Click here for the regular front page. In view of the extremely one-sided media coverage of the present situation in Tibet, and since this site is visited by many Tibetan Buddhists supportive of Tibetan independence, I feel compelled to provide an alternative point of view. I do so as a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner of many years' standing who has traveled extensively in Tibet and in the ethnically Tibetan areas of Western China, but who as a Tai Chi practitioner has also spent much time in China proper.

I try to avoid politics as much as possible on this site, for obvious reasons. If I address the subject here it is not because I believe politics and religion should mix, but precisely because they have unfortunately become mixed and I would feel derelict in my moral duty if I did not attempt to separate them.

Let me start by viewing the situation from the point of view of Tibetan Buddhism. The whole idea of Tibetan Buddhism, as it has been taught to me, is that freedom and compassion are what remain after we have released all attachment to illusions such as 'self', 'other', 'my religion', 'my culture', 'my ethnic/linguistic/socioeconomic group', and so on. Any Tibetan who believes that there is any fundamental distinction between him/herself and the Han Chinese or Muslim shopkeeper next door, let alone uses such a distinction to justify attacks on others, has completely missed the point and 'Brought the God down to the level of a Demon', as the proverbs say, and it is our responsibility as Western Buddhists to recognize this and point it out - just as it is the responsibility of all Jews to point out abuses of power by the State of Israel, for Christians to dissociate themselves from churches that abuse others in the name of Jesus, and for Moslems to dissociate themselves from those who use the name of Allah to justify violence. Anyone who does not wish exactly the same good for every single person currently residing in Tibet, regardless of ethnic background, native language, or religion, or at least strongly aspire to do so, is not a sincere Buddhist.

It may be objected that this is asking a lot of the Tibetans. It is asking a lot, just as it is asking a lot of Christians that they 'love their enemies', as Jesus Christ specifically and unambiguously commands. But unless we hold our co-religionists to these standards, religion is no longer a healing force, but simply a marker and amplifier of intercommunal strife that actually aggravates the world's problems. There are enough such markers already: let's not use religion as another hook to hang our self-righteousness on.

There have been many references to a 'lack of freedom of religion' in Tibet. Firstly, I have to say that at the time of my visit in 2006 the Tibetans seemed pefectly free to practice their religion - they did prostrations, recited mantras, circumambulated temples, attended large ceremonies and lectures on Buddhism, and so on. The numbers of monks allowed by the Chinese seemed entirely sufficient for the religious purposes of the monasteries, though perhaps not for the temporal power the monasteries were hoping to re-assume. But the most important point is: how can any external circumstance prevent you from practicing your religion? How could anyone prevent you from practicing Mind Training, for instance? The most they could do would be to make your practice more challenging, and hence more interesting, and thus of course do you a favor. The proverbs 'Be grateful to everyone' and 'Don't depend on external conditions' obviously apply here.

Moving on to secular political and human rights issues: the only eyewitness reports from Lhasa by a Western journalist talk of unprovoked, vicious, and deadly racist attacks by ethnic Tibetans, not only on innocent Han Chinese shopkeepers, but also on the Moslem Hui minority who for centuries have performed the thankless task of butchering meat for the Buddhists (who consider themselves too pure for the task, though they are perfectly content to eat the animals that others slaughter). These eyewitness accounts fault the Chinese authorities not for being too forceful in suppressing these riots, but for being too tentative in protecting their own citizens.

Those interested in impartial eyewitness accounts might also want to read this account by a Tibetan monk interviewed by the BBC, who appears to be objective and animated by a spirit of compassion, and who reaches conclusions generally similar to mine.

The media coverage of this issue has been absolutely appalling - not since the start of Iraq War have I seen such hysterical cheerleading, often based on outright lies, in such a dubious cause. For instance:

• photos and video supposed to represent 'police brutality' in Lhasa that were actually, and obviously, of Nepalese police beating demonstrators in Khatmandu.
• photos supposed to be of Chinese soldiers about to put on monks' robes and instigate a riot were actually stills from a movie shoot in 2000 in which the army were doing the producers of the movie a favor by playing extras. This can be verified by the soldier's uniforms and the livery of the taxicabs, both of which match those in use in 2000 but not those in use today.
• Much editorial comment is frankly racist in tone, seeing the Chinese as a 'threat' because of their economic success - as if that success were somehow their fault!
• The mobs in the video footage at the top right of the page are consistently referred to as 'peaceable protesters'. I dare you to look at the video and tell me that that is an appropriate description.

