What America Needs to Know ABout China - 2, Tibet and the Dalai Lama

When it comes to American perception of America's world standing, an attitude adjustment of major proportion is indicated. In general, Americans are among the most ignorant people of all nations when it comes to other countries. Yet, we insist on telling others about proper conduct of international relations.

Hollywood personalities by virtue of their high public profile have a real advantage whenever they step up to the bully pulpit to pointificate on an issue. Unfortunately, they do not always know what they are talking about. Tibet and the Dalai Lama is just one such case in point. How many in America know some of the statements below?

Dalai Lama is the leader of one of the Tibetan sects of Lamaism but not the leader of all the sects. He even outlawed one of the Tibetan sects as recently as 1996. Isn't it strange that a particular branch of Tibetan Buddhism should all of a sudden turn rancid after enjoying the worship of Tibetans, including earlier incarnations of Dalai Lama, for centuries?

The West positions the Dalai Lama as one peaceful guy. He doesn't want Tibet to separate from China. Oh no, he just wish to enjoy autonomy within China's political system wherever Tibetans can be found. Well, there are many Tibetans living outside of Tibet in such neighboring provinces as Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Granting autonomy is roughly equivalent to the American federal government granting autonomy to California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and a good slice of Texas.

Dalai Lama and his supporters accuse Beijing of conducting cultural genocide. What does he mean by that? Under his rule, over 90% of Tibetans lived the life of a serf in bondage. These Tibetans owned no property but were instead themselves property of the ruling class. They were lucky to live to a ripe old age of 40. Today, they can send their children to school, they control their own destiny and can look forward to living to 70 and beyond.

Beijing has allocated millions to preserve and protect the cultural icons and Lama temples. Beijing has also spent millions on infrastructure development such as schools, highways and the technological breakthrough known as the world's highest railroad. School children are not discouraged from learning their native Tibetan language but are encouraged to also learn Mandarin Chinese for the sake of their future.

So is modernization of Tibet a form of cultural genocide? Must cannibals in the rain forest continue to eat their neighbors in order to maintain their cultural purity?

Actually, there are plenty of pundits and commentators in the West with perfectly respectable credentials willing to point out that the holy Dalai Lama might not be so holy afterall. Brendan O'Neill and Michael Parenti are just two examples. These folks may not be as pretty as the Hollywood Geres and Stones but they certainly speak with more authentic depth and substance.