Authorities quickly the final toll: 126 dead, 337 injured and more than 3,600 homes in ruins. However, amid the devastation, a different reality emerged, one that exposed the harsh controls imposed on Tibet, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strictly manages information, even in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

Controlling the narrative

Two days after the earthquake, Global Times, a Chinese tabloid known for promoting CCP propaganda, published an extensive on the aid response. This account never referred to the Himalayan nation as “Tibet” but instead used “Xizang,” a name the CCP in 2023. see this change as a deliberate attempt to erase the country from the map. 

According to Global Times, rescue teams reached the epicenter within 30 minutes. The report claimed that, within days, affected residents had warm shelter and received three hot meals a day. It goes on to paint the picture of a unified response, where countless aid workers and volunteers provided relief without ethnic divisions. It declared, “While a natural disaster has torn a wound into the snowy plateau, the entire nation is working tirelessly to heal it,” calling the effort “the best interpretation of human rights.”

However, what this portrayal failed to mention was Tibet’s extreme restrictions. The Chinese government bans international media from entering the region, and Freedom House, a US-based advocacy group, Tibet alongside North Korea as one of the most repressive places in the world. In Tibet, sharing politically sensitive information online or communicating with someone abroad without permission can result in lengthy prison sentences. In the days following the earthquake, Tibetans posting on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) reported strict censorship. One user refused to discuss the disaster, citing a Tibetan proverb: “If one does not control the long tongue, one’s round head will be in trouble.”

With the Chinese government controlling all official information, Global Times and similar outlets had total dominance of the narrative. Yet, in the weeks since the earthquake, Tibetan rights organizations and refugees contradicting the official reports. These sources revealed that the CCP carefully managed details of aid distribution and even the reported death toll.

Despite Global Times’ claims of “ethnic unity,” Chinese authorities restricted Tibetans’ movements within 24 hours of the quake. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), a US-based advocacy group, new security checkpoints that limited access to the disaster zone, preventing Tibetans from delivering aid. 

One day after the quake, officials in Dingri, where the epicenter lay, posted a suspending relief donated by Tibetans. ICT suggested that authorities wanted to maintain control over the official narrative. The notice stated: “At present, Dingri County has sufficient reserves of various disaster relief supplies. After having discussions, it has been decided to stop accepting donations of disaster relief supplies from all walks of life from now on.” The Tibetan government-in-exile, based in India, with an open letter urging the CCP to allow more aid to be distributed, especially medical assistance. 

On dangerous ground

The Tibetan leadership also raised concerns about China’s regional development policies. The letter directly challenged Global Times’ claim that China had modernized Tibet, instead blaming “excessive” dam construction and mining for increased seismic activity. In , a devastating earthquake in Tibet killed nearly 70,000 people. Experts later suggested that a massive Chinese-built dam may have triggered the disaster, making it the deadliest earthquake linked to human activity.

China’s hydropower projects have drawn for their environmental and geopolitcal consequences. These dams disrupt major rivers flowing into India, Bangladesh and other parts of Southeast Asia. Concerns about their safety have for years. In the days following the quake, Chinese officials initially that none of their dams sustained damage. However, they later that five of the 14 dams in the affected area had developed structural problems. One of them had suffered such severe damage that its walls tilted, forcing the evacuation of 1,500 people living downstream.

The CCP’s lack of transparency has also cast doubt on the official death toll. Authorities reported 126 deaths within 48 hours of the quake and never revised. The tremors were strong enough to be felt more than 200 miles away, yet ICT research showed that officials based their count on just 27 villages within a 12-mile radius of the epicenter. Radio Free Asia, a US-government-funded news outlet, the death toll two days after its release. Reports from local Tibetans suggested that at least 100 had died in a single township. On January 11th, Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan Service  morgue staff who estimated the actual death toll exceeded 400. Given Tibet’s severe repression and isolation, the true number of casualties may never be known.

The next recovery phase will focus on reconstruction, but many Tibetans fear that Beijing will seize control of the process without consulting local communities. ICT a government whistleblower who revealed that after a 2010 earthquake killed 3,000 people, officials diverted emergency funds for personal gain, depriving many survivors of housing assistance. “China had painted a picture of remarkable recovery,” ICT stated. “However, reality is far from what the Chinese government claims.” If history repeats itself, the victims of this disaster may find themselves abandoned, while officials exploit the tragedy to strengthen their grip over Tibet. 

[edited this piece]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

The post Tibet and the Earthquake China Doesn’t Want You to See appeared first on 51�Թ�.

This historical movement repeats a phenomenon that took place over 2,000 years ago across the Himalayas, both east and west. While the story of yoga and going to China, Japan, Tibet, and Southeast is popular history as part of the spread of Buddhism, only specialist scholars  have traced its to Samarkand and Bukhara and further to the.

The migration of yoga to Central Asia continued for a thousand years, and something similar may be repeating today. If contemporary interest in yoga focuses on personal well-being through āsanas, at its deepest level yoga is about the nature of , which is now the frontier of science.

To the lay yoga practitioner the connection between āsanas and consciousness may appear surprising. But if one thinks of it, we are body and mind. While āsanas are good for the body, prepares us to recognize the realm of mind and awareness, and finally to control it.

Consciousness intrigues the physicist and the neuroscientist for the promise of explaining the emergence and the location of or the self., sociologists and politicians would like to know whether the future will bring conscious machines. It is clear that if such machines can be built, they will change technology and society in profound ways.

The question of the self is at the heart of consciousness, and it has been central to Indian civilization from the earliest times. In Hinduism, the self is called the , or Shiva. In Kashmir in north India, which was a great center for science and scholarship associated with Shiva, it was conceived as “” (�ʰ���������� in Sanskrit). Yoga practices are methods to be one with the light within.

If Shiva is light and viewed as the male principle, the body itself through which one strives to see the light is the domain of the goddess, Shakti, and the female principle. yoga is the coming together of Shiva and Shakti, that is light and the knowledge engendered in the mind.

Yoga and the Many Faces of Shiva

A characteristic of the sculptural or artistic representation of Shiva is multiple faces, although in the aniconic form there is no face at all. The idea behind multiple faces is that Shiva as consciousness (��ٳ���) is present in all directions. In general, representation of Shiva with 1, 3, 4 and 5 faces is quite common with the two-faced representation as half Shiva and half Goddess.

The symbolism with the four faces is described in the : the eastern face represents sovereignty, the northern face represents perfection, the western face represents prosperity, and the southern face represents the control of evil.

Yoga went out across the Himalayas as the worship of Shiva, who was co-opted by . In contrast to Hinduism—where ��ٳ���’s transcendence is clearly stated—Buddhism emphasizes the mind and looks at reality through this prism. Since these differences can be explained away as being semantic, Buddhism has had no problem co-opting Vedic gods.

The medieval-era Indonesian equates Buddha with Shiva and Janārdana (Vishnu).  In modern Bali in Indonesia, Buddha is considered the of Shiva, which is quite accurate if we map the two to intelligence and intuition, respectively. Shiva and Vishnu are praised in the popular Nīlakaṇṭha chant that Buddhists sing in their temples to this day.

Our consciousness provides us with the sense of time, and Shiva is viewed as Time (Mahākāla) in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. one of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japan, is a form of Shiva. The god enjoys an exalted position as a household deity in Japan.

The influence of yoga has been so pervasive that , one of the most influential figures of modern China, a founder of the May Fourth Movement and president of Peking University, proclaimed in an essay titled Indianization of China that “India conquered and dominated China culturally for twenty centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

Zoroastrianism has a binary view of the world as a struggle between good and evil. Over time, it also reconciled its system with that of Hinduism. Shiva Maheshvara was incorporated into the Central Asian Zoroastrian . The god Zūrvan was portrayed as Brahmā, Ahura Mazda (Adbag) was depicted as Indra, and Veshparkar (Vayu in Sogdian) was represented as Shiva.

Svetovid, Svantovit and the Next Wave

Many Slavic people worshiped gods with multiple heads who were shown in tall wooden statues in their temples. In addition to the three-headed god, the Slavs had , or Svantovid, both of which names have Sanskrit etymology: Svetovid as the “knower of the light”, and Svantovid as the “knower of heart”.

Svetovid, their principal divinity, was depicted as a four-headed god whose main temple stood at Cape Arkona off current day northwest Germany. This temple collected tributes from all Baltic people until it was destroyed by Germanic raiders in the eleventh century.

The four faces of are Svarog (north), Perun (west), Lada (south), and Mokosh (east). One can see the Sanskrit cognates of these names in Svarga, Parjanya, Ladah, and Moksha. The derivation from Europe’s own languages for these names is forced and unconvincing.

When we go deeper in the correspondences, we see that they fit in with the four faces of Shiva described in the Mahabharata and also with the geography of Kashmir from where the worship of Shiva is likely to have gone to the Slavic lands.