I have yet to see a single media retraction on any of these points.

The extent to which vicious racist propaganda has infected mainstream coverage of these issues may be judged from the following cartoon. Believe it or not, this is from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a major and normally reputable newspaper in the Seattle metropolitan area, not from an extremist racist organization as might appear, and is here reproduced under the 'fair use' doctrine of U.S. copyright law for purposes of comment and criticism:

Obviously I feel disgusted by this cartoon both as a Buddhist and as a human being, and I hope you do too. My point is: if this is regarded as acceptable even in the mainstream, just how much hatred and blindness on this issue must we be harboring as a society?

Those with strong stomachs might also want to take a look at the YouTube footage of the riots, including:

• footage of an elderly Chinese man being pulled off his motorcycle by Tibetan rioters and beaten to death with rocks

   

• an interview with a girl whose mother and sisters were herded into an upstairs room and burned to death by a mob of Tibetans

   

, and then ask themselves who are the aggressors and who are the victims in this situation.

I found watching these videos extremely upsetting, but I think every Western Buddhist needs to view them, painful as that is, so as to understand that the view of Tibetan culture and religion on which we have been sold is a very partial one, and that there is an enormous dark side that we have not been shown and are unwilling to look at. Unless and until we have taken a good, hard, realistic look at this dark side, we mingle religion and politics at our peril. The Dalai Lama, by the way, claims that these videos (from Chinese Cable TV) are staged, but it is obvious from the scale of the riots, their viciousness, and the near-universal participation in them, that that is completely impossible. They are also confirmed in every particular by the eyewitness testimony of James Miles of the Economist, referred to above. One item to note is the participation of monks in throwing stones, kicking in doors, and looting, as shown in these videos. This is actually not out of line with the history of Tibetan monks, who frequently made war on other monks, nobles, or the common people in pre-Communist Tibet.

If we are not careful, we could fall into the same trap as the medieval Christians who admired St Francis of Asissi and ended up feeling that they therefore had to support the Spanish Inquisition, or Muslim converts who, admiring the Sufi poetry of Rumi and Rabiyah, ended up going to terrorist training camps.

The last major mistake of this order was after the Second World War, when the Allies, sympathizing with the suffering of the Jews, gave them their own country on the theory that they were a humble, modest, and compassionate people who had suffered much and wished nothing more than to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors. We know how that turned out - the oppressed actually typically make the most vicious oppressors.

Western media want to somehow make this the fault of the Chinese, and even to turn this into an argument for Tibetan autonomy, if not independence. If this is a sample of what the Tibetans would do with their desired 'autonomy', obviously it is an excellent thing that they do not have it. They need the Chinese to exercise more control, rather than less, over them, since their Buddhist religion apparently does not prevent them either from destroying property or from taking life.

In my travels in Tibet and Western China I met many Chinese tourists with a great interest in this 'peaceable' people with their deeply 'non-violent' religion living on the roof of the world. How do you think they feel now?

In my opinion the Chinese authorities, after admittedly committing many atrocities in Tibet, as in their own country, up to and including the end of the Cultural Revolution, are now doing a decent and fair job of governing it from the secular point of view. They have granted its people a lot of personal, economic, and religious freedom - as much as they believe to be compatible with political stability. I feel there has been insufficient appreciation of the extraordinarily difficult task they face - of maintaining a delicate balance between regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural, and class interests, all in the middle of the most explosive growth and transformation this planet has ever seen. The task could be compared to that of repairing a delicate and priceless piece of embroidery while riding a galloping horse. Before these riots they might perhaps have been persuaded that it would be safe to grant the Tibetans even more freedom, but that case is completely impossible to make now. I am sure they are regretting giving Tibet as much freedom as they did, and I do not blame them.

The Tibetans involved in the riots have shown themselves to be racist, immature, and completely incapable of self-government - perhaps not surprisingly, in view of the oppressive, feudal, stagnant, insular, and theocratic rule that preceded the arrival of the Chinese. Why Westerners would support a return to a theocratic form of government in Tibet, when they so steadfastly oppose it elsewhere, is a mystery to me.

In fact, when I have longer conversations with people on the subject, what often comes to the surface is anti-Chinese racist attitudes that those same people would instantly regard as unacceptable if directed against, say, Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians.

If you have any comments on this editorial you may reach me through the Feedback Page.

Martin Mellish, Lojong Site Coordinator.