Contents Tibet: a Rare Look

Contents Tibet: A Rare Look

CBC foreign correspondent Patrick Brown was allowed a rare look inside this country, which has been occupied and dominated by the People's Republic of China. This special News in Review report gives important background information on the history and politics of this important part of Asia and emphasizes human rights issues, the question of cultural genocide, and the impact of China's involvement in Tibet in terms of global politics and global security. The story is an important addition to News in Review's library of material for Asia-Pacific studies.

Introduction Living Symbols The Land of Snows The High Lamas and the "Great Game" Tibet and China in the 20th Century The Occupation of Tibet Hollywood Goes Tibetan Discussion, Research, and Essay, Questions

Comprehensive News in Review Study Modules

Using both the print and non-print material from various issues of News in Review, teachers and students can create comprehensive, thematic modules that are excellent for research purposes, independent assignments, and small group study. We recommend the stories indicated below for the universal issues they represent and for the archival and historic material they contain.

Tibet: A Rare Look "China Today: A Correspondent's View," September 1994 "The Struggle For Taiwan: A Chinese Show of Force," May 1996 "Deng Xiaoping: China at the Crossroads," April 1997 "Hong Kong: Back to China," September 1997

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Introduction Tibet: A Rare Look

On August 15, 1999, an expectant crowd of 25 000 people assembled in New York's Central Park to hear a message of spiritual inspiration from a Tibetan holy man who has become a major international figure. Simply but elegantly clad in his traditional wine-and-saffron Buddhist robes, the jovial, bespectacled leader humbly told his admiring audience that "the purpose of our life is happiness. I've nothing to offer you and certainly not miracles. I am very skeptical with people who claim such a power. But we can change our mental attitude, and that can change our mental life."

The 65-year-old man who spoke these words is known as Tenzin Gyatso, or His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. As the supreme religious leader of as many as 10 million Tibetan Buddhists, he is regarded as a living god by his followers both inside and outside Tibet. His name is translated as "the Ocean of Wisdom," and he personifies the spiritual quest of many discontented people in the West who are searching for a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives that transcends the pursuit of material wealth and consumer goods. But the Dalai Lama is much more than a religious leader or spiritual guide. He also symbolizes the ongoing Tibetan struggle for freedom from China. In this political role, he has aroused considerable controversy as he promotes from exile his people's cause with indefatigable energy and an unwavering commitment to non-violence.

While the cause of Tibet is championed by many influential people in Western countries, the Chinese government regards the Dalai Lama as a disruptive and destabilizing political influence who is bent on the dismemberment of their state. Despite the fact that his four-city visit to the United Statesorganized by Hollywood actor Richard Gerehad no overt political intentions, China nonetheless issued a strong protest to the U.S. government for permitting it to occur. For whenever the Nobel-prize-winning Dalai Lama makes a public appearance, the issue of China's occupation of his homeland becomes a focal point of international attention and widespread protest.

His visit to the United States during the summer of 1999 came at an especially embarrassing time for China. Chinese authorities were facing intense criticism for their crackdown on the growing Falungung religious sect. In addition, they were still smarting from international efforts to block their access to a much-needed World Bank development loan because of their human rights policies in Tibet and elsewhere, a loan that finally met with only conditional approval. As a result, they were painfully aware of the Dalai Lama's potential to create serious problems for them as they strove to enhance diplomatic and economic relations with Western countries.

To many who admire the Dalai Lama and support his people's struggle for autonomy, the issue of China's occupation of Tibet is a clear-cut case of right and wrong. A large and powerful country has violently imposed a brutal, unpopular regime on a gentle and defenceless people who only wish to be left alone to practise their Buddhist religion and traditional culture in peace. But China views the Tibetan situation from a completely opposite perspective. It believes that its 1950 occupation of Tibet was a justifiable act of national self-assertion and territorial unification. Further, China's leaders argue that their rule in the decades since then has actually benefitted the Tibetan people. They are convinced that communism has led to the economic and social transformation of that impoverished and backward country into a more prosperous and developed part of their nation. For these reasons, they adamantly reject any unwelcome foreign interference in what they consider their own internal affairs.