The of the gods was perceived in Kashmir to be just north of the valley in the Harmukh peak, which literally means the “face of Shiva”, and this is Svarga (heavens). The west of the valley is from where the rains come (scholars accept the identity of Perun with Parjanya, that is Indra who brings rains). The south of the valley is the pleasant land of India (Ladah means pleasant in Sanskrit), and the east is where the sun rises (merging with the sun is understood as moksha).

The contemporary coming together of yoga and science has within it the potential of mitigating the inevitable disruptions in society arising from pervasive job losses due to AI, and from the shrinking of populations. The imprimatur of science is behind yoga now. Yoga provides both psychological and physical health benefits, including relief from chronic pain, arthritis, stress, and even a healthier heart.

The celebration of the International Day of yoga by the UN, and the knowledge of the of yoga practice on health and well-being is facilitating its in traditional societies. Even a society as religious as Saudi Arabia has decided to include yoga in its school and college . In the next wave, one would expect the spread of the more esoteric aspects of yoga.

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

The post How Yoga Spread and Transformed World Religions appeared first on 51�Թ�.

For the last 70 years, Tibet has been under China’s thumb even as Hollywood stars swoon at the Dalai Lama’s feet. Many people think of Tibet as a separate nation with a definable history and a specific cultural identity symbolized by the Dalai Lama. Many are unaware of Tibet’s integration into China and its political subjugation by Beijing. In September 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping made clear that Tibet was an integral part of China’s “impregnable fortress” as he decried the heresy of “splittism.” The fate of Tibet shines light on a key issue: can political entities bordering a hegemon exercise sovereignty?

We are living in a world where the 1945 postwar order is ending. The collapse of the Soviet Union has been followed by a bloody war between its two biggest successor states. Oil prices are soaring and inflation is skyrocketing. Fertilizers and food are in short supply because the two big exporters Russia and Ukraine are at war. So, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and many other countries could soon be short of bread, if not oil. 

As the current world order breaks down, what will emerge in its place? Will we see a more fragmented world with regional hegemons competing in their spheres of influence? Or will we see a more multipolar world where dispersed power centers will realize there is no way to survive other than mutual respect and creative collaboration?

I spoke to writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue on a range of issues, spanning from his experience as a Tibetan in India to the state of our modern world. 

The transcript has been edited for clarity. Words in brackets are my insertions to provide context and clarity to Tsundue’s words.

Roberta Campani: How do the Tibetans live in India? 

Tenzin Tsundue: There are about 100,000 Tibetan refugees in India, of which three generations are represented: those who left Tibet (as Tsundue’s parents did), their children who are now adults (like Tsundue) and a third generation (children of Tsundue’s generation) who no longer have direct ties to Tibet. There’s also another group, those who came out of Tibet later on, in the early 2000s and up to 2009 and then it became almost impossible to get out of occupied Tibet. There’s a law in India as per which someone who was born prior to in the country is a citizen regardless of the origin of their parents. (Yet most Tibetans have not applied for citizenship to avoid weakening the Free Tibet Movement.) Like other refugees, Tibetans cannot own property nor vote. In fact, Tibetans don’t even have refugee status because India, like most modern nations, does not recognize Tibet as a state or country. 

We are considered foreigners, we have to get a document that lasts one year. This makes it hard to plan long-term, build a house or start a family. Some can get the document extended for five years. But it is hard not to have any stability. On the other hand, the positive side of this situation is that it maintains the impetus to keep working towards going back to our homeland.

Even if India granted us 43 settlements where we have built farms, hospitals, and schools where we are self-subsistent, this was a lot of work. And now the young go to cities and have jobs in IT.

Tibet is known for being the home country of Tenzin Gyatso, now known as the Dalai Lama. He is recognized both as a spiritual and political leader. In 2011, the Dalai Lama gave up his political role and passed it on to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). 

The CTA was formed in 1959. Some consider it a government in exile. The Dalai Lama’s handing over power to the CTA is historic. He wants Tibetans and Tibet to function democratically. The Sikyong, a figure analogous to a prime minister, and a parliament is elected every five years. 

Apart from 100,000 Tibetans in India, there are another 50,000 in other countries. All of them can elect members of the parliament and participate in activities of the CTA.

Roberta Campani: What can this impetus achieve given the current situation in China?

Tenzin Tsundue: China looks at Tibetan culture and religion as the biggest obstacle to assimilation. The Chinese want to homogenize Tibet and reduce it into Beijing’s backyard. They see that Tibetans are united over their cause. They are also united with Tibetans in exile.

Tibetan culture is very different from Chinese culture. China believes in bombing mountains, making money out of Tibetan minerals and resources, and damming rivers. In contrast, Tibetans believe that there are gods and goddesses in the mountains, and they are sacred for our living. Our environment is not to serve us. We are part of the environment. Philosophically, we look at land and resources very differently from the Chinese. They also look at people as resources to make them do cheap labor and make money for the capitalists. That is not how we look at life. Tibetan nomads and farmers are “rehabilitated” in reservations, kind of artificial villages so they lose touch and connection with their own land.

Tibet lies north of the Himalayas. It is a large high-altitude plateau inhabited largely by Buddhists who brave bitter winters and lead largely simple lives. Known as the roof of the world, historians speak of a geographical Tibet and a political Tibet. There is also a cultural Tibet associated with meditation, spirituality, esoteric practices, mystique and, in our Hollywoodish times, personified by the beatific Dalai Lama.

In May 1951, the Dalai Lama’s envoys were forced to sign a Seventeen Point Agreement with the Chinese. For the first time, an agreement formally recognized Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. This agreement, though, was signed to avoid a brutal military invasion by the Chinese. Beijing has always claimed Tibet to be an autonomous region belonging to the Chinese nation.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that it has brought progress to benighted and feudal Tibet. The CCP says that it has bettered the lives of ordinary Tibetans by bringing modern technology and economic growth. The question arises whether this progress was worth it given the decimation of Tibetan culture and the destruction of Tibet’s once pristine environment.

Roberta Campani: Can you give us some background about what brought the situation to this point?

Tenzin Tsundue: Tibet had been a free and independent country right from the beginning until China’s invasion in 1951. What is called the western romanticization of Shangri-La is Tibet — 2.5 million square kilometers of land, geographically the biggest and highest plateau in the world. Tibetans have lived in isolation, untouched by western influences  — they have hardly had any relationship with many other countries. Of course, Tibet had relationships with Mongolia in the north, China in the east, India to the south and by extension with other South Asian countries, like Nepal, Burma, Bhutan and Pakistan. And that’s how Tibet lived as an independent country for all these thousands of years. 

And this isolation has also created this very unique language, culture, and identity. In the last 2,000 years, we have received Buddhism from India. It wasn’t Tibetan, it came from India and today, we are keeping that and Buddhism has become the primary identity for Tibetan people. And that’s how we have lived as a free and independent country and that is still existing today.

The Tibetans inside Tibet that are fighting the Chinese attempt to 1. homogenize, and 2. to use Tibet as a colony, which the Chinese mine and make money off. The reason why Tibetans have not been co-opted by Chinese mining and industrialization is because Tibetans have a very different idea of natural resources and the environment and that is a part of Tibetan identity. We look at nature as a larger universe where human beings are part of. We are servants to nature.

This identity comes from a much larger picture of the Tibetan civilization. That civilization, what we are getting to see, is something many countries have lost. We have not. Our Tibetans in Tibet still believe that the country is more important than the people. We are part of the environment. So the continuity of tradition that we are seeing resists the damming of rivers, mining for resources and clear felling of trees in order to make money through all the cheap made in China products.

China is mining and taking all of these natural resources —  lithium, copper, and gold — to make cheap products for the world. See, how China looks at natural resources is very different to Tibet. The China that is emerging today is not even the China of Deng Xiaoping or of Mao Zedong. China has completed a cultural revolution in so many different phases. So many times, China has completely changed. Tibet may have modernized in different ways, but as a civilization, we are continuous.

China-India Clash Wakes Up Tibet’s Ghost of Independence

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Roberta Campani: It seems that this view makes even more sense now that we have climate issues: how could your experience be made useful for the world in general?

Tenzin Tsundue: I don’t want to be condescending by saying we have the best ideas for the world to copy. We will continue our religion, our culture, we have our very unique civilizational beliefs, and if the world, if the international community see that this is of value, they will anyhow take it. 

Roberta Campani: Do you think there is something positive in the “common prosperity” doctrine that China has brought forward these past few years? In particular, if we consider that inequalities and the wider income gap are creating discontent in most of the traditionally democratic countries. 

Tenzin Tsundue: You and I know it very well, it’s all optics. It’s what political parties create to fulfill their own self-interest, like Trump tried to create something for America while pursuing his own interest and Biden is now trying to do that today. The same goes for the propaganda war between Zelensky and Putin. All these optics are for consumption and you cannot just blindly consume that. When China says that it is creating a more equal society by getting rid of the gap between the rich and the poor, we understand it very well. These are political agendas and not social services. 

