President Barack Obama meets with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House, Saturday, July 16, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Historic Tibet
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
Tibet was under theocratic rule by the Buddhist Lamas (priests) by the early 1900s. Many of the people lived off the land and under “serf-like” conditions, subject to the rule of the theocrats. Whether or not this system was ultimately good or bad for the Tibetan people is the source of extreme controversy: some scholars reject the idea of serfdom in Tibet as a Western projection and maintain that the government in Tibet was integral in sustaining Tibetan culture and religion, while others, including the Chinese government that now rules Tibet, maintain that the Tibetan people were inhumanely brutalized and lived in total poverty. It is very hard to determine with accuracy the true conditions and feelings of the people; the truth likely remains somewhere in the middle of those two accounts.
However, it is hard to argue against the idea that the Chinese takeover of Tibet was unwelcome. In fact, Tibetans celebrate Tibetan Uprising Day on March 10 every year, in support of those who lost their lives in fighting for a free Tibet. Tibet was overtaken by China during the 1950s in what is often described as a violent overthrow of the Buddhist theocracy. China justifies its takeover through a sort of societal gentrification of the Tibetan people, citing the increased life expectancy and GDP of the region after the takeover in the 1950s and the need for Tibet to modernize. Tibetans, including the top religious leader, the Dalai Lama, have advocated either for an independent or more autonomous Tibet.
While Tibet has certainly begun to modernize under Chinese rule, the extent and value in this is not clear. The truth on this issue is made more contentious by the fact that access to Tibet is greatly limited by the Chinese government and accounts of Tibetan history are hotly debated. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no consensus on what Tibet was truly like in past. The only facts with any semblance of consensus are that Tibetan society was, and still is, strongly ethnic in nature, and that many in Tibet resent Chinese rule, a rule which is often laced with reports of violence and obscured with censorship.
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
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Forman, Harrison, 1904-1978
Modern Day Tibet
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
VOA / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Modern Tibet is a central point of contention for ethnic defenders and social Darwinists. Fighting between the Chinese forces, who hope to bring “modern” Communist ideology to the “backwards” Tibet, and the ethnic peoples of Tibet has been ongoing for decades. After the takeover in the ’50s, China established the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), but this region does not include many ethnic groups who consider themselves Tibetan. Since then, forms of protests have included armed warfare, peaceful demonstrations, and self-immolation by Tibetans.
Violence has been carried out by both sides, but the power differential is clearly in China’s favor. Most outside of the PRC agree that China has committed human rights violations against the Tibetan people, possibly even genocide. China defends its actions by either denying them, or by explaining how the Buddhists and the Dalai Lama are separatists and political agents who seek to promote chaos while China attempts to promote a stable society. Facts and opinions of the people in Tibet are hard to come by, as the Chinese media is tightly regulated today.
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons
The most recent protests include riots during the Tibetan Uprising Day in 2008, leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games. Self-immolation continues to be a prominent form of protest and self-sacrifice among Tibetans. With these recent protests has come crackdowns by armed Chinese police, who justify their violence by saying that mobs of Tibetan people have committed actions of ethnic violence against Han Chinese who have moved into Tibet following the Chinese takeover. Other accounts corroborate this; it is likely that some of the Tibetan people have taken to violence, some of it against innocent civilians, in protecting their ethnic identity and defending themselves from modernization by the Chinese. Clearly not all Tibetans share this view, and the Dalai Lama has tried to promote non-violent protest. It is hard to determine the what the best course of action is for the future of Tibet. Tibetan ethnic groups have become more insulated with the increasing presence of Chinese cultural groups, but China also continues to commit human rights abuses against the Tibetan people.
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