Tibet: Polar Perspectives. Can Both Sides Be Heard?

The 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile has generated much press and media attention.

News accounts have been full of the Dalai Lama's visa revocation which blocked him from speaking at an coming 2010 World Cup-related peace conference in South Africa, where two other Nobel Laureates where scheduled to speak.

In reading these articles, I find little background on China's side of the story and was curious to learn more about the conflict.

Many Chinese friends speak to me with great pride about how their country has profoundly helped Tibet -- especially the children. And our own government, as well as all 192 member states of the United Nations, acknowledges that Tibet is part of China.

With the fiftieth anniversary of the events that sent the Dalai Lama into Indian exile, I set out to explore both sides, including the other side, the hugely unpopular Chinese side.

Potala Palace in the capital city of Lhasa.

The Chinese perspective has been buried here in the West, so I sat out to understand their perspective.

China, like India and most of Africa, was split up by European colonization over the last two centuries. Kingdoms and nations were divided in ways that could serve only the dividers. It is hard to imagine one's country ripped apart. On our continent, it is far easier to grasp lost hegemony from a Mexican or Native American viewpoint.

From the First Opium War -- waged by the British to protect their opium profits (1840-1842) -- until the end of the Second World War, China was invaded and colonized by Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Japan -- and even the United States.

I realized the damage of such divisions most dramatically the first time I crossed the Volta River in West Africa. The same Ewe tribe that speaks English on one side (Ghana) speaks French on the other (Togo). Why? Generations of colonization.

Colonization recognizes no boundaries. China was once larger -- from Taiwan to Tibet, from Mongolia to Hong Kong. According to some historians, China's area was about 16.8 million square kilometers (1.75 times of China's current area) during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), during which time Tibet officially became an administrative region of China.

Beautiful Tibetan children (Courtesy Aidan Loehr/American Alpine Institute).

The British peeled away Hong Kong (1842) then tried to turn Tibet into a buffer zone between China and India. China's Nationalists -- the Kuomintang -- took Taiwan as they retreated after losing their civil war (1949).

During the Civil War, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) gradually prevailed over the Kuomintang. The PLA liberated China province by province. Tibet was the last province reached.

We are all aware of the charges against China since then. They are changes that worry and anger my American and Chinese friends, but for opposite reasons. They are repeated in every story about Tibet:

In driving the British and their friends from Tibet, China became the cruel Occupier.

In modernizing Tibet, China was eradicating the ethnic heritage of Tibet in a "cultural genocide."

In their resettling policies, the Chinese central and provincial government's massive aid has amounted to the "Hanificiation" of Tibet.

In filling Tibet with Chinese Tibetans have become a minority in their own land, with Tibetan women forced to marry Chinese men.

In ending Theocracy, China was eliminating religion.

In sum, that Beijing has caused Tibetans "untold suffering" and forced them to live in "hell on earth."

I was an East Asian Studies Major in college and know at least something of the Middle Kingdom. I also learned in high school debate class that arguments can always be made from different perspectives. Can the true story of Tibet be told? Perhaps not.

I recently interviewed the Hon. Ms. Zhang Dan, Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. Her knowledge of Tibet seemed vast.

By speaking to her, looking at the Chinese government's website for facts and figures, recalling my own academic background, and searching the web for neutral sources -- few and far between -- I have put together a sketch of Tibet.

All facts and figures, unless otherwise noted, are according to recent white papers by the Information Office of China's State Council. The United Nations is not the keeper of provincial statistics. In general, national governments, not international governments, keep local stats -- from Texas to Tibet.

I can no more authentic the numbers than I can any other governments' statistics. The official Chinese website for facts and figures may be found here. I would read it with the same eye you might read our own CIA's website.

I understand that the Chinese Kingdom, which controlled Tibet in some way through many centuries and dynasties, lessened its control during the war of resistance against Japan (1937-1945) and the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949), peacefully reunited the region in 1951.

