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我的德国裔老公写给亲藏独人权组织的反驳信(附英文原件)

(2008-04-09 22:24:48) 下一个

前言:

 西藏事件在美国越来越发烧,而我那可爱的德裔老公自始至终都坚定地站在中国一边。身为软件公司总裁的他最近接到美国一个人权组织的倡议书,欲向美国政府施加压力杯葛中国奥运。老公激愤之下竟写下一篇浩浩荡荡的反驳信。我读后又惊又喜:没想到他作为一个外国人对西藏问题竟然有这样深刻的认识!他的很多观点对我都有启发。老公的信在三月十八日发出,至今未收到任何回音。我现将其翻译成中文,如有不妥处敬请参照英文原文。

 2008年是中国的盛世。我们全家真诚地祝愿世界更加了解中国,支持北京奥运。中国,加油啊!!

 思慧

 四月八日写于美国硅谷

 译文如下:

 R(发信者,我将其名隐去),今天早上我收听了NPR(National Public Radio, 美国国家公共电台)有关西藏的节目,那个访谈的内容让我非常吃惊。

 首先,是有平常的对达赖喇嘛持有同情心的美国人,在承认了普通的汉族中国人在暴乱中被当作武装藏人的袭击目标后,却说“这种袭击是对中国政府政策的合理和可以理解的反应”。如果那些平民是犹太人而武装分子是巴勒斯坦人,或者那些平民是世界其他国家人民的话,还会有任何美国人站在那些别的时候被称作是恐怖分子的人一边吗?

 中国政府一直下很大的力气来发展西藏的经济,可能是希望富了以后的藏人会更快乐而不会成为宗教分子或分裂分子。最辉煌的成就是修了到西藏的铁路,考虑到所经过的巨大山川这是一项非常昂贵的工程,一些人甚至希望在将来的一天此铁路会修到印度。(印度人也对此非常感兴趣)。铁路创造了更多的经济发展的新机会,也从藏外带来了更多的移民。NPR的一位栏目主持将这条铁路引用成中国的一个新防御攻势并宣称由此造成了西藏内部的抵抗运动。这是让我吃惊的第二件事。通常,当我聆听别的偏远不发达地区人民发泄愤怒的话,他们通常会这样抱怨:“本地的经济是一潭死水毫无起色,我们的孩子没有未来,我们需要政府做点什么来帮助发展本地的经济。”这次倒真奇了,首次有人表态不想要一个更好的经济环境。

 过去,当我想到西藏,我会立刻条件反射地反对共产主义,希望被“压迫”的西藏人得到解放。我也曾希望过台湾独立因为中华人民共和国是共产主义和不自由的。可我现在已经不这样看中华人民共和国了。中国是一个在发生着巨大变化的国家并且有一个强权的政府。这种状况可能会随时间逐渐改变,但是现在看来中国需要这样一个能做正事的政府,专心搞建设,而不是一味担心民意测验结果以寻求联任。我曾经和许多印度人交谈过,他们都希望有一个像中国一样的印度政府。如果您将中国想象成美国而西藏和台湾要造反从我们这里分裂出去,您可能就会对分裂分子没有那么同情了。至少林肯总统就是这样。

 我现在将西藏问题看成是一个落后腐朽的生产力无法生存而被更先进的生产力所代替,看起来是无管治的或至少是没有被充分利用的疆域被占领。西藏问题没有这样极端,但同样的替代程序曾令北美印第安人的文化消失。历史上中国从十二世纪起就开始控制西藏。蒙古人在1271年占领中国,中国的元朝,在1244年占领西藏。从此中国在西藏都有不同程度的主权实施,所以中国宣称拥有西藏主权的历史比欧洲所有的疆界都要长。中间只有一次在19131951年由于英国的殖民干涉和中国国内的内战和动荡,(以及第二次世界大战和日本入侵),西藏有过实际的自治。当中国在1951年恢复主权时,它给予了西藏正确的特殊自治权力但在东面的一些边区,更靠近人口聚居的中国内地,藏人和其他中国人一样经历了熟称的“全面土地改革”的共产主义改造。这引起了旧的土地所有者(贵族和佛教僧侣)的强烈反对和武装造反。造反传播到拉萨而在1959年被彻底击溃。这就是达赖喇嘛离开西藏的时刻。

从我所知道的情况来看,西藏在一九五一年以前不是一个好的栖身之地。绝大多数人民是农奴或是奴隶,一种非常穷困和落后的国家的标志。对在西藏地区的普通藏人来说,达赖喇嘛离开后情况只会变得越来越好而且完全的土地改革也在西藏地区普遍实施了。所以无论是从经济还是人权的角度,中国占领西藏之后普通藏人都获得了好处。(是的,尽管想象中华人民共和国会给人们带来人权好像很不可思议,但这就是事实!)尽管如此,找出藏人对汉人不满的机会还是太多了!对我而言,这是我转变对西藏和中国的看法的主要原因。我认为,西藏现在保持是中国的一部分非常有意义,并且随着时世的变迁它只会越来越成功地整合入中国。唯一和这个不可逆转的潮流对抗的是那些旧贵族。这些旧贵族强行推行一种为自我服务的与世界其他地区完全脱节的落后的生活方式。也许改造西藏的最好方式应该让那些受压迫的劳苦大众自己起来反对他们的旧主人,这就会包括一些可预见的无政府混乱和经济的困境。(这种事件可能会在西藏的邻居尼泊尔发生,虽然尼泊尔显然比西藏要先进的多。)中国的占领避免了动乱的必要。可是由于我们西方人对旧藏政权的支持,一直以来当地藏人的不满都被高音广播,甚至被怂恿。现任达赖喇嘛吸引人的个性以及藏传佛教是非暴力和吸引人的哲学更助长了这种情况。而铁的事实却是人们仍然把宗教当成来进行分裂(区分我们和他们)和拒绝进步的政治力量。如果把藏人换成是伊斯兰人,我们还会这样同情他们吗?

我确信即将来到的奥运会是这场骚乱的一部分。中国把奥运当成是一次显示的机会,把可能的抵制当作一场灾难。我们每个人都知道与和奥运会之后相比,奥运会前中国政府对任何挑衅的反应都会是微弱的。我甚至听到传言说达赖喇嘛本人曾对本周最初的示威大加鼓励说“这是我们推动独立的最好机会”。

 在欣赏达赖喇嘛本人的同时,我不能支持他作为一个政治领袖。原因在于:

1)我不希望把宗教信仰和政治混淆,2)不管达赖喇嘛得到了多少西方传媒的支持,我不可能支持他的政治观点。

 很遗憾我对您未加思考的所谓支持“受压迫人民”的倡议写下这么一大篇的说教。如果您认为我的论点有价值,请让我知道。

 请向J(发信者的妻子)问候并向其他所有朋友们致敬!

 Y(我的德裔老公)

 附原文:

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Yxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:58 PM
To: 'Rxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Tibet

Rxxx, I listened to an NPR program about the situation in Tibet this morning and the dialog was fascinating.

The first thing that surprised me was that we had normal Americans (however sympathetic to the Dalai Lama ) acknowledging that normal Han Chinese were targets of violence from the militant Tibetans but this “was a reasonable and understandable reaction to the Chinese government’s policies”. If the civilians had been Israelis and the militants were Palestinian, or civilians anywhere else for that matter, would any Americans sided with those who at other times would be called the terrorists?

The Chinese government has tried to develop the Tibetan economy, maybe with the thought that wealthier Tibetans would be happier and less religious and separatist. The crowning achievement of this was the railroad to Tibet (a very expensive engineering feat given the mountains to scale) that some people hope to extend to India one day. (The Indians are very interested too.) This railroad is creating much new economic opportunity as well as more immigrants from outside Tibet . This railroad was cited by the one of the NPR panelists as one of the new Chinese offenses that forced the civil unrest. This was the second thing that surprised me. When I hear the complaints from other remote low economic activity areas, the complaints are usually the opposite: “The local economy is stagnant, there is no future here for our kids, we need the government to do something to help the local economy.” This is the one time when the locals apparently don’t want a better economy.

In the past, when I thought about Tibet , I used to have an anti communist knee jerk, wishing freedom for the "oppressed" Tibetans. I also wished independence for Taiwan because the PRC was communist and anti freedom. I don’t think of the PRC like that any more. China is a country going through tremendous changes and with a government that is firmly in charge. This will probably change over time, but for now it is good to have a government that can do what is right, to build infrastructure, and not always have to worry about opinion polls and getting re-elected. I have talked to many Indians who wished they had a government like the Chinese. If you imagine that China was the US and Tibet and Taiwan wanted to secede, you probably would be less sympathetic to the secessionists. At least Lincoln was.

I now view the Tibet issues as an inferior economic system being unable to defend itself against a stronger economy that is taking over what looks like unclaimed or at least under exploited territory. It is less extreme, but it is the same process that wiped to the Native American culture. Historically China started controlling Tibet in the 1200s. (The Mongols who conquered China in 1271, the Yuan dynasty, took Tibet in 1244. China has exercised some control over Tibet ever since, so the Chinese claim to rule Tibet is more ancient than any border in Europe . The only time Tibet had real self determination was between 1913 and 1951 because British interventions and China ’s internal turbulence and civil wars (and WW2 and Japanese invasion). When China reasserted itself in 1951, it gave Tibet Proper special autonomy but some outlying areas in the east, closer to populated China , were treated as China Proper which meant “full land redistribution” communist style. This was opposed by the old local land owners (aristocrats and monasteries) who rebelled. The rebellion spread to Lhasa but was crushed in 1959. This is when the Dalai Lama left.

From what I can tell, Tibet was not a good place to be in 1951. Most people were serfs and there were even slaves, signs of a very poor and backwards country. For the average Tibetan in Tibet Proper, things only got better when the Dalai Lama left and full land distribution was implemented in Tibet Proper too. It is always possible to play an “us versus them” game, just look at the “ethnic cleansing” in old Yugoslavia , and the same happened in Tibet . While the average Tibetan benefited from the Chinese takeover, both economically and from a human rights perspective (imagine how strange it is to think of the PRC as the bringer of human rights, but it is true!), it was always easy to find Tibetans resenting the Chinese. To me, this is the main reason I have changed my view on Tibet and China . It seems to me that it makes perfect sense that Tibet stay part of China and as time goes on becomes more and more integrated. The main opposition to this inevitable trend is the old elite. This elite pushed a self serving and backwards way of life that was completely non competitive with the rest of the world. The normal way of fixing Tibet would have the oppressed majority kick out the old oppressors on their own, including predictable problems such as some level of anarchy and economic hardship. (This may happen in neighboring Nepal , even though Nepal is much more advanced than Tibet was.) China ’s takeover avoided that necessity, but because of our support for the old regime there is always a ready loudspeaker for, and instigator of, any local discontent. It helps that the current Dalai Lama is very charismatic and that Tibetan Buddhism is non violent and attractively philosophical. The crass truth is still that people want to use religion as a divisive (us versus them) and non progressive political force. Would we be as sympathetic if the Tibetans were Islamic?

I’m certain that the upcoming Olympics are part of the reason for the current unrest. China views the Olympics as a coming out event, and views a possible boycott as a disaster. Everybody knows that the Chinese response to any challenge will probably be more muted than it will be after the Olympics . I have even heard rumors that the Dalai Lama himself encouraged the initial demonstrations this week as “our last chance for independence”.

While I like the Dalai Lama as a person, I can’t support him as a political leader because a) I prefer not to mix religion and politics, and 2) I can’t support the politics of the Dalai Lama regardless of how good PR he gets.

Sorry for writing such a long and preaching response to something that probably seemed like a no-brainer gesture in support of an "oppressed" people. Please let me know if you think my arguments have any merit.

Please say hi to Jxxx and everybody else!

Yxxxxxxx


From: Rxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:08 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Fwd: Tibet

Hi

I just signed an urgent petition calling on the Chinese government to respect human rights in Tibet and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama . This is really important, and I think you might want to take action:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. But violence is spreading across Tibet and neighbouring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now considering a choice between increasing brutality or dialogue, that could determine the future of Tibet and China .

We can affect this historic choice. China does care about its international reputation. Its economy is totally dependent on "Made in China " exports that we all buy, and it is keen to make the Olympics in Beijing this summer a celebration of a new China that is a respected world power.

President Hu needs to hear that 'Brand China ' and the Olympics can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below to join me and sign a petition to President Hu calling for restraint in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama -- and tell absolutely everyone you can right away. The petition is organized by Avaaz, and they are urgently aiming to reach 1 million signatures to deliver directly to Chinese officials:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1



Allen

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阅读 ()评论 (239)
评论
hercules007 回复 悄悄话 CIA in Tibet, Look here:http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/print/Why%20Washington%20Plays%20Tibet%20Roulette%20with%20China.pap.pdf
smith34 回复 悄悄话 to: cybersleuth
japanese fuccked your parents, what did u do? american rooted ur sister, what did u do? english screwed ur grandma, what did u do?
and tibetan discrupted olympic torch, what are you doing? get a life, u bitch........
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 回复五毛居士:
应该说是“文革中的西藏”。文革是整个中国的灾难,并不仅仅针对西藏。五毛居士为什么不亲自去看看今天的中国和西藏和30年前的文革中有些什么区别?
cybersleuth 回复 悄悄话 to smith34:

Calm down, you clown. Be more realistic rather than hysteric. Your mom will be worrying about you boy.
五毛居士 回复 悄悄话 请看从农奴制下解放出来的西藏:
http://www.zrcx.com/Article/zgxd/wgsq/200703/689.html
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 谁在乎真是脑子进水了。敢说还不敢听骂么。

看看西藏美丽的农奴制度到底是怎么样的吧:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeKTjOxk_dE
谁在乎 回复 悄悄话 eileen_fong2001的内容,并没有任何谩骂,攻击等等违反论坛规则的内容。只不过观点和大部分的人不一致,就受到了别人的人身攻击和谩骂。请问这是正常的胸怀和气度吗?

有一句名言说得好,“我一点儿也不赞同你的观点,但是我要拼命维护你表达观点的权利”。如果不是这样的话,请直接注明“这里不允许不同观点和意见的存在”或者直接关掉回帖的功能不就可以了吗?

