Tibet - Myth and Reality

The CIA is everywhere - Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, S America, etc, etc. Half
the time, they create the problems for others...
by Foster Stockwell

Western concepts of Tibet embrace more myth than reality. The idea that
Tibet is an oppressed nation composed of peaceful Buddhists who never
did anyone any harm distorts history. In fact the belief that the Dalai Lama
is the leader of world Buddhism rather than being just the leader of one
sect among more than 1,700 "Living Buddhas" of this unique Tibetan form of
the faith displays a parochial view of world religions.

The myth, of course, is an outgrowth of Tibet's former inaccessibility,
which has fostered illusions about this mysterious land in the midst of
the Himalayan Mountains -- illusions that have been skillfully promoted for
political purposes by the Dalai Lama's advocates. The myth will
inevitably die, as all myths do, but until this happens, it would be wise to learn
a few useful facts about this area of China.

First, Tibet has been a part of China ever since it was merged into that
country in 1239, when the Mongols began creating the Yuan Dynasty
(1271-1368). This was before Marco Polo reached China from Europe and
more than two centuries before Columbus sailed to the New World. True,
China's hold on this area sometimes appeared somewhat loose, but neither the
Chinese nor many Tibetans have ever denied that Tibet has been a part of China
from the Yuan Dynasty to this very day.

The early Tibetans evolved into a number of competing nomadic tribes and
developed a religion known as Bon that was led by shamans who conducted
rituals that involved the sacrifice of many animals and some humans.
These tribes! fought battles with each other for better grazing lands, battles
in which they killed or made slaves of those they conquered. They roamed
far beyond the borders of Tibet into areas of China's Sichuan and Yunnan
provinces, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai. Eventually one of these tribes,
the Tubo, became the most powerful and took control of all Tibet. (The name
Tibet comes from Tubo.) During China's Tang Dynasty (618-907), Emperor
Taizong improved relations with the Tubo king, Songtsen Gampo, by giving
him one of his daughters, Princess Wenzheng, in marriage. The Tubos, in
response to this cementing of relations, developed close fraternal ties with the
Tang court, and the two ruling powers regularly exchanged gifts.

The princess arrived in Tibet with an entourage of hundreds of servants,
skilled craftspeople, and scribes. She was a Buddhist, as were all of
the Tang emperors, and so Buddhism entered Tibet mainly through her
influence, only to be suppressed later by resentful Bon shamans. Some years later
another Tang princess was married to another Tubo king, again to cement
relations between the two rulers.

The fact that the Tibetans and the Chinese had united royal families and
engaged actively in trade (Tibetan horses for tea of the Central Plain)
didn't mean an absence of conflict between them. Battles occasionally
occurred between Tang and Tubo troops, mostly over territorial issues.
At one point in the 750s, the Tubos, taking advantage of a rebellion
against the Tangs by other armed groups in China, raced on horseback across
China to enter the Tang capital of Chang'an. But, they couldn't hold the city.

In 838, the Tubo king was assassinated by two pro-Bon ministers, and the
Bon religion was re-established as the only acceptable religion in
Tibet. Buddhists were widely persecuted and forced! into hiding.

Trade between Tibet and the interior areas continued during the Five
Dynasties (907-960) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that followed the
collapse of the Tang, although relations between the two ruling powers
were limited. During this time Buddhism revived in Tibet as a result of
the Buddhists' willingness to accommodate some Bon practices. The form of
Buddhism that resulted from this merging of the two religions was quite
different from that of China and other countries in Southeast Asia, as
well as from the form that had been practiced previously in Tibet.

Tibetan Buddhism, often called Lamaism, appealed to the Mongols, who
conquered most of Russia, parts of Europe, and all of China under the
leadership of Genghis Khan. The Mongols, like the Tibetans, were tribal
herders who had a religion of animism similar to Bon.

When Kublai Khan, the first Yuan emperor, appointed administrators to
Tibet, he elevated the head of the Tibetan Buddhist Sakya sect to the post of
leader of all Buddhists in China, thus giving this monk greater power
than any Buddhist had ever held before - and probably since. Needless to say,
the appointment irritated the leaders of the other Buddhist sects in Tibet
and the much larger group of non-Tibetan Buddhists in China. But, they
couldn't do anything to counter the wishes of the emperor.

The Yuan Dynasty divided Tibet into a series of administrative areas and
put these areas under the charge of an imperial preceptor. Furthermore,
the Yuan court encouraged the growth of feudal estates in Tibet as a way to
maintain control there.