The Dalai Lama, like his predecessors, was approved and recognized by China's central government. The title of Dalai Lama, by tradition, is conferred on an incarnate boy of a deceased Dalai Lama by an official decree of the Chinese central government.

At the time of reunification, 5% of Tibetans -- the Upper, or Priest, Class -- owned everything. Some 95% of the Tibetan people were serfs, whom the Chinese viewed as "slaves."

Wikipedia has a fascinating and recommended summary of serfdom as the socio-economic status of 'unfree' peasants under feudalism... "a condition of bondage or modified slavery that developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe. Serfdom was the enforced labor of serfs on the fields of landowners, in return for protection and the right to work on their leased fields."

At the time of reunification, Tibet was a Theocracy, like Puritan New England, or today's Iran where Sharia is used as Divine Word. The priests, or lamas and living Buddhas, as serf-owners, controlled everything. Wikipedia's entry on "lama" addresses this as well.

Wikipedia is not an academic source. But, as mentioned, facts and figures that are not from the Chinese government -- or Dharamsala -- are in short supply.

When the Dalai Lama left in 1959, the Tibetan lifespan was only 35 years. Infant mortality was a staggering 43%, according to China. U.N. and W.H.O. statistics are mostly unavailable.

Today the average Tibetan lives to be 67 years old, and only 3% of children are lost at childbirth. Throughout Han-dominated China, medicine is subsidized. In Tibet, it is free, Ms. Dan of the Chinese Mission explains.

I have always been apprehensive about China's draconian birth control policies. Still, I have no better ideas for feeding well over one billion people. The number of orphans in China is staggering. (I have one son - adopted, and ethnically Chinese.)

According to the Chinese Mission, Tibetans inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, are immune from the Chinese government's family planning. Han Chinese residents in Tibet are not immune. In fact, the population there has doubled, from 1.2 million to 2.8 million, over the last 50 years. Only 5% of Tibet's population is Han Chinese (the ethnicity of the majority of Chinese) and other ethnic groups.

Tibetans are amongst the fastest-growing ethnicities in all of China, according to the Chinese Mission. The Tibetan population increased by 40,000 in 2008, at a growth rate of 1.17%.

Tibetans protest this figure, claiming they are a minority in their own country due to Han immigration. Again, what statistics can we find that are neutral?

A spokesperson for China wrote me: "When it comes to statistics or figures regarding the different provinces, municipalities and/or autonomous regions of China, the Chinese Government, exercising effective sovereignty and administration -- and having direct and constant access -- naturally has the most authoritative and trustworthy data."

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, each speaking its own tongue, all united by Mandarin - as we in the U.S. are united speaking English. China's minorities, unlike our own, are specifically protected by their constitution. They live all across China, including in five separate antonymous regions.

In addition to China's five autonomous regions, there are 30 autonomous prefectures, and 120 autonomous counties. These combined areas account for 76% of China's total. Incredibly, the five autonomous regions take up 45% of China's total area

While it is illegal for our own government to subsidize religion, according to the Mission, the Chinese government pays to maintain over 1,780 monasteries throughout its land, with 46,000 monks/priests and nuns worship in them. In fact, Tibet seems to have the largest number of full-time Buddhist clergy anywhere in the world.

Ms. Dan, Counselor of the Chinese Mission, explains that Tibetans today constitute 95% of Tibet. They are no longer starving. They live longer. Their babies die less often. They are better educated. If true, these are major advances.

I am well aware that not all everything the Chinese government has done in Tibet has been positive, or appreciated by the Tibetans, and the fact that vital statistics in have improved does not justify the heavy-handed approach the Chinese government has sometimes taken in Tibet.

All I am saying is that the truth about Tibet is perhaps more nuanced than it has been presented by either side of the highly polarized debate.

Having put my toe into this raging political river, I want to know more. My main global interest is the welfare of children, which presumably has improved in Tibet under Chinese rule in terms of health, education. I hope one day to travel to Tibet myself and witness the problems and solutions being worked out there. Comments are most welcome.

