I’m always baffled by Buddhism getting such a free pass from otherwise perfectly sensible westerners.
Many Buddhist societies are amongst the worst slave states know to history (the Tibet from this article, but also Burma and oh-so-beloved Thailand).
And this is not despite Buddhism but because of it. In all societies where it is dominant misfortunes such as being born poor (or worse) are seen as being justified somehow, leading to astonishingly callous mistreatment of the poor and unlucky - think the wholesale enslavement and transport of complete populations such as in Thailand not too long ago and in present day Burma.
Zen Buddhism, too, is a spectacularly nasty piece of work. It originally existed in two variants: one for the peasants, which taught them to accept their miserable lot, and one for the warrior class which taught it that life is fleeting and death inevitable (it is this variant of Buddhism that was used to indoctrinate Kamikaze pilots in WW2)
So why we in the west should think that this is an especially enlightened religion is beyond me. If you must do religion, why not Christianity or Islam? At least these two make a point of encouraging charity and kindness towards others.
I'll go a step further and say anywhere where ordinary people have very little money is going to be a very sad place for ordinary people to live.
It is hard to be oppressed when you make $50,000/annum. It is hard not to be if you make $365/annum. Culture is a problem insofar as it makes it hard to add 0s on the end of your income, and a matter of taste otherwise.
To me some of the more backwards Arab states are the exception that proves the rule; it took wealth literally welling up out of the ground to have a dominant culture that is both wealthy and unable to let women drive cars. And even then the ban was eventually ground down.
Last year I was staying in a mountain hut in Nepal, near the Annapurna range and a 3 day hike to the nearest road. A helicopter flew up from the nearby city (a 10 minute flight!) and I was surprised to see it contained buddhist monks. They took a bunch of photos, had a cup of tea and then all piled back in the helicopter for the flight back to the city.
A helicopter ride like that probably costs $500 a head, in a country where the average annual income is $862.
I think it was so surprising because my naive western viewpoint was that monks live a simple life. I'd love to know more about the reality of organised religion in that region!
That's interesting. The article seems to be extremely biased, portraying the worst that happened over the centuries, and glorifying the benefits of the Chinese occupation. Basically it repeats line by line what the Chinese say.
But I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle, otherwise dozens of Tibetans wouldn't self-immolate every year in protest agains the Chinese regime.
Reminds me of what happened in Burma/Myanmar.
This guy is a Buddhist Goebbels: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashin_Wirathu
List of tibetans who have self immolated in protest of the occupation. Perhaps the Tibetan people are not as grateful for taking their liberties away as this article suggests.
” The rich and powerful of course treated their good fortune as a reward for -- and tangible evidence of -- virtue in past and present lives. ”
This is very similar to how “the Family” (of the congressional prayer breakfast) reasons. Except in their it’s because they are “the chosen”, not that they had past lives.
I think it is relatively obvious that the popularity of the Dalai is partially the result of a CIA psy-op (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Tibetan_program)
Sounds biased. Very pro-China article. Everything was horrible and then saviors occupants came and live got better. Reminds me of all other occupations throughout the history as well as some recent ones. My country was occupied by Soviet Union in the past. Overall I prefer when my country is independent.
The author's Wikipedia page and bibliography implies he has socialist political tendencies, and this article is written supportively in favour of the Chinese. I don't dispute some of the examples but I do note his references don't work - they are simply lists of sources without details (i.e. #34, 'Los Angeles Times'). He makes comments such as that Harrer, who wrote a book about his travels in Tibet, was a member of Hitler's SS. Yes, he was - but only after Austria was annexed, under duress, and was later cleared of any wrongdoing (the Pope was a Hitler Youth member, btw).
Overall a very biased, slanted piece, written in an interesting way but without any credence from well-linked citations and fails to take into account the reported atrocities committed by the Chinese after their occupation.
The article mentions Heinrich Harrer, who was a Nazi. During the war, he was interned by the British in India and eventually landed in Tibet where he spent seven years. There are a book and a movie about his experience.
Thanks for this less biased view on Tibet society.
Jump in here to share some of my random views as a mainland Chinese for what CCP did to Tibet and Xinjiang, and China in general.
I have said somewhere else and to my western friends many times that despite all the horrible things CCP has done or might just have been pinned on to it by Western propaganda, CCP did three great things to China, Tibet and Xinjiang as well:
1. Liberation of women
I couldn't emphasize enough of it. China as a country, including Tibet and Xinjiang, by the country's law, women are equal to men. Mao Zedong himself said women are half the sky. Yes there are inequalities of course, there are no institutional discrimination against women.
2. Literacy education
CCP went extra miles to teach poor people to read and write. Han Chinese has a tradition of valuing education but it was a privilege just among privileged class. After 1949, CCP launched many campaigns to teach soldiers and peasants read and write. And CCP also made it law of 9 years free education for everyone, even for those living in the remotest villages, though it took years to actually achieve that.
3. Freed Chinese from the burden of religion
This is debatable according to if you are religious or not. Combined with advancement of education and science, Chinese people believe in science and technology. Now many Chinese are puzzled by the now anti-science movements, such as anti-vaccine or flat earth theory in the U.S.
At least in the decades after opening up, CCP also tried hard to bring those to Tibet and Xinjiang. I hate romantization of the old golden religious days of Tibet and Xinjiang and anywhere in the world. It means only one thing: a few privileged ruling the majority with religion, cult and brutality.
What a sectarian article:
So there is a distressing symbiosis between religion and violence but the Cultural revolution was a "mistake".
So the most violent and murderous event in Human's History was just a mistake.
Communism has the biggest distressing symbiosis with violence and murder ever:
Lenin killed the highest number of religious people ever, and they did not defend themselves.
In Spain the communist also killed from 6.000 to 10.000 religious people that by the way did not apostatize or defend themselves.
Stalin killed millions of their own people.
Pol Pot millions.
Mao killed hundreds of millions.
This article is a piece of propaganda in order to defend the invasion of China of a foreign country.
Now the big lords are the Chinese communist and Tibet and Nepal continue being extremely poor.
The article naively suggests that the Communists freed the Tibetan people. Because there was a feudal system didn't negate their right to run their own affairs. The United Kingdom is a feudal system should it be invaded and a caretaker government be installed? Communism is an evil system that has systematically stripped people of their basic humanity. Let us never stop to demand that Tibet be free.
Is this what they brainwash Chinese youth to think what the history of Tibet is? Because its rubbish. Ask any Tibetan.
I think however that history has shown that it's generally more tolerable to be oppressed by your own kind than by occupiers and colonists.
It happened 300 years ago, but similar overtaxing policies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_conquest_of_Altishahr
I'd definitely welcome some thoughtful, unbiased commentary on Tibet. I'd like to be certain that this is it (and not, e.g., the work of a hack for hire). I have to say that googling Michael Parenti does not fill me with encouragement, but I'll be happy to be corrected.
I met some Tibetan exiles working in the market in Dalhousie in India, 20+ years ago. They had fled Tibet to seek freedom and opportunity. If the border guards had seen them, they would have been shot.[1] So, I am not a huge fan of Chinese control of Tibet.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangpa_La_shooting_incident