Ruta Sevo's Blog: Roots of My Writing - Posts Tagged "chinese-invasion-of-tibet"
Tibetan Holocaust
Tibet is a vast, high and sparsely populated territory. Its size is comparable to Alaska and Texas combined. It is a little larger than Mongolia. The population density is one of the lowest in the world, ranking with Mongolia and Australia among countries, and close to Wyoming in the US. The average elevation is 16,000 feet. By comparison, the highest average elevation in Colorado is 6,800 feet. Tibetan people are living in relative isolation and very high up.
The famous Silk Road actually passed to the north of Tibet, through the mountain range at the edge of the Himalayas. For centuries, foreigners were mostly stopped from entering in great numbers by geography, and by the Tibetan’s wish to stay apart. (The leading Lamas would not send young monks to Europe in the early 20th Century, to keep them from intellectual contamination.) The economy was based on subsistence agriculture. There were almost no roads and little use of technology. People travelled with yaks until the middle of the 20th Century. Possibly one in five males lived in a monastery, supported by surrounding settlements. Monks however, did travel from place to place on foot, making pilgrimages to holy sites and to learn from more advanced lamas.
The Chinese incorporated Tibet by force in 1951. Monasteries continued to operate, but in 1959, the Tibetan government was abolished, and the Chinese started to actively suppress the monasteries as a feudal system. They raided monasteries, burning sacred manuscripts, stealing treasure, and killing monks. The confiscated property. The Dalai Lama fled to India.
Now, the “Tibetan Autononous Region” is a police state where the Tibetan language and culture are suppressed. The Chinese built a major road that made it possible for commerce to grow, for ethnically Chinese people to immigrate in large numbers, and for troops to be ready to maintain control. There are large prison camps.
The ethnic Tibetan population in Tibet is less than 3 million. Another 3 million fled the country with great difficulty. Many settled in refugee colonies in India. They brought with them Tibetan Buddhism. The displacement and diaspora of Tibetans reached the whole world. An unintended consequence of the Chinese invasion and oppression was the rapid diffusion of Buddhism to the West, as many countries and communities welcomed monks and refugees.
Buddhist studies flourished in the US. Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, for example, has faculty who are experts in Tibetan Buddhism. (See http://www.naropa.edu/ ) The Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, is specifically preserving the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet, led by the Lama Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. (See https://www.ligmincha.org/)
You can find practicing Tibetan Buddhist shamans in California, for example. There are meditation centers and Tibetan medical practitioners all over the country. Many Western people call themselves Buddhists, although there are many varieties, just as with Christianity.
Yangzom Brauen wrote a memoir of her family’s flight from Tibet that is a personal account of this history. It is harrowing, as they had to walk out at night, avoiding Chinese soldiers who were shooting people trying to escape. Yangzom’s grandmother lost her husband and a daughter on the way and spent years in refugee and work camps in India. A Swiss scholar visiting India fell in love with her mother Sonam and brought them to Switzerland. The memoir, published in 2011, is called Across Many Mountains, a Tibetan Family’s Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom. It is an inspiring and informative. If you want to read one thing about Tibetans, this is it. (See http://www.amazon.com/Across-Many-Mou... )
The famous Silk Road actually passed to the north of Tibet, through the mountain range at the edge of the Himalayas. For centuries, foreigners were mostly stopped from entering in great numbers by geography, and by the Tibetan’s wish to stay apart. (The leading Lamas would not send young monks to Europe in the early 20th Century, to keep them from intellectual contamination.) The economy was based on subsistence agriculture. There were almost no roads and little use of technology. People travelled with yaks until the middle of the 20th Century. Possibly one in five males lived in a monastery, supported by surrounding settlements. Monks however, did travel from place to place on foot, making pilgrimages to holy sites and to learn from more advanced lamas.
The Chinese incorporated Tibet by force in 1951. Monasteries continued to operate, but in 1959, the Tibetan government was abolished, and the Chinese started to actively suppress the monasteries as a feudal system. They raided monasteries, burning sacred manuscripts, stealing treasure, and killing monks. The confiscated property. The Dalai Lama fled to India.
Now, the “Tibetan Autononous Region” is a police state where the Tibetan language and culture are suppressed. The Chinese built a major road that made it possible for commerce to grow, for ethnically Chinese people to immigrate in large numbers, and for troops to be ready to maintain control. There are large prison camps.
The ethnic Tibetan population in Tibet is less than 3 million. Another 3 million fled the country with great difficulty. Many settled in refugee colonies in India. They brought with them Tibetan Buddhism. The displacement and diaspora of Tibetans reached the whole world. An unintended consequence of the Chinese invasion and oppression was the rapid diffusion of Buddhism to the West, as many countries and communities welcomed monks and refugees.
Buddhist studies flourished in the US. Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, for example, has faculty who are experts in Tibetan Buddhism. (See http://www.naropa.edu/ ) The Ligmincha Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, is specifically preserving the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet, led by the Lama Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. (See https://www.ligmincha.org/)
You can find practicing Tibetan Buddhist shamans in California, for example. There are meditation centers and Tibetan medical practitioners all over the country. Many Western people call themselves Buddhists, although there are many varieties, just as with Christianity.
Yangzom Brauen wrote a memoir of her family’s flight from Tibet that is a personal account of this history. It is harrowing, as they had to walk out at night, avoiding Chinese soldiers who were shooting people trying to escape. Yangzom’s grandmother lost her husband and a daughter on the way and spent years in refugee and work camps in India. A Swiss scholar visiting India fell in love with her mother Sonam and brought them to Switzerland. The memoir, published in 2011, is called Across Many Mountains, a Tibetan Family’s Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom. It is an inspiring and informative. If you want to read one thing about Tibetans, this is it. (See http://www.amazon.com/Across-Many-Mou... )
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