EVEREST 2008: CNN Reports 100 Dead in Tibet Violence, Powerlines Cut in Lhasa–Up To One Third of the City Burning
March 15, 2008
CNN is reporting that up to 100 people have been killed in the latest uprising in Tibet. The violence began to mount a few days ago when Tibet began to celebrate the 1959 uprising that eventually led to Tibet’s Dalai Lama heading in to Exile.
Demonstrators have set fire to shops and vehicles–Tromsikhang Market, the main market in Lhasa has been ignited. China is currently using teargas, bullets, and tanks in an effort to quell demonstrators. Three of the areas main monastaries have been surrounded by chinese authorities.
Foreign media has been banned from the area. Most video and newsreports coming out of Lhasa are coming from advocacy groups and people in the country. This is making it hard to confirm the reports coming in, but CNN does have a nice video of some of the violence surounding the uprising in Lhasa. You can find the video here:
Thousands of tibetan citizens have been holding protests. Train service and all flights have been grounded into and out of Tibet. China is not allowing any foreigners into the struggling area.
China’s recent plan to take the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch up Mt. Everest, through Tibet, has put all eyes on the area–giving Tibet a rare opportunity to express their dislike over China’s supposed rule of the area.
Tibet is fighting a lack of local representation in China, saying they have little voice over current issues relating to them. They are also fighting a strict ban on the areas personal religion, which China has tried to disallow.
Violence has also broke out in India, where many Tibetan exiles now live. Drepung Monastary, Gandan Monastary, and Sera Monastery have all been locked down in the area–keeping the tibetan monks in, with no one else allowed in or out.
The US Embassy in Tibet has put out a report requesting that all US citizens stay away from the area for the time being.
Free Tibet activists have stated that protests will continue to grow up to the beginning of the 2008 Olympics. They say that protests will spread around the world in a campaign that has been becoming more organized for years.
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Written by Jason A. Hendricks · Filed Under EVEREST 2008. Mt. Everest, Tibet |
Do you guys here read? CNN is refering to tibetan government in exile’s report. CNN is not responsible for the accuracy of the report, which is from a untrustworthy organization. 100 is a too small number, why don’t they report 10 million?
Please, can we see more attention and more coverage given to this abomitable situation. The world needs to know more about this. Governments need to condemn China for their human rights violations.
what i can say is CNN has edited all the pictures, which prevent AMERICAN from seeing the original one. China gov is fighting against terrorist! what will US do if the same situation happen?
Why don’t you mention the fact that the 100 killed are all Chinese civilians living in Lhasa, they were killed by the angry lynching mobs.
Shame on you, CNN. The rebels there were fierce and cruel like terrorists. They waived knives and tried to kill any person who is not Tibetant and foreigner. But CNN cut the photo to show only the armed vehicles on the street other than brutal rebels nearby. In fact, the local police were asked not to fight back even their lived were threatened. The killed were almost innocent Han people!!!!!!!
To those who think that China illegally invaded and conquered Tibet in 1950s, I’d like to suggest you do some history study of Tibet. A fairly good source is Wikipedia at the following link,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet
After studying the history, you should realize that Tibet was conquered by Moguls and for the first time became a part of Chinese Yuan Dynasty during 1200s. Later in 1700s, the Chinese Qing Dynasty re-secured Tibet, and since then, Tibet has been undoubtedly a part of China and never gained official and recognized independence. Yes, China did conquer Tibet, but not in 1950s! It was rather in early 1700s! About 60 years prior to that, even China herself was conquered by Manchu, and that’s how the Qing Dynasty came to being! Such things happened all the time in ancient history.
When Tibet was secured as a part of China in early 1700s, there was no United States in North America. Everybody knows what European colonists did to American Indians, how they persecuted and killed American Indians and conquered their land back then, and that’s partly how the United States came to being. Some tens of millions of American Indians died because of the persecutions and killings by the European immigrants, and American Indians were almost at the brink of extinction! The racial genocide of American Indians is considered as the Forgotten Holocaust, and is not much better than Hitler’s Holocaust of Jews. Nowadays in United States, there is not much a movement of Free Native America or Free American Indian America, one of the most important reasons is that the American Indian populations are too small, and are not concentrated in one region. If the Qing army had learned from the European colonists, they should have killed almost all Tibetans back in 1700s, and there would have been no Free Tibet movement today, as the European immigrants did to American Indians and therefore no Free American Indian America movement nowadays.