And as I said earlier, homogenization means that China already has what it calls the Chinese identity and Beijing is trying to impose that on the rest of the people. Homogenization does not mean there is no culture. There is a culture but it’s the majority culture that they are trying to impose on the minorities or the people that are living under China’s occupation. That is homogenization and this is the biggest threat that is happening in Eastern Turkestan, southern Mongolia, and in Manchuria. And the same thing is happening in Hong Kong.

And there is a threat that China may physically, and militarily invade Taiwan in the future. So this homogenization is the main factor why Hong Kong didn’t want to become completely Chinese because the Hong Kong people have their own identity, a social and a cultural tradition there. And they say “we are not like the Chinese in mainland China.” So you see, the Hong Kong people resist because they don’t want to homogenize. They don’t want to be turned into a Chinese backyard.

Of course, physically, Hong Kong is a part of the People’s Republic of China. Still, they have lived separately for almost one or two hundred years. They have their ideas, identity, ways of living, and culture. It’s much more vibrant and democratic there. Now, they are being homogenized. And the international community did not care much about losing Hong Kong.

Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong are not legally recognized as sovereign states. Therefore, other states and the so-called international community cannot take a clear position on them. However, these three geographical and political entities are increasingly in the news.

According to Professor , “Tibet has been an international issue since the 1950s but no serious attempt has been made to address this problem on the main pretext that the status of Tibet was not clear. The lack of clarity on the status of Tibet is not just because of manipulation by the Chinese. The major contributing factor, in fact, was Tibet’s own failure to move along with the tide of the change that was sweeping the world in the 20^th ����Գٳܰ���.”

As per , lawyer and professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton:  “From a legal standpoint, Tibet has to this day not lost its statehood. It is an independent state under illegal occupation.”  

Roberta Campani: What are your thoughts about how the situation could unfold for Tibet? 

Tenzin Tsundue: Today there are many possibilities. I think that the 63 years of exile experience have given us enough sense of resilience and understanding of the world’s political scenario and our own existence. The early shock we got after coming out of Tibet to the outside world where there were already so many scientific advances. For example, when my parents came to India, they were unable to understand what is a bus, what is a car and what is a train. From there we have come to a situation where the third generation is working in IT companies in India. 

So you see this fast-forward advance and experience has given us the understanding that ultimately our freedom struggle is something we have to do ourselves. And we have created enough cultural resistance and even resilience that even if no one helps us today we are still able to maintain our resistance and we’ll come to a point when China collapses we will go back to our country and we will re-establish a free, independent, democratic Tibet. This much confidence is what we have now.

Today, the Tibetan issue is not isolated. More than ever, the issue of the Dalai Lama, who is the reincarnation (of his predecessor), is now more useful to the United States, to the European countries and to India because China has now evolved from a communist country to an industrial nation and a superpower. China is today a threat to the western countries, India, and many other countries that need to tackle China. Now, we have to work with these other countries that might find the issues of Tibet useful to their causes.

Roberta Campani: How could this happen?

Tenzin Tsundue: Look, when we were protesting in 2008, we were saying that China is killing Tibetans and that there is a genocide happening in Tibet, no one cared. Everyone went to participate in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

This year too, in 2022, when the Winter Olympics are happening, suddenly the United States realizes that there are human rights issues with China. That does not mean that they did not know about human rights violations in Tibet and East Turkestan in 2008. This year, 15 countries boycotted — a diplomatic boycott —  these countries are now finding these issues useful for them against China.

This is the understanding we are now getting as Tibetan refugees. Earlier, Tibetans were nothing —  oh, these are just nice, good, goodie people — and the Dalai Lama is non-violent. Now they find the issue of Tibet politically useful. So, how do we have to position ourselves with countries that want to deal with China differently? Are we able to do it? Perhaps, we can even work with China’s pro-democracy activists who would want to see their country as a democracy.

Tibet: A Nonviolent History of War

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Roberta Campani: Are you in touch with people in China who want democracy? 

Tenzin Tsundue: Of course, we are in touch with them but they were themselves persecuted in China and they are now living in foreign countries. 

Roberta Campani: How could this experience that has given you and the Tibetan communities skills and consciousness be helpful? How can you use that experience to raise awareness about other refugees, as it’s a problem all over the world?

Tenzin Tsundue: It is not that the West doesn’t know. It is pretending not to know because its interests up until today have been more into trading with China and not with promoting human rights. We are very well aware of this. As much as we would like to work with western countries on human rights and democracy in China and also freedom for Tibet, we are also aware that the West may be using Tibet today. We would like to work with western countries for democracy in China and freedom in Tibet. 

Roberta Campani: Do you know there is a fascination with Tibetan culture that is actually not so well known?

Tenzin Tsundue: I am not surprised. The consumerism that has taken over the world has, in a way, homogenized entire production units that have centered on easy production. This has come about with big international corporate companies as producers and the rest of the people are just consumers. This model is a danger to the environment and also to human civilization. (That is why there may be a fascination for Tibetan culture.)

Roberta Campani: What is the mission or role that you have chosen? 

Tenzin Tsundue: I am a small activist based here in India. The role I have assigned to myself is that of a writer, I look at certain changing aspects in the Tibetan community, culturally and emotionally, and I write about these aspects. Also, as an activist, an important part of my role is to keep the freedom struggle going, maintaining the restlessness in the movement. And also come up with new ideas on how to deal with the changing political situation in the world and how to guard against certain threats, and, at the same time, look at opportunities that might appear.

So, mine is a very small role. Still, I see it in the larger picture. There is the Tibetan government in exile, there is His Holiness the Dalai Lama, there are members of parliament, there are many other leaders, and as an activist and as a writer, I also play my small role. But in the larger picture, I see that the Tibetan freedom movement up until now has been inspiring both for the international community and us because we have maintained nonviolence as the main thrust of our movement led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

This has inspired many individuals, people in the West, in India and in many other places. They say that this is one peaceful community and a movement that they would like to support, and of course, we have a huge number of sympathizers and supporters, which is how we have maintained the health of the movement. We are hopeful that we will be able to carry on in this way, and when the opportune moment comes about, we can recreate Tibet as a free and independent state and a democracy. 

Han and Hindu Nationalism Come Face to Face

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Roberta Campani: How could this happen? 

Tenzin Tsundue: There are three important factors. 

First and the most important are the Tibetan people themselves. As long as we don’t give up, there is always a chance for us to gain freedom. And if we do give up, no matter even if the entire world comes together to support us, there is no cause to support! 

So finally, the ultimate goal, the ultimate authority over the Tibetan freedom movement, is the Tibetan people. This is the most important fact. 

The second factor is China, because it is China who, without any provocation, entered Tibet, plundered Tibet, captured Tibet and, for the past 70 years, China has been maintaining a military occupation of Tibet. There should be a new kind of understanding within China. The Chinese must completely change the way they run their government and reform their entire structure. They are no longer able to maintain the occupation of Tibet.

China’s superpower status comes from how western countries use the country as an industrial factory floor to make cheap “Made in China” products and ship them to the West. That is how the West created China and made it into a monster. Until 1971, China was not even a member of the United Nations. And American intervention replaced Taiwan with China in the UN. That is how China became a permanent Security Council member at the UN and a superpower. Now, China is trying to throw out the United States from the United Nations. 

(So, China will not continue to be the workshop of the world and occupy Tibet forever.)

The third factor is how China is going to maintain its relationships with western countries, and, with that, what are the changes that are about to come about. We have seen in the past two years during the pandemic how the West has started to behave very differently towards China. Issues of human rights are coming out for the first time and the western relationship with China is changing. And I think this relationship will undergo dramatic changes in the next five years. All these things will throw up lots of opportunities for us.

Roberta Campani: Thank you! Are you still hopeful? 

Tenzin Tsundue: I have to be! There is no option. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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The post Tibetan Activist and Writer Tenzin Tsundue Talks to 51�Թ� appeared first on 51�Թ�.

It has come to this because when China invaded neighboring Tibet in 1950, India was in thrall to the newly-established communist regime under Mao Zedong after a bloody revolution. Ignoring its civilizational relationship with Tibet, India hoped to gain from the emerging power of the People’s Republic of China and thus celebrated “Hindi-Chini bhai bhai,” a popular slogan of the time that translates to “Indians and Chinese are brothers.”

Han and Hindu Nationalism Come Face to Face

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After 1962, the Chinese military stood on the doorstep of India across thousands of kilometers in the Himalayas. Proverbially, this border was guarded by only 60 Indian policemen before China’s conquest of Tibet. Pertinently, India never had a border with China before 1950.