Edited by Ethel Grodzins Romm and Laura Tyson Li. We, Jim Luce, Ethel Grodzins Romm and Laura Tyson Li, contribute the above article to the public domain.

Comments

[FairTalk]

Having done extensive research on this issue, I offer the following comments.

1. In Time on line, (UK) March 26, 1959, it is reported that the dalai Lama announced that he was renouncing the 17 point agreement, because the Chinese violated it, and declaring Tibet to be an independent. You can find this news report on line.

2. Chinese Dynasty Maps... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqEc_bwSJ3g&feature=related show that tibet has been a part of China for a very long time.

3. The US did not recognize China after WWII, but continued fighting thru it's proxie Chiang Kai Shek. The only reason for this was fear of communism. Today, whatever China is, it is not the evil pinky commie state we were taught to fear.

4. We have not been told the truth about our role in the Tibet issue, nor the truth about the Dalai Lama, so we are made fools of when we idolize him. It was China, not the Dalai Lama, who freed the slaves and serfs of Tibet.

[Nyingje]

Jim Luce, I'm sure you mean well, but the fact is, right now Tibetans who can summon the courage to protest are being imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and killed. Recently a group of schoolchildren was arrested for staging an impromptu protest about some anti-Dalai Lama propaganda that was posted at their school. I shudder to think about what may happen to them.

So in the face of it, don't you want to rethink pulling some propaganda off a Chinese government website and calling this a "nuanced" argument? Don't specious historical claims, such as "Tibet is a part of China because the Mongol Yuan dynasty conquered both Tibet and China 700 years ago," seem merely abstract and disconnected from the reality of the egregious suffering and cruelty that goes on daily? I don't think there's a single person who has read a story on Tibet on the Internet who has not heard what the Chinese government has to say, from the mouths of irate Chinese nationalists in the comments threads. And yet people don't believe these arguments because they sound like, and are, heavy-handed propaganda, quite the opposite of "nuance."

[FairTalk]

Nothing could be more stark than the videaos, never mind the photos, of life in Tibet today, vs life in the Dalai Lama's Tibet. The Dalai Lama really went overboard, in his response to Serf Emancipation Day, when he called today's Tibet, "Hell on Earth." Either the Dalai Lama is in complete denial, or he continues to be a paid mouthpiece for US interests. I believe you are ignoring Jim's question, Can we hear from both sides?

Here is a film, which you will probably dismiss as propaganda, but which is very enlightening. (pun intended) It is part of a three part series. It shows what live was lihe for women and children born in the Dalai Lama's Old Tibet, and compares it with life in China's Tibet today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbOEz7Ak7AY

Accusing folks who don't buy into the Free Tibet movement of being pinky commie sympathizers, and dismissing the atrocities that occured daily under the Dalai Lama's rule, is unconvincing.

[Friendofthecause]

Read WHY THE DALAI LAMA MATTERS by Robert Thurman who is an expert on the Dalai Lama and the Tibet issue. He proposes a five-point solution to the Tibet issue. The solution does not involve continued oppression of Tibet or persecution of Tibetans or usurping of Tibetan culture and traditions or ongoing pollution of Tibetan rivers and landscape. Thurman's just, wise and compassionate plan would allow dignity to the Tibetans, true flourishing for both countries. It would provide China with a noble reputation instead of the monstrous one it has evolved since it began with to conquer Tibet.

It would be lovely if the Chinese would allow journalists and others to observe for themselves what is happening in Tibet. If what is happening in Tibet is so positive under Chinese rule and influence, then why isn't the world at large allowed to go there? What is the point of taking over a culture in a way that allows neither the usurped nor the usurpers nor outsiders to benefit?