对了,顺便说一下,你把别人回帖的功能关掉,或者IP地址封了,这样从表面上看好像没有回帖了,“败下阵去了”等等。才不是呢!只不过是别人根本不计较而已。从这一点上来说,愤怒的青年们,你们已经输了。
apache007 回复 悄悄话 回复eileen_fong2001的评论:简直是可耻,还想回到最黑暗的农奴制.
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 回复smith34的评论:

It looks so cool to announce nothing to do with Chinese government, isn't it?

I looked pretty cool in 1989 even in Tiananmen Square at the dawn of June 4th. We waved our fists with tears at Qian Men were we were forced to retreat and swore that we would be back. Isn't it cool and touching if this scene were should in movie?

Now I know we couldn't help China in any real sense. There are people, whether in or outside the party are actually doing substantial things that are paving the realistic way to the democratic and prosperous future of China.

I work only for my conscience. I salute to the practical people who love the people and the country in real sense, and I contempt the people who speaks so high and always find faults in a negative and de-constructive way but bear no responsibility and obligation.

I don't have to be liked by anyone but I don't plant hatred or superiority in mind either.
一直往北 回复 悄悄话 伦敦书展惊现中国人抗议信:
作为一个中国人和中国的出版商,我要抗议BBC在奥运火炬传递报道中的无耻行为!每一个在场的人都看到了支持奥运的中国人远远多于那些靠收买酒鬼充人数的无耻暴徒,可是BBC的报道中好像全是那些被警察当场抓起来的捣乱分子在表演!他们甚至连西藏在哪儿都不知道!西藏在七八百年前就是中国的,那时甚至没有联合王国和伦敦市!西藏问题是英国人占领印度造成的!BBC不是天使,否则在中国雪灾时,他们应该送些吃的给贵州!BBC不是警察否则他们应该看看伊拉克人又被打死多少!BBC不是法官否则他们应该判托尼欺骗和战争罪,因为他当着全中国人在清华大学说伊拉克有某些他永远没有找到的武器将被用来打击美国人,也许还包括英国人!但是不包括法国人和德国人!我可以预言,以为几张T恤订单就能收买中国人和以为几声炮响就能征服中国人的时代永远不回来了!
As one of Chinese and Chinese publishers, I must protest BBC's shameless behavior in the report concerning Olympic Games torch transmission. Everyone on the spot has saw that Chinese supporting Olympic Games was far more than those shameless hoodlum who buys the drunk, but in the BBC report it seems that there are full of troublemakers at the performance, who are grasped on the scene by police at last. They even never know where Tibet lies! Tibet belongs to China since 700-800 years ago, when the united kingdom and London city even did't exist! The Tibet issue resources from India's seizure by England. BBC is not an angel, otherwise when the snow disaster happened in China, he should deliver something to eat to Guizhou. BBC is not police, otherwise he should have a look at the Iraqi to see how many peoples are killed. BBC is not judge, otherwise he should sentence Tony to deceit and war crime, because he declared before all of Chinese people in the Tsinghua University that some of the weapons which he had not found for ever in Iraq, will be used to attack the American, perhaps also including the English, but except the Franchman and German. I may predict that the times when several T-shirt orders can buy the Chinese and several sounds made by the artilleries can conquer Chinese, will never come back again!
xiaolingling 回复 悄悄话 我们都知道你嫁给德国裔老公了...... 其实支持中国的外国人太多了。
阿房 回复 悄悄话 达赖是个假和尚,喇嘛教也不是真的佛教。他吃肉,伪善,正是佛经里所说的末法时代的假僧人。
王半仙滷味居 回复 悄悄话 回复掸子的别院的评论:放心,還有中華民國,還有國民黨,反正風水輪流轉,共產黨是該到讓位的時候了.小馬哥不是用三民主義來向胡爺爺推銷台灣特有的迷人風光嗎?我想再過不了多久,央視就會現場轉播胡爺爺在士林夜市吃新竹米粉了.
dan5 回复 悄悄话 藏独利用奥运事件, 已很少的成本,造成很大的影响, 这一点和911事件有异曲同工之效果
street012003 回复 悄悄话 Good artcile! What I would like to emphasize is that: western countries intentionally try to tarnish China for gaining more bargain power for their own agenda: such as seeking more buying order from China; seeking more harsh improbable support on punishing Iran, North Korean, and China's ally. Ultimately they want to weaken China's power by seperate China into some small countries just as they did on former Soviet Union.

A hwark Chinese government is needed when dealing with western countries and some international Pro-Tibet supporters: Like G.Soros, among other provocative Jewishes.

p.s. Some minority of Jewishes bring distaters to our humanbeing: they are trouble-makers as I ofthen said to some Jewishes: they deserved to be killed by Germany 70 years ago!!

Ironically our Chinese government still hug Maxisim created by Jewish, which is far out of date!
smith34 回复 悄悄话 to jwayne_1:
i have a lot of respect to bush, he would know he is wrong in invading iraq by now but he keep doing it, so what..........serious leaders from big country never admit he did something wrong.
german???? that women (is the leader named angelina jolie???) looks like a emotional communist bitch, german certainly does not have much future on her hand.
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复AZ009的评论:
笔误更正:1860年英法联军火烧圆明园。1900年八国联军入侵中国。
AZ009
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复反思的评论:
非常感谢反思先生发表的精辟论述,真令人顿开茅塞,如梦初醒。

其一:"中国之所以会成为西方文化自大的严重受害者,一个重要的原因恰恰是汉人的势利和功利".经反思先生如此点拨,我们这些愚昧的汉人才开始明白,当初1840年鸦片战争,如果不是汉人冥顽不化,为了几箱鸦片钱与酷爱民主自由的英法人民闹翻了脸,怎麽会导致英法联军入侵中国呢?

1860年,西方八国的友好使者带着西方人民"平等自由人权"的友好愿望,不辞辛劳,万里跋涉来到中国.顽固腐败的清政府不但没有尽到其保护外国公民合法权利的职责,居然还纵容一些不法分子制造打砸抢事件,严重损害了外国公民的合法人权.在八国联军抵达北京之时,"文化自大"的清政府公然拒绝以国际外交礼节接见,逃避承德.为了保护中国的文化传统,西方八国的友好使者不得不代为保管皇宫的珍宝.在圆明园火灾之后,大量失实的报道公然把火灾的责任推给八国的使者.

其二:"夫唯不争,故天下莫能与之争".1937年的南京大屠杀,其根源就在于此.如果不是愚昧自大的汉人为了一些家里瓶瓶罐罐的功利与旨在"东亚共荣"的日本军队争斗,根本不可能发生屠杀事件.

反思先生的高明论点颇多,不在此一一列举.反思先生对于中国古人智慧的理解运用,唯令孔孟老庄亦自叹弗如.敝人以愚顽之心,擅自揣摩,不当之处,敬请指教。

以反思先生之才华智慧,若为汉人出身,实乃先生之大不幸。与吾等自大愚昧之汉人为伍,唯恐有辱先生之声名。吾等愚昧汉人斗胆力谏将先生之祖追加为世界高等文化“百嗤“ 族裔出身,以为先生正名。

smith34 回复 悄悄话 to: 掸子的别院
its no doubt that communist government in china is hopless and need to be changed. it has nothing to do with the fact that tibetan has to be ruled like everybody else by china forever.
smith34 回复 悄悄话 to: 反思
why dont you just shut up instead of being humilated......so the chinese fuccked you up in your ass for long long time, so what........isnt the world like this all the time???...why dont dalai try to lecture his dear brother bush about how wrong the iraqi was is????
smith34 回复 悄悄话 to: 美男玉米
bro, you certainly sounds like working for chinese government, especially your name.
i love all the chinese but would like to stay away from the chinese government so please stay out of the way.
店小二 回复 悄悄话 thank you ! 向你先生致敬!
smith34 回复 悄悄话 to: sheshallshine
because of scum bags like u, chinese have no credibility and have to rely on caucasions to give a say.
And if you love your fuccking China so much, get the fucck back to your land!!!!
掸子的别院 回复 悄悄话 回复回复我评论的评论:
麻烦你离我评论远一点,我的评论是给人看的
jwayne_1 回复 悄悄话 回复掸子的别院的评论: good point. but you might want re-read some of your other comments and make up your mind.
掸子的别院 回复 悄悄话 中国人要团结,团结请从你我做起
反思 回复 悄悄话 达赖的智慧与汉人的愚昧(ZT)


3月28日,十四世达赖喇嘛以个人身份向全球华人,尤其是向中国境内的汉人发出呼吁,希望他们理解他本人只求藏人自治,只求文化权利而不求西藏独立的真诚愿望。据我所知,这是达赖喇嘛首次越过中国政府和领导人,直接诉诸汉族民众的理解,意味深长且意义深远。


当然,没人期待这个呼吁会对胡锦涛及整个中国领导层发生积极的影响,恰恰相反,我相信,这个呼吁只能使他们更加恼羞成怒。如果胡锦涛近期在与达赖对话的问题上有任何松动,也绝不会是因为这次呼吁,而更可能是西方社会,尤其是美国施压的结果。中国平庸的当权者唯一能够听懂的语言,就是实力与功利。


达赖的这次呼吁表明,他不仅知道这一点,更看到了支持中国领导人蛮横态度的,还有一股巨大而可怕的力量,那就是汉人的愚昧。只要多数汉人不能摆脱愚昧的思维,很难有中国领导人敢于理性地面对西藏问题。


在这次事件中,最发人深省的是身居海外的一些青年华人对西方媒体报道失实的反应。他们立即就把这些失实报道传回国内,作为西方对中国不怀好意的铁证,并得到了国内网民的强烈共鸣。在激烈的商业竞争下,西方媒体经常发生失实报道,身居海外的华人不应对此感到惊讶。但是,他们毫不犹疑地把这种失实报道政治化,真正暴露的是他们自己的偏见。他们为什么不借此而要求中国政府对海内外媒体采取更开放的政策呢?难道不正是中国当局对媒体的全面封锁给这些失实的报道制造了机会吗?


民族主义毒害人类的机理,就是借助个别文明的传统弱点来放大人性的共同弱点。主宰中国文明两千多年的专制大一统理念,在汉人的文化基因中留下了深刻的印记。汉人因此而形成两大顽症,一是文化自大,一是势利和功利。这两大顽症正是许多汉人思想愚昧之根源。不错,文化自大和趋炎附势的毛病,并非汉人所独有,尤其是西方人的文化自大,因其技术、军事和经济的全面强势而早已过度膨胀,给人类带来巨大伤害。中国更是西方文化自大最严重的受害者之一。没有马克思和列宁的狂妄,中国的现代化会有这么多人死于非命吗?


中国之所以会成为西方文化自大的严重受害者,一个重要的原因恰恰是汉人的势利和功利。在顽固的文化自大招致全面屈辱之后,中国的汉人不仅急忙剪掉了满人强加在头上的长辫,而且很快就不分青红皂白地清算自己的文化传统。"砸烂孔家店"还不过瘾,没等搞清十月革命是怎么回事,就已经得出结论要“走俄国人的路”。


与汉人不惜自毁传统,不惜自相残杀来赶上潮流相比,达赖喇嘛看上去完全是一个不识时务,冥顽不灵的傻瓜。他竟然为了维护区区几百万藏人的自治权利和保护明显落后的藏文化,而敢于和十几亿汉人作对。但是,从江泽民当年访美到今日中国网上的愤青,都被同一个问题所困惑,为什么一个流亡的和尚,不仅得到西方的政治支持,更不可思议的是,他竟然受到西方名流的追捧,获得西方文化精英乃至宗教人士广泛的赞赏和支持。以一人之力,达赖喇嘛在海外胜过中共的万千外交官,在国内胜过中共讨好藏民的亿万金钱,他究竟具有什么超人的智慧?


达赖喇嘛让汉人难以理解的智慧得益于他的佛教信仰,得益于佛教文化中凝聚的古代先贤的智慧。这不仅使达赖获得与西方文化平等对话的自信,更使许多西方文化精英在和他的交往中心悦诚服地认识到西方文化自大之愚蠢,认识到每一种文化如同每一种生命,不论强弱都有独特的价值。达赖的大智慧,不仅使他为藏文化赢得尊严,更使他成为文化权利平等这一普世价值的化身。


老子说,"夫唯不争,故天下莫能与之争",达赖喇嘛的智慧向我们揭示了这一伟大思想的真谛:一个坚持相互尊重的人是可以无敌于天下的,因为他事实上是在维护人类的共同尊严。达赖喇嘛之所以不争西藏的主权而又坚持藏人自治,是因为他深信,没有民族自治就不可能保存藏人的文化权利,就不可能保持藏人的尊严,而没有了藏人的尊严也就不会有汉人的尊严。许多汉人的愚昧就在于,势利和功利使他们不能懂得这样一个道理,汉人剥夺了藏人自治的权利,他们也就剥夺了自己民主自治的权利,从而在全人类面前,放弃了自己的尊严。

掸子的别院 回复 悄悄话 中国领导人太仁慈,对待藏独问题上根本没有理由也不需要对西方世界做出任何解释,该强硬的时候就应该强硬。学习学习美国,英国,法国这些国家长治久安的手段-软的不行就用硬的,精神上不能消灭就在肉体上消灭。世界上哪有那么多民主可讲,西方要讲民主先让北爱尔兰独立,科西嘉岛独立,把加利福尼亚,亚利桑那,新墨西哥,德克萨斯,尤他还给墨西哥,把新英格兰还给印第安人。
此时相见 回复 悄悄话 西方人有多少可以客观的对待西藏的历史,那些反对中国的分子不是从心里小看中国从而趁机踩上一脚的小人,就是一帮趁机捞政治资本的肮脏政客,为什么中国一定是“好”的对立面?为什么你们总以为自己是救世主?西方的民主自由已经被这些无知和邪恶的人利用和歪曲,可悲!
如果西藏该独立的理由是他们的文化语言服装不同,中国是不是该分为56个国家呢?有藏人爆乱,美国的印地安人,黑人也有不满和骚乱,澳大利亚的土著曾经下一代都被白人从母亲身边带走,现在仍是得不到道歉,那美国是不是该让印地安人独立,澳大利亚的土著也该独立呢?这些人会支持吗?他们哪里会有这样的胆量!我只能鄙视这些小人!你们害怕中国的强大,中国还会更强大!
jwayne_1 回复 悄悄话 回复xrz的评论: To tell the truth, I respect this gentman who has the conscience to tell the truth even though it might annoy his fellows.