Keeping the unity of a country is always that country’s central government’s duty. Even for the United States herself, about 150 years ago, after the southern states declared independence through a democratic way, everybody knows what happened next. Given that the back then U.S. Constitution allowed individual states to secede from the union if they chose to, the U.S. federal government answered them with brutal military force, and some 600 thousand men were killed in the Civil War. Where was the law and order, where was the democracy, human rights and freedom of American southerners back then?
What’s now happening in Tibet is just a regional ethnic riot; it’s not about so-called human rights or freedom. Human rights and freedom are two good terms that have already been exploited and misused too much and too often. If similar things happened in United States, there is no doubt that the U.S. government would have taken the same measures to put down the riot.
In China, ethnic minorities are generally treated better than majority Chinese by the government and have more privileges. For example, the One-Child Policy does not apply to ethnic minorities; they can have more than one child per family. They also have better opportunities in getting higher education and government jobs even though they are less competent, etc. The Chinese government also makes a lot of effort and spends a lot of money to preserve the culture, languages and traditions of ethnic minorities. Even the Buddhist monk monasteries in Tibet that are involved in this riot are funded by the Chinese government. Actually, I think that the Chinese government did too much and too well in preserving minorities’ culture and languages. Otherwise, like the American Indians, if the ethnic minorities hadn’t kept much of their culture and languages, they wouldn’t have much a motive to seek independence.
A lot of good points are being made here. To be honest, it is not my position to condemn. I am a U.S citizen. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in freedom of religion. Those of you that have come here from CNN and elsewhere should note that I began the coverage as it related to Mt. Everest and China’s recent notice to cancel the expeditions this year until May 10th, so they could run the torch up Everest.
My personal beliefs are this. China is a well known human rights violater. They control the religion, they control the press, they control everything …
When the anti-iraq demonstrations began some years ago, you did not see the united states come in and kill them over their beliefs–
We are allowed to speak. We are allowed to choose our influences.
Tibet is fighting for a stronger say in Chinese parliment with anything to do with their far off society. They are fighting for the right to pursue their beliefs in a religion that has been in the area for thousands of years–
Some say China is killing China–they applaud them. Some say the tibetans are terrorists. To myself, the real terrorists are the Chinese who are bent on keeping a society obscured from personal thoughts and beliefs cloaking them in a cloud of denial.
Either way you look at it, terrorists or China killing itself, is disturbing in this day. There are many innocent Tibetans that suffer through this. Lhasa, their city is being burned. To the men, women, and children of this area–their lives will always be affected by the Tibet-China syndrome. They will never know peace.
‘To myself, the real terrorists are the Chinese who are bent on keeping a society obscured from personal thoughts and beliefs cloaking them in a cloud of denial.’
_ your definition about terrorists is ‘disturbing’: anyone can take this as an excuse…
_do yo think those people are fighting for beliefs? if so these beliefs are also ‘disturbing’.
_do some research before you talk especially on sth beyond your reach.
The CNN Report is misleading the general public. It epitomizes what a warped news report ought to be.
First of all, it uses the unconfirmed number of death from Tibetan exiles as a catchy title.
Secondly, it distorted the truth by withholding part of the image from Lhasa.
Please see for yourself by comparing pictures from the following two links:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/tibet.unrest/index.html#cnnSTCText
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23629811
And here is a Youtube video showing how an ordinary civilian was brutally attacked by mobs on the streets of Lhasa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJlVYNYB9Bk
I believe any government has the public bestowed duty to protect its citizens from the harm of lawlessness.
Daniel,
You are allowed to criticize anything I put up–thankfully, this is America and we are both free to express ourselves how we deem fit.