Living Symbols Tibet: A Rare Look

Symbols represent things and abstract concepts, conveying impressions. Colours, sounds, shapes, gestures, rituals, and words are some of the things that can be symbols. People can also be symbols, especially symbols of authority or of concepts such as generosity and justice. Tibetan art and architecture are full of evocative symbols, often highly complex. The traditional residence of the Dalai Lama, for example, is built in the form of lofty structures that suggest the surrounding peaks of the Himalayas.

The Dalai Lama has become an international celebrity and symbol or, as one young American admirer called him, "a rock star." But he is very much a living symbol. As well as holding public appearances in New York and other U.S. cities, he has conducted an online chat with thousands of young people over the Internet, where he explained his views on Buddhism, spirituality, the need to curb youth violence, and other topics. Despite the non-political purpose of his tour, the Dalai Lama's significance in Tibet's struggle for cultural and religious freedom remains central to his work. His presence in countries around the world has a highly symbolic meaning. The "Free Tibet" movement, active in many countries, has attracted support from high-profile personalities from the worlds of film and popular music. But his journeys are also symbolic in that, as a charismatic leader in exile, he symbolizes the dispossessed, and there is doubt whether he himself will ever be permitted to return to his people and to the homeland from which he was expelled 40 years ago. Symbolic Viewing While viewing this News in Review report, make a list of symbols that you see as well as examples of symbolic language. Be prepared to explain the impact of each symbol you have identified.

Follow-up Activity Access one of the Web sites listed below to learn more about Tibet. Identify one or more symbols contained in the site and report your findings to the class.

● CBC.ca features an in-depth report on Tibet: (www.cbc.ca/ news/background/dalailama/index.html) ● This is the official Web site of the Canada Tibet Committee, an organization dedicated to creating a structure within which concerned Canadians can work together with their Tibetan friends to develop increased awareness in Canada. (www.tibet. ca/) ● This is the official Web site of the Tibetan government in exile, headed by the Dalai Lama and based in Dharmasala, India. (www.tibet.com/) ● This is the official Web site of the Chinese government, which provides its perspective on the situation in Tibet. (www.china. org.cn/e-white/tibet/index.htm) ● The U.S. Public Broadcasting System's Web site for its documentary Dreams of Tibet contains a great deal of useful background information, including transcripts of interviews with various experts. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ tibet/)

Indicates material appropriate or adaptable for younger viewers. The Land of Snows Tibet: A Rare Look

For all the recent media attention it has received, Tibet is a country whose history is little known and poorly understood in the West. Because of its cultural and geographical isolation, during modern times it has come to symbolize an almost dream- like realm, or a mythical Shangri-la. Novels and films have portrayed it as a place where people once lived simple, happy lives while practising their Buddhist religion under the guidance of their beneficent lamas, innocent of and untouched by the perceived negative and corrupting influences of Western materialism.

This simplistic and historically uninformed view of Tibet remains quite common among many in the movement to "free Tibet" today. But any attempt to understand Tibet's present economic, social, political, religious, and cultural realities must take into account the long and fascinating history of this remote and forbidding mountain nation, whose people know it as the "Land of Snows" on "the Roof of the World."

A Warrior Kingdom Gives Peace a Chance Bounded along its long southern and western borders by the lofty peaks of the Himalaya mountain system, and stretching over vast distances to the north and east into the flat plains and plateaux of Asia, Tibet was once a huge country, approximately the size of Western Europe. The area that currently comprises the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China represents only a fraction of this territory, the rest having been annexed into China proper in 1965. Whereas only about three to four million ethnic Tibetans inhabit the TARwhose capital is the holy city of Lhasa, the centre of the Tibetan Buddhist faithtoday, between four and six million people who are ethnically Tibetan live outside the TAR, primarily in China proper.

Almost 2000 years ago, the rulers of Tibet controlled a huge empire and possessed awesome military power. Respected and feared by their Chinese, Persian, and Indian neighbours, they aggressively extended their territory far beyond the present borders of Tibet. The legendary 17th-century ruler Srongsten Gampo exacted an annual tribute of 10 000 rolls of silk from the Emperor of China in order to prevent further invasions of his kingdom. The Tibetan ruler's soldiers were skilled horsemen and archers, who could be unleashed on their unsuspecting neighbours at a moment's notice, with devastating effects.