Thanks for discussing things peacefully. May I ask you a question: if a chinese who has the conscience to tell the truth even though it might annoy his fellows, would you respect him/her too? especially if the truth annoys you too :)

I don't know for sure what the truth is for many things, including the tibetan problem. the truth is, there may not be absolute truth.
掸子的别院 回复 悄悄话 吃过共产党的苦,又或者和共产党有不共戴天之仇的所谓中国人,或者非中国人们。你们想过没有,你们反中国共产党没错,但是假如那一天共产党垮台了,中国的老百姓怎么办,人群里面或许就有你们的父母,兄弟,或者姐妹。当然他们也许能够过上更好的日子,但是请先看看前苏联垮台后西方民主世界对俄罗斯的所作所为吧,事实却是俄罗斯的民主状况并不乐观。那么,你们怎么就能确定你们的父母,兄弟,或者姐妹就能过上更好的日子?
掸子的别院 回复 悄悄话 少数民族能有拥有自己的语言的教科书,能有拥有自己的宗教信仰,还能拥有自己民族占大多数的自治区政府,能够佩戴所谓的管制刀具,而且还能在国家政策上受到更多关注,享受更多的国家福利。这些的这些即便是汉族人民也是不可能说有就有的。你们回国旅游的时候有谁见过汉族人上街背着刀和剑的?事实就是事实,中国政府对待少数民族已然是很不错了,想想美国西进运动时屠杀上百万印第安人,再想想英国工业革命圈地运动。即便是现如今号称最为民主的美国,你们有谁见过那个市政府专门为拉美裔,亚裔,或者非洲裔设置相应的语言教材的?还有谁见过非洲裔黑人犯罪从轻判处的?做人都要讲良心,世界上没有十全十美的人或事,如果不允许别人犯错,那你们这些讲中国坏话的人首先是不是在犯错?
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 eileen_fong2001,你真是一个很理想化的人!你的描述让我想起《Gone With the Wind》/中文译名:《飘》中对美国南方田园黑奴的描述,黑妈妈的形象是多么温馨高大!黑奴们还自愿去帮南方农奴主打内战,你说他们之间的关系好不好?

你现在再跟任何一个美国黑人聊让他们回去做奴隶试试?你认为他们现在在街上抢劫买毒品的生活好呢,还是以前给别人做奴隶的生活好?关键是,你凭什么对人家的生活说三道四?

你现在说free tibet,说到底你是希望人家再回去做奴隶是吧?你对freedom的概念还真是有趣啊!

忠告你一句:做人不能忘本!做人不能忘记历史!!
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 eileen_fong2001,你真是一个很理想化的人!你的描述让我想起中对美国南方田园黑奴的描述,黑妈妈的形象是多么温馨高大!黑奴们还自愿去帮南方农奴主打内战,你说他们之间的关系好不好?

你现在再跟任何一个美国黑人聊让他们回去做奴隶试试?你认为他们现在在街上抢劫买毒品的生活好呢,还是以前给别人做奴隶的生活好?关键是,你凭什么对人家的生活说三道四?

你现在说free tibet,说到底你是希望人家再回去做奴隶是吧?你对freedom的概念还真是有趣啊!

忠告你一句:做人不能忘本!做人不能忘记历史!!
xiaoyan@ 回复 悄悄话 eileenfongyin 看来就不是个中国人,洋狗一条
xiaoyan@ 回复 悄悄话 刚才那位因从没尝过当奴隶的滋味,所以才会说出这种胡话
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 Let your voice be heard! Talk back to the media.
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jwangl 回复 悄悄话 请问eileen_fong2001,西藏什么时候变成“忠诚、虔敬和给予做为全部生存目的民族”了?西藏什么时候以“佛和善为圣”了?看看3.14那些暴徒的所作所为,对无辜的人打砸抢烧。。连残疾的圣火传播者都不放过,这就是所谓的“忠诚、虔敬和给予","佛和善为圣",你当别人都不识字么?
xiaoyan@ 回复 悄悄话 谢谢你老公说了公道话
eileen_fong2001 回复 悄悄话 在不算太遥远的过去,黑龙江左岸的海兰泡,江东六十四屯,是确凿无疑的中国土地,甚至连不平等的《瑷珲条约》,都明确地规定:江东六十四屯,由中国管理,中国人居有永远居住权。然而1900年江东六十四屯惨案发生,黑龙江左岸南北长约一百四十里,东西宽七十里的地方,彻底地归属了俄国阿穆尔洲的一部分。既便如此,中国也只能在近代史的课本里,草草地抱怨几句,算是留住了面子。为什么呢,中国政府没有能力从俄罗斯手里把那块土地夺回来。

成为鲜明对比的是一九五九年以来,中共不惜大量笔墨,在中国和西藏的历史上作文章,甚至把松赞干布和文城公主的婚姻,也说成了西藏是中国领土一部分的“铁的事实”。那么,先于文城公主,松赞干布已娶了泥泊尔的尺尊公主,中国人,你们是否知道这也是一个事实?可是,尼泊尔人从没有说,西藏是尼泊尔的一部分。因为尼泊尔不可能霸占西藏。

恃强凌弱,落井下石,已成了不仅中共政府,也是某些中国人的嗜好。事实上,在历史中,我们看到的是强大的吐蕃几乎占领了长安,中国差不多了成了西藏的一部分;历史,当然还呈现了另外一些风景,比如承德的避暑山庄、山西的五台山、北京的雍和宫,呈现出了中国皇帝们对达赖喇嘛和班禅喇嘛那至高无上的尊敬。话再说回来,就算认可中共的历史杂烩炒作,说西藏是中国的一部分,可是,在哪一个朝代、哪一个历史的瞬间,西藏发生过这么强烈地反对中国政府的起义?在哪一个朝代、哪一个历史的瞬间,中国政府派潜过这么多的军人驻扎在西藏?哪一个朝代,哪一个历史的瞬间,中国政府毫无遮拦地砍伐西藏的森林,抢劫西藏的资源?在哪一个朝代、哪一个历史的瞬间,有这么多的西藏人被通缉、抓捕和枪杀?在这里,我奉劝那些愿意把自己束缚在历史里,喜欢就历史卖弄个人学识的人, 请放下中共摆在你们面前的被修改得支离破碎的历史课本,读一读西藏人自己写的历史,或者读一读既不是中国人也不是西藏人的写历史,给你自己一个了解喜马拉雅文化的机会,把你自己从奴性中解救出来。

西藏人不会忘记屈辱的《十七条协议》,如同中国人不会忘记《爱辉条约》和《南京条约》。可是,中共连《十七条协议》也觉得太仁慈了,竟然毫无顾及地像抛弃废纸一样地抛弃了《十七条协议》:逮捕贵族、僧侣,拆毁寺庙,没收个人财产,限制西藏人的信仰、言论、风俗、文化……为了得到社会的支持,中共的招牌是:“把水深火热的西藏人民从最黑暗、最落后的农奴制和最残酷的三大领主手里解放出来”。根椐中共在政治课本里总结的社会发展规律,人们毫不费力地得出结论:落后的农奴制被社会主义所取代,不过是历史的必然。同时,中共也一遍又一遍地重复,资本主义是腐朽的,落后的,最终要被社会主义和共产主义取代!可是,为什么资本主义国家一点也没有走向灭亡的迹象?为什么社会主义国家在一个又一个地走向灭亡或者变相地走灭亡?为什么社会主义国家的人民争先恐后地,不惜花费巨资到资本主义国家生存?难道大家都愿意倒退?

我曾在一位藏人家里,无意识地看到了农奴制的一个侧面。这位藏人的父亲是十三世达赖喇嘛时期的一位嘎伦,无疑地,他属于三大领主阶层,不可避免地被没收一切财产,接受革命改造。尤其文化大革命期间,他这个男人,被硬逼着为无产阶级的女人接屎接尿。可是,他家族的从前的奴隶们,想尽一切办法来看望他,甚至愿意继续留在他的家里。我认识他的时候,是2000年前后,他的家,总是歌声如缕,是“奴隶们”一边织着布一边唱着歌。好朋友唯色,曾陪我在他的家里,度过了我在拉萨的最后一个夜晚。我说,我总听到您的“奴隶们”在唱歌,您也唱一支吧。“告诉你个秘密,”他说,“我的女人唱得可比我好多了,不过可别告诉她是我说的啊。”他的太太进来了,在我和唯色的邀请下,终于答应唱歌了。“不过,”她看着窗外,“我想和她们(“奴隶们”)一起唱。”就这样,主仆合唱起来:

不到你的家乡以为是荒山野岭

一到你的家乡才知道遍地花香。

不接触你,以为你是野人

一接触你,才知道你是如此高尚。

和中国人民在共产党的统治下比,“奴隶们”在这位领主的身边生活,真不知要幸福多少倍!从这里展望一九五九年以前的农奴制社会,我看到的是一片歌乐升平的景象,就像今日不丹王国的某些侧影。当然,没有一个社会形态是完美的,我知道过去的西藏也有问题,但问题是我们应该看到的不仅仅是别人的瑕疵。

中国人还说,没有中国的经济援助,西藏就得垮掉,西藏人应该做的不是抗议,而是感恩。这让我想起我的一位藏人朋友的经历,他出生于后藏一个普通的家庭,一九五九年九岁那年,被送到北京接受汉人教育。那时,他有两块手表和几套绸缎衣服。一次,在北京,他想买一只烤地瓜,然而,这个只知道藏币的人不知该怎样使用中国钱币,就找出一块大洋,给了那个烤地瓜老人,接下来的是,他不得不背着一大袋子烤地瓜回到住所,他得到了那天所有的烤地瓜。另外一个例子,是一位曾在噶厦任职的金融总管(后投靠中共,成为副省级官员),对一九五九年以前的西藏的回忆。那时,我居住在拉萨,差不多有一两个月的时间,每个午后,我都要到这位官员家里,记录他的回忆,为他撰写传记。从他的描述中,我看见了没有中国经济援助之前,西藏除了军事不发达以外,其它方面都不比中国差,甚至超过中国,比如帕廓街的商业贸易。从这里,我们也许可以总结出,有些时候,挨打,并不是因为落后。

中国人和西藏人,截然不同,不仅在服装上,语言上,建筑上,风俗习惯上,尤其表现在价值观上。一个以利益和自私为本的人,怎么会懂得和理解一个把忠诚、虔敬和给予做为全部生存目的民族呢?一个经过了抗日战争,解放战争,千锤百炼,以打仗为乐的军队怎么能一下子停止下来,不去瞄准以佛和善为圣,没有任何军事防御措施的国度呢?

中国人,当狭窄的民族主义,或者大汉族沙文主义还羁绊着你们的时候,当你们还没有全方位地了解西藏的历史、文化的时候,请不要急于暴露无知和那个在二十一世纪早已过时了的野心。尤其请不要在西藏人面前摆出救世主的面孔,该拯救的是你们自己的那个被中共愚昧了多年的可悲而又可怜的灵魂。

二战之前,当奥地利作家茨维格在欧洲旅行时看到德国人激动于希特勒的讲话,热衷于“国家”和“民族”的时候,他感到深深地忧虑,说:人啊是多么容易被纵容!瞧吧,人们并没有在一战中吸取教训,另一场可悲的人类战争,就要爆发了。这使我在今天想到,我们这些中国人,是不是也在可悲地被纵容着,是不是正在西藏高原可耻地制造灾难?

西藏的文化博大精深,独一无二,有这样一位邻居或者说有这样的家庭成员,做为中国人,我们应该感到幸运和骄傲,而不是污辱、践踏和毁灭。否则,终有一天,会像十六世纪的西班牙人无知地烧毁了印第安文明一样,永远地钉在在历史的耻辱柱上,并被世世代代的人们所唾弃。

向那些对西藏历史感兴趣的中国人,推荐书目:

夏格巴《西藏政治史》

廓诺•迅鲁伯《青史》

蔡巴•贡噶多吉《红史》

达赖喇嘛《流亡中的自在》

达赖喇嘛《我的土地,我的人民》

根墩群培《根墩群培文集》

王力雄《天葬-西藏的命运》

查尔斯•贝尔《十三世达赖喇传》

约翰•布洛菲尔德《西藏佛教密宗》

海因里希•哈勒《西藏七年与少年达赖喇嘛》

约翰•F•艾夫唐《雪域境外流亡记》
思慧 回复 悄悄话 回复有也可的评论:
請轉帖。我們願與更多的人分想。謝謝所有幫忙轉貼的網友。
思慧 回复 悄悄话 回复porkrib的评论:
閣下太多疑了。的確,在硅谷有上万的CEO。可是,肯認真花一天來查經据典研究西藏問題,並且肯負責任地寫下千言書來規勸他的老朋友們的,我敢說我老公是為數不多的一個。這也是讓我感動自豪並願意與大家分享的原因。

tinaannaalice 回复 悄悄话 我很感动。还是有正义感的老外的。当然在我的周围也有一些。 可比起跟着闹事的, 就是少数了。通过这些天的所见所闻, 我是领教了媒体的“厉害”了, 想一想这里的老百姓她们的脑袋怎么不会被洗坏了。媒体多害人啊!这就是加拿大的cbc 。
我们做我们能干的, 还事实的真相于大众。“匹夫有责”
思慧,我们全家向你先生致敬!
sc1980 回复 悄悄话 回复豆瓣的评论: 那儿出来的臭豆儿?居然没被冲掉,从马桶里逃了出了...
porkrib 回复 悄悄话 你的傯国裔老公对你來说很可爱,对藏民來说很不屑。海外华人在各自所在国当总裁、总经理、董事长的多得不可胜数,不必拿这个小小职称來唬人,当总统的在外国也不可能一言九鼎,倒反显得自己很可笑。
爱城人 回复 悄悄话 对西藏事件的分析,这是我看过的写得最好的一篇。谢谢.
apache007 回复 悄悄话 西方的民主是建立在唯我标准之上的. 也就是说倾向他们的世界观才是合格的民主标准(其实这已是独裁行为了).就拿巴勒斯坦民主选举,一人一票,西方一大帮人监督,结果选了哈马斯.西方国家就大喊大叫, 不同意. 为什么? 因为哈马斯不支持西方. 两个星期前, BBC电台采访了一位西方的作家,因为这为作家对中国很了解,他访问了中国很多地方,做了大量调查研究. 他就明确地告诉主持人, 除了西方的民主道路之外, 西方社会是否应该考虑在不同的国家还有不同的道路可走, 如中国的道路. 他指出,在许多国家, 特别是非洲国家,强制采用西方式的民主体制, 而到头来则是动荡不安,民不聊生.