Refuge in India

If Tibet had remained a free and independent country, today it would have been the 10th largest nation with square kilometers of land. The Tibetan Plateau hosts 46,000 glaciers, nearly one-fourth of the world’s total number. It is a source of numerous rivers, including some of the most mighty ones such as the Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Yangtze. It is shocking that such a vast reservoir of water and natural resources in Asia has been occupied by China and it is even more shocking that it barely gets a mention today.

Ancient Buddhist culture has been preserved in Tibet over many centuries. In the Indian public psyche, Kailash Mansarovar was part of India. Tibetans used to visit Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India at Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Nalanda and Amravati. The India–Tibet border was irrelevant and people used to cross it freely. Today, that border has two armies facing each other and people no longer cross it.

After the Dalai Lama took refuge in India in 1959, around Tibetans have come to India. Most of them live in the Himalayan regions and the state of Karnataka. The Tibetan seat of power is in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, where the Dalai Lama has set up abode. The Tibetan parliament and government are also based there. Although many Tibetans still dream of a free Tibet, India‘s desire for closer ties with China in the past has led New Delhi to shy away from supporting Tibetan independence. As a refugee in India, the Dalai Lama has spoken of autonomy and adhered to India‘s “One-China” policy.

In 70 years of Chinese occupation, more than 1 million Tibetans have been killed, 6,000 monasteries destroyed and Tibet’s cultural identity attacked. The Chinese have also proceeded to exploit Tibet’s natural resources. They have cleared forests, bombed mountains and practice strip mining for gold, copper, lithium and other rare earth elements.

Long Ignored

The international community has ignored the genocide and exploitation Tibet has experienced over the last seven decades. Powerful nations have made their peace with China for geopolitical and economic reasons. In the process, Tibetans have suffered a lot.

Globalization has led over 160 countries trading with China. Western “liberal democrats” blindly accept the “One-China” policy and recognize Tibet as a part of China. Freed of any external pressure, China has become more oppressive in Tibet. Even possessing the Dalai Lama’s photo could land a Tibetan in jail on charges of separatism. Although Tibetan youth do not retaliate like their counterparts in Palestine or Kashmir, they have resorted to self-immolation as a form of protest against Chinese occupation.

Tibetans still believe that freedom is possible. Until six decades ago, Confucianism and Buddhism were the strongest influences on Chinese society. Communism attacked these twin pillars. Capitalism has shaken them further. Today, the only religion consumerist China worships is money. Yet, as the Chinese are discovering, life is more than money. Tibetans are convinced that China will never be able to conquer their spirit and that they are free until their spirit is free.

During visits of Chinese leaders, Indian police customarily arrest all Tibetan activists to appease China. Yet young Tibetans take their inspiration from India’s struggle for independence from British rule. Few remember that until 1942, most Indians did not believe they would see freedom in their lifetime. Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India Movement struggled to gain mass support. Within five years, India became independent because the British Empire collapsed under its own weight. Tibetans believe the same will happen to the modern Chinese empire.

Chinese Domination

China has not only occupied Tibet but also Uighur East Turkestan, a Muslim-majority region covering 1.8 million square kilometers now known as Xinjiang. It also occupies 1.2 million square kilometers of southern Mongolia and 84,000 square kilometers of Manchuria. By some calculations, 60% of China’s 9.6 million square kilometers is occupied territory. China’s expansionist designs continue. The “Belt and Road Initiative” is China’s plan to dominate world trade.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls all aspects of life in the country. The administration, the judiciary, the legislature, the media and the military are all controlled by the CCP. The party fosters a personality cult around Mao despite his responsibility for the death of millions of people. His portrait still adorns Tiananmen Square, a place made immemorable by the brutal slaughter of unarmed students by armed tanks. That 1989 massacre still stands obliterated from history textbooks and even the internet in China.

Territorial encroachments and China’s support for Pakistan demonstrate that Beijing has no respect for India’s territorial integrity. There is no reason for India to respect China’s territorial integrity. Beijing is facing international isolation because of the COVID-19 outbreak. From Japan to Bhutan, China’s neighbors are nervous about its expansionism. The time has come for India to stand up to China. It must scrap the “One-China” policy and support Tibet’s nonviolent movement for independence.

*[An earlier version of this article was published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Various media outlets are reporting the , Tashi Wangchuk, threatened by the Chinese government with 15 years in prison for the crime of “inciting separatism.” Diverse human rights groups have come to his defense. A spokeswoman for Amnesty International, Roseann Rife, it up: “Exposing and criticising the suppression by government of Tibetan language and culture was a legitimate exercise of free speech. Labelling it as a form of ‘inciting separatism’ demonstrates how the Chinese authorities blatantly misuse this criminal charge to silence dissent.”

Here is today’s 3D definition:

Legitimate:

In conformity with a person’s culturally determined interpretation of the law, even when that person knows that the authorities apply the law with a different interpretation

Contextual note

To understand the meaning of this story — or any story in the news — the reader should pay attention to clues about motivation. For example, “Tashi Wangchuk said that if the courts refused to hear his case, it would prove that the Chinese legal system would not solve issues surrounding Tibetan rights. ‘If this comes to an end and I’m locked up and cannot proceed with what I’m doing and they force me to say or do things I don’t want to say, I will choose suicide,’ he added.”

This appears to be classic civil disobedience, in the Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. tradition, although neither of those role models would have threatened suicide. Martyrdom can be an effective public relations strategy.

Curiously none of the current articles covering this story mention Tashi Wangchuk’s background, readily available on and Tashi’s own : “Tashi Wangchuk is a Tibetan filmmaker who works for Voice of America, Tibetan Service as a TV Producer and host.”

Calling Tashi an “activist” without mentioning that he is a filmmaker who works for Voice of America, “the United States federal government’s official institution for non-military, external broadcasting,” appears to be deliberately misleading.” Tashi’s Facebook page confirms his link with Voice of America, whereas none of the articles mention it and as a “shopkeeper.”

One is left wondering what the different parties — including human rights groups — are up to in their management of this news item.

Historical note

The status of Tibet, its language and culture within China has been a thorny issue for a long time. The Chinese government has a reputation of being heavy-handed and thick-headed in its dealing with diversity within its borders. But so have many nations, often with persistently violent results, such as Spain with the Basques and even more recently with the Catalans, of France with Alsace and Brittany, as well as the Basques and in fact all regional languages and dialects. The UK represents a rare case where minority languages are tolerated, but apart from Welsh, which does function as a functional “national” — but in reality regional — language

As one , “It can …  therefore be seen through Tibetan students protests and the phenomenon of Tashi Wangchuk that bilingual education for Chinese minorities is still a sensitive and controversial theme in today’s China.”

Unfortunately for the defenders of regional languages, especially when the issue is which language will be used in their public education systems, history tells us that strong centralized nations are likely to have their way. They are the ones that can decide what “legitimate” means, however contradictory they may be with overriding political ideals, including tolerance of diversity.

FURTHER CULTURAL NOTE CONCERNING THE MEDIA

The Daily Devil’s Dictionary seeks to clarify the often oblique intentions detectable in the vocabulary used by public personalities and the media. The background facts in this case are far from clear, but all media outlets appear to have aligned on a reading focused on the “letter of the law,” in this case the Chinese constitution. They assume a vaguely understood ideal of human rights to be the default position for stating the issue. They have also left aside what may be significant facts and have refrained from the analysis of motives, including those of the Chinese government, which include the consolidation of power, the homogenization of culture (rendering populations more docile), but also the achievement of “harmony,” a core value of Chinese culture.

Western media are more likely to reflect the value of competition, conflict and the act of challenging to improve rather than harmonizing to stabilize. Tashi fulfills the role of a Western media hero rather than an Asian social leader.

*[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book,, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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On April 27, 1998, Thubten Ngodup set himself on fire to protest the Indian government’s forceful ending of a Tibetan hunger strike in New Delhi. Two days later, he died from his burns. Ngodup was 60 years old, a former monk at Tashilhunpo monastery in , and a former soldier in the Tibetan forces of the Indian army. Since 1988, he had worked as a cowherder and cook at a monastery in Dharamsala, living quietly in a small hut, and participating whenever possible in Tibetan independence protests and marches.

During the 1998 Unto Death Hunger Strike in Delhi, Ngodup volunteered as an assistant, tending to the needs of the six hunger strikers. On the morning of the 49^th day of the hunger strike, as Indian police forcibly dragged away the hunger strikers (in line with Indian laws prohibiting suicide) and beat volunteers who protested police actions, Ngodup doused himself with a flammable liquid — shouting pro-Tibet, pro-Dalai Lama slogans — and lit a match. His immolation drew the attention of the world’s media, martyrdom status within the Tibetan community, and the “deeply saddened” criticism of the Dalai Lama, who had earlier spoken against the proclaimed nonviolent hunger strike as a form of violence against one’s self.