When the Yuan Dynasty collapsed, it was replaced by the Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644), which wasn't composed of persons of Mongolian heritage.
Tibet then became splintered because the Ming court adopted a policy of!
gran ting hereditary titles to many nobles and a policy of divide and rule.

Although the Ming court conferred the honorific title of Desi (ruling
lama) to the head of one of Tibet's most powerful families, the Rinpung
family, they also bestowed enough official titles to his subordinates to
encourage separatist trends within the local Tibetan society. One of these titles
was given to the head of the newly founded Gelugpa sect, better known as the
Yellow sect. He later took on the title "Dalai Lama."

Tibet During the Qing Dynasty
The next and last dynasty, the Qing, came to power in 1644 and lasted
until 1911. At the time of its founding, the most prominent Tibetan religious
and secular leaders were the fifth Dalai Lama, the fourth Panchen Lama, and
Gushri Khan. They formed a delegation that arrived at the Chinese
capital, Beijing, in 1652.

Before they returned to Tibet the following year, the emperor officially
conferred upon Lozang Gyatso (the then Dalai Lama), the honorific title
"The Dalai Lama, Buddha of Great Compassion in the West, Leader of the
Buddhist Faith Beneath the Sky, Holder of the Vajra." (Dalai is Mongolian for
"ocean"; lama is a Tibetan word that means "guru.")

The fifth Dalai Lama pledged his allegiance to the Qing government and
in return, received enough gold and silver to build 13 new monasteries of
the Yellow sect in Tibet. All successive reincarnations of the Dalai Lama
have been confirmed by the central government in China, and this has become a
historical convention practiced to this very day.

A later Qing emperor suspected the intentions of the seventh Dalai Lama,
so he increased the power of the Panchen Lama (also of the Yellow sect). In
1713 the Qing court granted the title "Panchen Erdeni" to the fift! h&nb sp;Panchen Lama,
thus elevating him to a status similar to that given to the Dalai Lama (Panchen means
"great scholar" in Sanskrit, and Erdeni means "treasure" in Manchu.)

The largest part of the Tibetan population (more than 90 percent) at
that time was composed of serfs, who were treated harshly by the landlords
and ruling monks. All monasteries had large tracts of land as well as a
great number of serfs under their control. The ruling monks' exploitation of
these serfs was just as severe as that of the aristocratic landlords.

Serfs had no personal freedom from birth to death. They and their
children were given freely as gifts or donations, sold or bartered for goods.
They were, in fact, viewed by landlords as "livestock that can speak." As
late as 1943, a high-ranking aristocrat named Tsemon Norbu Wangyal sold 100
serfs to a monk in the Drigung area for only four silver dollars per serf.

If serfs lost their ability to work, the lord confiscated all their
property, including livestock and farm tools. If they ran away and
subsequently were captured, half their personal belongings were given to
the captors while the other half went to the lords for whom they worked. The
runaways then were flogged or even condemned to death.

The lords used such inhuman tortures as gouging out eyes, cutting off
feet or hands, pushing the condemned person over a cliff, drowning and
beheading.Numerous rebellions occurred over the years against this harsh
treatment, and in 1347 alone (the seventh year of Yuan Emperor Shundi's
reign), more than 200 serf rebellions occurred in Tibet.

Foreign Aggression
Foreign nations made numerous attempts to invade Tibet and take it away
from China. These were repulsed by Chinese troops and Tibetan fighters. Th! e
&nb sp;first such invasion took place in 1337 when Mohammed Tugluk of Delhi (in what
is now India) sent 100,000 troops into the Himalayan area.

During the second half of the 18th century, troops from the Kingdom of
Nepal invaded Tibet twice in an attempt to expand Nepal's territory.

During the 19th century, Britain competed with Russia in pouring large
sums of money and many spies into a struggle to see which of the two might
eventually occupy and control Tibet. When the British finally invaded
Tibet, first in 1888 and again in 1903, the Russians were so involved in
conflicts at home that they couldn't stop the British troops from pushing all the
way to Lhasa. And the Qing government, having recently lost the Opium War to
the British, did nothing either.

The Tibetans, using spears, arrows, catapults and homemade guns, fought
valiantly but to no avail against the invading British army and its big
cannons and machine guns. The British withdrew after imposing "peace"
terms and before the harsh winter began because they feared the Tibetan
resistance would prevent supplies from getting through to the occupying troops,
thereby causing them to starve to death.