[FairTalk]

Some believe that when the Dalai Lama dies, the Galugpa order will break up into rival sects. The fact is, the dalai Lama is trying to live up to the historical reason why the Old Chinese government created the position of Dalai Lama to bewgin with. The various Tibettan Buddhist orders kept fighting with each other, and then running to Indai or China for help and protection.

The problem is that one cannot decide that the Pope will now be the one and only recognized spiritual leader for all Christians. Of course the various Christian "orders" or Churches would object. The idea that the CIA,. or the US, or the old Chinese governments can impose the rule of the Dalai Lama on all Tibetans is silly. It has failed to work, and for good reason. It's called seperation of church and state. Freedom of religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThCz77R56I4

[Otto Kerner]

Very interesting article, Mr. Luce! I have written a reply at the Tibet Talk blog: http://tibettalk.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/response-to-jim-luce-on-tibet-polar-perspectives/ .

[victorsays]

Thank you for writing this article. I do admit China has bad human right issue, but so do the US. The top Chinese leadership are mainly technocrat that are only Communist in name. Corrupt and human right issue are mainly at the local level. That why the top leadership have punish nearly a million officials.

China is the most populous country in the world and for people in the West, who lived on stolen land to tell them to give up 25% of their land is ridiculous. Even a democratic China with perfect human rights would never allow that.

[victorsays]

This is definitely a complex issue. I understand both standpoint. Due to history, Tibet cannot be allow to have independence. Tibetan independence will rip East Asia apart. The best thing for Tibetan is improve human rights like all of China. I think people in the West don't realize their colonail history and the havoc it has caused and the suspicions that still lingers today.

Tibetan independence movement is a British imperialist/Tibet theocratic movement. Not the movement of the public. It is a movement created by Western government and exile Tibetan leaders. They will cry independence but offer no solution. Bandwangon jumpers are most white Western people whose fate is so far removed from ordinary Tibetans. Only those who share similar fate have your interest at heart.

[cktail]

One more person weighing in who has never been to Tibet. Go there before promoting the pov of those who write the history books. I interviewed ten Han businessmen in Lhasa, they all said they hated Lhasa, hated Tibetans, their food, their culture, their country. Can't wait to go home. The only reason they're there is triple wages. The people in my documentary "Tibetan Refugee" had just left Tibet; I spoke to a doctor being forced to sterilize Tibetan women. Children and monks tortured for putting up banners. Its easy to dismiss a person's suffering when they appear as a statistic. Quoting statistics from the Chinese govt. is equal to quoting German sources about the Jewish question during World War II. Whether fireworks for the Olympics, trustworthiness of food supply, or earthquake preparedness, the govt reconfigures truth for their own purposes. I've been to Beijing Shanghai and Hong Kong, I admire the Chinese, but govt statistics say only 4% of China belongs to the Communist party, and that's during the past 60 years. "Figures lie and liars figure." At 40K new Tibetans per year, it will only take 25 to replace all those killed or forced into exile. Note to self: Maybe take a trip to Tibet before deciding the statistics paint a rosy picture. Mussolini made trains run on time, too.

[FairTalk]

What a great report! There is nothing biased like a report from someone with a predetermined agenda!

BTW, what is the Free Tibet movement's plan for economic development in Tibet? preservation of religious relics and historic places, education, health care and med care for an aging population?

[Dharmayogini]

Luce's report reads like a standard state media report from China. With nothing new, it 's a laundry list of one sided, public relations, damage control, unsubstantiated facts and state claims about the improved conditions of Tibetans. I fail to understand how forced indoctrination into Chinese culture, language and rule, with the banning of ancient Tibetan traditions and rituals and the repression of Buddhist monastic systems of education could possibly be construed as a positive outcome for Tibetans? His stereotype that Tibetans were nothing but ignorant slaves toiling under the domination of one per-cent of the nobility is the Chinese government's justification for invasion. That's no different than the Missionaries' rationalization that the Indigenous people prior to Columbus's discovery in 1492 were primitive savages in need of Christian salvation and civilization. Since then, discoveries of artifacts have proven there were highly civilized and advanced populations living in North America going back as far as 30-40,000 years.

