The Dalai Lama As Petty Tribalist


by Victor Chan

Wednesday, March 25, 1998
(Issue No. 9810)

(Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is an e-journal published on China-Net. CCF is dedicated to the discussion of issues related to the Chinese community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the Forum are welcome and suggestions of new topics much appreciated.)

The Dalai Lama's public persona was built up one grain at a time, like the celebrated sand mandala, over a period of nearly forty years. By the time I met him back in 1970, he was already highly respected as a great Buddhist teacher and an untiring advocate of non-violence. Since then, like Gandhi and Mother Teresa, he came to epitomize the very essence of humanity itself. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The citation reads, "The Nobel Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."

At that long-ago meeting in Dharamsala, I asked him if he harbored any hatred towards the Chinese. His English still poor, the interview was conducted with the help of a translator. Before the translator had time to register the question, the Dalai Lama startled me by jumping out of his chair and said in his broken English, " I have absolutely no hatred towards the Chinese people. I have a lot of respect for Mao Zedong. The policies of the Chinese Communist Party are wrong. This led to the Tibetan tragedy."

We should view what he said in light of what happened in 1959. On March 10, the well-armed Chinese Liberation Army laid siege to Lhasa, forcing the Dalai Lama's exile. According to conservative estimates, 87,000 Tibetans were killed and 25,000 taken prisoner (John F. Avedon _In Exile from the Land of Snows_). Those fortunate enough to escape saw Chinese soldiers crucify, dismember and bury alive thousands of Tibetans. Nuns>and monks were forced to copulate in public. And children were forced to execute their parents. The International Commission of Jurists investigated these reports one year later, in 1960. It concluded that "China was guilty of the gravest crime of which any person or nation can be accused--the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such--genocide."

Three years ago, when I again caught up with the Dalai Lama in a London hotel, he was still touting his quarter-century-old message. "The Chinese have done horrible things to us; they continue to do these things even now. But I still hold no hatred in my heart for them. Some Tibetans are very anti-Chinese and I do everything I can to restrain their urge to fight back. I do not believe in revenge."

The Dalai Lama's sterling image is not the result of Hollywood burnishing, as Bevin Chu would have you believe in CCF 9807. We are not talking about some Madison Avenue types huddling to devise the perfect card-board cutout. The moral integrity of the Dalai Lama is authentic. He is celebrated around the world for his kindness. Respect for him cuts across all racial lines. He took Taiwan by storm last year. Whole stadiums overflowed with people straining to hear his message of peace. Prominent religious leaders, from the Pope to Thich Nhat Hanh, have nothing but praise for his plumbed-from-the-depth compassion. Great personalities of this century, global thinkers like Vaclav Havel and Elie Wiesel are universal in their admiration. Bevin Chu, when it comes to an appraisal of the Dalai Lama, you are "on the wrong side of history."

Mr. Chu believes that the Dalai Lama is "little more than a petty tribalist preoccupied with the 'ethnic purity' of 'the Tibetan people.' (As if being of mixed Tibetan-Han descent constituted 'cultural genocide' of 'his' people)."

Mr Chu, I will tell you what the Dalai Lama is preoccupied with. He is worried that Tibet would soon go the way of Inner Mongolia and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). Chinese now outnumber the Mongols by ten to one (Chinese census, Asia Watch Report). These days, Mongolian is commonly regarded as a dying language, rarely heard even in the capitol city of Huhehot. Before the Communist takeover, the Uighurs in Xinjiang was by far the dominant majority, comprising 78% of the population. Today, due to the massive population shift mandated by the Chinese government, the Hans have caught up with the Uighurs. They each account for some 45% (W. Shingleton, Senior Researcher Central Asian/CIS affairs, at the National Defense Council Foundation). As much of the world knows by now, during an unimaginable eight weeks in Nanjing, the Japanese brutally murdered 300,000 Chinese civilians and raped some 80,000 women and children. I wonder how Mr. Chu would feel, if by some fluke of history, the Japanese in 1937 didn't stop at Nanjing. If they had been allowed to export their brand of terrorism to the rest of China, it is not hard to imagine a China firmly colonized by the Japanese. With a sizable transfer of population, the Japanese will likely dominate the country in all important respects-- much as Tibet is dominated by China today. Well, according to Chu, "ethnic separation is thoroughly contemptible. It is a form of racism." No doubt, he would welcome the Japanese with open arms. In due course, with inevitable intermarrying, everyone in the Middle Kingdom could aspire to the rich smorgasbord that is Tiger Woods. Han and the Japanese forever. The Dalai Lama is worried about the day to day welfare of the Tibetans. With the influx of a steady stream of Chinese immigrants, commerce in Lhasa and other big cities is now a virtual Chinese monopoly. Most Tibetans, armed with rudimentary Chinese, are marginalized in all walks of life. Without guanxi, without a modicum of higher education, prospects of getting a reasonable job are non-existent. On the other hand, high octane liquor, potent enough to double as truck fuel in a pinch, is cheap and readily available. The rise of alcoholism is nothing if not dramatic in the last decade. So is suicide.

The Dalai Lama is also worried about the death of Buddhism. These days, to be enrolled in one of Tibet's great monasteries, you first have to be fluent in party-talk. To know the Heart Sutra is no longer enough. The sure-fire way to be a card-carrying member of the Ganden Monastery is to be able to recite the sayings of Jiang Zemin even in your sleep. The Sera and Drepung, all vital Buddhist institutions created centuries ago, are now little more than museums maintained for the benefit of the foreign visitor. Mao asserted that "religion is poison." Two decades after the Cultural Revolution, these words still commanded unswerving obedience among Tibet's rulers.

The increasingly desperate plight of the Tibetans is underscored by the recent surge of escapees who risked crossing the Himalayas in the dead of winter. From 1986 to 1992, some 13,000 Tibetans managed to reach India by this route. During the last four years, 15,000 have already made the death-defying journey. Almost all suffered severe frostbite. The lucky ones lost fingers and toes. For many, the cost of escaping the Chinese is to go through the rest of their lives without arms or legs. The young ones, twelve and under, suffered the most. A significant number perished on the 19,000 ft passes.

No, Mr Chu, I don't think the Dalai Lama is worried about cultural genocide being the simple matter of Tibetans marrying Han Chinese. All such voluntary unions will have his blessings. As for his public image, I'm sure he has as much attachment to it as the Buddhist monks who painstakingly created the complex sand mandala. When the time comes, there will be no hesitation whatsoever in dismantling the whole damn thing in a heartbeat.

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