The British signed a Convention with China in 1906, the second article
of which stipulated that the British would no longer interfere with the
administration of Tibet and that China had sovereignty over Tibet. But,
they conveniently forgot the terms of this agreement when, the very next
year, they signed a Convention with Russia that specified British "special
interests" in Tibet. It would probably fill a book to detail the many
ways the British from that point on tried to take over Tibet and make it a
part of their colony of India.
Yet, something needs to be said about the conference held at Simla,
India, in 1914. Conference participants included representatives of the new
Nationalist government of China that had overthrown the Qing Dynasty
just two years before, plus Tibetans, and British-Indians. The British had
blackmailed the Chinese into attending by threatening to withdraw their
recognition of the new nationalist government and by saying they would
work out an agreement with the Tibetans alone if the Chinese didn't
participate.

The Simla Conference failed because the Chinese and the 13th Dalai Lama
both opposed the British plan to divide Tibet into two parts (Inner and Outer
Tibet). The conference, however, did produce one document that since has
caused dissension -- a map drawn by the British representative Arthur H.
McMahon that never was shown to the Chinese, although it was revealed
secretly to the Tibetan delegates.

McMahon's map showed a new boundary line that included three districts
of Tibet -- Monyul, Loyul, and Lower Zayul -- within the territory of
British- India. This so-called "McMahon Line" first became public 23 years later
when it appeared in a printed set of British documents related to the
conference and other diplomatic matters. The McMahon Line became the basis for
India's failed attempt to take over this part of Tibet in 1962. The British, who
made a great show of their desire to have "independence for Tibet" at
the Simla Conference, in drawing this map were adding 90,000 square
kilometers (an area three times the size of Belgium) from Tibet's natural territory
to their own Indian colony.

During and after World War II and shortly before Britain's departure
from India, the American Office of Str! ategic S ervices (O.S.S., the forerunner
of the C.I.A.), operating under Cold War guidelines, joined the British
Foreign Office as the instigator of the Tibetan "freedom movement."

Much of what the O.S.S. did in Tibet remains hidden in secret files at
C.I.A headquarters near Washington, D.C., but one of their plots has been
widely reported. It involved a smear campaign launched against the regent who
had been appointed to act for the young 14th Dalai Lama after the 13th Dalai
died in 1933. The regent was hostile to U.S.-British intrigues in Tibet, so
the O.S.S. spread rumors about his alleged incompetence and criminal
activities. Eventually these charges led to the regent's arrest and
murder in a Tibetan prison. The 14th Dalai Lama's father subsequently was
poisoned because he was a friend and supporter of the regent.

Tibetan Buddhism
Before considering Tibet today, some words should be said about Tibetan
Buddhism as a religion. The accommodations it made with Bon resulted in
its becoming very different from other forms of Buddhism, particularly from
the more common and much larger Chan Buddhism of China (called Zen in
Japan). Images found in Tibetan Buddhist temples are much fiercer than those
found in other Buddhist temples, and some Tibetan ceremonies that once used
human skulls, human skin, and fresh human intestines clearly reflect the
animistic elements of Bon.

Also, Tibetan Buddhists rely a great deal on prayer wheels, which most
other Buddhists scorn. These are mechanical devices with prayers written on
them that are constantly turned by water or wind so the forces of nature do
the work of sending prayers to heaven.

The reincarnation of Living Buddhas,! which i s unique to this form of
Buddhism, began as early as 1294 with the Karma Kagyu sect, a sub-sect
of the Kagyu sect (known as the black hats). It then spread to all of
Tibetan Buddhism's other sects and monasteries, but it didn't reach the Gelugpa
sect (the one that includes the Dalai and Panchen Lama lines) until after 1419.

From the beginning, the system of selecting Living Buddhas was open to
abuse because it was easy for clever members of the monk selection committee
to manipulate the objects presented to potential child candidates in order
to make sure a particular child was chosen. In the case of the fourth Dalai
Lama, the child selected was the great-grandson of the Mongolian chief
Altan Khan. He was chosen at a time when the Gelugpa sect badly needed the
protection of the Altan Khan's followers because the Gelugpa were being
persecuted by the older Tibetan sects, who were jealous of the Yellow
sect's rapid growth.