China's historical claim to Tibet is equally misleading. In my research into ancient Chinese and Tibetan relations, I've uncovered some very interesting facts. One tidbit. In 781, during the T'ang Dynasty (618-906), the Dunhuang records reveal that Dunhuang, once the capital of China, surrendered to the Tibetans after ten years' resistance. when Chinese rule was restored in 848, one local family assumed power, to be followed in the tenth century by other powerful clans. Dunhuang fell into hands of the Mongol Yuan dynasty from 1271-1368)

[FairTalk]

>I fail to understand how forced indoctrination into Chinese culture, language and rule, with the banning of ancient Tibetan traditions and rituals and the repression of Buddhist monastic systems of education could possibly be construed as a positive outcome for Tibetans? <


1. Just because one is ethnic Tibetan, do you believe they must be Tibetan Buddhists? Couldn't choose to be follow Islam, Christianity, Bon?

In fact there are Tibetans who are Christian, Bon, etc, and they should not have to live in a theocracy.

2. "Tibetans," today are free to observe many old traditions. Prostrations are not banned. But torture has, indeed, been ended. Law is not based on "Tibetan" Budhist "beliefs" in Karma, but on the rule of law. Monks cannot gouge out eyes because you looked at them funny. Nor can they give someone 1000 lashes, and then, when he dies the next day, avoid responsibility, (and bad Karma) by claiming he died of natural causes, not the lashing.

In addition, monks can no longer "confiscate" children for the monestary.

3. The true fact is most families in Tibet want their children to learn Chinese as well as Tibetan. Schools in Tibetan "areas" not only Tibet are bilingual. Where Tibetans are the predominat population, Chinese is the second language.

4. The Chinese support Tibetan monestaries.

5. Setting fires that result in burning 5 young shoppe girls alive is a crime punishible with death. One cannot claim they died because of their own mistake not to run away.

[FairTalk]

The problem was they, the Dalai Lama, his family and friends, did not want to give up their serfs and slaves. They had 8 years to begin the process of emancipation, but they chose to throw in thit the CIA.

The current beliefs of Tibetan Buddhism continue to be chilling, and it is fine for those who CHOOSE to believe, but it should not be imposed on all people, especially just because they are of "Tibetan discent."

Freedom to choose what to believe in. Ferrdom to choose one's profession. Freedom to go to school, and improve one's lot in life. Freedom to move about, and to choose where to live. None of these are considered important in the Tibetan Buddhism of the Dalai Lama.

[FairTalk]

Thanks for this invitation to debate this issue. As you have so carefully observed, this is a compplex issue. I have commented on numerous posts re China/Tibet. It is a subject I have immersed myself in since I was a child. I have studied Tibettan Buddhism, done two dathuns, a 10 day retreat and a 6 month semanary. I love China, but I am not ethnic Chinese. My son is Chinese dissent. I lived in China 1988-89.

Things you have left out that "colour" this debate are numerous. The most important one is the relationship of the Dalai Lama to the CIA. Both his elder brothers were admitted paid CIA agents, and in their obits explained that the Dalai Lama did approve all military and CIA intervention in "Tibet," including training Tibetans at Camp Hale Colorado, droping arms into Tibet, inciting so called "spontaneous" "uprisings," and finally setting up terrorist camps, in Mustang, now controlled by Nepal, for the purpose of seperating "Tibet" from China and/or destabilizing communist China, and returning the Nationalist Chinese to power. The Dalai Lama was paid $180,000 yearly to voluntarily leave Tibet and denounce China. It is difficult, therefore, to discuss or debate "Tibet's" future, without acknowledging this elephant in the room.

Another fact not been mentioned is what is meant by "Tibet." The Dalai Lama means 25% of China, China means the provence of "Tibet."

Records kept under the Dalai Lama's' rule show that 90% were serfs, 5% slaves.

