From the Dalai Lama's autobiography:
One, who must remain nameless for fear of reprisals against his family, described to human rights investigators how he was kept naked and handcuffed in his cell for prolonged periods, during which he was abused physically....On occasions, drunken guards came into his cell and beat him. One night his head was repeatedly struck against the wall until his nose bled..He also described being used as a target of martial arts practice by guards smelling of alcohol. ..and described how he was subjected to the so-called 'hanging airplane' method of torture:
I was picked up from the ground and two soldiers began to bind a rope around my arms. This long rope had a metal ring in the middle which was positioned behind my neck. Both ends were then passed in front of my shoulders and wound in a spiral tightly around my arms, finally trapping my fingers. One soldier then drew the two rope ends back through the metal ring, forcing my arms up between the shouder blades. Holding on to the rope he kneed me hard in the small of the back which caused a sharp pain in the chest. The rope was then placed over a hook in the ceiling and pulled downwards so that I was suspended with my toes just touching the ground, I quickly lost consciousness. I don't know how long I blacked out for, but I woke up back in my cell, naked except for handcuffs, and shackled around my ankles.
Four days later he was again led naked from his cell...One soldier took a thick piece of rope and tied me to a tree. The rope was wound around my body from the neck down to the knees. The soldier then stood behind the tree and put his foot against it, pulling the rope tight. Chinese soldiers were sitting around the tree having lunch. One stood up and threw the remains of his bowl of vegetables and chillies in my face. The chillies burned my eyes and I still suffer a little. I was then untied and taken back to my cell, but I stumbled often as I still found it difficult to walk and I was beaten every time I fell.
Ex-detainees have related how they were repeatedly given shocks from electric cattle prods that police used whilst the demonstrations were actually taking place. A young man had one forced into his mouth, causing severe swelling, and a nun told investigators of how she had this instrument of torture forced into both her anus and vagina.
While it is tempting to take this sort of information as definitive of the Chinese people as a whole, I know it would be wrong to do so. But equally, such depravity cannot be dismissed. So, although I have now spent the greater part of my life in exile and although I have naturally taken a keen interest in China's affairs throughout that time as a result of which I have some experience as a "China watcher", still I must admit that I do not fully understand the Chinese mind.
When I visited China in the early 1950s, I could see that a lot of people had given up everything in order to help bring about a transformation in society. Many people bore physical scars from the struggle and most were men of the highest principle who genuinely sought to bring about real benefits for every person in their vast country. To do this, they constructed a party system which enabled them to know every last detail about one another, right down to the number or hours' sleep each one needed. They were so passionate about their ideals that they would stop at nothing to achieve them. And in their leader, Mao Tse-tung, they had a man of great vision and imagination, someone who realized the value of constructive criticism and frequently encouraged it.
Yet in no time at all, the new administration became paralysed by petty in-fighting and squabbling. I saw it happen in front of my own eyes. Soon, they began to exchange fact for fable, to tell falsehoods whenever it was necessary to show themselves in a good light. When I met Chou En-lai in India on that occasion in 1956 and told him of my fears, he replied by telling me not to worry. All would be well. In reality, things only changed for the worse.
When I returned to Tibet in 1957, I found the Chinese authorities openly persecuting my people, though simultaneously I was constantly assured there would be no interference. They lied without hesitation, just as they have ever since. Worse, it seemed that the vast majority of the outside world was prepared to believe this fiction. Then, during the 1970s, a number of prominent western politicians were taken to Tibet and came back saying that all was well there.
The truth remains that, since the Chinese invasion, over a million Tibetans have died as a direct result of Peking's policies. When adopting its resolution on Tibet in 1965, the United Nations stated plainly that China's occupation of my homeland has been characterised by 'acts of murder, rape and arbitrary imprisonment; torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Tibetans on a large scale.'
I remain at a loss to explain how this happened, how the noble ideals of so many good men and women became transformed into senseless barbarity. Nor can I understand what motivated those people within the Chinese leadership who actively counselled the total destruction of the Tibetan race. It seems that China is a country which has lost its faith, as a result of which the Chinese people have themselves endured unspeakable misery for the past 41 years--all in the name of Communism.
Yet the pursuit of Communism has been one of the greatest human experiments of all time, and I do not deny that I myself was very impressed with its ideology at first. The trouble was, as I soon discovered, that although Commmunism claims to serve 'the people'--for whom there are 'people's hotels', 'people's hospitals,', 'people's armies' and so on--'the people' does not mean everyone, only those who hold views that are held by a minority to be 'the people's views'.
Some of the responsibility for the excesses of Communism rests squarely on the West. The hostility with which it greeted the first Marxist Goverments accounts in part for the often ludicrous precautions they took to protect themselves. They became suspicious of everything and everyone, and suspicion causes terrible unhappiness because it goes against a fundamental human trait--namely one's person's desire to trust another person. In this connection, I remember, for example, the absurd situation of my visit to Lenin's room in the Kremlin during my visit to Moscow in 1982. I was watched over by an unsmiling plain-clothes security man who was clearly ready to shoot in an instant, while a woman guide mechanically explained the official history of the Russian Revolution.
However, in as much as I have any political allegiance, I suppose I am still half Marxist. I have no argument with capitalism, so long as it is practiced in a humanitarian fashion, but my religious beliefs dispose me far more towards Socialism and Internationalism, which are more in line with Buddhist principles. The other attractive thing about Marxism for me is its assertion that man is ultimately responsible for his own destiny. This reflects Buddhist thought exactly.
The hostility with which it greeted the first Marxist Goverments accounts in part for the often ludicrous precautions they took to protect themselves.
He would do well to reflect upon the lack of hostility with which he greeted the first Marxist Governments, and the ludicrous lack of precautions he took to protect his people.
Geez, you can hit some people in the head with a 2x4 and they still won’t think you harmful.
Utter nonsense. The West is responsible for the "excesses" (what a nice weasel word to describe it,) going back to the Bolshevik Revolution? Don't think so! This reminds me of the excuses we have been hearing for decades now that "this is not true Communism" or "they wouldn't do this if the West weren't doing that". Well, since there hasn't been any other form of Communism, we have no choice but to treat it as the real version of communism. And Dalai Lama is really beginning to sound like Chauncey Gardiner.