Tibet Since 1949
In 1949, the Chinese Communists won the revolution and overthrew the
Nationalist government. But they didn't send their army into Tibet until
October 1951, after they and Tibetan representatives of the 14th Dalai
Lama and 10th Panchen Lama had signed an agreement to liberate Tibet
peacefully.
The Dalai Lama expressed his support for this 17-point agreement in a
telegraphed message to Chairman Mao on October 24, 1951. Three years
later the Dalai and Panchen Lamas went together to Beijing to attend the first
National People's Congress at which the Dalai Lama was elected
vice-chairman of the Standing Committee and the Panchen Lama was elected a member of
that committee. After the People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered Tibet, they
took steps to prote! ct the r ights of the serfs but didn't, at first, try to
reorganize Tibetan society along socialist or democratic lines. Yet, the
landlords and ruling monks knew that in time, their land would be
redistributed, just as the landlords' property in the rest of China had
been confiscated and divided among the peasants.

The Tibetan landlords did all they could to frighten the serfs away from
associating with the PLA. But, as the serfs increasingly ignored their
landlords' wishes and called on the Communists to eliminate the
oppressive system of serfdom, some leaders of the "three great monasteries"
(Ganden, Sera, and Drepung) issued a statement, in the latter half of 1956,
demanding the feudal system be maintained. At this point, the PLA decided the time
had come to confiscate the landlords' property and redistribute it among the
serfs. The landlords and top-level monks retaliated by announcing, in
March 1959, the founding of a "Tibet Independent State," and about 7,000 of
them assembled in Lhasa to stage a revolt. Included were more than 170
"Khampa guerrillas" who had been trained overseas by the O.S.S. and air-dropped
into Tibet, according to a former C.I.A. agent. The O.S.S. also gave them
machine guns, mortars, rifles and ammunition.

The PLA put down the revolt in Lhasa within two days, capturing some
4,000 rebels. The rebellion had the support of the Dalai Lama, but not of the
Panchen Lama. After it failed, the Dalai Lama, along with a group of rebel
leaders, fled to India.

The most disruptive event of recent years was the "cultural revolution,"
which lasted from 1966 to 1976. It turned most of Tibet's farm and
herding areas into giant communes and closed or destroyed many monasteries and
temples, just! as it d id elsewhere in China. At its end, the communes
were disbanded and the temples and monasteries were repaired and reopened at
government expense.

The idea that most Tibetans are unhappy about what has happened in Tibet and
want independence from China is a product manufactured in the West and
promoted by the dispossessed landlords who fled to India. Indeed, to
believe it is true stretches logic to its breaking point. Who really can believe
that a million former serfs - more than 90% of the population - are
unhappy about having the shackles of serfdom removed? They now care for their
own herds and farmland, marry whomever they wish without first getting their
landlord's permission, aren't punished for disrespecting these same
landlords, own their own homes, attend school, and have relatively
modern hospitals, paved roads, airports and modern industries.

An objective measure of this progress is found in the population
statistics. The Tibetan population has doubled since 1950, and the average Tibetan's
life span has risen from 36 years at that time to 65 years at present.

Of course some Tibetans are unhappy with their lot, but a little
investigation soon shows that they are, for the most part, people from
families who lost their landlord privileges. There is plenty of evidence
that the former serfs tell a quite different story.

You will find some Tibetans who hate the Hans (the majority nationality
of China) and some Hans who hate the Tibetans, a matter of ordinary ethnic
prejudice - something any American should be able to understand. But,
this doesn't represent a desire for an independent Tibet any more than black-
white hostilities in Washington, D.C., Detroit, or Boston represent a
desire on the part of m! ost Afri can-Americans to form a separate nation.

Tibetan Culture Today
The final part of the Tibetan myth has to do with Tibetan culture, which
the Dalai Lama's supporters say has been crushed by "the Chinese takeover of
Tibet." Culture is an area that requires great care because it is
fraught with biases and self-fulfilling judgments. The growth of television in
America, for example, is cited as killing American culture by some and
as enhancing it by others.

Regarding the field of literature, prior to 1950 Tibetans could point
with pride to only a few fine epics that had been passed down through the
centuries. Now that serfs can become authors, many new writers are
producing works of great quality; persons such as the poet Yedam Tsering and the
fiction writers Jampel Gyatso, Tashi Dawa, and Dondru Wangbum.

As for art, Tibet for centuries had produced nothing but repetitious
religious designs for temples. Now there are many fine artists, such as
Bama Tashi, who has been hailed in both France and Canada as a great modern
artist who combines Tibetan religious themes with modern pastoral images.

Tibet now has more than 30 professional song and dance ensembles,
Tibetan opera groups, and other theatrical troupes where none existed before
1950.

No, Tibetan culture is not dead; it is flourishing as never before.