But during the reign of this warlord, something remarkable occurred in his warrior kingdom. Two of the emperor's wives, of Nepalese and Chinese extraction, introduced a new religion into the Tibetan court. This was the teaching of Buddha, the "Enlightened One" who had first preached his message of universal peace and spiritual harmony in neighbouring Nepal many centuries before. Buddhism found fertile soil in Tibet, where it practically supplanted the indigenous Bon religion by the eighth century. The most dramatic result of this spiritual conversion was the decision of Tibet's once warlike rulers to renounce conflict with their neighbours. A contemporary chronicler informs us that the emperor and his army "laid their weapons at the foot of the Lord Buddha's Lotus Throne and forswore the arts of war." By the 10th century, Tibet had withdrawn from the Indian and Chinese territories it once ruled, but its legacy of military prowess remained a sufficient deterrent so that no outside power dared to invade it for many years to follow.

In 1207, however, Tibet fell under the control of the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan. He had led his fearsome hordes from Korea to the gates of Europe, and presided over an empire whose extent rivalled those of Rome and Alexander the Great in ancient times. To this day, Genghis Khan is portrayed in Western history as a bloodthirsty and destructive warlord. But to Tibetans, he is remembered as a fair-minded ruler who showed great respect for their religion and culture.

As a gesture of his ambitions to universal rule, the great Khan once invited representatives of the world's major religionsChristianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to his court in order to adjudicate their rival claims to spiritual truth. He declared that he would decree the winning faith to be the state religion of his realm. According to legend, the Tibetan Buddhist monks won the contest by asking Genghis Khan to sit comfortably while they offered him a glass of his favourite tea. As if by magic, the glass rose by itself to the astonished Khan's mouth! Suitably impressed, Genghis Khan issued an edict confirming Buddhism's status as the faith his subjects were recommended to embrace. In 1270, his grandson, Kublai Khan, officially converted to Tibetan Buddhism.

By 1350, Tibet's native rulers had reasserted their supremacy over their land. But Tibetan Buddhism remained deeply entrenched in Mongolia, where it continues to thrive to this day. While Tibetan monks administered to the spiritual needs of the Mongols, the fearsome successors of Genghis Khan underwrote Tibet's security from foreign invasion, while donating generously to the upkeep of its numerous monasteries.

Discussion

1. Identify and explain the importance of the following: TAR, Srongsten Gampo, Buddhism, Genghis Khan, Mongols.

2. Why was the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet such an important event in the country's history?

3. In what ways does the history of Buddhism suggest ecumenism, that is, a striving for religious unity that transcends differences in doctrine?

4. In terms of mythology, what is particularly appealing about this period of time in Tibet's history?

5. How does this historical period demonstrate the issue of autonomy and self-determination? Why is this significant in terms of this News in Review report?

6. When examining the history of Tibet, why is it important for us to be aware of our Western cultural bias?

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The High Lamas and the "Great Game" Tibet: A Rare Look

At the end of the 14th century, Tibet began to be ruled by a succession of god-kings known as the Dalai Lamas. These leaders were both spiritual authorities and heads of state. Unlike other forms of monarchy, the Dalai Lama system does not involve the hereditary transfer of the crown from one generation to the next within a royal dynasty. Instead, following the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, upon the death of a Dalai Lama, Tibetan monks undertake an intensive search throughout the land to find the child into whom his spirit is believed to have transmigrated. It is believed that such a boy can be known by his ability to identify the personal belongings of the previous Dalai Lama. The present Dalai Lama was discovered in just this way, living humbly with his parents and siblings in a small village in eastern Tibet in the late 1930s.

The Tibetan monk who was later to be considered the first Dalai Lama was Pema Dorje, whose name means "Lotus Thunderbolt." Born into a poor peasant family in western Tibet in 1391, he was proclaimed high Lama in 1419 at Drepung, believed to have been the largest monastery anywhere in the world at that time. Under his rule, the system of Buddhist Lamaism spread throughout Tibet, and many new monasteries and nunneries were founded. Shortly after he died, a child was found who appeared to have uncanny memories of a past life as the Dalai Lama. By the time of Ngawang Lozang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, who ruled during the 17th century, the system was functioning effectively, and the immense, 1000-room Potala Palace, which dominates the skyline of Lhasa to this day, was constructed.