Secondly, yes. I do believe that Tibet is fighting for their personal beliefs in freedom. Over 40 hours of research into this event, from news, sites, and people on location have put myself in a position to say so. The only ones who do not know what is going on is China. Their newsreports of the events are currently blacked out across the country. They want their own personal people to not know what is going on in fear of political uprisings in China as a whole.
Secondly, I never tried to define “terrorists” because a terrorist is many things to many different people. I just told my view. If you can come up with reasons ect.. to point me in a new direction, then I am open to suggestion. Just making a random remark bears no weight without facts. For example, see the post right below yours. I will look at the links given and make my own personal judgement based on this information–
Obviously I touched a nerve. I am not giving an apology. That is my job. To make all of my readers think for themselves and come up with their own thoughts, whether they differ from my personal beliefs or not.
Jason,
I’d like to remind you of the fact that those Tibetan rioters are not peaceful protesters. Even the western media reported that those Tibetan rioters including monks attacked civilians and police with rocks, sticks, etc, and knocked over vehicles, and burned stores, restaurants and vehicles, and the first people killed were non-Tibetan civilians that were killed by the rioters. Though much of violent scenes were not shown on air by the U.S. media, you can still watch them on Internet. When a similar ethnic riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1992, you know how the U.S. government reacted to it.
There is no doubt that some Tibetans feel oppressed and persecuted, but the only cause to that is because they are seeking independence and cannot get it. And they will continue to feel oppressed until they stop seeking independence. I believe that American southerners basically felt the same way after the Civil War – they tried to seek independence, but were defeated and could not get it. The only solution to those Tibetans’ feelings of oppression is to realize that Tibet has no chance to be separated from China and stop seeking independence.
Regarding to the issue of shooting down peaceful protesters, I’d like to remind you that the hands of the U.S. government are not clean on this issue. Though the anti-Iraq-war demonstrators were not shot down this time, it was not so as in 1970 when the U.S. National Guards shot 4 peaceful anti-Vietnam-war student protesters to death at the Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and a few other protesters in other parts of this country. In addition, the U.S. army used brutal force to crack down the Bonus Army demonstration in Washington, DC in 1932, and a number of World-War-I veteran protesters were shot and killed.
Regarding to the claim of that China is a well-known human rights violator, I must point out that it depends on how you look at it. If we look at the U.S. in a similar manner, we should realize that the U.S. does not have a much better record of human rights either. If the U.S. calls China a human rights violator, it is like that pot calls kettle black. We all know about American abusing of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, American soldiers raping and killing Iraqi girls, abusing prisoners of Guantanamo Bay, etc. In addition, where were the human rights of those American Indians systematically killed by the U.S. army during the American expansion into the west? Where were the human rights of those peaceful protesters shot to death in Washington, DC and Kent, Ohio?
I must admit that I am an ethnic Chinese, and I received half of my education here in the U.S., and I have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. Being able to live in both countries for long times, I feel lucky to be able to look at things from both sides and get a whole picture in my mind about complex issues. I admit that China’s media is biased, but I also need to point out that, based on my over 10 years of life in the U.S., I find out that the U.S. media is also biased, and even more biased on issues related to China than Chinese media on issues related to the U.S. The U.S. media is also brain-washing most American people’s mind, but in a more clever and stealthy way. When I was in China, and even a couple of years after I came to the U.S., I was quite anti-Chinese-government. But after I studied in the U.S. more knowledge and history (Some information may not be easily accessible in China) and became spiritually grown-up, I was surprised to find out that I actually became pro-Chinese-government. Surely the Chinese government is not perfect and makes a lot of mistakes, and wrong doings, or even evil doings, but I believe most of what they did in the past is correct. The situations in different countries are different; we cannot always use the standards here in the U.S. to judge things in other countries. Some standards and policies may work great in this country, but they may be disastrous in other countries. Democracy is a good thing, but we all know what happened to Russia when Russia abandoned communism and adopted democracy in early 1990s. The nation of Russia basically collapsed overnight, and its economy plunged to the bottom, and the common people suffered tremendously. There was a Russian joke about that harsh time – people said, under communism, we had everything but no freedom; now under democracy and capitalism, we have freedom but nothing else. The things (including human rights, freedom, etc) in China are no doubt constantly improving, and China is rising during the past 30 years. By the way, China is not really a communist country any more; it is now basically a capitalistic country. It takes time for China to develop and catch up with the western standards. There is a western saying - Rome was not built in one day. Westerners should not use today’s western standards to judge things in China. The U.S. did not develop to today’s level in one day either. When the U.S. was founded, it was written in the U.S. Constitution, Every man was born equal. But it took this country about 100 years to abolish slavery, and it took this country another 100 years to abolish laws of racial discrimination and segregation. However, even nowadays, the black people and other colored people are still being discriminated in this country. Also, American women were not allowed to vote until 1910s.
