FREE TIBET

The Chinese government knows it's going to lose Tibet sooner or later. China is like a crusty old man who forcibly gains possession of a damsel - and the old man is forever paranoid that the lady will leave - 'cause she never loved him, and she's always trying to figure a way to break free.

One scenario:
China blunders into a military confrontation with Taiwan. The Japanese, Koreans, and Americans reluctantly side with the Taiwanese and blow the Chinese military away. As the bruised aggressor withdraws, dissention erupts at China's brewing hotspots. The Beijing regime dissolves in its own offal and Tibet gains its freedom.

Feel free to copy the hand-painted Tibetan flag image at right and paste it on your web site!

When will Tibet regain it's sovereignty? No one knows for sure, but one can take solace in the example of the former East Bloc of Europe; Just months before their freedom from the oppression of the Soviets, few could have predicted the amazingly short time it took for those formerly occupied regions to gain independence.

Indeed, just a week before the Soviet political system in Moscow imploded, Doctor "$600-per-hour consultant" Kissinger chortled at the idea that the Russians could ever throw off the yoke of Communism.

tbt.jpg (5729 bytes)

Ken Albertsen e-mail..... a Danish-born American living in northern Thailand.

Update (from an AP report, June '00): "The Beijing government has doubled to 10 years the jail sentences of nine Tibetans arrested in '99. The eight men and one woman were demanding the release of imprisoned Buddhist monks and nuns."

History in a nutshell: Tibet is a high plateau region with the Himalayan mountain range straddling its southern and western boundaries. It has been a sovereign nation for hundreds of years. For much of that time, Chinese emperors would make the long pilgrimage to Tibet in order to have their rule sanctioned by the whichever Dalai Lama was in power at the time.

In the 1950's, the Chinese army marched, uninvited, into Tibet. Thus began a military occupation that has subsisted by intimidation, mass detentions, and other heavy-handed tactics. In the 1970's, Chairman Mao's "Red Brigade" systematically destroyed nearly all the Buddhist temples. More recently, the Chinese government has been busing thousands of ethnic Han Chinese per week into Tibet from the flatlands. Tibetans are fast becoming a minority in their own country!

Waxing philosophical: Just as people benefit by preserving forests and rivers, so too, people benefit by preserving culture - especially such a vibrant culture as once flourished in Tibet. Although pummeled by forty years of Communist heavy-handedness, and diluted by Han Chinese mass immigration, Tibetan culture is down but not out.

Peoples' day-to-day life in Tibet, like in all countries, has traditionally been a mixed bag of struggles, joys, sorrows, and boredom. The image of Tibet as a 'Shangri La' paradise paints a nice image, but has probably only been realized there by spiritually enlightened people.

Feedback: I rec'd one interesting email regarding this web page. It was from a person named 'Chang'. He claimed that all the text in this page is wrong and that I must be 'one of the misled minions' influenced by the 'Seven Years in Tibet' movie, and Richard Gere's opinions. I emailed the person back and mentioned that, although I appreciated the movie and Mr. Gere's public comments, I am no neophyte regarding Tibet situation. For thirty years I have been conferring with Tibetans (and other nationalities), and following events there. Indeed, I have even read some of the color brochures printed by the Beijing government, which offer their policy statements about Tibet. Email me.