It was during this period that the "Mandate of Heaven" had fallen upon a new ruling dynasty in China. The Manchu, or Qing rulers had originated in Manchuria, in northeastern China, and were eager to impose their authority over the entire country. In 1682, the fifth Dalai Lama died, but worried monks in Lhasa kept his death a state secret for 15 years, for fear of a Chinese invasion, while an impostor ruled in his place. In 1720, the Qings took advantage of the weakness of the next Dalai Lama and imposed a Chinese military presence in Tibet.

One year later, Emperor K'an Hsi proclaimed that Tibet had always been a vassal state of China. In order to cement their authority, Chinese agents in Lhasa curried favour with the powerful Regents, the monks responsible for affairs of state during the often lengthy periods of time between the death of a Dalai Lama, his rebirth in the body of a young boy, and this successor's enthronement and arrival at the age of maturity. Over subsequent decades, the power of the Regents grew as a number of boy Dalai Lamas died under mysterious circumstances before they reached the age at which they could assume responsibility for Tibet's political and religious affairs.

China's determination to secure its control over Tibet increased by the late 19th century as this region, along with Afghanistan and northern India, became the focal point for what was called "The Great Game." Having consolidated its domination over India, Britain was anxious to outflank imperial Russia's expansion into central Asia. In 1904, 3000 British troops under the command of Colonel Francis Younghusband marched into Tibet. After quelling minor opposition from Tibetan forces, the British imposed a treaty on Tibet requiring it to trade with British India. Angered by this British incursion into what it considered its territory, China dispatched an invasion force that seized Lhasa in 1910.

China's occupation of Tibet proved to be short-lived, however. A year later, the Qing dynasty was overthrown, and the Republic of China was proclaimed. This ushered in a lengthy period of instability, as rival warlords battled for control over the new government, and central authority in Beijing all but collapsed. Taking advantage of their occupier's weakness, Tibetan forces expelled the Chinese in 1913, and the 13th Dalai Lama, who had previously fled both British and Chinese occupiers, proclaimed Tibet an independent country.

Later that year, British, Chinese, and Tibetan negotiators met at Simla, India, to resolve the issue of Tibetan independence. Under the terms of the Simla Convention, Tibet was to be partitioned into two zones. One, known as Inner Tibet and including the eastern part of the country, was to revert to Chinese control, while the second, called Outer Tibet, was to be granted full independence. The Chinese, however, refused to ratify this agreement, and within a few years Tibetan forces had reasserted their control over the eastern parts of the country.

Discussion

1. How did Tibet's Buddhist religion influence the way the monks went about finding a new Dalai Lama after the old one died? 2. How did both China and Britain try to increase their influence and control over Tibet during this period of history? 3. How does this period in the history of Tibet suggest the universal desire, belief, metaphor, or notion of rebirth and the cycle of the life? 4. Suggest how a problematic balance of power existed during this period that could be seen as setting a precedent for the modern-day state of affairs in Tibet. 5. How did imperialism and the whole notion of empire influence the turn of events in this small Asian country? 6. Why is the issue of partitioning so significant not only in terms of Tibet's history but also in terms of world history in general? Substantiate your answer with specific examples throughout history. What, in your opinion, is the importance or results of partitioning?

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Tibet and China in the 20th Century Tibet: A Rare Look

Tibet entered the 20th century as a country whose society and culture was more medieval than modern. It was a feudal, theocratic state, ruled by a god-king, where, by 1900, 6000 monasteries, entirely supported by public funds, dominated its economic, social, and cultural life. Approximately one-quarter of the entire population belonged to religious orders, and three- quarters of the state budget went to their upkeep. At the same time, there were no schools in the country aside from those run by the monasteries, where religion was the only topic of instruction.

Over 60 per cent of the population was nomadic, eking out a bare existence from the herds of yaks they raised on the bleak and windswept plateaux. The peasants who worked the land lived in poverty, and were required to pay taxes in produce to the landowners, usually the abbots of local monasteries. The 13th Dalai Lama, who had proclaimed Tibet's independence in 1913, recognized that his country needed to develop and modernize if it was going to play a part in world affairs. However, his attempts to reform the landholding, legal, and educational systems met with stiff resistance from the prevailing conservative elements in Tibetan society and government.

