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LETTERS p.o. box 1027, Athens, ex sosos
WHAT IS THE DEAL
WITH TIBET?
The Kciitor:
I recently read the Guest Editor's Notes in the
April Ml issue (“What Is tlie Deal with Tibet:'") In
the spirit of providing a more all-sided view. I
would like to make some comments about some
of the serious distortions that this piece in partic
ular contained, and that are making their way
across campuses in the U.S in general I believe
that the author had good intentions in address
ing the situation in Tibet, and promoting Human
Rights in that region But I believe that there were
a number ol misstatements and half-truths.
Mainly. I d like to point out three things, in the
hope that you will publish this:
First The top Tibetan lamas portray their old
society as based on nonviolence, spirituality and
a rejection of worldly “desires " They paint the
picture of a mellow, pastoral society led by medi
tating holy men. where there was no hunger,
class conflict or injustice.
This is turning the truth upside down, to put
it mildly. In reality. Tibetan society prior to 1950
was a feudal s»»ciety. an extremely oppressive
theocracy, where the vast majority of people
were enslaved and exploited by a tiny ruling
class of aristocrats and top lamas (religious
authorities). In Tibet, a group ol 600 ministers,
generals, abbotts and other religious figures held
93% of all the land and wealth, and 70% of the
yaks (cattle) The Dalai Lama was the biggest serf
owner ol them all In old Tibet, serfs were forbid
den from using the same seats, utensils, or even
vocabulary as serf owners In old Tibet, being
born a woman was conside^d punishment for
“sins" in “past incarnations." Rape of lower class
women by their "owners" was common and abor
tion was outlawed, because monks proclaimed
the "sacredness ol all lives." even as whippings,
dismemberment, starvation and even human sac
rifices were readily used against the other 95% of
the population
Second: The Lamas (and Ms Herrin) portray
the overthrow of old Tibetan society as some
thing horrible and as something “imposed" on
the people of libel from the outside. They dis
credit the entire period ol revolutionary struggle
between 1949 and 1976 as having "destroyed the
traditional way of life" In Tibet. They charge
Revolutionaries with cruelty, vandalism, theft and
even genocide They say that 6.000 temples were
desecrated They claim »har 12 million Tibetans
died as a result of “Chinese oppression "
In reality, when the Chinese had rid them
selves from their 2.000-year-old exploitation by
aristocrats, landlords and foreign Imperialists
(the U.S. among them) in 1949. they began to
unleash the Tibetans themselves to throw off
their yoke of feudaWamaism. over a 10-year peri
od This was profoundly liberating Tibetan serfs
took control of the land and the wealth They
began to fight against superstition, illiteracy, dis
ease and starvation, but met stiff resistance from
the old rulers Their conservative dogma of
Lamatsm declared that social change was impos
sible. and that suffering simply had to be patient
ly endured Because of this, it became necessary
for the people of Tibet to wage a life and death
struggle against the old religion itself
Here's why The entire old order of Tibet had
been grounded in Lamaist religion, a form of
Tantric Buddhism, which was imposed on the
people by Songsten-Gampo. the first Tibetan king,
in order to create an ideological basis for feudal
ism. The old animist religion. Bon. was brutally
suppressed by the Lamas They established an
order under which fortress monasteries enslaved
the surrounding population, spreading supersti
tion and lies in order to maintain their strangle
hold They taught that disease and death were
caused by "impiety." and that the only "cure" was
obedience to the monks. Most children died
before the age of one. Disease and hunger were
rampant. When Maoists tried to educate the peo
ple about modern medicine, the Lamas
denounced antibiotics and public health cam
paigns as "sinful." because it was against their
dogma to kill lice and germs In a country were
75% of the people were forced to eat grass at
times, and half the people could not afford butter,
the main source of protein in Tibet, it i*estimated
that ONE THIRD of all the butter produced was
burned in temples as a sacrifice. Some Lamas
even spread rumors that modern engines, which
the Chinese revolutionaries intn>duced to Tibet,
ran on “the blood of children." It was under these
conditions that the population fell from an esti
mated 10 million, when Lamaism was first brought
to Tibet, to about three million in 1950. The claim
that "over 1.2 million Tibetans have died" as a
result of the revolution is simply not true, and
without any statistical evidence The revolutionar
ies organized the people to go up against the old
order, and established schools and hospitals,
declared women to be the equals of men. made
abortion legal and available, and started a mas
sive land-reform. Everyone In Tibet was better off
after the 1950s. except for the landlords, and it is
estimated that the population in fact INCREASED
during this period. The revolution in Tibet
reached its flash-point In 1959. when serf-owners
started an armed revolt with a few armed monks
and soldiers, and attacked the revolutionary garri
son in Lhasa, the capital This revolt petered out
quickly, due to lack of support by the people, who
had no interest In going back to their old way of
life as chattel slaves and serfs. The Dalai Lama fled
with the help of the C!A. which wanted to use
Tibet as a launch pad for counter-revolution
against communist China. The U5. government
has since propped up the Dalai Lama as a Holy
Man" and as a champion ol human rights.
Third There has been, without a doubt, brutal
repression in Tibet since the late 19/Os But this is
NOT a continuation of the revolutionary period
In reality, after Deng Xiaoping took control of
China in 1976. he and his cronies busied them
selves reversing Mao's policies in ever> area. bru
tally suppressing the old generation of rr\ lution-
aries that had grown up among the Tibetan ;»eo-
plr They gave power back to some of the o. *
landlords, and rich and poor started to appear
again in Tibet's countryside They reversed Maos
policy of “combatting Han-chauvinism" (Han peo
ple being the majority nationality within China),
and began to carry out chauvinist policies against
minorities like the Tibetans They flooded the
country with Han settlers, suppressed Tibetan
uprisings (some in the name of bringing back the
revolutionary society), and generally began to
exploit Tibet very thoroughly But no matter how
much China's current rulers wave the Red Rag.
their policies have nothing to do with commu
nism. or the struggle for equality and liberation of
humanity They have everything to do with restor
ing good-old fashioned capitalism in China, which
has the full support ol the U.S. government U
Peng, the butcher of Tiananmen Square, even
helped pass a law in 1979 that made it illegal to
challenge the okl religious institutions
As everywhere else in China today, poverty is
coming back in style in Tibet as huge corpora
tions build hotels for tourists, clear-cut forests,
engage in strip-mining, and force wage-slavery
back onto the population This is the real tragedy
that has befallen the people In tlie feeding frenzy
over who will control this vast new market 111 Asia,
the Dalai Lama is little else than a tool for U.S
business interests, and the talk of human rights
t*,is l>een cynically used to prod China's rulers to
open up to capitalist reforms even further
I do believe that there are people who arr sin
cerely concerned with human rights in Tibet, and
with the fate of the Tibetan people, and I admire
them But these people should check out the his
tory and the facts behind the relationship
between China and Tibet, and the role the Lamas
have played It should not come down to a choice
of whether Til>etans will be exploited by Tibetans
or whether they will be exploited by Chinese
There’s a third possibility Strengthening revolu
tionary struggles in Tibet and the world over
Sven Haynes
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