I suggest that you go to live in China for a few years if you have a chance, and that experience will help you get closer to the real truth.
“State power within the government of the People’s Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the Communist Party of China, the state, and the People’s Liberation Army. All positions of significant power in the state structure and in the army are occupied by members of the Communist Party of China which is controlled by the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, a group of 5 to 9 people, usually all men, who make all decisions of national significance. As the role of the Army is to enforce these decisions in times of crisis, support of the PLA is important.”
Looks to me like China is still a communist country–their economic stability over the course of the past few years has been heightened, but they are still a communist nation.
Forrest, you bring up many good points, but I need to clear up one more as well–
“Regarding to the issue of shooting down peaceful protesters, I’d like to remind you that the hands of the U.S. government are not clean on this issue”
I have not once stated that this was a peaceful movement. In the 1960’s with the human rights uprisings–that was not a peaceful movement as well. You brought up Kent State–sometimes in protest if someone is not willing to listen, not willing to take a look at all sides–then I feel people have the right to get the attention of their oppressers. I am not saying this has to be by force–I am saying that others feel that this is the only way for their voices to be heard. Every religion is a good example–
The situation in Tibet has went on for decades–we all know this. Why will China not give them a voice?
The United States is definately not always right, I am critical of many decisions that my own government has made, yet, I also know that the people have the power to change our government by electing who is in office–if people will get off their cans and vote for the change that everyone talks about–
When something bothers me concerning this nation, I can contact my lawmakers and express my thoughts. If you think something is stupid in China, can you honestly sit there and tell me that you would be comfortable confronting them on an issue? Bring up Jesus Christ
We have the power to change our nation, our government, our President.
China is considered a capitalist nation–of sorts.
“The Average hospitalized ENT patients spend is 6,000-7,000 RMB, which is about $875.00. The Average Chinese monthly income is 600-800 RMB”
This is coming from a site talking about China’s new state of the art hospital–As you can see from these figures, the average chinese wage–per month–as it is calculated in China is WAY under $875.00. You don’t even have to know the currency ratios to see that..
Being a Capitalist country, where does all that money the workers earn go? Back to the government..
Go to the country in China, I don’t even want to talk about Beijing, go to the country and tell me that China is a capitalist country..sure, they want the money..they work harder than anyone in the offices..but they don’t see it.
On religion..the Chinese Constitution proclaims freedom of religion. Freedom of religion does not constitute having to register your religion with the government, but it does mean that in China. If you are not a ‘registered’ church, of which, they have the say in what they will allow, then you are considered a cult in violation of chinese law. Why are Christians and Christian churches forced underground? They continue to jail christian believers and leaders in an attempt to dessimate the religion–of which 30 million chinese are practitioners-
China does not allow Choice
Choice is Freedom
Jason,
The definition of communism by Wikipedia is:
Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production.
And the definition of capitalism by Wikipedia is:
Capitalism refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned, are operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy.
Most of economies of today’s China are privately owned, and China is practicing a free-market economy. Therefore, according to the definitions of communism and capitalism, China should be considered as a capitalistic country.
You wrote, “The situation in Tibet has went on for decades–we all know this. Why will China not give them a voice?”