In 1939, a six-year-old boy, Tenzin Gyatso, was brought in state to Lhasa to be prepared for his enthronement as the 14th Dalai Lama. This auspicious event was captured on camera by a handful of British officials based in the city. The film footage provides us with a rare and fascinating glimpse of a traditional society that had remained practically untouched by the influences that had transformed most of the world by this time. But Tibet's self-imposed isolation from international upheavals would not last. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, its government sought closer relations with the victorious Allied powers, Britain and the United States, to guarantee its independence against what its leaders correctly perceived to be a growing threat from China.

By 1949, the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, had finally triumphed after a long and bitter civil war against their Guomindang (Nationalist) enemies. On October 10, 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing and announced his intention to reunite every part of the Chinese motherland under his regime. This included Tibet. On October 7, 1950, 84 000 soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River into eastern Tibet.

There they met with unexpectedly stiff resistance from warlike tribal Khampa horsemen. However, by May 1951, Tibetan opposition had been quelled, and the Chinese proclaimed it to be a "national autonomous region," to be granted considerable cultural and political self-government, while clearly remaining part of their national territory. The Dalai Lama and his advisors reluctantly signed this "Seventeen-Point Agreement," realizing that any further resistance to Chinese military force was futile.

Despite Chinese assurances that Tibet's traditional culture and religion would be respected, the communist authorities almost immediately began an anti-religious campaign designed to destroy the power of the monasteries. Mao had informed the Dalai Lama during their talks in Beijing that he regarded religion as "national poison," and that any attempt to modernize Tibet would require its influence over the people to be drastically reduced.

Religious persecution soon led many Tibetans to join an underground resistance movement known as the Chushi Gangdrug ("Four Rivers, Six Ranges") that became active in the eastern part of the country. This anti-communist organization would eventually receive crucial military support from the U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency, which viewed Tibet as another battlefront in the Cold War against the Soviet Union and China.

In March 1959, Tibetan opposition to Chinese rule reached a climax. Chinese forces started to clamp down on nomadic and bellicose Khampa Tibetans living outside the TAR, mostly in Sichuan and Gansu. These Tibetans then, with the help of the CIA, moved into Tibetincluding Lhasawhere, together with other armed opponents to the Chinese occupation, they started attacking Chinese soldiers. The Dalai Lama, who was against armed insurrection and who had been trying to accommodate the Chinese since 1950, was seen as a target for retribution by his supporters and was therefore quickly taken to India before he could attend a command Chinese theatre performance at which it was feared he would be arrested.

But resistance inside the country continued to rage into the early 1960s, spurred by the CIA-backed Khampa cavalry of eastern Tibet. U.S. support for the rebels dried up following the visit of President Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972 and the subsequent U. S.-China rapprochement. During its military operations in Tibet, the Chinese government exiled or arrested 20 000 monks. Thousands were killed.

Discussion

1. What changes do you think the Dalai Lama could have introduced into Tibet's society to make it more modern while at the same time preserving its traditional values and beliefs?

2. How did Tibet become drawn into the Cold War struggle between the United States, the Soviet Union, and communist China after the end of the Second World War?

3. For many nations, the early 20th century has been a defining moment in their histories. To what extent is this true in Tibet's case?

4. What general historical movements or themesrevolution, for exampleare present during this historical period in Tibet? Explain how each connects Tibet to the outside world despite its intention to remain isolated.

5. To what extent do you believe that the history of Tibet and China in the 20th century demonstrates a historical inevitability? Could events during this period have been predicted?

6. How does this time period in Tibet demonstrate the importance of understanding the global impact of historical processes?

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The Occupation of Tibet Tibet: A Rare Look

After their forced reunification with China in 1950, Tibetans found themselves caught up in the profound upheavals that were to occur during the following decades. While the Dalai Lama and his followers established a government in exile based just over the Himalayas in Dharmasala, northern India, Tibet's new Chinese rulers introduced sweeping measures of social and economic reform designed to drag what they regarded as a backward country into the modern world.

The so-called Great Leap Forward of 1959-61, which sought to rapidly industrialize China, instead practically destroyed the country's agricultural system, leading to countless deaths from famine. Later in the 1960s, Mao proclaimed the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and unleashed his young, fanatical Red Guards against what he called the "Four Olds" (ideas, habits, customs, and culture), the hated symbols of "bourgeois counterrevolution" in China.

