In reply to pneame:
> (In reply to Timmd)
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> Read "An explorers adventures in Tibet" by Arnold Landor at the turn of the last century for a different view of Tibet from the current fuzzy warm and cuddly Western view that we have at the moment. I suspect Landor's view of Tibet is similar to China's and comes from being there rather than as a cosseted western tourist
I'm not blind to how Tibet was, in it being a feudal country when the Dalia Lama was growing up and a young man in his early twenties (who made efforts to improve things according to some), more i'm not blind to how Tibet is now either, there are some awfull things which are happening in Tibet under Chinese rule.
The Buhtan Region was feudal like Tibet was and closed to the world, untill China invaded Tibet, after which it started to open up to the outside world and has reacently had it's first democratic elections.
If you can find the time, have a google for something like 'peer reviewed medical study in the torture of Tibetans under Chinese rule' or something like that, and there's the exiled Tibetan who went back to Tibet under cover*, and on film interviewed Tibetans talking about women having enforced staralisation, and nomands being made to relocate into settlements where they end up living in poverty and have to turn to crime to survive. There's quite a lot information out there about how life is in Tibet. *It's a Dispatches programe called 'Undercover In Tibet' which can be watched online.
The rioting in 2008, and the monks telling journalists (who were shown around by the Chinese to prove that all was well after the rioting) that they have no human rights, and Barac Obama being deeply concened about Tibetan culture are important too I think, or indicative that things aren't good for Tibetans.
However Tibet was when the PLA decided it should be a part of China again (because there have been times when Tibet ruled over China before it turned to Buddhism, i'm just saying incase you didn't know), it doesn't justify any human rights abuses which are happening now.
With mineral reserves in Tibet and the fact that important rivers origionate in Tibet (which supply China and India and other parts of Asia with water), it's possibly not only patriotism and a desire to free Tibet from feudalism which motivates China in wanting to keep Tibet as a part of China, and have a say over what happens there.
The Chinese government have a huge challenge in improving the lives of so many people, there's no doubting that, but i'm not sure that that makes it fair, what is happening to Tibetans in Tibet.
To anybody who'd say that negative things being said by Tibetans either exiled or annonamously, are only part of the story and is a biased viewpoint, China only has to give journalists more freedom to find out about all that is happening, and stop putting in jail Tibetans who smuggle pictures out of Tibet. On jounalists Without Borders is the story of a Tibetan who took pictures of a peacefull gathering being broken up by riot police, who got something like seven and half years, which was more than the person who organised the gathering, which could indicate they quite strongly want to curtail information from reaching the outside world.
In around 2008 China told the UN that it was inconvenient for a UN human rights inspector to go to Tibet, and in the end the visit never happened.
Cheers
Tim