Why the Dalai Lama Is Important For All of China

Personally, I do have some mixed feelings about the Dalai Lama. While I do not buy into all of the conspiracy theories about links between him and the CIA or his involvement in the recent Tibet uprisings, I am not convinced that his organization is as clean ‘as the driven snow’ as so many would like to suggest. I realize that he won a Nobel Peace Prize some years ago, but after it was bestowed upon Al Gore last year, I lost faith in the value of that distinction. No matter how peaceful of a man he is able to present himself as to the world, I am sure that there are some darker aspects of his work that would surprise many of his supporters.

However, I do admire the Dalai Lama for one simple reason. Forget about Tibet for a moment. It is part of China and that is not going to change. Even the Dalai Lama has said that he is not calling for independence. In my estimation, the Dalai Lama’s contribution to peace and harmony has little to do specifically with Tibet. The fact is, the Dalai Lama stands for much more than just autonomy in Tibet. He stands for human rights in China; he is a constant reminder to world leaders and policy makers that the human rights situation in China cannot be ignored.

To the faithful of Tibet the DL is their leader until he dies and the monks find his reincarnated soul in another—who then becomes the next DL.
When the current DL croaks,look for the ChiComs to find the next one themselves and to murder any monk who dissents.
Then and only then,will the ChiComs own Tibet.
Wait for the DL to die (and it must be of “natural” causes) or slaughter and imprison every Buddhist in Tibet?
The second option hasn’t worked well so far so the ChiComs are left with the first.

I don't think there's any linkage at all between the Dalai Lama's freedom to move about as he pleases and whether he's someone we should put on a pedestal. Yassir Arafat was a guy who had a couple of American ambassadors tortured to death, not to mention engineered the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich. He was feted wherever he went. As to whether Tibet will regain its independence, that's an open question. If the Israelis could regain their homeland after 2000 years of pagan, Christian and Muslim persecution, I don't see why the Tibetans might not eventually regain theirs. The end of history is not yet at hand. Maybe not in this Dalai Lama's lifetime, or even in our grandchildren's lifetimes.

But history was made billions of years before our lifetimes, and will doubtlessly be made billions of years after our lifetimes. My feeling is that it will take a tiny fraction of that amount of time. When the Japanese annexed Korea and Taiwan in 1895, they probably saw these territories as remaining Japanese in perpetuity. When the Chinese overran Vietnam over a thousand years ago, they undoubtedly saw Vietnam as permanent Chinese territory. We now know different.

I understand your Chinese students aren't too thrilled that some barbarian (i.e. non-Chinese in general, but here, specifically Western) nations remain steadfastly unwilling to prostrate themselves before the Chinese state. But that's the whole Western philosophy. It's the same exact reason that in antiquity, Oriental ambassadors had no problem prostrating themselves before the Chinese emperor, whereas European ambassadors limited themselves to a kind of curtsey. Westerners do not believe in god emperors.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.