For Tibet, the years of the Cultural Revolution were a time of national tragedy. During this period, it is estimated that the Red Guards destroyed over 90 per cent of the monasteries and other religious institutions that remained operating in the country. The loss of irreplaceable buildings, artistic objects, and ancient Buddhist texts was enormous, but even more terrible was the brutal treatment to which many monks, nuns, and other religious figures were subjected. This was considered by some political observers as a form of cultural genocide whose purpose was nothing less than the total eradication of Tibet's religious and cultural heritage.

In 1976, Mao died, and after a short period of confusion, a more pragmatic leadership took direction of the ruling Communist Party. By the late 1970s, China's new leaders, including Deng Xiao-ping, a wily survivor of the Cultural Revolution, were willing to undertake a cautious re-evaluation of their policies toward Tibet. Talks were held with the Dalai Lama, exploring the conditions under which he might be permitted to return to his homeland. In 1980, Hu Yaobang, the reform-minded Communist Party General Secretary, visited Tibet and admitted to past Chinese mistakes in the region. There was some loosening of restrictions to religious freedom, and a major effort was begun to develop Tibet's economy and provide it with a decent infrastructure of roads, hospitals, schools, and social institutions.

But Beijing's kinder "carrot" approach to Tibet proved to be as ineffective as the brutal "stick" it had previously applied to its inhabitants. In 1987 and again in 1989, massive pro- independence demonstrations broke out in Lhasa, and were forcibly subdued by Chinese police and army units. This time, the beatings of monks and other protesters were captured on videotape and smuggled out of Tibet for the rest of the world to view in horror and outrage. For his part, the Dalai Lama put two offers on the table for China's consideration, known as the "Five- Point Peace Plan" (1987), and the "Strasbourg Proposal" (1988). These proposals basically withdrew his previous demand for outright independence for Tibet. Instead, they suggested that China assume full control over the area's defence and foreign policies, while Tibetans would be allowed complete internal autonomy and religious freedom.

At first, it appeared that Beijing might seriously consider the Dalai Lama's offer, but between 1989 and 1991, three things happened that were to change the minds of China's leaders. In June 1989, a huge pro-democracy student demonstration that had been permitted to gather in Beijing's Tiananmen Square was forcibly crushed by People's Liberation Army units, resulting in hundreds of deaths. As a result, reformers within the party hierarchy, like Hu Yaobang, who had sympathized with the students, were removed from power and replaced by a hard-line group headed by Premier Li Peng. Later that year, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, immensely enhancing his international credibility and causing China a major diplomatic humiliation. The same year saw the Soviet-dominated communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapse one by one, and in 1991 the Soviet Union itself disintegrated into 15 successor states after the fall of communism there.

China's communist rulers were determined that they would not share the same fate as their Soviet and Eastern European counterparts. At the same time as they were revising Marxist orthodoxies by introducing major economic reforms designed to dismantle state control of industry and permit the growth of capitalism, they insisted that two other cardinal principles of Mao's revolution were to be maintained. These were the absolute political supremacy of the Communist Party, and the territorial integrity of the entire Chinese motherland. For Tibet, this meant that while the pace of social and economic reform would be stepped up considerably, the party would not permit any further political liberalization to occur, and would simply not tolerate any expression of Tibetan nationalism.

As people in other countries became more aware of China's actions in Tibet, an international movement supporting the country's independence took shape. Protests and "Free Tibet" concerts were held, and two influential Hollywood films on the Dalai Lama and his role in recent Tibetan history were released to wide acclaim. Although the leaders of Canada, the United States, and other Western nations were quick to condemn China for its repression in Tibet, they did not allow their criticisms to threaten their growing and important trade relations with this huge potential Asian market for their goods and investments.

Meanwhile, the people of Tibet face an uncertain future as the 20th century draws to a close. There is no question that the economic and social reforms China has introduced were long overdue and have resulted in some benefits for them. However, economic development has also led to a massive influx of Han Chinese settlers, drawn to the region by the prospect of greater economic opportunity. In Lhasa and other cities, ethnic Chinese residents now form the majority of the population. This means that Tibetans are now threatened with becoming a minority inside their own country. China has also used Tibet as a dumping-ground for nuclear waste, and its rapid construction of factories, dams, and other facilities, and widespread logging operations have endangered its fragile natural environment.

