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Why Beijing Needs Tibet’s Help
Ensuring Tibetans get the respect they deserve might be more difficult, since China's government has, in recent years, turned from communism to nationalism as a mass ideology. But allowing ordinary Chinese greater access to honest information about Tibet would help.
What about China's goals? Helping Tibet would also help Beijing. If China were to take the above steps and allow the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders to return from exile, the payoff would be enormous. China could quickly confirm the legitimacy of its rule over Tibet by holding an internationally monitored plebiscite there. The Dalai Lama has said many times that he supports China's sovereignty. Were Tibet granted real autonomy, he'd likely endorse China's claim in such a referendum, and if he asked them to, his people would follow his lead—so long as China doesn't wait too long. The more time passes, the more defiant the mood of the younger generation of Tibetans.
The wider world would wildly applaud a referendum, creating more good will than the Olympics could. China would also benefit economically. Its tourist industry would profit, as would Han investment in the province. And even after it granted autonomy, China could continue to enjoy the fruits of the Tibetan plateau, which include rich mineral deposits, wood, wool and other animal products, exotic herbs and attractive tourist destinations. To kick-start measures, Beijing should declare the entire plateau a national environmental preserve. This wouldn't block all development, but it would allow China to enlist international help to ensure its activities there were green and sustainable.
Improved relations with the Dalai Lama and Tibet would also have a spiritual payoff. Buddhism was once a major source of solace and inspiration for ordinary Chinese, before it was uprooted by communism and the Cultural Revolution. This persecution has helped create a valueless and materialistic population. In recent years, that's begun to worry Beijing, which, in the face of a rising rich-poor divide, is now desperate to create a "harmonious society." The Dalai Lama, through his teaching, could help by sparking a renaissance in Chinese Buddhism—which promotes contentment, trust, gentleness, a sense of purpose and ethical values.
As all the above suggests, improving relations between China and Tibet would offer enormous benefits for both sides: most important, real freedom within China for Tibetans and world respect and global peace for China. This doesn't mean that changing direction will be easy—there's too much bad blood for that. But the stakes are too high not to start trying: both sides should lift their eyes to the vision.
Thurman is professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at Columbia University and the cofounder and director of Tibet House US. He is the author of many books on Tibet, including the forthcoming “Why the Dalai Lama Matters.”
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: tashi @ 04/18/2008 4:33:33 PM
Comment: British spies agree with the Dalai Lama that the Chinese Communist Party instigated the riots in Tibet: watch the news video clip:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=1dapOKbFmmE
No one can de-legitimise the Tibetan claim to Tibet! It's in the history books, as Dr. Thurman well knows. Anyone inside PRC is looking at fraudulent "news" suppressing the truth. Meanwhile, the pollution in Beijing is so sickening that no one there can think straight anyway.
10,000 athletes will compete in the Olympic Games in one of the world's dirtiest cities beijing Particles in Beijing's air are still 40 to 50 percent worse than in Los Angeles, the most polluted city in the United States The beijing smog feeds on itself. Whenever the city periodically disappears into a brownish-yellow haze, the traffic only gets worse. Those who are fortunate enough to own a car leave their bicycles at home, choosing air-conditioning over the unfiltered cocktail of coal smoke, particulate matter and ozone in the air.The main polluting substance was not PM10 (fine dust) as it is 99% of the time, but SO2 (sulphur dioxide) first time this year, the main cause of acid rain as far as i know, and emitted by burning not-so-clean fossil fuels (coal and petroleum products). In china's 14 largest cities alone, air pollution is responsible for the deaths of 50,000 newborns each year
This is also a reminder that although Beijing???s main problem is PM10, the other common pollutants (SO2, NOx, CO,O3) are probably also at alarming levels, but just not as much in view as the PM10 because that is the worst problem. For example i wouldn???t know where to find daily figures of SO2 measurements; it seems they are not published, only the general API is available.Another interesting observation from today???s list of major Chinese cities; about half of the cities are reporting SO2 as main pollutant
"The main problem in chinese cities is air pollution, small particles which are suspended in the air and penetrate deep into the lungs," he added."More importantly they penetrate other systems, like the cardio-vascular system and travel in the blood through the body."
Dr Krzyzanowski said people who were not in perfect health ought to think twice before travelling to the games, given the additional stress generated by the excitement of a sporting event, the heat and the poor quality air."For them, exposure to high pollution levels may be a trigger to serious problems if they already have, for instance, cardio-vascular disease," he said."Those who come with asthma may suffer attacks "Particles have the ability of travelling thousands of kilometres in the air, so it's possible the beneficial effect of cutting the traffic in the city will be compensated by the transport of pollution from other parts of china."
Posted By: KTNJONES @ 04/14/2008 7:28:21 PM
Comment: Hi
No doubt Han Chinese can aclimatize as lots have done to the Tibetan plateau. The question is do they have the right to kill off and cultureally reradicate a peacfull population? The physicall quaility of living has shown some improvement. Nomads even have solar panels. However it is not a question of one or the other,. Im sure there is a way to integrate increases with Standard of Living while at the same time providing them with autonomy to develop their culture, which arose out of their mileu, without the heavy handedness of the Chinese. Who knows the Chinese might learn a thing or two. That is if the think they dont know it all already which is the great plague, both individually in the world and for sociities. It is Race mind which is a lower operating matrix in the mind
Posted By: JHL8 @ 04/14/2008 5:04:20 PM
Comment: Take a look at a recent interview with Robert Thurman in an Indian newspaper, which closely match those presented here, but are even more unreservedly expressed: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Thurmans-solution-to-Tibet-crisis-A-middle-path-between-complete-surrender-and-extreme-violence/296415/
His comments are perhaps unintentionally revealing of the unspoken subtext behind the drumbeat of western protests against China in Tibet. It shows that Dr. Thurman and like minded activists in the Western world would like to de-legitimize China's claim to Tibet and her resources in order to appropriate them for themselves. They arrogantly view themselves as superior would-be stewards of Tibet, not for the benefit of the common people living there, but for the enrichment of the elite monks and their Western collaborators ("foreign mining investors"). They see the Himalayas and the beautiful scenery there (a "plum tourist destination" indeed) and feel that such a precious environment cannot justly belong to China. It is true that China can do a much better job of taking care of the region and its discontents, but instead of advising and helping China in this regard, they reveal that their true motives are driven by a misplaced sense of injustice. Who is Thurman to claim that Tibetans are better off "returning to their time-tested social and agricultural practices" instead of embracing modernity? It seems like he prefers Tibet to return to a mythical shangri-la that never existed.
His comment that "due to the altitude, Han [Chinese] can't live comfortably [in Tibet] anyway," is especially disquieting, not to mention bizarre. It belies a conviction that Tibet ought to be preserved for those with racial characteristics that "fit" the region. In a different context, this would be decried as "ethnic cleansing." I hate to bring this up, but Nazi Germany espoused similar beliefs in that they mounted expeditions to investigate the "racially distinct" inhabitants of Tibet, who were believed to be racially closer to Europeans than the "Mongol Chinese" and would play an important role as German allies in the region. One source: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/n-s/nazimyths.html
Finally, I would mention that I attended Columbia University where Dr. Thurman teaches (I graduated in 2001), and although I respect him as a scholar on Tibetan Buddhism, I now have a much diminished opionion of him in terms of his politics and personal beliefs.