International Support

Ngodup was one of thousands of Tibetan veterans who served their country, either in the Indian army or the Tibetan citizens’ army, Chushi Gangdrug. Begun as a series of independent uprisings against increasingly oppressive Chinese reforms in the 1950s, the Chushi Gangdrug army was formally established on June 16, 1958. Resistance troops fought against the Chinese first from within Tibet, and later from a military base in Mustang, a small Tibetan kingdom in Nepal. In 1974, they laid down their arms at the Dalai Lama’s request. For much of this time, the CIA covertly trained and financially supported the resistance army. From 1958-64, Tibetan soldiers flew to the United States in unmarked planes for covert training in guerrilla warfare techniques, including paramilitary operations, bomb-building, map-making, photography, radio operation techniques and intelligence collecting.

From their base in Mustang, the Tibetan army continued weaponry and warfare training, and would rotate guerrilla battalions in and out of Tibet for both military and intelligence operations. Resistance life was plagued by the uncertainties of external support, by internal squabbles and by changing relations with the local Mustang population. The king of Mustang silently supported the resistance army, as did the king of , albeit with the strong encouragement of the US government. King Birendra himself visited Mustang for discussions with resistance leaders, and Nepali intelligence officers were stationed in Mustang throughout the duration. Just as the Nepali government was aware of the Tibetan presence in Mustang, so too was the Indian government cognizant of Tibetan resistance activities throughout South Asia. The difference was that India was not just aware of these activities, but was often a direct participant in them.

Tibetan guerrilla units entered Tibet on foot from India for intelligence gathering missions. The CIA flew planes into Tibet from which Colorado-trained Tibetans would parachute in on missions. However, unlike in Nepal, Tibetan units in India were incorporated into local militia, not independent of them. Tibetans were trained by the Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB), and after training would either stay with the CIB or go on to a leadership post in a new Tibetan force in the Indian military. The all-Tibetan Special Frontier Force (SFF), popularly known as Establishment 22, was formed during the Sino-Indian War in 1962. Also created at this time under the auspices of the Ministry of Home Affairs was the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBF), which included Tibetans in its ranks. Both forces were stationed in border areas.

Stories of this guerrilla war were secret for many years. Involving multiple governments, and the covert moving of men, money and munitions across international borders, it is perhaps no surprise that information about the resistance was suppressed for several decades.

As understood by the Tibetans in the 1960s, Establishment 22/SFF was the India-based branch of the Chushi Gangdrug army. Based in Dehra Dun, this force was initially trained by both American and Indian officers, but was led by four Tibetan officers — Ratuk Ngawang, Gyatso Dhondup, Jampa Kalden and Jampa Wangdu. When the Americans pulled out of Establishment 22/SFF following political changes in their relationship with India in the 1970s, the KGB moved in, and both trainers and equipment changed from American to Russian. In 1971, the Tibetan force was used in India’s war with East Pakistan (now ). Fifty-six Tibetan Establishment 22/SFF soldiers were killed in battle, and 580 Tibetan soldiers were privately decorated with medals for bravery by the Indian government.

Stories of Guerilla War

While the Chushi Gangdrug armies in Nepal, India and Tibet were ultimately no match for the Chinese, they did register some victories, including a major intelligence haul in 1961 and, most importantly for the veterans, the safe escorting of the Dalai Lama to India during his undercover escape from Lhasa in 1959.

Stories of this guerrilla war were secret for many years. Involving multiple governments, and the covert moving of men, money and munitions across international borders, it is perhaps no surprise that information about the resistance was suppressed for several decades. Yet one might expect the story of the popular armed struggle for Tibet to be a part of contemporary Tibetan history. However, while veterans widely consider the resistance to be a key part of recent Tibetan history, and their own military service as the defining experience in their lives, histories of the resistance army and their efforts to defend Tibet and Buddhism are not widely known in the Tibetan refugee community. Why is the history of the resistance sidelined in official histories of Tibet? Why has the history of the Chushi Gangdrug history been arrested?

Historical arrest is the apprehension and detaining of particular pasts, with an anticipated eventual release. As such, arrested histories are not so much erased or forgotten, as they are postponed and archived for use in an unspecified time in the future when it will be OK, safe or important to tell them. Chushi Gangdrug history was — and still mostly remains — arrested within the Tibetan refugee community for several reasons: The war effort was not successful in regaining Tibet. The CIA was involved. In seeing their military initiative as political participation in the nation, as well as religious service defending the Dalai Lama and Buddhism, the mostly eastern Tibetan or Khampa resistance force challenged the Central Tibetan status quo in unwelcome ways. And finally, the military resistance troubled practices of nonviolence.

Chushi Gangdrug soldiers saw their army service as both ethically difficult (in that it potentially involved killing) and as ethically important (in that they were defending their religion, religious institutions and religious leaders). Monks disrobed to join the army and, in reverse, some soldiers later became monks to more effectively atone for their wartime transgressions.

The discourse of nonviolence, which circulated among the soldiers in the 1950s and 1960s, was not exactly the same as that which circulates today. Soldiers understood they were taking on violence on behalf of others, specifically the Dalai Lama. Their strategy was a joint violent/nonviolent one, in which the armed struggle was paired with a political, diplomatic effort. Soldiers discussed among themselves how to effectively fight to defend religion, including constantly seeking religious protection and guidance. They dedicated themselves to the Dalai Lama, had specific deities to whom they prayed, and called on the assistance of numerous lamas and rinpoches for special blessings, protective relics and predictions. Religion permeated the army at the same time that fighting violated a fundamental principle of Buddhism — not to create suffering for any sentient being. The allowance of violence in the case of war, as explained to this author by many soldiers, was due to the threat to Buddhism from a communist, anti-religion opponent.

Nonviolence is not an intrinsic Tibetan trait. It is instead a philosophical component of Buddhism and a political component of state struggle; one the Dalai Lama himself notes is the only “practical” recourse to dealing with the infinitely more populous People’s Republic of China.

In his 1962 autobiography, My Land and My People, the Dalai Lama directly addressed his personal and political dilemmas regarding violence and the resistance. He explains that he spoke frankly with some of the Khampa leaders during his escape from Tibet:

“In spite of my beliefs, I very much admired their courage and their determination to carry on the grim battle they had started for our freedom, culture, and religion. I thanked them for their strength and bravery, and also, more personally, for the protection they had given me. … By then, I could not in honesty advise them to avoid violence. In order to fight, they had sacrificed their homes and all the comforts and benefits of a peaceful life. Now they could see no alternative but to go on fighting, and I had none to offer. I only asked them not to use violence except in defending their position in the mountains.”

As soldiers then and as veterans now, Chushi Gangdrug members consistently confirm his request: Their actions were in defense of Tibet in the face of Chinese aggression.

Implications of Non-Violence

Tibetan writer and veteran Jamyang Norbu argues that the promotion of the Tibetan struggle as wholly nonviolent “ignores the sacrifice and courage of the many thousands of Tibetan freedom fighters, monks and lamas included, who took up arms for the freedom of their country.” What then are the implications of a nonviolent state policy? Norbu contends that “truth has, unfortunately, become the first of casualties.”

Nonviolence is not an intrinsic Tibetan trait. It is instead a philosophical component of Buddhism and a political component of state struggle; one the Dalai Lama himself notes is the only “practical” recourse to dealing with the infinitely more populous People’s Republic of .

Tibet has not historically been a nonviolent society. Tibetan history is full of wars and battles, of local-level skirmishes and major disputes with neighboring countries. The Tibetan government had an official army, and monasteries kept arms and engaged in armed disputes. A policy of nonviolence in the present makes it difficult to narrate violence in the past. But narrating past violence does not — and should not — cancel out a contemporary policy of nonviolence. Current Tibetan nonviolence by individuals, as well as by groups such as Tibet Action Institute and Students for a Free Tibet, provides a legitimate and inspiring alternative to violent conflict around the world. Yet it is important to understand the historical contours of this political strategy, in order to acknowledge the realities and complexities of the Tibetan experience, and thus best speak to peoples engaged in similar political struggles.

Since laying down arms in 1974, Tibetans in exile have waged a solely nonviolent political campaign in accordance with the Dalai Lama’s wishes. In 1987, the Dalai Lama articulated nonviolence as the sole Tibetan political strategy in his Five Point Peace Plan presented to the US Congress. Grassroots Tibetan nonviolence consists of a series of protests, media publications and coverage, global community building, hunger strikes and self-immolation. These latter two efforts — hunger strikes and immolations — do not fit the Dalai Lama’s platform of nonviolence in that unlike Gandhi, who advocated fasts as a means of political nonviolence, the Dalai Lama considers them to be violence against one’s own body.

Thus, while past histories of the Tibetan resistance army clearly conflict with current commitments to nonviolence as led by the Dalai Lama, so too do contemporary actions such as hunger strikes and immolations.