It is now a criminal offence to display a photo of the Dalai Lama in public, and monks are required to attend daily "patriotic education" sessions. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch, among other organizations, have released scathing reports on China's human-rights abuses in Tibet, including allegations of widespread torture and terrible prison conditions.

In 1995, Chinese authorities kidnapped a five-year-old boy who had been recognized by the Dalai Lama as the incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-most-important figure in Tibet's Buddhist hierarchy, and installed their own nominee in his place. They continue to reject the Dalai Lama's overtures for talks, insisting on his prior recognition of their claim that Tibet has always been part of Chinese territory before any meaningful negotiations can begin. Today, despite the growing pressure from the international "Free Tibet" movement, China's rulers appear to be intransigent. For their part, many young Tibetans who have grown up in exile are becoming increasingly impatient with the Dalai Lama's policy of non-violence and his moderate stance on the question of national independence.

In the opinion of the highly respected Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya, any hope for a positive change in Tibet's status depends on a shift in policy on the part of China's leaders. The country's current communist rulers continue to subscribe to the traditional Chinese nationalist view that Tibet is and always has been an integral part of their country. On this, even dissidents calling for democratic political reform in China are in agreement with the Beijing leadership. In addition, the Marxist view of history leads Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other Chinese officials to the conclusion that Tibetan nationalism, with its base in the Buddhist religion, is an archaic and backward-looking phenomenon that will disappear as economic growth and social change make progress in that country. Until and unless a new generation of Chinese leaders seriously revises both of these positions, exiled Tibetans like Shakya remain pessimistic about their people's future.

Discussion

1. Why have people in other countries become so concerned with the situation in Tibet in recent years?

2. What have been the most important consequences of the Chinese occupation for the Tibetan people? Which of them do you think have been positive? Which have been negative?

3. Occupation usually evokes images of soldiers and tanks rolling into a nation. In what other ways was Tibet "occupied" during this time? Why is foreign occupation not simply a question of the presence of troops? What does a nation lose when it is occupied by a foreign power? What is the impact on the people? Current estimates of Chinese troops in Tibet is 150 000. Introduction Living Symbols The Land of Snows The High Lamas and the "Great Game" Tibet and China in the 20th Century The Occupation of Tibet Hollywood Goes Tibetan Discussion, Research, and Essay, Questions

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Hollywood Goes Tibetan Tibet: A Rare Look

Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, Brad Pitt, and Harrison Ford are famous Hollywood actors. Martin Scorsese is a highly regarded film director. Adam Yauch, of the group the Beastie Boys is one of today's best-known pop music performers. But these entertainers and artists, along with many others, have something else in common. They have all taken up the cause of Tibetan independence from Chinese rule with a passion, and have thrown their considerable talents, influence, and money behind the growing international movement to "Free Tibet."

A Focus For Reading How important do you think the involvement of stars from movies and pop music has been in the growth of the movement to "Free Tibet"? Why do you think the Buddhist religion and the Hollywood version of Tibetan society and history have struck such a powerful chord with so many people in the West in recent years? As you read the following material, keep these questions in mind in order to discuss the importance of Tibet today to the outside world.

Richard Gere organized and financed the Dalai Lama's four-city U.S. tour during the summer of 1999. Adam Yauch and his group have been influential in promoting a series of "Free Tibet" concerts in Europe and North America, headlined by major rock stars, attended by tens of thousands of fans, and viewed by millions on MTV. All of this has led Columbia University professor Robert A.F. Thurman, an authority on Tibetan culture (and, coincidentally, the father of Hollywood actor Uma Thurman), to conclude that the Tibetans, and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, have become "the baby seals of the human-rights movement."

