By Skip Shaputnic and Dorothy Berger
July 2, 2004
Tomorrow, July 3, marks the seventh year since the inception of World Tibet Day – a day linked to the Dalai Lama’s birthday, when Tibetans living outside of Tibet and their friends celebrate the rich Tibetan culture and call on the world to work for the restoration of the religious, cultural and political freedoms that Tibetans in their homeland have lost in more than 50 years of illegal Chinese occupation.
World Tibet Day invites us to turn for one day from the violence that fills our newspapers to the nonviolence that characterizes the Tibetans’ struggle. But nonviolence is not very newsworthy, and this creates a terrible dilemma.
It is deeply ironic and troubling that in a world consumed by violence and terrorism, we honor the Dalai Lama, leader of an ongoing nonviolent struggle, but largely ignore the struggle he leads. Tens of thousands gather to hear the Dalai Lama talk, and he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989. But not enough of us – individuals or governments – feel the necessity to understand the issues or take action to help. Perhaps we’ve grown so accustomed to this quiet, peaceful struggle against what many call cultural genocide that we expect it to go on forever. We take it for granted. We admire it from a distance. And besides, daily news reports claim our immediate attention with their blood, violence and intrigue.
Our focus only on armed struggle leaves the Tibetans with a terrible choice: resort to the violence we consider newsworthy or continue to suffer neglect. Our lack of attention inadvertently signals that the world will ignore them unless they give up the nonviolence that we say we long for and that they practice.
And what is their struggle about? It is not even to regain Tibet’s lost independence but to gain genuine autonomy as a part of China, to take control of its internal affairs – something like the theory behind Beijing’s “one country, two systems” policy in Hong Kong. This is an enormous concession by the Dalai Lama, the leader of a former sovereign nation.
This year’s World Tibet Day comes at a particularly anxious time. Last month, China released a white paper titled “Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet.” It claims that “regional ethnic autonomy” has existed in Tibet for “four glorious decades” and that Tibetans are “masters of their own affairs.” Therefore, according to this policy document, since this “regional ethnic autonomy” already exists, the Dalai Lama’s proposal for a different (genuine) autonomy is “totally untenable.”
The white paper is a flat rejection of the Dalai Lama’s compromise position, and it comes, not by accident, as a delegation of the Tibetan government in exile prepares for a trip to China for talks.
Despite China’s self-laudatory claims, “regional ethnic autonomy” provides no freedom and no protection for Tibetan culture. Tibetans are marginalized in their own country by floods of Han Chinese immigrants. For any chance of economic success, Tibetans must be fluent in Chinese. Major Tibetan monasteries have become mere show places for tourists, whose tour guides are now Chinese, not Tibetan. Health care and education are abysmal. And each year, thousands of Tibetans risk their lives to escape China’s oppression by crossing the Himalayas on foot to join the thriving exile community in India. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy rightly calls the white paper a whitewash.
Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile, has warned that continued oppression will sooner or later cause exactly the kind of instability in Tibet that the Chinese government fears. And more and more voices, especially among young Tibetans, question whether the decades-long peaceful, reasonable approach should continue, given its failure to bring about any resolution.
There are growing calls for Gandhi-style passive resistance inside Tibet or for stronger measures. If protests come about, we know what will happen: China’s iron grip will tighten, bringing more repression and suffering to the long-suffering Tibetans.
Do our TVs have to flash horrifying images of Chinese troops mowing down Tibetan monks in Lhasa before we do more than pass fine-sounding congressional resolutions? If Tibetans must choose to invite violence – or become violent themselves – in order to attract our attention and support, then our admiration for their peaceful struggle is hollow and false.
There is great guilt in the air these days about the world’s failure to intervene in a ghastly series of genocides in the 20th century. Destroying a whole culture is a kind of genocide. We should not watch as passive bystanders while the Chinese government turns Tibet into just another bleak, colorless, remote province of China.
In San Diego this weekend, some of the people who care about Tibet will celebrate World Tibet Day, as will others in more than 56 cities in 24 different countries. On Sunday, July 4, we’ll celebrate our independence at the California Institute for Human Science in Encinitas while remembering the Tibetans who have lost theirs.
Shaputnic and Berger are board members of San Diego Friends of Tibet (www.sdtibet.org), part of the International Tibet Support Network.