Why do you think that China hasn’t given Tibetan a voice? They are allowed to practice their religion and even their monk monasteries are funded by the Chinese government. Giving them a voice does not mean or equal to allowing them to be independent.
You wrote, “When something bothers me concerning this nation, I can contact my lawmakers and express my thoughts”, and “the people have the power to change our government by electing who is in office–if people will get off their cans and vote for the change that everyone talks about–”.
But do the common people of the U.S. really have that much power to change the government by electing who is in office as many people believe so? This is one of the trickiest parts of democracy – this country was actually run by a small number of power groups of super rich, such power groups include banking industry, oil industry, defense industry, etc. Democracy makes it look like that the common people can decide who is elected into office. But who are those candidates? Where do they come from? By who are they backed up? Whose interest they will take care of first after they get elected? One recent good example is the Iraq War – we all know who are behind it, - oil industry, defense industry, Halliburton, etc.
Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is a bad system, but other systems are worse.” So I still think that democracy is good thing and it is the way for China to go.
Do you know about the People’s Parliament of China? That’s a parliament where representatives from every facet of the society gather together to discuss about government policies and propose new policies. If I have some thoughts, I can go to express them to the representatives elected from my district. There is more freedom in China than you thought.
Regarding to religion and church, if I want to start a church in the U.S., it is also needed to be registered with the U.S. government. If my church building, financial operations, and so on don’t meet the government laws, my church in the U.S. will be closed down by the government with no doubt. Starting a new church in China is basically the same thing, although the church also needs to be supervised by the religion administration of the government. If the church doesn’t preach anti-government believes, the religion administration won’t bother it. A church should just preach Bible, but no anti-government believes. So why would a church bother with the supervision of the government? There are many registered churches in China now, and many believers are freely attending them. Although there are many underground churches in China, many of them can’t be registered because their church building, financial operations don’t meet the laws. Some of them don’t want to be registered because they don’t want to be supervised, but what do they have to worry about with just being virtually supervised if they just preach Bible? Also, many so-called underground churches are just home churches, they don’t need be registered and they are not real underground churches.
You wrote, “Choice is Freedom”.
Yes, choice is freedom. But this choice should be mutually-agreed choice or bilaterally-agreed choice, should not be unilateral. No kind of freedom and no kind of choice is unlimited. One party’s unlimited choice or freedom would mean no choice or no freedom for other parties.
When the American South wanted to choose the choice of independence, the choice was not agreed by the Union. The freedom of the South would mean no freedom to the Union.
I’ve been living in the U.S. for many years. When my church people and I passed out tracts at some public places and residential areas, some local people called police and complained about being bothered. Then police came and stopped us, and told us our activity was against the law and they would put us into jail if we don’t stop. Such things have happened multiple times. Also, you know that Bible is not allowed to be preached in public schools in this country. Should I announce to the world that there is no religious freedom in America, because if I go out to pass out tracts I would be put in jail? Where is the so-called religious freedom of American Christians? By the way, I do think that the law and police are right on this issue.
You stated that the U.S. government is not always right. I also stated in my previous post that the Chinese government is not perfect. My point still is, Rome was not built in one day. It takes time for both China and the U.S. to improve and develop. Situations in different countries are different, and we should not use the standards in one country to judge the situation in other countries. China is progressing toward the direction of democracy, though still far behind the level of democracy in the U.S. But the current level of freedom and democracy in China suits the situations in China, and can sustain and keep China’s development on track. If the U.S. democracy is transplanted to China today, what’s going to happen will be disastrous, like what happened in the Soviet Union.
It is the same for the U.S.. Though it is written in the U.S. constitution that every man was born equal, if George Washington issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free all black slaves right after the U.S. was founded, the Civil War would have occurred 100 years earlier, and there would probably be two Americas on this land today.
Forrest,
I have to say that I am enjoying the intelligent conversation. Someone who can represent his points well without going
over the top, those characteristics are not in very high supply these days. You are definitely making me think–
You have made some good points. I am sure my readers are probably thinking a little more as well.