Reconciling Tibetan beliefs about the need to defend country and religion with the Dalai Lama’s version of nonviolence is not a simple task. The tension between violence and nonviolence is one that Tibetans thus navigate with care, sometimes by opting for a different understanding of nonviolence. It is not a coincidence that Thubten Ngodup was not just a former monk, but a former soldier. What veterans like Ngodup are encouraged to forget, a history of war, is directly correlated to what the world is encouraged to remember — a nonviolent Tibet.

Ngodup’s self-immolation in 1998 was the first in the Tibetan community. For 11 years it was the only one. Then, on February 27, 2009, a young monk named Tapey self-immolated at Kirti Monastery in Tibet on the anniversary of an attack on the local community by Chinese security forces. At present, 138 Tibetans have self-immolated. The majority of self-immolations have been inside Tibet. Tibetans consider these deaths to be sacrifices rather than suicides. Sacrifices in the sense of a religious offering, a political protest and a call to the Tibetan community for unity. Sacrifices in the sense of continuing to defend religion and country.

Tibetans meet the Dalai Lama’s decision that the Tibetan struggle is to be nonviolent with a range of responses — pride, acceptance, frustration, creativity and more. When you are not the Dalai Lama — that is, not an incarnation of a bodhisattva (or even a “simple monk” as he prefers) — living nonviolence is not always easy. And yet Tibetans remain committed to nonviolence, committed to a sense of truth and justice and committed to the goal of returning Tibet to Tibetan rule.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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According to Will Durant, the success of religion lies in the “persistent power over the human soul.” Religion helps us connect with reality in a different way; it focuses on experience and enables us to comprehend its transcendental nature.

Much inquiry in the world today suffers from judgments based on narrowly construed interpretations of the experiential reality. Meerten Ter Borg distinguishes between “power of religion” and “religious power.” The former refers to the institutional nature of power, whereas the latter is concerned with the source of power. This source of power may be transcendental, and hence, need not be materialistic in nature.

In the case of Tibet, a combination of the two has taken place to set it apart from other Buddhist societies.

Heart Over Mind

Emotions transcend space and time. In the case of Tibetan Buddhism, the centrality of emotions shapes the ethical character of not only individuals in Tibetan society, but also of Tibet’s national interest. The linguistic expression and practice of the emotions associated with Tibetan Buddhism have earned it international support. The notions of “love” and “compassion” have become metaphors in their struggle for ensuring the survival of their distinct culture. The dominance of structural interpretations blinds us to the degree of which our everyday life is embedded in emotions. Religion performs a role of bridging the gap between these emotions, the individual, and society.

The enlightened mind is integral to the Tibetan culture. The focus on ethical practices is not confined to monks alone and involves the active engagement of lay persons. In , Keneth Liberman notes that the “enlightened mind” is located in the heart in Tibetan thought, in contrast to its location in the head in European philosophy. Ethical transformation, which forms the centerpiece of the Tibetan culture, focuses on the development of the heart over the mind.

Authority and Religion

Tibet faces the challenge of being unable to meet the prerequisites set by the West for recognition. The idea of Tibet as a particular territorial unit was historically enmeshed with  religious fervor, and the most important distinction between people was along the lines of faith. There never existed a distinction between the sacred and the secular, a feature that characterizes the modern state. The idea of a democratic state, which the Dalai Lama has adopted for the Tibetans in exile in India, holds little significance for those who “ is and has always been the only democratic leader of the Tibetan people.” 

A centralized authority had never been established in Tibet except during the 7^th century, when fear of external threat initiated military alliances by the clan-based polities, and during the Mongol entry in the 13^th century. The instability, which ensued due to lack of centralized authority, created a void filled by monasteries. The role the lama played was both spiritual and political in nature. The distinguishing feature of Tibetan Buddhism has been the role of the spiritual teacher that was missing in other variants of Buddhism, with the notable exception of Burma, writes . Power has been historically diffused between the nomadic organizations, the aristocracy, and the monasteries. However, the greatest degree of integration in Tibet has taken place through the monastic tradition.

The Dalai Lama’s government, in line with the West, is working towards establishing a state for a society that, effectively speaking, was always stateless. Even when centralized authority of the monastic system existed, local political structures retained a high degree of autonomy. Hierarchy characterized the society, but religion always proved to be a binding factor. The Chinese invasion in 1950, according to Ashild Kolas, was accompanied by an application of religious persecution as a way of dismantling the Tibetan political system. The situation only worsened with the Cultural Revolution and the systemic attempts at destruction of the Tibetan way of life. Any attack on religion has a direct bearing on the political landscape of a “country” where the distinction between sacred and the secular have been blurred.

Where is Tibet?

If we were to ask – “where is Tibet?” writes , “the future Buddha will locate Tibet in the hearts rather than on a page in an atlas — thus bringing Tibet’s mysteries full circle to a time, before 1950, when it was just a blank space on a classroom globe.” 

Much of the firmness that was expressed with respect to Tibet’s strict territorial boundaries in the Dalai Lama’s book, , dissipated afterwards. “The pull towards independence is mainly moral and emotional in character,” . 

In the case of Tibet, the importance of the value of territorial boundaries was not realized until its cultural identity was attacked. Tibetans always distinguished themselves from others based on beliefs, and in that sense we can identify the cause for the shift in the Dalai Lama’s position with regard to the “question of Tibet” from a demand for independence to an acceptance of autonomy, to his desire to shun violence and preserve its traditions.

For a community faced with a threat to its way of life, infusing its world view with strengthened vigor made it “marketable” in a world plagued by spiritual decay. The experience of the Tibetans also proved to be a blessing in disguise because their struggle was now comprehensible to the world. The Dalai Lama writes: “Tibetans never took any active steps to prove their individuality to the outside world, because it never seemed necessary.” Eventually retaining the Tibetan world view became essential to score an ideological victory over China, and hence, persistent efforts were made to break free from the core area of administration imposed by the Chinese.

Independence of Mind

It can be argued that in the case of Tibet, the demand for independence moved beyond the narrow framework of territorial independence to include independence of the mind. The dangers of the slow death of its culture through change in the education system were a bigger threat than territorial occupation. 

In the hegemonic struggle between the Chinese and Tibetans that ensued after the Dalai Lama’s move to India in 1959, the latter focused on the illegitimacy of the Chinese authority and power over Tibet. This claim was rooted in the major difference that existed between their opposing world views. Where one had adopted the communist path with no role of religion in the affairs of the state, the other intertwined religion and politics.

However, despite the barbarity of the Chinese, the Dalai Lama magnanimously expressed admiration for the party leadership because they held to their communist faith. The Chinese had repeatedly asserted that it was problematic to rest one’s life on religion. 

In his book, , the Dalai Lama spoke favorably of many aspects of Marxism. As a system based on justice and equality, it appealed to him. However, he argued that the theoretical basis of Marxism with its emphasis on a materialist view of human kind was problematic. Despite these differences, he expressed his belief in the two doctrines of Buddhism and communism meeting on a common ground, which would improve the way the two countries conducted politics.

The Dalai Lama’s desire to see Tibet “modernize” along the lines of People’s Republic of China when it came to heavy industries was misconstrued by Mao Zedong, who failed to recognize that the Dalai Lama’s view on scientific matter and material progress was very much in line with the Buddhist teachings. Mao’s belief that “religion is poison” – because it neglected material progress – did not go down well with the Dalai Lama, who did not see the two as antithetical to each other. Mao seemed to ignore the Buddha’s instructions that, as the Dalai Lama writes, stressed the need for “anyone who practices the dharma should test for themselves its validity.” The Tibetan Buddhist way of life was never overpowered by religion and there remained an appreciation for modern science, so long as its usefulness could be tested.

Reaction to Repression

In the case of Tibetans, the reaction to repression by the Chinese in the form of strengthening the potency of the symbols that represent their culture is more viable than engaging in violence. The maintenance of the sanctity of territorial boundaries is desirable, as often these boundaries signify distinctions between “us” and “them.” 

However, notes, the most important distinctions in Tibet were always made according to beliefs. Many tribes did not fit the “gentle Tibetan stereotype” but, Dunham writes: “Although Khampas had no love for Lhasa’s central government, their allegiance to the Dalai Lama was without parallel.” A student belonging to the Khampa tribe argued in an interview that: “My faith in the Dalai Lama is indelible and I would do anything to protect him, even if that means indulging in violence.”

Much of the resilience shown by Tibetan Buddhists is rooted in their belief that nothing is permanent in the world, not even their suffering. The tragedy of Tibet initiated interdependence with the world, which made them more conscious of the Buddhist teaching that their suffering does not exist independent of the suffering of others. 

Thus the Tibetans, with the Dalai Lama as their spiritual and political leader, embarked on a journey to connect with the world on a deeper spiritual plane. The inter-subjective meanings assigned to human experience made the world converge on the centrality of certain emotions that the Tibetans believed had universal value.

