Talk about Tibet (1)

Hello there!

It has been over a year since my last update of my blog. A job change and some family issues took all my time and I hardly found any spare time to do something I like (taking pictures), let alone writing my travel-log for my trip to Ngari Tibet. I did post hundreds of photos from my trip, including many of the holy Mt Gang Rinpoche, on my photo website, fototi.com. You may want to take a look of that photo-log if you are interested in the place.

The reason why I restart my blog tonight was the recent events in Tibet. After reading many news of the riots and follow up developments, I have something to say.



I don't want to touch the highly emotional question of "is Tibet a country". There are endless debates on this topic. Depends on which side you choose, you can honestly believe the other side is lying. A famous Chinese novelist, Wang Lixiong, nailed it perfectly in one of his famous book, Yellow Peril:

Today, information on Tibet is duopolized by two different political propaganda machines. One machine is located in Beijing, and the other in Dharamsala. Since Tibet is to a large extent still under a state of blockade, other individuals or organizations find it very difficult to obtain independent information (especially at the macroscopic level). Like it or not, people who are concerned about Tibet are getting most of their information from these two propaganda machines.

The bad thing is that the information from these two sources is almost surely conflicting with and even completely opposite to each other. Faced with this absurd situation, the solution is to choose your position first and decide which side you want to stand with, and then you treat the information from that side as true and everything from the other side as false.

This formula is not adopted by everybody, and yet there is no alternate way to make assessments based upon data. The western world is suspicious and disgusted with the propaganda machines of communist countries, so the western world and its media tend to believe in the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, the "patriotic" (nationalistic) Chinese, even though they may object to the Chinese government on other issues, stand with the Communist Party on the Tibet issue.

If you have any level of understanding about Tibet, you will realize that the determination of truth from lies is not that easy. Both Beijing and Dharamsala have elements of truth in what each say, but they also tell many lies. Even if the Dalai Lama is respected by everybody, his propaganda machine still issues propaganda for political purposes that are as removed from the truth as the Beijing propaganda.

Whereas ordinary lies are deliberate attempts to deceive people, some of the lies about Tibet are often sincere. As far as Communist China is concerned, they honestly believe that they have cause to boast about their rule in Tibet and the many resources and money that they have invested there, and so they are aggrieved and angered when they are accused of oppressing Tibet. As for the accusations from the Dalai Lama side, no matter how removed from the facts they might be, the basic sincerity should not be in doubt.

(text copied from blog EastSouthWestNorth)

You can check out Wikipedia to read some interesting fa

Many people wonder if Tibet can keep their culture and heritage safe and alive under the governing of an atheist party

cts about Tibet. I am not knowledgeable enough to say if those are on Wikipedia are truths or just plain fairy tales. However, I think the following two facts should be indisputable:

1. Tibet used to be an independent country. At least during Tang dynasty (600-900 A.D.), there were many wars between China and Tibet. That eventually led to the famous marriage between the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo and Princess Wencheng from China. The marriage was the result of a cease fire agreement between two countries. The Ramoche monastery in Lhasa, where the rumored latest protest broke out on Saturday, 3/29, was built for Wencheng Princess.

2. Tibet surrendered their sovereign to Mongols during 13th century, and became part of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 A.D) in China (Mongols conquerred china and found the Yuan Dynasty). This fact makes the foundation of China's claim that "Tibet is part of China for over 700 years". However, on the other hand, many Tibetan consider their submission was to Mongols, not (Han) Chinese. So after the collapse of Yuan Dynasty (1368 A.D.), Tibet should be considered a "free" country again. It is a fact though, China still maintained their control, more or less, over Tibet after the Yuan Dynasty. There weren't any official documents that stated Tibet separated from China after 14th century.

Therefore, contrast to the view of many Westerners, I cannot agree with the claim of "China invaded Tibet in 1950".

I have spent many hours in Internet recently, reading some online forums on this issue. These are my impressions after my "research":

1. Almost all Western people think China's occupation of Tibet is evil, so it is a terrible action and a deep human right violation for Chinese government to crackdown the peaceful protests and unrest. It is very interesting to see almost all medias from the West always use the word "peaceful" to describe the protests, although some/many of them also said "turned deadly/violent". Few of them uses word "riots", or "mobs".

2. Western medias also present quotes/claims from the Tibetan government-in-exile in a way that are trustful, reliable. On the other hand, traces of negative can be sensed easily from the texts they put forth for the quotes from the chinese side. In other words, readers are very easy to came to a conclusion -- "China lies".

3. On the other hand, many Chinese sincerely believe that the faults are on the Tibetan side. It is easy to find many videos/pictures from TV, newspapers and internet that clearly show many Tibetan mobs brutally attacked and killed ethnic Han and Hui Chinese, burned down stores owned by non-Tibetan people, etc.

4. Many Chinese were shocked to see the "biased" coverages of these events from the western medias. They all thought that the western media are unjustly, biased, and intentionally inject the so-called "Yellow Peril" conspiracy into their reports.

5. Many Chinese are upset by Tibetan. They don't understand why there were such protests, and why there are so many (or so little) Tibetan are so bitter against Han Chinese. They think a) it was the CCP who broke the serfdom class system in Tibet back to 1950, and liberated many Tibetan serfs from their masters. Without help from Han Chinese, Tibetan may still live in a brutal feudalism society today; b) China has poured countless money in developing Tibet's economy since the Tibet was "liberated". Many Tibetan have seen great changes of their living in the recent years. Therefore, they should be happy, they should not complain any more.

6. A lot of Chinese believe Dalai Lama clique was behind the riots, a claim which has been repeatedly denied by Dalai and the Tibetan government-in-exile many times. The Tibetan side claimed the protests in Tibet were spontaneous and unorganized, directed at Chinese rule in the region. And they (include Dalai himself) even spread some conspiracy theories that China planted their agents into Tibetan protesters and staged the violence, in the purpose of destroying the worldwide perception of a peaceful demonstration for independence. (about the link: see the picture of PLAs holding lama's robes. It is also worth pointing out that they used quotes from the infamous "Epoch Times", a FLG newspaper which has zero credibility)

7. Most people from the West have very favorite impressions on Tibetan, and in particular, Dalai Lama. They are sympathy to Tibetan. However, although many Chinese are not against Tibetan, they do not have favorite impression on Dalai.

8. Dalai Lama keeps up his PR machine and urges for opening talk with China almost every day. He publicly

Where the path leads to?

said he is all for Beijing Olympic, and he does not seek independence for Tibet. His only goal is a meaningful self-rule of Tibet, not the "rubber-stamp like autonomy" status quo. On the other hand, China repeatedly called Dalai Lama is a "separatist" and they would not open talk to Dalai only until he abandons his claim for "Tibet independence". -- let many outsiders wonder is this a perfect example of a Cantonese idiom -- "Chicken and Duck Talk".



9. Dalai Lama is a master in PR game. China, in contrast, totally screws itself up.

In the coming days I will give my thought on these matters.