“Also, you know that Bible is not allowed to be preached in public schools in this country. Should I announce to the world that there is no religious freedom in America, because if I go out to pass out tracts I would be put in jail?”
You are free to believe in what you want here, but that does not mean you have the right to infringe on someone else’s beliefs that may differ. I am a Christian myself, so I can kind of see where you are coming from here, regarding religion–
Growing up in my childhood, we were required to say the Pledge of Allegience. In school, it was ok to pray–and yes, we did celebrate CHRISTMAS. My own father was a preacher. On a personal level, I believe religion builds a basis for a healthy lifestyle with some very good guidelines to follow while we are here. That does not mean I preach to those who don’t want to listen. Everyone’s feelings are a bit different, and perhaps I shouldn’t even be having this conversation here, but I think people will decide if religion is right or wrong for their lifestyle and decide accordingly.
Some religions want you to go out and bring in the masses. If you are not ready for religion, there is nothing anyone can say to get you to think differently until you decide for yourself that that is what you need..
To be honest, why should the Bible be preached in the schools? Parent’s are the one’s that should be influencing their children. Until a child is 18, they are not yet mentally capable of enacting such big decisions–especially if something is pushed upon them. Let them seek you out for God, if that is what they decide. If not, you are only pushing them further away.
I do believe that if the idea of Darwinism is protrayed in the schools, that the same method should be allowed for Creationism–or God. There is no right or wrong, nobody knows for sure, of anything–no Missing Link has been found to verify anything that either side has portrayed to prove either correct. Until that happens, I would rather believe in a heaven–that there is something more than a shovel full of dirt put over your grave in the end. To the naysayers, all I usually have to say is What if? I would rather die believing in something to come, than nothing at all–if there is nothing to come, then why even bother with the day to day rituals of life? It would be useless.
By the way, I am sure I will be hearing from the anti-god movement at any moment after this is posted. Look forward to hearing that–
Regarding China and the US, there are no right or wrong answers. Everything is up for debate. This goes with every other country as well. If you dig deep enough, every country has a particular storied or harsh past from which they come–Perhaps China is sitting better than it was 30 years ago, the same can be questioned about the US. If it got bad enough though, you would see people here stand up as they are in Tibet, and force the issue..ie The Civil Rights Movement. What I think is sad, is the faultering of our own personal beliefs as a nation. Many people just do not care–maybe it is because they have had it so good for so long that they forget. History repeats itself. The economy will go to crap again, people will suffer, then they will get mad and demand a change. Whether that be Presidentially or socially.
You deserve my respect for opening up my eyes a bit towards China, but that does not mean my stance will change. I do not have a problem with China as a whole, just in the way China is led and in the civil rights issues that always seem to plague the region. Their people deserve a voice. Open up the Press, Allow the people to choose their political affiliations and who is represented from each domain–quit banning media and outside influences from covering stories. If there is nothing to hide, then why hide it? I say that to my own government as well….
With that, can we agree to disagree on the one issue? Perhaps a few years from now my stance will be different. Perhaps China will grow to allow these freedoms and gain the respect that the country warrants on an international realm–until that time though, I will continue to follow international news of the world as a whole–not looking at one particular country, but looking at the world with a questioning mind.
“if George Washington issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free all black slaves right after the U.S. was founded, the Civil War would have occurred 100 years earlier, and there would probably be two Americas on this land today.”
I doubt it, the people would have laughed at them. Washington and Jefferson both owned slaves–
Jason,
Thank you for those nice comments! I’ve also been enjoying this conversation with you. I’m glad that I have been able to influence you and that we’ve reached a certain kind of agreement. I hope that more Americans will read this blog and get influenced. Anyway, let’s wish the best for both the U.S. and China! Take care and best regards.
