Tibet

I've just finished reading The Hotel on the Roof of the World, by and about Alec Le Sueur, a guy who worked at Holiday Inn Lhasa for five years (1988-1993). Seriously amazing book! Had me laughing out loud (e.g. on the train to Paris, with my mum complaining I was embarrassing her), depressed and even crying, and has taught me a few things as well.

I've had a soft spot for Tibet for quite a few years. I read Heinrich Harrer's magical Seven Years in Tibet ('44-'51) a while back (never seen the film, thank God), as well as the very disillusioning follow-up Wiedersehen mit Tibet about his return to Tibet in 1982, which doesn't seem to be available in English.

So in the light of that, I thought I'd do a small entry about the Tibetan plight. Tibet is a very painful subject, and one which perfectly illustrates the inhumanity of the Chinese regime. OK, let me assume my readers don't know about Tibet and start from the beginning...

... well, from the beginning of the end. If you want to learn about Tibet's history dating back thousands of years, I recommend this site. For (many) more details, try this. If you wish to learn about the Dalai and Panchen Lama and their meaning, try this.

Tibet was a country of incredible religious, aesthetic and cultural wealth. The beauty of its monasteries and its landscapes had no equal. Then in 1950, the Red Guard invaded Tibet - here's a comprehensive account of the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet", the disgusting euphemism used by the Chinese government. The invasion ended in the "17 point agreement" (read it here). The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and has not been back to his country since. The Tibetan Government in Exile is set in Dharamsala, India.

During the Cultural Revolution, as China tried to suppress Tibetan culture and nationalism, many of the monasteries, temples and other cultural sites across the country were destroyed. Monasteries that had housed near 5000 monks were levelled and countless monks killed in the process (more here). It is still hard to conceive how much of the Tibetan heritage was lost forever as the Red Army raged in Tibet in those years. Thousands of years of culture destroyed in a frenzy of ignorance and fanaticism.

Things in Tibet today are not that much better The Tibetans were yanked into modernity in a matter of years. Many of them have adapted fairly well, but the way it was done insured they took as little of their own culture with them as possible. The Chinese have loosened some of their restrictions in the past decade or so, but Tibet remains an oppressed country. Riots, such as the one in 1987, are violently crushed, and there are still many political prisoners, locked away for many years simply for voicing their opinion too loudly (and yes I'm aware this is the case in many countries across the world. That doesn't make it any less outrageous).

The display of their flag is forbidden within their country, as is owning a picture of the Dalai Lama. Foreign journalists are still very restricted from visiting the country, and Tibet tour guides are prevented from talking about human rights or any injustice to tourists. Tibet is a wrongfully occupied/annexed country, and no pressure from the outside seems to persuade the stubborn Chinese government.

It is unlikely this is going to change in the near future, but we can still hope that China too will one day rid itself of its Communist party filth. Things in Tibet will never be the same and centuries of culture have been irretrievably lost. But what a joy, what a triumph it would be to see the 14th Dalai Lama back within his country.

Alec Le Sueur's book has a pic of a Tibetan girl clutching a tiny picture of the Dalai Lama on its inside cover. The Western World seems to have appropriated His Holiness, but the interest in his country is still shockingly low. He means so much more to the Tibetans than he does to us buying his books and flocking towards him in the current Buddhism vogue.

I feel guilty in front of those people, deprived of their spiritual leader, as the Western World rides high on yet another New Age wave. (incidentally, I have little respect for Western Buddhism fanatics. Most of them don't even know what Buddhism is about, apart from "being calm and gentle", going "Omm" and "respecting all life forms". No offence to Richard Gere fans or any other pseudo-buddhist celebs).