A move beyond the materialist conception of relations between countries to formation of ties based on a sharing of universal responsibility to ensure peace, guided the foreign policy of Tibet. The material aspects of life, such as the nature of the state or that of foreign policy, were shaped by the meaning the community gave to them and, in the case of Tibet, it was always colored with religious insights. 

In the words of Albert Camus: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence becomes an act of rebellion.” The assertion of the Tibetan cultural identity is acquiring a powerful dimension through organized non-violent movements like the , which emerged in Tibet but has spread worldwide among the Tibetan community, and is based on the Gandhian principle of taking pride in everything that resonates of their cultural identity.

For the Tibetans who are deeply-rooted in their history, the potency of their culture has become a “weapon” in their fight for their homeland and, more importantly, in their struggle to retain their unique Tibetan Buddhist identity. 

The Chinese may depart with a thumping victory. Mountains might be riddled by roads. There might be rail lines the Tibetans would have never dreamt of. The Chinese might change the demographics of the region. All this is happening amidst the smoldering ruins of their culture; however, the Tibetans still live in hope. The Chinese will never succeed in destroying the indomitable spirit of their compassion. The politics of the good heart which enables them to remain rooted in history and to gain a moral high ground has connected the Tibetans with the world at a spiritual level, where basic human emotions of love and empathy are invoked to bridge the gap between the individual, his spirit, and the world at large.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Before I went to Tibet, I watched two movies. The first, Seven Years in Tibet, provided a good basic introduction to the modern political history of Tibet, specifically during the last years of independence before the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover in 1950. The second was a two hour YouTube film called, "," which outlined in great detail the current political climate.

A Han Viewpoint

It was also interesting to hear the opinions of my two Chinese friends, Wei and Li, on Tibet and China's relations. They both felt strongly that the Chinese government had bettered Tibet’s sociopolitical situation and directly contributed to its economic prosperity.

Wei’s father, a Chinese businessman in Shenzhen, who did not come on the trip, argued that Dalai Lama has a detrimental impact upon Tibetans, because his infallible political and religious influence causes innocent people to harm themselves (referring to the Tibetan self-immolations of 2008, which continue to this day). Once the Dalai Lama is removed, he believes, it is likely that political tranquility will ensue and the Tibetans will happily enjoy their participation in Chinese society. 

Different Forms of Censorship

Upon arrival in Tibet, I was fascinated by what I saw. Even though my tour (you can't go into Tibet as a foreigner without a guide) didn't take me out into the restricted areas, I believed that I learnt just as much by seeing how the easily tourist-accessible areas are handled, and can extrapolate onto the rest.  

During our stay in Tibet, particularly in the capital city, Lhasa, we had to be extremely careful about what we said. There were people listening everywhere; not just in public, but in bugged restaurants and hotels. I heard one story of a Chinese couple who were arrested at the hotel I was staying, several months prior, for discussing the idea of Tibetan autonomy.

Restricting Tibetan Cultural Practices

On the third day of the journey, I happened to find myself in Lhasa during the Sho Dun Festival, known in English as simply the “Yogurt Festival.” The festival celebrates the end of summer in Tibet, and is the biggest holiday of the year. During the previous three months, the monks had not left their homes, and had avoided walking on grass or dirt. The summer season in Tibet attracts the largest number of insects; therefore, the monks stay inside to avoid crushing their ancestors with their footsteps. 

Tibetans from all over central and western Tibet flock to Lhasa to celebrate the festival. Eastern Tibetans, however, are not allowed to travel outside of the area in which they live, for the Chinese government fears a political uprising. The ancestors of these Tibetans were warriors who defended Tibet from empires to the east, including Burma, China, and ancient empires of Southeast Asia — and as one Tibetan told me, "they still have fire in their blood." Some of the monasteries in eastern Tibet have also been the sites of a number of the self-immolation incidents.

The pilgrimage to Tibet is practiced differently than in the past tradition. Tibetans are no longer allowed to kneel and crawl to worship; they must instead walk upright to be in the presence of Buddha.

For the festival, the locals make homemade yak yogurt, which they offer to the monks as a gift. Moreover, thousands of Tibetans walk several kilometers uphill to witness and give offerings to a giant painted Buddha on canvas, which is unrolled on a hillside above the Drepung Monastery.

Great Chinese Military Presence

As I walked toward the monastery, a convoy totaling several dozen army transport vehicles drove past. Being ignorant as always toward rules, I tried to snap a few "incognito" photos of the convoys, but didn't get anything worthwhile in the end.

In Lhasa, the ratio of military to civilians is one-to-one. The festival proved no different. Chinese army troops and officers stood everywhere. Additionally, the hillside above also crawled with more military, patrolling the region in an effort to avoid any conflict.

My Tibetan guide laughed as he explained that all the troops were for "our safety." There were also rumored to be the same number of undercover Chinese military at the festival, but who is to know. Despite over 50 years of integration work by the Chinese government to bring Tibet into China, it was clear that the situation is still not in perfect harmony.

The Sinicization of Tibet

The Chinese government began a massive migration program to bring Han citizens into Tibet and Lhasa to become residents in the 1990s. Twenty years ago, Lhasa was mostly farmland surrounding the main city center and Potala Palace. Today, however, the streets are lined with Chinese shops, restaurants, hotels, and businesses. A great number of construction projects and their cranes fill the skyline. 

Summertime in Tibet is full of mostly Chinese tourists in large tour groups. These groups travel across Tibet to the different historical sites and scenic destinations. Guides make money by bringing these tourist groups to expensive restaurants, shows, and shopping areas to collect souvenirs; all of which the guide receives a cut of. The guides often encourage tourists to, as college kids would say, "ball out" and lavish themselves on what may be their first ever vacation.  

Historically, there has never been a middle-class in China (in the modern American sense) which helps to explain the nature of the Chinese tourism industry today. With the addition of the opening of China in 1989, Chinese citizens now have greater access to travel, regionally and internationally, and the means to do so. Since travel is still regarded as a luxury, Chinese tourists enamor themselves with photos and souvenirs to remember their trip and share with family and friends. Though, ironically in Tibet, many of the souvenirs are made within a few kilometers of their hometowns. 

Not only are the number of permanent Chinese residents in Tibet exponentially increasing, but the large number of Chinese tourists also offer a heavy dose of Chinese cultural influence to the region. The Sinicization of Tibet thus suddenly makes it hard for what will soon be a minority in Tibet — the Tibetans themselves — to declare their right for autonomy and independence.

Conflicting Views of Religion and Politics

The idea of religion is also a huge ideological conflict between Buddhism in Tibet and the Chinese government. The Chinese government’s official stance regarding religion is atheistic; since the Cultural Revolution, it has scarcely tolerated religion at all. During the revolution, thousands of images of Buddha were decapitated and, in Tibet, many temples and monasteries were destroyed.

This ideological difference with Tibetans, who view the Dalai Lama as both their political and spiritual leader, does not allow any resolution. For Tibetans to acknowledge China as its rightful government, they would also have to denounce the Dalai Lama as their political leader — which is in conflict with their religious beliefs.

One day on a drive to Shigatse, a city in western Tibet, we stopped for lunch at a small Tibetan restaurant in a roadside town. My friend Li and I exchanged some small talk with a gentleman at the table next to us, and by the end of our lunch, we had unwittingly become friends with the richest man in Tibet (as a disclaimer, probably the richest Tibetan, for Chinese investments in Tibet are much more lucrative). He runs a company that manufactures, sells, and exports farming equipment used in Tibet for barley and mustard production. He proudly told us that he had been to 15 countries, the majority of them in Europe (though mostly on business trips). I silently reflected on the unfairness that one’s opportunity to travel to different countries is dependent on the citizenship with which he is born.

Life as a Second Class Citizen

Money only goes so far though, and despite his success as a businessman (according to Google, his company is worth around $100 million), his two daughters have not been able to leave the country. Generally, it is almost impossible for a Tibetan to obtain a Chinese passport. (Even Chinese sometimes face great difficulties, since in the last year several children of prominent Chinese businessman have “escaped” permanently to reside in the US and in Europe.)

The Tibetan businessman expressed his hope of someday sending his daughters to university and graduate school, but currently, despite his wealth of guanxi (connections), he has been unable to do so.

Over the past few years, the Chinese government has begun a massive internal gentrification project. It is moving Tibetan families from the hillsides — 80 percent of Tibetans are farmers or nomads — into small villages on the side of roads. The government will pay half the cost of housing construction for a family who choose to move.  

Part of the goal of this project is to improve tourism by allowing tourists to see Tibetan villages as they pass on the roads. Another goal is to open up farmland for large-scale agriculture, a trend which is happening all over central China.