至于西藏问题,其实西方国家都知道它是中国的领土(因为中国对西藏拥有主权的时间比西方这些国家建国的时间都还早很多年), 只不过是中国这几年走特色社会主义道路的成功之路已经严重的冲击了西方国家所谓的纯正民主的理念. 所以,西方国家只是借西藏问题把中国引向西方式的民主道路, 说白了, 也就是不能让中国特色社会主义道路的成功.否则, 他们如何面对他们标榜的唯一的'民主制度'.
leafsf 回复 悄悄话 thank you for the letter. My husband is also German but I can not discuss the Tibet with him and his family. I wish my husband would share some fair view regarding the Tibet. Wish to know you if you are in Bay Area!
南木 回复 悄悄话 兴,百姓福;败,百姓苦;更何况我们这些海外华人;
犹太民族颠沛流离,受尽歧视屠戮,是因为无国之依托,在这个弱肉强食的世界上,无人替你撑腰;
中国走到历史的今天,面临一个重大的历史契机,每个华人都有责任警醒,不管除大陆之外的,生活在各种体制,各个国家的华人怎么想,不管中华人民共和国的内部有多少问题,全部华人的核心利益只有一个--一个日益强大的后盾,要有一个强大的大中华共同体--大陆,台湾,香港,澳门。
毛泽东不收金门,邓小平叫后代解决台湾问题,大陆逐渐务实的台湾政策,台湾公投民意,马英九的执政,这一系列的政治力波会否让全体华人和华人精英们力促一个大中华共同体的出现,像欧盟那样。。。
这是一个美梦,如有那一天,全体华人就可以真正平等的活在这个世界的任何一个地方。
楚天碧霭 回复 悄悄话 Very good article! Regards to your hubby!
也谢谢你,祝好!
有也可 回复 悄悄话 写得很好。可否转贴?
豹豹 回复 悄悄话 你家老公值得尊敬。不是因为他说了中国的好话,而是他透过历史分析现在,是一有头脑的有文化有智慧的人。我发现很多支持藏独的老外根本对中国的历史不了解,也有很多人甚至都没有出过国门更不用说来过中国了,头脑简单冲动,可能是西方人的教育毕竟重视演讲,所以谁演讲的好,他们就会盲从感动,根本就没有想过对不对,也没有思考过自己应该实际去了解了解再判断。所以有时候想想西方人很可怜脑子简单的就像我们当年的文化大革命时代的人,但他们还没有认识到。还在坐井观天,盲目地跟着舆论导向转。我有个朋友说的一针见血:西方就是几个聪明人领导了一群笨蛋。呵呵!
gentlewind 回复 悄悄话 受益匪浅,从外(外籍原作者)到内(西藏人)更多的了解了不同人的观点.谢谢!
casacasa 回复 悄悄话 顶你老公的帖。西方媒体一贯以言论自由,追求真实而自豪,但依我看来,他们歪曲事实的本事真是不小!!我老公也是外国人,起初也不理解这个问题,后来经过我的孜孜不倦的教导,现在都会跟老美还有其他外国人argue西藏问题了。
青海 回复 悄悄话 为你有这样通情达理,明辨是非,有正义感,有智慧的老公而骄傲!
nov11 回复 悄悄话 To 西藏人:

非常欣赏你文中呈现出来的理性客观的态度,我们都是一家人,真诚地祝愿藏人的生活越来越好,
presidentlovemaomao 回复 悄悄话 A great article, probably the best one I have ever read about Tibet, better than most articles written by Chinese.

Thank you and your husband.
sheshallshine 回复 悄悄话 smith34, u look very happy on this issue, and I don't understand why. If you hate Chinese goverment (maybe your mom or grandma were raped by GCD) , fine, that's OK. But if you hate China, then please shut up your stinky mouth and all you deserve is a middle finger.
sheshallshine 回复 悄悄话 u look very happy on this issue, and I don't understand why. If you hate Chinese goverment (maybe your mom or grandma were raped by GCD) , fine, that's OK. But if you hate China, then please shut up your stinky mouth and all you deserve is a middle finger.
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 回复豆瓣的评论:

你说的不全面啊, 达赖还在1937-1945在中国屠杀了3000万中国同胞, 他还在欧洲
屠杀了几百万犹太人, 对了, 他目前还在伊拉克屠杀平民, 可你还不是甘愿当他
们的孙子吗?????? 看问题不能不太狭隘了, 看不到过去, 现在和将来,
你这样的小豆瓣也只配拿去做看起来想”诗“一样的黄酱了。
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复jwangl的评论:
政治本身就是肮脏的。这次民主党的恶斗,希拉里的人身攻击的措辞就够恶心的。媒体本身就是带有政治偏见的。你不说别人喜欢听的,就没人会去听。就像到现在还在死撑说打伊拉克是正确的。不要脸。
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复豆瓣的评论:
你明显数学不及格,回小学重新学过,是300000000000000000000000000ZD
吃情不改 回复 悄悄话 TO 荒唐,5r及那些说达赖是反暴力和反对西藏独立的人

西藏流亡政府负责中国事务的官员达瓦才人在法国电台一次采访中给出了藏人关于暴力的解释,他说从藏人的角度讲暴力是对生命的伤害,从都到尾藏人都只是在打汉人,打完后那些汉人都会跑掉,都没有伤害生命,那些被烧死的人都是意外,,他们没有逃跑而是躲在楼上,藏人点火烧房子的时候并不知道有人在里面,所以这些都是意外。都说达赖反暴力,你们有没有人问过他所指的暴力到底是不是和我们通常的理解一样?是不是也象这位达瓦才人先生讲的只有杀死了人才是暴力,而那些死了的就是意外。从我们汉人的角度讲,说出这种话的人连猪狗都不如!

达赖喇嘛的哥哥们都曾经说过自治是第一步,最终目标是独立。退一万步讲,就算是他们只要求自治,你们可知道哪怕是一丁半点的细节他们要求自治的是那一块西藏?要求的是什么样的自治?你们可听说过“大藏区”?达赖要求自治的“西藏”是指“大藏区”,这不仅仅是现在的西藏自治区,还包括几乎全部的青海省和部分的甘肃四川云南省,这部分地区占现有中国领土的四分之一。这是怎样的贪得无厌?这是根本不可能答应的无耻要求! 在达赖的自治要求里还包括,撤除所有的军队,要求所有的非藏族居民迁出大藏区或只能居住在限定区域,听起来有点耳熟是吧,这和曾经在南非和美国执行的被全世界都唾弃的种族隔离制度没有不同。那些在“大藏区”生活了几百年的汉人穆斯林羌人他们的人权谁来维护?我想问问那些支持达赖的人你们知道这些吗?这样的“自治”你们同意吗?
jwangl 回复 悄悄话 NPR也是我经常听的一个radio program,没想到竟然请了这么一帮混蛋谈西藏问题。与其浪费时间去说服一个亲藏独人权组织,我认为更应该多写写这种信发给比较中立的NPR,让NPR听到来自他们听众的真实声音。一次两次是不够的,一个两个人也是不够的。

这个世界对于很多人来说有奶便是娘,就这么简单。也许出于生存的本能,也许为了绿卡,也许为了更多来自CIA的赞助,亲藏独人权之类的组织疯狂组织游行,制造暴动,攻击圣火。他们的噪音越大,效果越好,各种西方利益集体就越愿意给他们投钱支持他们,他们就越起劲。让他们改换行径断绝他们自己的生财之路是不现实的。

媒体、总统候选人等等全都一路货色,哪里有更多的新闻,媒体就越起劲,哪里有更多的选民,候选人就越起劲。世界是复杂的。我们在这个世界里生存就要遵守或制定其游戏规则。如果我们希望美国媒体、政客、总统候选人不做危害我们利益的事,我们一定要团结起来去说服他们。一定要坚持不懈,一定要团结一心,一定要舍得花钱。
abita 回复 悄悄话 说句大白话,哪一国的普通老百姓不是受其新闻媒体影响的?我的白人同事很清楚地说,新闻是制造出来给傻瓜看的,在美国这个地方,傻瓜占大多数,媒体说什么他们就信什么。他们可不是被洗脑的哦,他们是蠢的可爱,自愿的。另外,有人说那么多白人参与ZD,这个“那么多”怎么定义出来的?一个城市里跳出几百个就是那么多了?那可否说,不跳出来的反对ZD的就是多如牛毛,大如宇宙了?
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复荒唐的评论:
你的思想跟你的名字一样
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复读拨林的评论:
政治么,你懂么?不懂不要放屁。
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复jax的评论:
对付暴动,就是镇压。你没看到过镇压么?那个可不是共产社会的专利哦。
abita 回复 悄悄话 回复反共先丰的评论:
你是寄养在美国的跳蚤
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 回复李宏志的评论:

讧痔老弟, 问你个问题, 你怎么就倒了“阳”了呢? 是不是练功走火入魔了? 看
来你那功不行啊! 还有, 你知不知到你亲娘是谁啊???
xrz 回复 悄悄话 回复jwayne_1的评论:
Your opinion is absolutely right in theory. If it is right, it is right and it should not depend on who say it. That is what I thought before. But I feel now that too many people from German, France or other European countries do not speak the truth, (or do not want to believe the truth at least,) so I am very happy when I heard the opinion from a German who has been there and know the history of Tibet. To tell the truth, I respect this gentman who has the conscience to tell the truth even though it might annoy his fellows.
西藏人 回复 悄悄话 非常客观,这才是西方现代社会与诚信教育下人们应该具备的起码准则。情思慧小姐带我想你先生表示一个有良心的西藏人的诚挚敬意。
原来我只以为我们藏族严重的个人崇拜,我归结为宗教影响,对现代社会了解太少,知识结构出现的问题;到国外来后,许多西方人常常拿文化大革命时中国人的盲目膜拜毛主席的事取笑中国人,可是最近我才觉得西方现代社会也有可笑、滑稽、甚至愚昧的盲目冲动。我是生长在西藏的藏族人,祖祖辈辈过的什么日子,我和我的孩子又过的什么日子,我们最有发言权。我向你先生和所有关心西藏问题的外国朋友推荐一本由俄亥俄 Case Western Reserve University大学藏学教授Melvyn C.Goldstein在美国出版、为一个1963年从美国返回中国,现还在拉萨的藏人扎西次仁的自传《The Struggle for Modern Tibet>.从中可以看到旧西藏绝大多数人过的什么日子,为什么扎西次仁要从西藏到印度、到美国,而且在63年返回红色中国。虽然他回去后受到不公正对待,但他坚持信念,就西藏太黑暗了。为什么西方社会对这种制度对人权的最大蔑视没有任何指责,反而要为那些过去的领主、压迫人民者疾呼?
达赖在西方好像真地成了藏族人民的代表,我承认达赖是代表了一部分的藏人,但我可以绝对地说不代表绝大多数的藏人。如果有一天达赖和他在外面的人回到西藏,我敢断定,西藏将立即陷于动乱、仇杀(西藏历史上有太多的类似故事)。文学城前几天有一个阿坝藏人的帖子值得一看,那才是真正的藏族民意。
西藏存在各种社会矛盾,比如喇嘛,过去他们是一个高高在上、受到社会普遍尊重的特权阶层,老百姓的所有钱财都可以奉献给他们,他们心安理得的收取,但从没有想怎么回馈社会和老百姓(所以你在西藏看到任何庙宇都金碧辉煌,但咫尺的百姓却生活困顿)。现在社会变了,交通便利,通讯便利,咨询便利,西藏人才发现这个世界还有比宗教更具体更吸引人的事情,到寺庙里当喇嘛、捐钱财的人少了,宗教人士渐渐从政治生活中淡出,不再是说一不二的社会阶层,你说他们会高兴吗,他们当然希望达赖回去,西藏的喇嘛除再次主宰社会(就是没有达赖喇嘛,他们还是对现代生活和政府有意见)。失落感造成喇嘛生事,但因为有喇嘛生事西藏就应该政教合一吗?西藏文化不是喇嘛文化,西藏99%的人不是喇嘛,西方就真的希望西藏社会成为除了宗教、除了崇拜达赖外,没有交通、没有咨询、没有通讯的封闭社会?那我们99%的藏族人的权利得到尊重和维护吗?
我希望西方人多到西藏参访,眼见为实。我们欢迎对西藏人民真诚的关心。但绝对不高兴什么情况都不知道的瞎起哄,更不高兴别有用心的误导。我希望西方人搞清楚以下几个问题后再批评中国政府:
1、什么是达赖的“中间道路”,其藏语原义是什么?为什么达赖要用一个宗教上的概念词汇来表述一个政治主张?
2、达赖的“高度自治”是个什么概念和内容?中国藏区目前的行政区划是怎么形成的?
3、为什么在印度等地生长的藏族青年十分极端、充满仇恨,这与达赖的教育体系和教育内容有什么关系?
4、西藏文化在境内西藏和印度藏人社区的传承和发展真实现状?大家到纽约Trace Foundation的图书馆看看,里面收藏的现代藏文出版物中,是共产党统治下的西藏多还是达赖统治区多。问问那些在美国高校和科研、媒体等中工作的藏文工作者,他们的藏文在那里学的?
5、达赖回国是否就真正的能够解决“西藏问题”?
搞清楚一些基本情况,你就能做出正确判断,说出来的话才像是文明社会、受过良好教育人说的话。
再次向思慧及德国绅士表示敬意。
西藏人 回复 悄悄话 非常客观,这才是西方现代社会与诚信教育下人们应该具备的起码准则。情思慧小姐带我想你先生表示一个有良心的西藏人的诚挚敬意。
原来我只以为我们藏族严重的个人崇拜,我归结为宗教影响,对现代社会了解太少,知识结构出现的问题;到国外来后,许多西方人常常拿文化大革命时中国人的盲目膜拜毛主席的事取笑中国人,可是最近我才觉得西方现代社会也有可笑、滑稽、甚至愚昧的盲目冲动。我是生长在西藏的藏族人,祖祖辈辈过的什么日子,我和我的孩子又过的什么日子,我们最有发言权。我向你先生和所有关心西藏问题的外国朋友推荐一本由俄亥俄 Case Western Reserve University大学藏学教授Melvyn C.Goldstein在美国出版、为一个1963年从美国返回中国,现还在拉萨的藏人扎西次仁的自传《The Struggle for Modern Tibet>.从中可以看到旧西藏绝大多数人过的什么日子,为什么扎西次仁要从西藏到印度、到美国,而且在63年返回红色中国。虽然他回去后受到不公正对待,但他坚持信念,就西藏太黑暗了。为什么西方社会对这种制度对人权的最大蔑视没有任何指责,反而要为那些过去的领主、压迫人民者疾呼?
达赖在西方好像真地成了藏族人民的代表,我承认达赖是代表了一部分的藏人,但我可以绝对地说不代表绝大多数的藏人。如果有一天达赖和他在外面的人回到西藏,我敢断定,西藏将立即陷于动乱、仇杀(西藏历史上有太多的类似故事)。文学城前几天有一个阿坝藏人的帖子值得一看,那才是真正的藏族民意。
西藏存在各种社会矛盾,比如喇嘛,过去他们是一个高高在上、受到社会普遍尊重的特权阶层,老百姓的所有钱财都可以奉献给他们,他们心安理得的收取,但从没有想怎么回馈社会和老百姓(所以你在西藏看到任何庙宇都金碧辉煌,但咫尺的百姓却生活困顿)。现在社会变了,交通便利,通讯便利,咨询便利,西藏人才发现这个世界还有比宗教更具体更吸引人的事情,到寺庙里当喇嘛、捐钱财的人少了,宗教人士渐渐从政治生活中淡出,不再是说一不二的社会阶层,你说他们会高兴吗,他们当然希望达赖回去,西藏的喇嘛除再次主宰社会(就是没有达赖喇嘛,他们还是对现代生活和政府有意见)。失落感造成喇嘛生事,但因为有喇嘛生事西藏就应该政教合一吗?西藏文化不是喇嘛文化,西藏99%的人不是喇嘛,西方就真的希望西藏社会成为除了宗教、除了崇拜达赖外,没有交通、没有咨询、没有通讯的封闭社会?那我们99%的藏族人的权利得到尊重和维护吗?
我希望西方人多到西藏参访,眼见为实。我们欢迎对西藏人民真诚的关心。但绝对不高兴什么情况都不知道的瞎起哄,更不高兴别有用心的误导。我希望西方人搞清楚以下几个问题后再批评中国政府:
1、什么是达赖的“中间道路”,其藏语原义是什么?为什么达赖要用一个宗教上的概念词汇来表述一个政治主张?
2、达赖的“高度自治”是个什么概念和内容?中国藏区目前的行政区划是怎么形成的?
3、为什么在印度等地生长的藏族青年十分极端、充满仇恨,这与达赖的教育体系和教育内容有什么关系?
4、西藏文化在境内西藏和印度藏人社区的传承和发展真实现状?大家到纽约Trace Foundation的图书馆看看,里面收藏的现代藏文出版物中,是共产党统治下的西藏多还是达赖统治区多。问问那些在美国高校和科研、媒体等中工作的藏文工作者,他们的藏文在那里学的?
5、达赖回国是否就真正的能够解决“西藏问题”?
搞清楚一些基本情况,你就能做出正确判断,说出来的话才像是文明社会、受过良好教育人说的话。
再次向思慧及德国绅士表示敬意。
思慧 回复 悄悄话 看到這麼多的評論,我非常激動。老公也上了文學城,當然讀的都是英文評論。謝謝大家了!言論自由就是人人能暢所歈言,廣集正反兩方面的聲音。無論哪個民主國家的媒體和政府,都應讓持有不同政見的人說話。文學城就很好,您可以唱歌也可以罵娘。

我們曾將此文以老公的真名投到CNN和NPR,卻都石沉大海沒有回應。我也試過將此文發表在國內的搜狐網,也次次失敗,很納悶為什麼。西藏問題即將隨奧運會的結束而在西方國家退熱,人們的視線肯定會轉到別的新新聞上。可是這次事件對西方的媒體和政客來說絕對是一次曆史性的恥辱,在不久的將來會被反復的研究和糾正。作為個人最重要的是要時時保持自己獨立思考的能力。最後,我想把我父親寫給我的一幅字贈與大家,祝大家都走好:

學習一生友,反省終身師。

好望角骆驼 回复 悄悄话 支持,感谢,祝福。
bskscha 回复 悄悄话 Someone please post web site, email address, fax, or phone number of congressman, senator, president, governor, major, director of CNN/ABS/NBC/CBS/FOX/BBC/Fox/N24/N-TV/RTL/Spiegel//VOA/etc? Email address is probably the best, as we can easily copy and paste to send. Fax is very good, as it will jam all their fax machines. It cost you nothing to email or fax.

It makes much more noise if we can send letter to them individually from each reader. Comments here are reviewed only by Chinese. We should make our voice heard outside. It is not very useful to comment only here inside wenxuecity. Think about it, if a person receives over millions of emails or faxes from individual regular people, not spam, what a strong message it carries.

In this country, whoever makes more noise receives more respect, not the other way around.
jwayne_1 回复 悄悄话 if it is reasonable argument, it is. if it is not, it isn't. does not matter what race it is from? what is the point of your german nationality husband?
pschewu 回复 悄悄话 I. For Lords and Lamas

Along with the blood drenched landscape of religious conflict there is the experience of inner peace and solace that every religion promises, none more so than Buddhism. Standing in marked contrast to the intolerant savagery of other religions, Buddhism is neither fanatical nor dogmatic--so say its adherents. For many of them Buddhism is less a theology and more a meditative and investigative discipline intended to promote an inner harmony and enlightenment while directing us to a path of right living. Generally, the spiritual focus is not only on oneself but on the welfare of others. One tries to put aside egoistic pursuits and gain a deeper understanding of one’s connection to all people and things. “Socially engaged Buddhism” tries to blend individual liberation with responsible social action in order to build an enlightened society.

A glance at history, however, reveals that not all the many and widely varying forms of Buddhism have been free of doctrinal fanaticism, nor free of the violent and exploitative pursuits so characteristic of other religions. In Sri Lanka there is a legendary and almost sacred recorded history about the triumphant battles waged by Buddhist kings of yore. During the twentieth century, Buddhists clashed violently with each other and with non-Buddhists in Thailand, Burma, Korea, Japan, India, and elsewhere. In Sri Lanka, armed battles between Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils have taken many lives on both sides. In 1998 the U.S. State Department listed thirty of the world’s most violent and dangerous extremist groups. Over half of them were religious, specifically Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist. 1

In South Korea, in 1998, thousands of monks of the Chogye Buddhist order fought each other with fists, rocks, fire-bombs, and clubs, in pitched battles that went on for weeks. They were vying for control of the order, the largest in South Korea, with its annual budget of $9.2 million, its millions of dollars worth of property, and the privilege of appointing 1,700 monks to various offices. The brawls damaged the main Buddhist sanctuaries and left dozens of monks injured, some seriously. The Korean public appeared to disdain both factions, feeling that no matter what side took control, “it would use worshippers’ donations for luxurious houses and expensive cars.” 2

As with any religion, squabbles between or within Buddhist sects are often fueled by the material corruption and personal deficiencies of the leadership. For example, in Nagano, Japan, at Zenkoji, the prestigious complex of temples that has hosted Buddhist sects for more than 1,400 years, “a nasty battle” arose between Komatsu the chief priest and the Tacchu, a group of temples nominally under the chief priest's sway. The Tacchu monks accused Komatsu of selling writings and drawings under the temple's name for his own gain. They also were appalled by the frequency with which he was seen in the company of women. Komatsu in turn sought to isolate and punish monks who were critical of his leadership. The conflict lasted some five years and made it into the courts. 3

But what of Tibetan Buddhism? Is it not an exception to this sort of strife? And what of the society it helped to create? Many Buddhists maintain that, before the Chinese crackdown in 1959, old Tibet was a spiritually oriented kingdom free from the egotistical lifestyles, empty materialism, and corrupting vices that beset modern industrialized society. Western news media, travel books, novels, and Hollywood films have portrayed the Tibetan theocracy as a veritable Shangri-La. The Dalai Lama himself stated that “the pervasive influence of Buddhism” in Tibet, “amid the wide open spaces of an unspoiled environment resulted in a society dedicated to peace and harmony. We enjoyed freedom and contentment.” 4

A reading of Tibet’s history suggests a somewhat different picture. “Religious conflict was commonplace in old Tibet,” writes one western Buddhist practitioner. “History belies the Shangri-La image of Tibetan lamas and their followers living together in mutual tolerance and nonviolent goodwill. Indeed, the situation was quite different. Old Tibet was much more like Europe during the religious wars of the Counterreformation.” 5 In the thirteenth century, Emperor Kublai Khan created the first Grand Lama, who was to preside over all the other lamas as might a pope over his bishops. Several centuries later, the Emperor of China sent an army into Tibet to support the Grand Lama, an ambitious 25-year-old man, who then gave himself the title of Dalai (Ocean) Lama, ruler of all Tibet.

His two previous lama “incarnations” were then retroactively recognized as his predecessors, thereby transforming the 1st Dalai Lama into the 3rd Dalai Lama. This 1st (or 3rd) Dalai Lama seized monasteries that did not belong to his sect, and is believed to have destroyed Buddhist writings that conflicted with his claim to divinity. The Dalai Lama who succeeded him pursued a sybaritic life, enjoying many mistresses, partying with friends, and acting in other ways deemed unfitting for an incarnate deity. For these transgressions he was murdered by his priests. Within 170 years, despite their recognized divine status, five Dalai Lamas were killed by their high priests or other courtiers. 6

For hundreds of years competing Tibetan Buddhist sects engaged in bitterly violent clashes and summary executions. In 1660, the 5th Dalai Lama was faced with a rebellion in Tsang province, the stronghold of the rival Kagyu sect with its high lama known as the Karmapa. The 5th Dalai Lama called for harsh retribution against the rebels, directing the Mongol army to obliterate the male and female lines, and the offspring too “like eggs smashed against rocks…. In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names.” 7

In 1792, many Kagyu monasteries were confiscated and their monks were forcibly converted to the Gelug sect (the Dalai Lama’s denomination). The Gelug school, known also as the “Yellow Hats,” showed little tolerance or willingness to mix their teachings with other Buddhist sects. In the words of one of their traditional prayers: “Praise to you, violent god of the Yellow Hat teachings/who reduces to particles of dust/ great beings, high officials and ordinary people/ who pollute and corrupt the Gelug doctrine.” 8 An eighteenth-century memoir of a Tibetan general depicts sectarian strife among Buddhists that is as brutal and bloody as any religious conflict might be. 9 This grim history remains largely unvisited by present-day followers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

Religions have had a close relationship not only with violence but with economic exploitation. Indeed, it is often the economic exploitation that necessitates the violence. Such was the case with the Tibetan theocracy. Until 1959, when the Dalai Lama last presided over Tibet, most of the arable land was still organized into manorial estates worked by serfs. These estates were owned by two social groups: the rich secular landlords and the rich theocratic lamas. Even a writer sympathetic to the old order allows that “a great deal of real estate belonged to the monasteries, and most of them amassed great riches.” Much of the wealth was accumulated “through active participation in trade, commerce, and money lending.” 10

Drepung monastery was one of the biggest landowners in the world, with its 185 manors, 25,000 serfs, 300 great pastures, and 16,000 herdsmen. The wealth of the monasteries rested in the hands of small numbers of high-ranking lamas. Most ordinary monks lived modestly and had no direct access to great wealth. The Dalai Lama himself “lived richly in the 1000-room, 14-story Potala Palace.” 11

Secular leaders also did well. A notable example was the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, a member of the Dalai Lama’s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs. 12 Old Tibet has been misrepresented by some Western admirers as “a nation that required no police force because its people voluntarily observed the laws of karma.” 13 In fact. it had a professional army, albeit a small one, that served mainly as a gendarmerie for the landlords to keep order, protect their property, and hunt down runaway serfs.

Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning at age nine. 14 The monastic estates also coned children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.

In old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the “middle-class” families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. There also were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery. 15 The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care, They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord's land--or the monastery’s land--without pay, to repair the lord's houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand.16 Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location. 17

As in a free labor system and unlike slavery, the overlords had no responsibility for the serf’s maintenance and no direct interest in his or her survival as an expensive piece of property. The serfs had to support themselves. Yet as in a slave system, they were bound to their masters, guaranteeing a fixed and permanent workforce that could neither organize nor strike nor freely depart as might laborers in a market context. The overlords had the best of both worlds.

One 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf, reports: “Pretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished”; they “were just slaves without rights.”18 Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture those who tried to flee. One 24-year old runaway welcomed the Chinese intervention as a “liberation.” He testified that under serfdom he was subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold. After his third failed escape, he was merciless beaten by the landlord’s men until blood poured from his nose and mouth. They then poured alcohol and caustic soda on his wounds to increase the pain, he claimed.19

The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery.20

The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.