Why has the Tibetan cause struck such a chord among influential figures in Western culture and the arts? Orville Schell, an American writer and expert on China and Tibet, regards movies such as Scorsese's Kundun and Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet as classic examples of how a "myth of Tibet" has been created by the Hollywood dream machine. In Schell's view, people in the West long to believe that there is a place in the world where the values of consumerism and materialism do not pervade every aspect of life, and where a sense of spirituality prevails. This portrayal of Tibet is not a recent phenomenon, and can actually be traced back to the

1930s film version of James Hilton's best-selling novel Lost Horizon, a book that did much to create the myth of Tibet as Shangri-la, or paradise on earth. The region northwest of Kunming in the Yunnan province of China may also have been the setting for the book. More recently, the upsurge in interest in Buddhism among New Age Europeans and North Americans has also led to an increased interest in Tibet's traditional society and culture, which of course were based on that religion.

Among others who have studied Tibetan history and the current situation there, Schell has grave doubts about the accuracy of this Hollywood version of Tibet. However, the skepticism of scholars has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of those like Richard Gere, who claim that Tibet before the Chinese invasion really was a Shangri-la, where even the poorest peasants lived happily, secure in their firm Buddhist beliefs that their next lives would be better for them. And Steven Seagal, who has played starring roles in many extremely violent Hollywood action films, has taken vows as a Buddhist priest, established a monastery in his Hollywood mansion, and has been officially recognized as the reincarnation of a long-dead Tibetan holy man by none other than the Dalai Lama himself. This seems to be a strange choice from a religious leader who has dedicated himself to non- violence.

Many exiled Tibetans are delighted at the degree of international attention and support their people's cause has received. They also rejoice at the huge public-relations fiascos that China has suffered as a result of the protests it has made to film companies like Walt Disney Studios over their release of films such as Kundun. But others wonder if the reality of Tibet's society and history has not been obscured and even distorted by the Hollywood version of their country's past. Kesang Tseten, a Tibetan exile writer, for example, worries that "the true Tibet has been imbued by Western imaginations of the subject. Does this mean we're going to be bound by how others see us?"

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Discussion, Research, and Essay, Questions Tibet: A Rare Look

1. Using an almanac, encyclopedia, or other, electronic resources, make a chart or storyboard on Tibet, including a map showing its location, borders, major geographical features, cities, and other important information. Your storyboard could also include data on Tibet's economic, social, religious, and cultural life. (A good source of information on this topic is the December 1995 issue of the New Internationalist magazine.)

2. Find out more about the life, teachings, and influence of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (563-483 BCE), the founder of the Buddhist religion.

3. In your class, organize and role-play a diplomatic meeting dealing with the issue of China's occupation of Tibet, with students assuming the positions of spokespersons from China, the Tibetan government in exile, the United States, India, Russia, Canada, and other interested parties.

4. View one of the following recent films on recent Tibetan history and the Dalai Lama, and give an oral presentation in which you discuss the extent to which you think it is a valid portrayal of the events it depicts: Seven Years in Tibet, SONY Tristar Films, 1997, Jean-Jacques Annaud, director; Kundun, Disney Studios, 1997, Martin Scorsese, director; or Windhorse, Paul Wagner Productions, 1999, Paul Wagner, director. 5. Read James S. Hilton's novel Lost Horizon, and/or view the Columbia Classics video version of director Frank Capra's film. Discuss how this book and film helped create the myth of Tibet as a Shangri-la that persists to the present day. What need or purpose do myths like Shangri-la serve? Why do we romanticize certain countries and cultures?

6. Read one of the following books dealing with Tibet's history, culture, religion, and current political situation and prepare a book report: Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations, by Warren W. Smith; The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama, by Melvyn C. Goldstein; The Making of Modern Tibet, by A. Tom Grunfeld; Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival, by John K. Knaus; Determination: Tibetan Women and the Struggle for an Independent Tibet, by Carole Devine; Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas, by Robert A. F. Thurman; The Myth of Shangri-la: Tibet, Travel Writing, and the Western Creation of Sacred Landscape, by Peter Bishop; The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, by Tsering Shakya; Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer; Demystifying Tibet: The Secrets of the Land of Snows, by Lee Feigin; Freedom in Exile and My Land and My People, by Dalai Lama; Tibet: Abode of the Gods, Pearl of the Motherland, by Barbara Erickson; The Last Barbarians, by Michel Peissel.

7. Despite modern technology and a vast body of educational resources available to us, there are areas of the world that remain quite unknown and misunderstood to North Americans. What have you learned from this rare look at Tibet?

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