I think some chinese authorities in the garb of westerners are giving utterly false version of Tibetan movement. Whom are they fooling. These rascals may cite examples from history. For that matter Indian culture and Indian religions were there all over the world during the ancient times including the present day China and Tibet not to mention the Mayans and Incas of the Americas. However as a serious student of chinese history I would like to put it in black and white that once Tibetan Empire ruled over vast chinese territories and Tibetan emperors like Songsen Gampo and Ralpachen to mention a few captured the chinese capital and received regular tributes from the chinese kings during 8th to 10th centuries. This is available in chinese inscriptions even today. Its a shame on the part of chinese to hide this fact. Dont fool around you planted chinese. Goebbles will not work any more .
Chinese has never denied that Tibet was once a kingdom. It was always in the Chinese history textbook. But it doesn’t mean that Tibet should be independent today. (otherwise the world map should go back to the 8th century and the U.S. doesn’t even exist)
I would say that the Chinese doesn’t even have much freedom themselves and compare to the Chinese, Tibetans have even more freedom. Nobody prevented them from believing in their religion.
The problem is that the Chinese government does not allow Tibetans worship Dalai Lama. (They can still worship Buddha.) The Chinese definitely wants Dalai Lama go back to Tibet. But Dalai Lama doesn’t want to go back because he doesn’t want to be ruled by the communist party. And that’s another problem because to the Chinese, any religious leader has to be ruled by the government. (Same is true in the U.S.)
The way Chinese government is handling the riot contributed to a lots of rumors and doubts in the world as well. If they have nothing to hide, they should just open to the media then everything will be clear.
Forrest is cute and btw you don’t happen to be graduate of Peking U by any chance? Probably not since you said “half” your education. Anyways, reading the discussions I couldn’t resist. I make a notion to bring up a discussion topic of what is “China” today, where does it include, what ethnic groups etc. To a “chinese” living in the current “country” of China it includes approximately 5000 years, or so they teach in the schools/history books in China and most of the world. (I grew up in the US) Through history we know the country we now know of as China was the result of .. oh what would you call it.. wars? overthrows? combining of lands? I studied some World History in the US which included history on “China”. That history included when the enthic Mongolians were in power. To me China is the massive amount of land that includes of oh…. about… 50 some ethnic groups with some larger than others. During the time in which Mongolians ruled there were lots of mixed marriages and what we all seem to give the current label of Chinese. A lot of “chinese” themselves probably don’t even know all the different types of ethnicities they include in their blood. It seems to me that for some particular reason certain Tibetans are separating themselves from all other ethnic groups in “china”. From my history class in High school (that was a long time ago) my teacher mentioned that one of the reasons not one particular ethnic group was to keep a grip on China or this mass of land in the center there was because it was a melting pot. It combined and meshed. My train of thought has lost me since I am at work and am going to stop here. But just a note, World History is not a requirement by far in US education where it sort of is in China as far as I am aware. The US tends to teach US history and world history only to the extent of anything related to the US.
Ok those thoughts have left me, but I’ve got some others.
Just randome thoughts so bear with me. I’m not Tibetan so maybe you can say I am biased, but I’m trying to look at it from a reasonable point of view here. It seems to me that having a government ruled by one religion or religious leader is never a good thing. The Church of Lader Day Saints have been in the news recently and I bring that up as an example. Children born in to these families have a way of life chosen for them and the community around them prevented them from choosing another religion/way of life. Yes Tibetans may have a way of left in general, or so it may seem. What about the people that are Tibetan but aren’t buddhist. Forgive me if I’m stupid but I will not believe everyone Tibetan is buddihst or never thought of switching. The protestors and people that want Free Tibet are protesting mostly because of a crack down on Tibetan Buddhism (I’m too lazy to look it up. :)) and their right to … scratch that. What are they protesting exactly for? Pray tell! I’m slightly confused. Do they want to separate Tibet for the sake of separating? Do they want the Dalai Lama back as their “president”? If it’s the Dalai Lama they can scratch that idea plainly because of his association with the US intelligence agency or so noted by others. Before I go anywhere else with this and I am getting no where can someone tell me what exactly are they protesting for and the reason behind and who is all included.
Forgive me if I sound like I am just blabbing nonsense, but these random thoughts have been wandering through my head a lot recently.