The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation--including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation--were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs. Journeying through Tibet in the 1960s, Stuart and Roma Gelder interviewed a former serf, Tsereh Wang Tuei, who had stolen two sheep belonging to a monastery. For this he had both his eyes gouged out and his hand mutilated beyond use. He explains that he no longer is a Buddhist: “When a holy lama told them to blind me I thought there was no good in religion.”21 Since it was against Buddhist teachings to take human life, some offenders were severely lashed and then “left to God” in the freezing night to die. “The parallels between Tibet and medieval Europe are striking,” concludes Tom Grunfeld in his book on Tibet. 22

In 1959, Anna Louise Strong visited an exhibition of torture equipment that had been used by the Tibetan overlords. There were handcuffs of all sizes, including small ones for children, and instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs. There were hot brands, whips, and special implements for disemboweling. The exhibition presented photographs and testimonies of victims who had been blinded or crippled or suffered amputations for thievery. There was the shepherd whose master owed him a reimbursement in yuan and wheat but refused to pay. So he took one of the master’s cows; for this he had his hands severed. Another herdsman, who opposed having his wife taken from him by his lord, had his hands broken off. There were pictures of Communist activists with noses and upper lips cut off, and a woman who was raped and then had her nose sliced away.23

Earlier visitors to Tibet commented on the theocratic despotism. In 1895, an Englishman, Dr. A. L. Waddell, wrote that the populace was under the “intolerable tyranny of monks” and the devil superstitions they had fashioned to terrorize the people. In 1904 Perceval Landon described the Dalai Lama’s rule as “an engine of oppression.” At about that time, another English traveler, Captain W.F.T. O’Connor, observed that “the great landowners and the priests… exercise each in their own dominion a despotic power from which there is no appeal,” while the people are “oppressed by the most monstrous growth of monasticism and priest-craft.” Tibetan rulers “invented degrading legends and stimulated a spirit of superstition” among the common people. In 1937, another visitor, Spencer Chapman, wrote, “The Lamaist monk does not spend his time in ministering to the people or educating them. . . . The beggar beside the road is nothing to the monk. Knowledge is the jealously guarded prerogative of the monasteries and is used to increase their influence and wealth.”24 As much as we might wish otherwise, feudal theocratic Tibet was a far cry from the romanticized Shangri La so enthusiastically nurtured by Buddhism’s western proselytes.

II. Secularization vs. Spirituality

What happened to Tibet after the Chinese Communists moved into the country in 1951? The treaty of that year provided for ostensible self-governance under the Dalai Lama’s rule but gave China military control and exclusive right to conduct foreign relations. The Chinese were also granted a direct role in internal administration “to promote social reforms.” Among the earliest changes they wrought was to reduce usurious interest rates, and build a few hospitals and roads. At first, they moved slowly, relying mostly on persuasion in an attempt to effect reconstruction. No aristocratic or monastic property was confiscated, and feudal lords continued to reign over their hereditarily bound peasants. “Contrary to popular belief in the West,” claims one observer, the Chinese “took care to show respect for Tibetan culture and religion.”25

Over the centuries the Tibetan lords and lamas had seen Chinese come and go, and had enjoyed good relations with Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and his reactionary Kuomintang rule in China.26 The approval of the Kuomintang government was needed to validate the choice of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. When the current 14th Dalai Lama was first installed in Lhasa, it was with an armed escort of Chinese troops and an attending Chinese minister, in accordance with centuries-old tradition. What upset the Tibetan lords and lamas in the early 1950s was that these latest Chinese were Communists. It would be only a matter of time, they feared, before the Communists started imposing their collectivist egalitarian schemes upon Tibet.

The issue was joined in 1956-57, when armed Tibetan bands ambushed convoys of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. The uprising received extensive assistance from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including military training, support camps in Nepal, and numerous airlifts.27 Meanwhile in the United States, the American Society for a Free Asia, a CIA-financed front, energetically publicized the cause of Tibetan resistance, with the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother, Thubtan Norbu, playing an active role in that organization. The Dalai Lama's second-eldest brother, Gyalo Thondup, established an intelligence operation with the CIA as early as 1951. He later upgraded it into a CIA-trained guerrilla unit whose recruits parachuted back into Tibet.28

Many Tibetan commandos and agents whom the CIA dropped into the country were chiefs of aristocratic clans or the sons of chiefs. Ninety percent of them were never heard from again, according to a report from the CIA itself, meaning they were most likely captured and killed.29 “Many lamas and lay members of the elite and much of the Tibetan army joined the uprising, but in the main the populace did not, assuring its failure,” writes Hugh Deane.30 In their book on Tibet, Ginsburg and Mathos reach a similar conclusion: “As far as can be ascertained, the great bulk of the common people of Lhasa and of the adjoining countryside failed to join in the fighting against the Chinese both when it first began and as it progressed.”31 Eventually the resistance crumbled.

Whatever wrongs and new oppressions introduced by the Chinese after 1959, they did abolish slavery and the Tibetan serfdom system of unpaid labor. They eliminated the many crushing taxes, started work projects, and greatly reduced unemployment and beggary. They established secular schools, thereby breaking the educational monopoly of the monasteries. And they constructed running water and electrical systems in Lhasa.32

Heinrich Harrer (later revealed to have been a sergeant in Hitler’s SS) wrote a bestseller about his experiences in Tibet that was made into a popular Hollywood movie. He reported that the Tibetans who resisted the Chinese “were predominantly nobles, semi-nobles and lamas; they were punished by being made to perform the lowliest tasks, such as laboring on roads and bridges. They were further humiliated by being made to clean up the city before the tourists arrived.” They also had to live in a camp originally reserved for beggars and vagrants--all of which Harrer treats as sure evidence of the dreadful nature of the Chinese occupation.33

By 1961, Chinese occupation authorities expropriated the landed estates owned by lords and lamas. They distributed many thousands of acres to tenant farmers and landless peasants, reorganizing them into hundreds of communes.. Herds once owned by nobility were turned over to collectives of poor shepherds. Improvements were made in the breeding of livestock, and new varieties of vegetables and new strains of wheat and barley were introduced, along with irrigation improvements, all of which reportedly led to an increase in agrarian production.34

Many peasants remained as religious as ever, giving alms to the clergy. But monks who had been coned as children into the religious orders were now free to renounce the monastic life, and thousands did, especially the younger ones. The remaining clergy lived on modest government stipends and extra income earned by officiating at prayer services, weddings, and funerals.35

Both the Dalai Lama and his advisor and youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal, claimed that “more than 1.2 million Tibetans are dead as a result of the Chinese occupation.”36 The official 1953 census--six years before the Chinese crackdown--recorded the entire population residing in Tibet at 1,274,000.37 Other census counts put the population within Tibet at about two million. If the Chinese killed 1.2 million in the early 1960s then almost all of Tibet, would have been depopulated, transformed into a killing field dotted with death camps and mass graves--of which we have no evidence. The thinly distributed Chinese force in Tibet could not have rounded up, hunted down, and exterminated that many people even if it had spent all its time doing nothing else.

Chinese authorities claim to have put an end to floggings, mutilations, and amputations as a form of criminal punishment. They themselves, however, have been charged with acts of brutality by exile Tibetans. The authorities do admit to “mistakes,” particularly during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when the persecution of religious beliefs reached a high tide in both China and Tibet. After the uprising in the late 1950s, thousands of Tibetans were incarcerated. During the Great Leap Forward, forced collectivization and grain farming were imposed on the Tibetan peasantry, sometimes with disastrous effect on production. In the late 1970s, China began relaxing controls “and tried to undo some of the damage wrought during the previous two decades.”38

In 1980, the Chinese government initiated reforms reportedly designed to grant Tibet a greater degree of self-rule and self-administration. Tibetans would now be allowed to cultivate private plots, sell their harvest surpluses, decide for themselves what crops to grow, and keep yaks and sheep. Communication with the outside world was again permitted, and frontier controls were eased to permit some Tibetans to visit exiled relatives in India and Nepal.39 By the 1980s many of the principal lamas had begun to shuttle back and forth between China and the exile communities abroad, “restoring their monasteries in Tibet and helping to revitalize Buddhism there.”40

As of 2007 Tibetan Buddhism was still practiced widely and tolerated by officialdom. Religious pilgrimages and other standard forms of worship were allowed but within limits. All monks and nuns had to sign a loyalty pledge that they would not use their religious position to foment secession or dissent. And displaying photos of the Dalai Lama was declared illegal.41

In the 1990s, the Han, the ethnic group comprising over 95 percent of China’s immense population, began moving in substantial numbers into Tibet. On the streets of Lhasa and Shigatse, signs of Han colonization are readily visible. Chinese run the factories and many of the shops and vending stalls. Tall office buildings and large shopping centers have been built with funds that might have been better spent on water treatment plants and housing. Chinese cadres in Tibet too often view their Tibetan neighbors as backward and lazy, in need of economic development and “patriotic education.” During the 1990s Tibetan government employees suspected of harboring nationalist sympathies were purged from office, and campaigns were once again launched to discredit the Dalai Lama. Individual Tibetans reportedly were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and forced labor for carrying out separatist activities and engaging in “political subversion.” Some were held in administrative detention without adequate food, water, and blankets, subjected to threats, beatings, and other mistreatment.42

Tibetan history, culture, and certainly religion are slighted in schools. Teaching materials, though translated into Tibetan, focus mainly on Chinese history and culture. Chinese family planning regulations allow a three-child limit for Tibetan families. (There is only a one-child limit for Han families throughout China, and a two-child limit for rural Han families whose first child is a girl.) If a Tibetan couple goes over the three-child limit, the excess children can be denied subsidized daycare, health care, housing, and education. These penalties have been enforced irregularly and vary by district.43 None of these child services, it should be noted, were available to Tibetans before the Chinese takeover.

For the rich lamas and secular lords, the Communist intervention was an unmitigated calamity. Most of them fled abroad, as did the Dalai Lama himself, who was assisted in his flight by the CIA. Some discovered to their horror that they would have to work for a living. Many, however, escaped that fate. Throughout the 1960s, the Tibetan exile community was secretly pocketing $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the State Department in 1998. Once this fact was publicized, the Dalai Lama’s organization itself issued a statement admitting that it had received millions of dollars from the CIA during the 1960s to send armed squads of exiles into Tibet to undermine the Maoist revolution. The Dalai Lama's annual payment from the CIA was $186,000. Indian intelligence also financed both him and other Tibetan exiles. He has refused to say whether he or his brothers worked for the CIA. The agency has also declined to comment.44

In 1995, the News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, carried a frontpage color photograph of the Dalai Lama being embraced by the reactionary Republican senator Jesse Helms, under the headline “Buddhist Captivates Hero of Religious Right.”45 In April 1999, along with Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and the first George Bush, the Dalai Lama called upon the British government to release Augusto Pinochet, the former fascist dictator of Chile and a longtime CIA client who was visiting England. The Dalai Lama urged that Pinochet not be forced to go to Spain where he was wanted to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

Into the twenty-first century, via the National Endowment for Democracy and other conduits that are more respectable sounding than the CIA, the U.S. Congress continued to allocate an annual $2 million to Tibetans in India, with additional millions for “democracy activities” within the Tibetan exile community. In addition to these funds, the Dalai Lama received money from financier George Soros.46

Whatever the Dalai Lama’s associations with the CIA and various reactionaries, he did speak often of peace, love, and nonviolence. He himself really cannot be blamed for the abuses of Tibet’s ancien régime, having been but 25 years old when he fled into exile. In a 1994 interview, he went on record as favoring the building of schools and roads in his country. He said the corvée (forced unpaid serf labor) and certain taxes imposed on the peasants were “extremely bad.” And he disliked the way people were saddled with old debts sometimes passed down from generation to generation.47During the half century of living in the western world, he had embraced concepts such as human rights and religious freedom, ideas largely unknown in old Tibet. He even proposed democracy for Tibet, featuring a written constitution and a representative assembly.48

In 1996, the Dalai Lama issued a statement that must have had an unsettling effect on the exile community. It read in part: “Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.” Marxism fosters “the equitable utilization of the means of production” and cares about “the fate of the working classes” and “the victims of . . . exploitation. For those reasons the system appeals to me, and . . . I think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist.49

But he also sent a reassuring message to “those who live in abundance”: “It is a good thing to be rich... Those are the fruits for deserving actions, the proof that they have been generous in the past.” And to the poor he offers this admonition: “There is no good reason to become bitter and rebel against those who have property and fortune... It is better to develop a positive attitude.”50

In 2005 the Dalai Lama signed a widely advertised statement along with ten other Nobel Laureates supporting the “inalienable and fundamental human right” of working people throughout the world to form labor unions to protect their interests, in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In many countries “this fundamental right is poorly protected and in some it is explicitly banned or brutally suppressed,” the statement read. Burma, China, Colombia, Bosnia, and a few other countries were singled out as among the worst offenders. Even the United States “fails to adequately protect workers’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively. Millions of U.S. workers lack any legal protection to form unions….”51

The Dalai Lama also gave full support to removing the ingrained traditional obstacles that have kept Tibetan nuns from receiving an education. Upon arriving in exile, few nuns could read or write. In Tibet their activities had been devoted to daylong periods of prayer and chants. But in northern India they now began reading Buddhist philosophy and engaging in theological study and debate, activities that in old Tibet had been open only to monks.52

In November 2005 the Dalai Lama spoke at Stanford University on “The Heart of Nonviolence,” but stopped short of a blanket condemnation of all violence. Violent actions that are committed in order to reduce future suffering are not to be condemned, he said, citing World War II as an example of a worthy effort to protect democracy. What of the four years of carnage and mass destruction in Iraq, a war condemned by most of the world—even by a conservative pope--as a blatant violation of international law and a crime against humanity? The Dalai Lama was undecided: “The Iraq war—it’s too early to say, right or wrong.”53 Earlier he had voiced support for the U.S. military intervention against Yugoslavia and, later on, the U.S. military intervention into Afghanistan.54

III. Exit Feudal Theocracy

As the Shangri-La myth would have it, in old Tibet the people lived in contented and tranquil symbiosis with their monastic and secular lords. Rich lamas and poor monks, wealthy landlords and impoverished serfs were all bonded together, mutually sustained by the comforting balm of a deeply spiritual and pacific culture.

