking at this broad historical context, for most Chinese, we got out of the dark period and moved on. However, for Tibetans, they viewed these sufferings as imposed on them caused by occupation. This is a very important point that China Camp people don’t understand.

Current Situation

There is a new dimension to Tibetan issues during recent years: the economical development and the huge influx of migrants from inland China to Tibet. With Chinese economy on a very fast pace and the huge tourist market in Tibet, many Han people moved to Tibet to make a living. In some parts of Tibet, the Han population is higher than Tibetan population. On their own land, Tibetan people are experiencing the risk of being the minority. In term of doing business, the honest, “uncivilized” Tibetans are no match to the “smart” Han businessmen. Therefore, many business opportunities fall into Han people’s hands and Tibetan people are still poor. This polarization (rich-poor imbalance) is very common in every part of China. This new influx of Han people was not initiated by the government, but driven by the economical force. In any given day, half of Beijing’s population is migrants. But in Tibet, these changes triggered by economical development take a new meaning: the ethnical division. The recent violence against Han business owners is partially caused by this hatred, similar to the violence against Chinese in Indonesia. It is true that no violence can be justified. But it is important to understand the underlying problem.

The rapid commercialization in Tibet causes another disturbance to Tibetan traditional life and religion practice. Many Buddhist temples quickly become tourist attractions and gradually lose their religion significance. Quite often we see news on Chinese media that some temples are connected with electricity and TVs are everywhere in the temples. Monks/nuns are enjoying TVs and other type of entertainments. Young monks/nuns are riding motorcycles with cell phones on hand. Of course, this is happening everywhere in China, but in Tibet, it has totally different significance. The purpose of these media news is to showcase the economical development, but it actually showed the grave insensitivity (or should say ignorance) to Tibetan’s true religious culture!

There are many evidences indicating that Tibet was continuously governed by leftist policy in term of Buddhism religion freedom. Tinted with wrong ideology and gross ignorance, many party officials in Tibet do not have adequate respect to Tibetan Buddhism. Large scale Buddhism ceremonies require government permission and the process is closely monitored.

In recent years, Tibetan organizations around the world are getting stronger and more organized. Tibetan government in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, successfully raised Tibetan issue onto world stage. Emboldened by the independent movement in other part of the world, Tibetans in exile are hopping that one day, they too can succeed in independence, or complete autonomy. Coupled with the strong resentment inside Tibet, this independent movement forms a strong undercurrent that can erupt whenever there is an opportunity (like Beijing’s Olympic game).

In summary, the wrong ideology, failed policy, rapid social and economical transformation inside China are powerful forces that like a giant wheel rolling across Tibet and destroying everything on its way. It is impossible for Tibet to return to pro-1949’s life style and social structure. Even though Tibet has been crying for more than 50 years, ordinary Chinese are unable to hear this crying. If I were still in China, I would not understand Tibet at all. Even in US, if I were not a Buddhist, I would still not be able to understand this issue. Tibet is a Buddhist region (I don’t want to say it is a Buddhist country or state). Most Tibetans are Buddhist. In order to understand Tibetan issue, we need to have at least basic knowledge about Tibetan Buddhism. The Chinese government and many ordinary Chinese don’t have this knowledge, unfortunately.

The Other Side of Reality

Understanding the reality is to find an appropriate solution. In fact, there is another side of reality that western camp doesn’t understand. That is, there is no hope for Tibet to be independent from China as long as the current Chinese government is still in power and China remains to be a stable country. I know these days, there are many people around the world who would like to see the collapse of Chinese government. But with the population of 1.3 billion, such collapse would inevitably cause huge humanitarian crisis. If that happens, the whole world will suffer. For the sake of world wellbeing, let’s all pray that China’s current social and economic transformation is peaceful and orderly!

It is also important to understand that western countries, especially US, have very limited influence these days over China. Currently, there is a very strong anti-US sentiment among ordinary Chinese. It is the mainstream view in China that US is trying to contain China, to prevent China from becoming a strong nation. Human right is just one card US uses for the containment. US’s own behavior in the world does not offer any help at all. In fact, US has lost its moral leadership on these issues.

China’s internal political system lacks the necessary flexibility to deal with the issue either. To effectively maintain stability, the central government is unwilling to show any sign of weakness. Lina sent an email showing the possibility for the Dalai Lama to meet Chinese leadership. In my opinion, this is impossible under the current situation because that would create an impression that China is bending to external pressure (I hope I am wrong). The slightly soft tones are just the game the government is playing to silence external critics (for the Olympics!).

Dalai Lama has clearly seen through these barriers. Therefore, he has abandoned the claim of seeking independence. Instead, he is seeking Tibet autonomy under China. However, he may or may not understand that this is also impossible (at least for now). On one hand, Tibetan government in exile is one of the largest government in exile with well organized structure. On the other hand, Dalai Lama is still extremely popular among Tibetans. His own popularity is a barrier for him to return to Tibet. It is easy to imagine that if Dalai Lama (with his exiled government) returns to Tibet, very quickly, Chinese central government’s influence over Tibet will diminish.

Any Hope?

It requires enormous political wisdom from both sides to solve the issue. On the Dalai Lama’s side, it maybe wise for him to start the process of breaking the long tradition of having a unified political and religious system. To show the honesty, downgrading the exiled government may not be a bad option. But his hands are tight that many elements of his exiled government do not like his current moderate (non-violence) approach dealing with China. On the China side, any real changes have to come from within China. We hoped that the current social/economical transformation will allow the emergence of more moderate government that is more flexible dealing with Tibetan issues. For Tibetan people, their best hope is to let the general Chinese population to understand their causes. But the time maybe running out. H.H. Dalai Lama is 72 years old. After his inevitable passing away, there will be more violent uprising and more brutal suppression. If this occurs, Tibetan culture and its religion are on a faster pace to extinction. Are we witnessing the replay of a history showing one culture/ethnic group was gradually assimilated by a more powerful ethnic group? I don’t know.