The hardship of this is the cultural change it requires. The families that move into these villages, with “firmly” offered invitations, have to change their entire way of life. Most open up small shops and restaurants, and while the buildings themselves look nice and are intricately painted, it reminds me of driving down a highway in Central America or Southeast Asia in terms of the composition of these peoples’ lives.

In a comparison to “the projects” in the US and the cleanup of the slums of Mumbai, both these attempts failed — at least in part — because they destroyed the sense of community that previously existed among these groups, which contributed to wide-scale vulnerability and ensuing depression, addiction, and a myriad of other problems. While the Tibetans’ socioeconomic status may be increasing strictly-speaking, it is difficult to predict the effects of drastic cultural and lifestyle changes, which are to affect generations to come.

The Future of Tibet

Given these observations, what can we predict about the future of Tibet? In major monasteries, especially in Lhasa, the number of monks studying and residing at each is greatly decreasing. In order to join one of these monasteries, monks must denounce the Dalai Lama and accept the Beijing appointed Panchen Lama, who is second in command. (The Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama and most Tibetan Buddhists, was detained by and has not been seen since.) They are also required to follow any government “advisements” — so in essence it is a form of Buddhism that operates within the confines of what Beijing directs.

When the Dalai Lama passes away, I believe power will greatly shift to the Chinese government. There will still be small factions which resist Chinese authority and sovereignty well into the future. However, the majority of the people will accept the Beijing government because of difficulties in going against it and the hopelessness of that effort.

Some of the Tibetan youth also seem to follow the worldwide trend of a lessening importance placed on religion, which also adds some future local support for China. These youth have also never experienced a free Tibet, and the current situation is the only one which they have ever known. As years pass, it will be harder and harder to reverse the Sinicization of the population and culture, and for Tibetans to clearly picture the idea of a free Tibet.  

Upon the Dalai Lama's death, the Chinese government will appoint a new Dalai Lama, and the already derelict shell of Tibetan culture will become increasingly brittle. A foreign Dalai Lama (a Tibetan living abroad), most likely in Europe or the United States, will also be appointed by those still following the old ways and resisting the authoritative manner of the Chinese government.  

However, this may mark the end of true hopes for the Tibetan fight for independence, since Tibetans will no longer be unified in one cause toward their independence. As it becomes evident that many Tibetans accept Chinese government rule, they will eventually become officially second-class citizens, much as African Americans were in the post-civil rights 1960s and 1970s in the United States: equal under the law, but subjects of great discrimination. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese government handles this.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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If history is any indication, India's failure to recognise the legitimacy of interests other than its own is a besetting flaw in its diplomacy and foreign policy. Reconciliation is the primary object of fine diplomacy and in some cases it may be difficult, if not impossible, to carry out this mandate.

At the root of India and China’s conflicting interests lies a border-dispute, and the process of negotiations between the two nations may be a rather assiduous climb. Since China deployed troops in the region of Daulat Beg Oldi in April this year, India was dragged into a politico-military imbroglio with its mighty neighbour. The dispute reached a crescendo when both countries deployed troops facing each other, ready for action on the ill-defined border. Thereafter, it took several flag meetings, in addition to an intense diplomatic flurry on either side to dial down the stress.

Yet, the abatement of tensions near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh came not a day too soon. In contrast, with its "idealism" and "romanticism" under Nehru that were dented by China’s consequent "betrayal" in the 1962 war between the two neighbours, the Indian government has acted more reasonably this time round. Remarkably, there was no exchange of fire between India and China even though their troops were on the brink of engagement. On the contrary, India has played a proactive role in seeking a diplomatic solution to the problem, which thankfully remains concilable.

Undefined Border

In 1950, the Survey of India issued the first map of India as an independent country. In this map, the political divisions of the new republic were well-defined with Pakistan, both in the west and the east. They were also fairly clear with China, except in three areas where they were marked as “undefined". First, in the extreme east, the Tirap subdivision, which is present-day Arunachal Pradesh; second, the central region of what is today Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh; and third, the eastern Kashmir including Aksai Chin. However, in 1954, the Survey issued a new set of maps wherein the “undefined” colour wash was replaced by a hard-line depicting Aksai Chin as part of the Indian territory. Not only were the old maps withdrawn from the Survey archives, but drawing the Indian map in the old way was made illegal as well. Nehru’s speech to the Indian Parliament in 1950, after the first set of maps was published, is particularly significant in this matter:

“To admit that a lingering doubt remained in my mind and in my minister’s mind (K.M. Panikkar) as to what might happen in the future. But we did not see how we were going to decide this question by hurling it in that form at the Chinese at the moment. We felt that we should hold by our position and that the lapse of time and events will confirm it and by that time perhaps, when the challenge to it came, we would be in a much stronger position to face it. I may be perfectly frank to the House. It is not as if it was ignored or that it was not thought about.”

This speaks volumes about what Nehru’s intention was behind the unilateral act of changing the border at Aksai Chin. China was obviously not amused. When the devious act came to light, Nehru defended the new border repeatedly arguing that the McMahon Line was a treaty line, and historical evidence showed that the territories claimed in 1954 were always associated with India since ancient times. In the midst of this debacle, the then Chinese prime minister, Zhou Enlai, issued the following reply in 1959:

“First of all, I wish to point out that the Sino-Indian boundary has never been formally delimitated. Historically no treaty or agreement on the Sino-Indian boundary has ever been concluded between the Chinese Central Government and the Indian Government. So far as the actual situation is concerned, there are certain differences between the two sides over the border question… The latest case concerns an area in the southern part of China’s Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous region, which has always been under Chinese jurisdiction. Patrol duties have continually been carried out in the area by the border guards of the Chinese government. And the Sinkiang-Tibet Highway, built by our country in 1956, runs through that area. Yet recently the Indian government claimed that the area was in Indian territory. All this shows that border disputes do exist between China and India.”

The dispute became a thorn in the diplomatic ties between India and China, mainly due to the fact that the two neigbours never really sat down to discuss the issue. China’s case in 1962 centred on India’s unilateral action allowing them to justify their incursion. (This is, however, somewhat ironic when it comes to Beijing’s own claim on Tibet, especially when the communist regime has never been able to come up with a good case to justify it.) The Chinese empire was never clear about its western extremities. Further, it rejected any British attempt to demarcate the border and settle the issue once and for all.

Aksai Chin is a high-altitude uninhabited desert and of little strategic importance to India, but it is vital for China. Geographically, it becomes imperative for China to control the western border of Tibet in view of its strong claim over the disputed land. As a result, China entered the Indian territory and exploited the issue of an undefined border to its advantage. It developed the Aksai Chin road, which cut through the McMahon Line into Indian territory. Instead of negotiating the issue with its neighbour when it discovered Beijing’s advances into the territory in 1961, New Delhi plunged straight into a war only to suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the communist regime. The indignation went deeper as India ended up losing even more ground to China.

Overlapping Claims

Historically, transgressions have been made on either side. But it’s high time the two emerging world powers settled their thorny territorial disputes for their own good. At present, China’s incursion into Daulat Beg Oldi cannot be considered in isolation as it appears to be part of a larger strategic plan to strengthen its control over Tibet; hence, strengthening apprehensions over whether China will settle on anything at all. Until now, the LAC is only a notional line that has never been marked or accepted in mutually agreed maps, let alone defined in a document with specific geographical features. Nevertheless, it has been reasonably adhered to by both sides. In some parts of the LAC, however, either side has overlapping claims leading to conflicting border patrolling routines. In the past, China has on some occasions withdrawn from particular areas after an interval of time.

Even though China may seem to be dragging its feet on the border issue, there is hope that a lasting solution can be achieved under the new Chinese leadership. In a strong sign of Beijing’s willingness to warm up to its southern neighbour, Chinese President Xi Jingping described India as its "most important bilateral partner" at the Durban BRIC summit earlier this year. He further added that the working mechanism on border management between the two countries should strive for “a fair, rational solution framework acceptable to both sides as soon as possible”. 

Way Forward

India and China are major trade partners, and each is monetarily invaluable to the other. Border transgressions and lingering territorial disputes stand to undermine a potentially strong strategic partnership between the two emerging economies. Despite China’s unquestionable militrary superiority, any showdown will inarguably hurt both neighbours and foster regional imbalance. With respect to the existing border disputes between the two, it is important to note that China has staked claims after developing the areas of Aksai Chin and Tirap, whereas India has shown no such interest in the regions.

New Delhi, in particular, needs to focus on other much more serious border issues it has with Pakistan. Its failure to resolve the dispute over Kashmir with Pakistan is far more damaging for India at national, regional and diplomatic level. India’s porous borders with both Pakistan and Bangladesh have been repeatedly exploited by terrorist outfits, and therfore, have cost it gravely. New Delhi has too much on its plate; It's time India shut the book on its border disputes with Beijing for good.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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