One is reminded of the idealized image of feudal Europe presented by latter-day conservative Catholics such as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. For them, medieval Christendom was a world of contented peasants living in the secure embrace of their Church, under the more or less benign protection of their lords.55 Again we are invited to accept a particular culture in its idealized form divorced from its murky material history. This means accepting it as presented by its favored class, by those who profited most from it. The Shangri-La image of Tibet bears no more resemblance to historic actuality than does the pastoral image of medieval Europe.

Seen in all its grim realities, old Tibet confirms the view I expressed in an earlier book, namely that culture is anything but neutral. Culture can operate as a legitimating cover for a host of grave injustices, benefiting a privileged portion of society at great cost to the rest.56 In theocratic feudal Tibet, ruling interests manipulated the traditional culture to fortify their own wealth and power. The theocracy equated rebellious thought and action with satanic influence. It propagated the general presumption of landlord superiority and peasant unworthiness. The rich were represented as deserving their good life, and the lowly poor as deserving their mean existence, all codified in teachings about the karmic residue of virtue and vice accumulated from past lives, presented as part of God’s will.

Were the more affluent lamas just hypocrites who preached one thing and secretly believed another? More likely they were genuinely attached to those beliefs that brought such good results for them. That their theology so perfectly supported their material privileges only strengthened the sincerity with which it was embraced.

It might be said that we denizens of the modern secular world cannot grasp the equations of happiness and pain, contentment and custom, that characterize more traditionally spiritual societies. This is probably true, and it may explain why some of us idealize such societies. But still, a gouged eye is a gouged eye; a flogging is a flogging; and the grinding exploitation of serfs and slaves is a brutal class injustice whatever its cultural wrapping. There is a difference between a spiritual bond and human bondage, even when both exist side by side

Many ordinary Tibetans want the Dalai Lama back in their country, but it appears that relatively few want a return to the social order he represented. A 1999 story in the Washington Post notes that the Dalai Lama continues to be revered in Tibet, but


. . . few Tibetans would welcome a return of the corrupt aristocratic clans that fled with him in 1959 and that comprise the bulk of his advisers. Many Tibetan farmers, for example, have no interest in surrendering the land they gained during China’s land reform to the clans. Tibet’s former slaves say they, too, don’t want their former masters to return to power. “I’ve already lived that life once before,” said Wangchuk, a 67-year-old former slave who was wearing his best clothes for his yearly pilgrimage to Shigatse, one of the holiest sites of Tibetan Buddhism. He said he worshipped the Dalai Lama, but added, “I may not be free under Chinese communism, but I am better off than when I was a slave.”57

It should be noted that the Dalai Lama is not the only highly placed lama chosen in childhood as a reincarnation. One or another reincarnate lama or tulku--a spiritual teacher of special purity elected to be reborn again and again--can be found presiding over most major monasteries. The tulku system is unique to Tibetan Buddhism. Scores of Tibetan lamas claim to be reincarnate tulkus.

The very first tulku was a lama known as the Karmapa who appeared nearly three centuries before the first Dalai Lama. The Karmapa is leader of a Tibetan Buddhist tradition known as the Karma Kagyu. The rise of the Gelugpa sect headed by the Dalai Lama led to a politico-religious rivalry with the Kagyu that has lasted five hundred years and continues to play itself out within the Tibetan exile community today. That the Kagyu sect has grown famously, opening some six hundred new centers around the world in the last thirty-five years, has not helped the situation.

The search for a tulku, Erik Curren reminds us, has not always been conducted in that purely spiritual mode portrayed in certain Hollywood films. “Sometimes monastic officials wanted a child from a powerful local noble family to give the cloister more political clout. Other times they wanted a child from a lower-class family who would have little leverage to influence the child’s upbringing.” On other occasions “a local warlord, the Chinese emperor or even the Dalai Lama’s government in Lhasa might [have tried] to impose its choice of tulku on a monastery for political reasons.”58

Such may have been the case in the selection of the 17th Karmapa, whose monastery-in-exile is situated in Rumtek, in the Indian state of Sikkim. In 1993 the monks of the Karma Kagyu tradition had a candidate of their own choice. The Dalai Lama, along with several dissenting Karma Kagyu leaders (and with the support of the Chinese government!) backed a different boy. The Kagyu monks charged that the Dalai Lama had overstepped his authority in attempting to select a leader for their sect. “Neither his political role nor his position as a lama in his own Gelugpa tradition entitled him to choose the Karmapa, who is a leader of a different tradition…”59 As one of the Kagyu leaders insisted, “Dharma is about thinking for yourself. It is not about automatically following a teacher in all things, no matter how respected that teacher may be. More than anyone else, Buddhists should respect other people’s rights—their human rights and their religious freedom.”60

What followed was a dozen years of conflict in the Tibetan exile community, punctuated by intermittent riots, intimidation, physical attacks, blacklisting, police harassment, litigation, official corruption, and the looting and undermining of the Karmapa’s monastery in Rumtek by supporters of the Gelugpa faction. All this has caused at least one western devotee to wonder if the years of exile were not hastening the moral corrosion of Tibetan Buddhism.61

What is clear is that not all Tibetan Buddhists accept the Dalai Lama as their theological and spiritual mentor. Though he is referred to as the “spiritual leader of Tibet,” many see this title as little more than a formality. It does not give him authority over the four religious schools of Tibet other than his own, “just as calling the U.S. president the ‘leader of the free world’ gives him no role in governing France or Germany.”62

Not all Tibetan exiles are enamoured of the old Shangri-La theocracy. Kim Lewis, who studied healing methods with a Buddhist monk in Berkeley, California, had occasion to talk at length with more than a dozen Tibetan women who lived in the monk’s building. When she asked how they felt about returning to their homeland, the sentiment was unanimously negative. At first, Lewis assumed that their reluctance had to do with the Chinese occupation, but they quickly informed her otherwise. They said they were extremely grateful “not to have to marry 4 or 5 men, be pregnant almost all the time,” or deal with sexually transmitted diseases contacted from a straying husband. The younger women “were delighted to be getting an education, wanted absolutely nothing to do with any religion, and wondered why Americans were so naïve [about Tibet].”63

The women interviewed by Lewis recounted stories of their grandmothers’ ordeals with monks who used them as “wisdom consorts.” By sleeping with the monks, the grandmothers were told, they gained “the means to enlightenment” -- after all, the Buddha himself had to be with a woman to reach enlightenment.

The women also mentioned the “rampant” sex that the supposedly spiritual and abstemious monks practiced with each other in the Gelugpa sect. The women who were mothers spoke bitterly about the monastery’s confiscation of their young boys in Tibet. They claimed that when a boy cried for his mother, he would be told “Why do you cry for her, she gave you up--she's just a woman.”

The monks who were granted political asylum in California applied for public assistance. Lewis, herself a devotee for a time, assisted with the paperwork. She observes that they continue to receive government checks amounting to $550 to $700 per month along with Medicare. In addition, the monks reside rent free in nicely furnished apartments. “They pay no utilities, have free access to the Internet on computers provided for them, along with fax machines, free cell and home phones and cable TV.”

They also receive a monthly payment from their order, along with contributions and dues from their American followers. Some devotees eagerly carry out chores for the monks, including grocery shopping and cleaning their apartments and toilets. These same holy men, Lewis remarks, “have no problem criticizing Americans for their ‘obsession with material things.’”64

To welcome the end of the old feudal theocracy in Tibet is not to applaud everything about Chinese rule in that country. This point is seldom understood by today’s Shangri-La believers in the West. The converse is also true: To denounce the Chinese occupation does not mean we have to romanticize the former feudal régime. Tibetans deserve to be perceived as actual people, not perfected spiritualists or innocent political symbols. “To idealize them,” notes Ma Jian, a dissident Chinese traveler to Tibet (now living in Britain), “is to deny them their humanity.”65

One common complaint among Buddhist followers in the West is that Tibet’s religious culture is being undermined by the Chinese occupation. To some extent this seems to be the case. Many of the monasteries are closed, and much of the theocracy seems to have passed into history. Whether Chinese rule has brought betterment or disaster is not the central issue here. The question is what kind of country was old Tibet. What I am disputing is the supposedly pristine spiritual nature of that pre-invasion culture. We can advocate religious freedom and independence for a new Tibet without having to embrace the mythology about old Tibet. Tibetan feudalism was cloaked in Buddhism, but the two are not to be equated. In reality, old Tibet was not a Paradise Lost. It was a retrograde repressive theocracy of extreme privilege and poverty, a long way from Shangri-La.

Finally, let it be said that if Tibet’s future is to be positioned somewhere within China’s emerging free-market paradise, then this does not bode well for the Tibetans. China boasts a dazzling 8 percent economic growth rate and is emerging as one of the world’s greatest industrial powers. But with economic growth has come an ever deepening gulf between rich and poor. Most Chinese live close to the poverty level or well under it, while a small group of newly brooded capitalists profit hugely in collusion with shady officials. Regional bureaucrats milk the country dry, extorting graft from the populace and looting local treasuries. Land grabbing in cities and countryside by avaricious developers and corrupt officials at the expense of the populace are almost everyday occurrences. Tens of thousands of grassroot protests and disturbances have erupted across the country, usually to be met with unforgiving police force. Corruption is so prevalent, reaching into so many places, that even the normally complacent national leadership was forced to take notice and began moving against it in late 2006.

Workers in China who try to organize labor unions in the corporate dominated “business zones” risk losing their jobs or getting beaten and imprisoned. Millions of business zone workers toil twelve-hour days at subsistence wages. With the health care system now being privatized, free or affordable medical treatment is no longer available for millions. Men have tramped into the cities in search of work, leaving an increasingly impoverished countryside populated by women, children, and the elderly. The suicide rate has increased dramatically, especially among women.66

China’s natural environment is sadly polluted. Most of its fabled rivers and many lakes are dead, producing massive fish die-offs from the billions of tons of industrial emissions and untreated human waste dumped into them. Toxic effluents, including pesticides and herbicides, seep into ground water or directly into irrigation canals. Cancer rates in villages situated along waterways have skyrocketed a thousand-fold. Hundreds of millions of urban residents breathe air rated as dangerously unhealthy, contaminated by industrial growth and the recent addition of millions of automobiles. An estimated 400,000 die prematurely every year from air pollution. Government environmental agencies have no enforcement power to stop polluters, and generally the government ignores or denies such problems, concentrating instead on industrial growth.67

China’s own scientific establishment reports that unless greenhouse gases are curbed, the nation will face massive crop failures along with catastrophic food and water shortages in the years ahead. In 2006-2007 severe drought was already afflicting southwest China.68

If China is the great success story of speedy free market development, and is to be the model and inspiration for Tibet’s future, then old feudal Tibet indeed may start looking a lot better than it actually was.

Notes:

Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God, (University of California Press, 2000), 6, 112-113, 157.

Kyong-Hwa Seok, "Korean Monk Gangs Battle for Temple Turf," San Francisco Examiner, 3 December 1998.

Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2006.

Dalai Lama quoted in Donald Lopez Jr., Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1998), 205.

Erik D. Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today (Alaya Press 2005), 41.

Stuart Gelder and Roma Gelder, The Timely Rain: Travels in New Tibet (Monthly Review Press, 1964), 119, 123; and Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama (University of California Press, 1995), 6-16.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 50.

Stephen Bachelor, "Letting Daylight into Magic: The Life and Times of Dorje Shugden," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 7, Spring 1998. Bachelor discusses the sectarian fanaticism and doctrinal clashes that ill fit the Western portrait of Buddhism as a non-dogmatic and tolerant tradition.

Dhoring Tenzin Paljor, Autobiography, cited in Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 8.

Pradyumna P. Karan, The Changing Face of Tibet: The Impact of Chinese Communist Ideology on the Landscape (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1976), 64.

See Gary Wilson's report in Worker's World, 6 February 1997.

Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 62 and 174.

As skeptically noted by Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri-La, 9.

Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, and Tashì-Tsering, The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashì-Tsering (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1997).

Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 110.

Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 5 and passim.

Anna Louise Strong, Tibetan Interviews (Peking: New World Press, 1959), 15, 19-21, 24.

Quoted in Strong, Tibetan Interviews, 25.

Strong, Tibetan Interviews, 31.

Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 175-176; and Strong, Tibetan Interviews, 25-26.

Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 113.

A. Tom Grunfeld, The Making of Modern Tibet rev. ed. (Armonk, N.Y. and London: 1996), 9 and 7-33 for a general discussion of feudal Tibet; see also Felix Greene, A Curtain of Ignorance (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961), 241-249; Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, 3-5; and Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri-La, passim.

Strong, Tibetan Interviews, 91-96.

Waddell, Landon, O'Connor, and Chapman are quoted in Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 123-125.

Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon, 52.

Heinrich Harrer, Return to Tibet (New York: Schocken, 1985), 29.

See Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2002); and William Leary, "Secret Mission to Tibet," Air & Space, December 1997/January 1998.

On the CIA's links to the Dalai Lama and his family and entourage, see Loren Coleman, Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti (London: Faber and Faber, 1989).

Leary, "Secret Mission to Tibet."?br>
Hugh Deane, "The Cold War in Tibet,"?CovertAction Quarterly (Winter 1987).

George Ginsburg and Michael Mathos Communist China and Tibet (1964), quoted in Deane, "The Cold War in Tibet." Deane notes that author Bina Roy reached a similar conclusion.

See Greene, A Curtain of Ignorance, 248 and passim; and Grunfeld, The Making of Modern Tibet, passim.

Harrer, Return to Tibet, 54.

Karan, The Changing Face of Tibet, 36-38, 41, 57-58; London Times, 4 July 1966.

Gelder and Gelder, The Timely Rain, 29 and 47-48.

Tendzin Choegyal, "The Truth about Tibet," Imprimis (publication of Hillsdale College, Michigan), April 1999.

Karan, The Changing Face of Tibet, 52-53.

Elaine Kurtenbach, Associate Press report, 12 February 1998.

Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon, 47-48.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 8.

San Francisco Chonicle, 9 January 2007.

Report by the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, A Generation in Peril (Berkeley Calif.: 2001), passim.