[ideveloper]

There are more than two sides to this debate. Many Tibetans (some of whom are very close friends of mine) don't consider it a priority to get their homeland back, and there are many who don't agree w/the Dalai Lama's approach.

[USTC]

Moreover, if what China says about Tibet is true & Tibetans are truly happy in under Communist Party rule, then why did China block access to Tibet by foreign journalists & even foreign tourists in2008-09? Why does China censor its domestic media on Tibet issues & block websites that criticize Chinese policy in Tibet? Why does China prohibit independent human rights group & even the UN Human Rights Commissioner from conducting their own investigations in Tibet? Why does China prohibit Tibetans from openly & peacefully protesting if there's nothing wrong in Tibet?

Why has China created a police state in Tibet where Tibetans are rounded up for their political views & sent to secret jails where they are tortured if all is well in Tibet?

[wereeverywhere]

Why?? Obviously the Tibetans are a bunch of backward ingrates, on top of everything else. They don't appreciate that China liberated them from theocracy and is trying to integrate them into the modern world. If they would just stop resisting the loving and enlightened advances of the CC(sic)P all would be well.

Or maybe they're fighting against all odds for freedom and self-determination against a colonial occupier.

[FairTalk]

China restricts journalists who publish lies, falsehoods, and propaganda, and who have active agendas that support and/or incite sedition. Please visit Anti-CNN to understand this issue better.

[USTC]

Another problem is that you rely on Chinese political propaganda for information about Tibet & not on academic sources or third party information. Political propaganda is by its nature unreliable b/c its designed to influence public opinion, not tell the whole truth. In China's case, much of its propaganda is simply false w/o any facts to support their claims.

Your interpretation of Chinese history is also dubious. The Yuan Dynasty was a Mongol empire not a Chinese one. To say Tibet is part of China b/c it was ruled by the Mongol Yuan is liking saying Canada is part of the US b/c both were once ruled by the British Empire. Tibet gained its independence from the Mongols 10 years before China did. The next dynasty, the Ming, saw almost no contact b/t Tibet & China & official Ming history places Tibet outside of China. The Qing were Manchus, not Chinese, who conquered China in 1644 & ruled until 1911. In the mid-18th century, the Qing did bring Tibet into their sphere of influence but the Qing never viewed Tibet as part of China but rather as a vassal state of their empire. It was a colonial relationship much like European rule in Africa or Asia. When the Qing Empire was overthrow by Chinese nationalists in 1912, Tibetans threw out the Qing officials as well & the 13th Dalai Lama declared Tibet's independence. Tibet lost its independence only by an armed invasion by the PLA in 1950.

[USTC]

You make a lot of unsupportable assumptions in your blog. Like the Chinese perpective isn't heard in the West. Here in the US we can access English-language versions of Xinhua & People's Daily & watch CCTV on cable. The Chinese version of the Tibet issue is completely available to anyone in the West should they desire to learn it. The reason most people don't read Xinhua or watch CCTV is b/c it's so obviouly govt propaganda as the stories are never critical of the CCP or the Chinese Govt. The irony is that we Americans can watch official Chinese media, Chinese & Tibetans in the PRC can't read or watch any independent media online or via radio or TV b/c China censors its media & blocks access to any website or newspaper that is critical of the Chinese Govt.

[FairTalk]

Do you suppost that people are afraid of being accused of being soft on communism?

[Peter Liu]

(continue from last comment)

In all honesty, Chinese have no common hostility towards Tibet people. Like someone said above, Chinese themselves are made up of different group of people.

For Tibet, it's the political instability that make people suffer. Unfortunately, Dalai's goal is aligned with foreign leaders'. Just like Taiwan, no matter how corrupt the Taiwanese government become (Do any Western media cover these? The old Taiwanese president himself is convicted of Bribery?), US will still support it because political instability is desired. To people who truly understand both perspectives, it's really just a political game. Which is unfortunate, at least for the people in those regions.