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 Other Related Videos Available from CBC Learning Does Your Resource Collection Include These CBC Videos? Tibet: A Rare Look One Hundred Years of Mao Half The Sky: Women in China 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. 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 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/) 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 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.