International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, A Generation in Peril, 66-68, 98.

im Mann, "CIA Gave Aid to Tibetan Exiles in '60s, Files Show,"?Los Angeles Times, 15 September 1998; and New York Times, 1 October, 1998.

News & Observer, 6 September 1995, cited in Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri-La, 3.

Heather Cottin, "George Soros, Imperial Wizard," CovertAction Quarterly no. 74 (Fall 2002).

Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon, 51.

Tendzin Choegyal, "The Truth about Tibet."?br>
The Dalai Lama in Marianne Dresser (ed.), Beyond Dogma: Dialogues and Discourses (Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 1996)

These comments are from a book of the Dalai Lama's writings quoted in Nikolai Thyssen, "Oceaner af onkel Tom," Dagbladet Information, 29 December 2003, (translated for me by Julius Wilm). Thyssen's review (in Danish) can be found at http://www.information.dk/Indgang/VisArkiv.dna?pArtNo=20031229154141.txt.

"A Global Call for Human Rights in the Workplace,"?New York Times, 6 December 2005.

San Francisco Chronicle, 14 January 2007.

San Francisco Chronicle, 5 November 2005.

Times of India 13 October 2000; Samantha Conti's report, Reuter, 17 June 1994; Amitabh Pal, "The Dalai Lama Interview," Progressive, January 2006.

The Gelders draw this comparison, The Timely Rain, 64.

Michael Parenti, The Culture Struggle (Seven Stories, 2006).

John Pomfret, "Tibet Caught in China's Web,?quot; Washington Post, 23 July 1999.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 3.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 13 and 138.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, 21.

Curren, Buddha's Not Smiling, passim. For books that are favorable toward the Karmapa appointed by the Dalai Lama's faction, see Lea Terhune, Karmapa of Tibet: The Politics of Reincarnation (Wisdom Publications, 2004); Gaby Naher, Wrestling the Dragon (Rider 2004); Mick Brown, The Dance of 17 Lives (Bloomsbury 2004).

Erik Curren, "Not So Easy to Say Who is Karmapa," correspondence, 22 August 2005, www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=22.1577,0,0,1,0.

Kim Lewis, correspondence to me, 15 July 2004.

Kim Lewis, correspondence to me, 16 July 2004.

Ma Jian, Stick Out Your Tongue (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006).

See the PBS documentary, China from the Inside, January 2007, KQED.PBS.org/kqed/chinanside.

San Francisco Chronicle, 9 January 2007.

"China: Global Warming to Cause Food Shortages,"?People's Weekly World, 13 January 2007
bskscha 回复 悄悄话 Someone please post web site, email address, fax, or phone number of CNN/ABS/NBC/CBS/FOX/BBC? Email address is probably the best, as we can easily copy and paste to send.

It makes much more noise if we can send this letter to them individually from each reader. Comments here are reviewed only by Chinese. We should make our voice heard outside. It is not very useful to comment only here inside wenxuecity.
不搞笑 回复 悄悄话 请原谅,这两天肚子不好,不该吃豆。结果,没消化好。当然,拉出来的豆瓣肯定是臭的。熏着大伙了,不好意思!
豆瓣 回复 悄悄话 再加上一条:在1966-1976年间,达赖在西藏发起了“史无前例”的“无产阶级文化大革命”,又整死 N 千万藏独。
monsoleil 回复 悄悄话 还有 我身边的一些法国人 一个60岁的律师等等 他们也都是同感 觉得其实西藏现在的发展很好 但是问题怎么处置这些人的问题 我发现 其实反对的的意见 都是些没有主见的下层人民 还是知识有用阿
monsoleil 回复 悄悄话 1951年以后 不是占领阿 这个词汇很重要啊 因该叫做和平解放西藏 然后达赖才逃走了 现在的西藏问题 其实真的只是一个可怜的无法解决的历史问题 他们那些人 现在远离自己的本土 而愚昧的不知道那里的变化
成了西方政客利用的工具 而没有任何保障 就是一些弹药 有一天会用完 可怜啊 愚昧无知
豆瓣 回复 悄悄话 这位女士还漏了一点:1961-1962年间,达赖在西藏大搞“天灾人祸”, 饿死3000万藏独。
999朵玫瑰 回复 悄悄话 感谢你的老公能公正的看西藏.希望你老公能向更多的老美发表这种观点,毕竟由他讲比由中国人讲更让老美信服.
ZTM 回复 悄悄话 思慧, 你老公的信写得真好! (你翻译得也好). 向你们致敬!!
valsec 回复 悄悄话 真难得你的老公那么明事理。我要推荐给我那位看看,学习学习。
Elite_BB 回复 悄悄话 支持思慧 MM, please say thanks for ur husband !!!
谢谢你的好文,也感谢你的先生。坚决支持他的观点!


说话不牙痛 回复 悄悄话 李宏痔, 你娘的确在美国被干了, 要不然不会生出你这样无知的杂种。
CuriousChimpanzee 回复 悄悄话 回复美男玉米的评论:Sorry. I guess my questions are to the one who you cited. Thanks.
勇气号 回复 悄悄话 写的真好!有理,有力,有节。看得出来你老公是一个有理智,有教养而不随波逐流的人。恭喜你也谢谢他。

To 李宏志:就看你说话这素质,你们这伙人也折腾不出啥名堂来了。你歇歇吧。
李宏志 回复 悄悄话 回复666888999的评论:
照楼下中共网特的推论:口径过大,只能舍身就义,充当洋炮台。

summer_rose 回复 悄悄话 回复5r的评论:这种年“中国人权现状和国际脱轨”。 美国人权
现状和国际最结轨:美国派你去打伊拉克,你是不是绝的倍感荣兴呀?

sc1980 回复 悄悄话 回复李宏志的评论: Go and find some respectable job if you can and make a living as a human. Do sell your soul here like a ******!
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 CuriousChimpanzee

I have a feeling we were mis-firing at each other. Please read all my comments below to know what I have been upholding.
豆瓣 回复 悄悄话 回复达赖虚伪的评论:
你说滴对,我再补充一点:在1961-1962年间,达赖在西藏大搞“天灾人祸”,饿死3000万藏独。

CuriousChimpanzee 回复 悄悄话 回复美男玉米的评论:Too bad. How do you know I believe Hollywood movies? Actually, I have no time for it because I need to survive. Another curious question. Do you think Canadian will support the independence of Quebec?
666888999 回复 悄悄话 没有看。干啥不好为什么嫁给德国鬼子?
hobbes 回复 悄悄话 另外,no-brainer gesture可能是客氣而不是 批評對方:支持被壓迫人民看來可能是一種黑白分明無需躊躇的選擇,但請原諒我持有異議。
sc1980 回复 悄悄话 ordinaryguy: Do you have a functional brain? What a retard loser!
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 回复李宏志的评论:
就你那“小土炮”, 也“阳”不起来, 也打不响,还想“干”啊??? 我看你还
是去“干”你的后娘(洋鬼子)吧! 这样现实点, 因为你的“土炮”太小,太没力
了, 哈哈!
达赖虚伪 回复 悄悄话 这里有不少骂街的。嘿嘿,我来说些历史。

现在的这位达赖,他在前世达赖去世后,被选为转世灵童,后来被确认为达赖。这个过程,是民国政府颁发确认状来最终决定的。后来,民国政府又向此达赖颁发了玉印,那是象征达赖权利的东西。等此达赖长大后,民国政府安排了达赖坐床仪式,那是达赖正式视事的开始。

象这些旧事,达赖本人是不愿谈的。为什么?因为那表明了中国对西藏的实际统治权。连政教统一的活佛都要由中国来确认,那不是说明了中国的治权么?

后来,中国大陆政权更迭。达赖和班禅为了得到新中国政府的确认,派人到北京去协商。当时的中央政府认为,前民国政府已经确认的达赖之地位,没有必要再搞一次。至于达赖要想得到新中国政府的认可,那就让达赖到北京向毛主席献哈达。于是,达赖和班禅一起去北京,用献哈达的方式,确定了他们在西藏的地位被北京认可。如今,达赖向毛主席献哈达的照片还在,达赖想否认都不行。

后来,达赖又当了西藏自治区的人民代表。记住了,这是达赖以一个中国公民的身份,去北京开会的。在全国人大上,达赖依照公民的选举权和被选举权,当选为中华人民共和国全国人民代表大会常务委员会副委员长。这是中国政府的公职。也就是说:达赖在五九年叛乱前,是新中国政府的官员。

这一切都说明了:西藏,是中国有效治理下的一个地方自治区。达赖是中央政府认可下的一名官员。唯一有西藏特色的是:达赖还算是活佛,还可以用宗教去糊弄西藏百姓。

既然如此,达赖现在的行为不是自打耳光吗?嘿嘿,知史者明啊!
hobbes 回复 悄悄话 我把這封信和我的一些意見轉給了美國朋友們。如果思慧覺得合適,請轉給您先生。多謝。

Hi teachers and friends,

I attach a letter from an American in response to a Free Tibet message. The source I cannot verify--we will have to judge by style and vocabulary I guess :). I apologize for swamping your mailbox--and this shan't happen so often!

I have reservations about this writer's optimism: the lack of transparent environmental assessment for the BJ-Tibet railroad, the clumsy and sometimes heavyhanded patriotic education campaigns by which I am sure many crass local bosses incur legitimate resistance. The government's policies have stunted cultural development across the board for both Han and Tibetan groups, and I could see no solution to that but some general assurances of intellectual and press freedom. I worry about the view on 'progressive' history, but thought it informative to us because many Han Chinese have similarly benign but top-down-type view on minorities.

But I think he did outline some intricacies of the problem from an angle I myself am not familiar with. I also wish there were a more accurate timeline about what happened within Tibet in the past month, but again quoting anybody doesn't seem to work since neither side trusts the other side's account now.

So the following is just my own inconsequential thoughts on the question of Tibet in general, please stop here if you are not interested---And enjoy your weekend!

* * *

First my normative cards on the table: Over all, my position isn't unlike Marx when he said the idea solution to the 'Jewish Question' will require the solution to the 'human question', i.e., ideally, the Tibetans will achieve their democratic aspirations together with Han Chinese, Muslims, and others in China. Then difficult, cantankerous negotiations can begin like those that took place in Quebec, in Catalonia, and in Tamir, between legitimate central government and legitimate local representatives, with normal assurances of democracy. This ensures better chances of justice I think both between groups and within the minority groups.

I have two occupational interests too. Empirically as a student of political economy, I would love to know more about the organization and composition of the exile government--funding, religious and political power, family background, education, etc.

Generally we know the government is dominated by descendents of 4 large upper-class clans from the pre-1949 era (the Mediccis came to mind for a minute when I looked at the governing structure of Tibet pre-1949), understably so for a government in exile. But I do not agree with radical pro-Chinese groups who in their rage claim children of plantation slaveowners are potential slaveowners: From an ethical point of view they deserve to be judged only on their actions, declared intentions, and real and potential consequences thereof.

Distinctions might be necessary given what we know about group dynamics and logic of social movements: Some leaders of larger pro-Tibetan groups did call for restraint before San Fransisco, while other smaller fringe organizations, such as the 'American-Burmese Democratic Allliance' (?), which I guess has claims for Burmese politics, call for 'direct action'.

But above all, as a Chinese as well as a student in this field, I would love to hear from the strange silent majority: the majority of the Tibetans living within China, the clerks, the workers, the shopowners, the school teachers, including friends and families, mothers and children of those very few who burnt and destroyed, those who later turned themselves in to the authorities, those who helped and sheltered. Are their claims the same as we heard from the protests? Are their claims the same in March as in the two decades before,or as in the weeks after?

Ironically, of course, the system doesn't allow the kind of general survey that might reveal opinions that are not necessarily bad for itself. But even if it did--would anybody here take the results seriously? This year we saw two interesting (semi-) authoritarian successions. Looking back at their terms, both Putin and Castro said, 'I am exhausted'. Students of similar regimes might feel their pain.

All in all, I just don't know enough, yet, to say whether the ideal I opened this letter with, the one I believe in different variations doesn't look too wild to many fellow Han or other Chinese, has a real chance. I just don't know enough yet to claim what should be the shape of justice in Tibet, and how we find and interprete voices of those who do. My consolation is I don't think many others know enough either. My trepidation is their causes don't take doubts well.

With very springy regards,

XXX
toknowbothsides 回复 悄悄话 To my understanding, China is on the way(though still a long way to go) to biuld a lawful society. It had no laws, high qualified judges, lawyers, in the past. I am glad to see that is changing.
In a lawful society, any violence should be prohibited, people should learn to respect others' rights. Government has the responsibilities to stop any violence, to protect people and their properties. This is exactly what had happened in France a little while ago.
无法再低调 回复 悄悄话 酒逢知己千杯少,话不投机半句多。有这样对事务的共同理解,相信你和你的洋老公会幸福一辈子的。祝福你们!!
toknowbothsides 回复 悄悄话 I support "Yxxxxxxx". We need to hear both sides. It is frustrating that the "free media" only provide one side of story. I believe both sides of the story should be thoroughly exposed. So average americans/people who are not interested in this matter, yet are critical in voting for their political representives, can understand this issue better.
李宏志 回复 悄悄话 回复wxcdave的评论:
我在美国“干”你的娘(共产党)。

shadow'smom 回复 悄悄话 谢谢你的好文,也感谢你的先生。坚决支持他的观点!
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 CuriousChimpanzee:

To your great disappointment again, I do know the real history of Mexico. I have a word for you:

Go find the turth in history, not in media. (If you really belived Hollywood movies, how can I believe you have critical thinking?)
xmugg 回复 悄悄话 Very very very very good letter!!! I think it is not pro-communist or pro-tibet, but really truthful. Thank you. Very smart and nice German!
CuriousChimpanzee 回复 悄悄话 回复美男玉米的评论: If let the Mexican vote, do you think California, Arizona, Texas & New Mexico will belong to which country? If you don't know the history of these states, go google.
gryphon 回复 悄悄话 回复美男玉米的评论:
Good for you. You just expressed the opinion of the majority of oversea Chinese.
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 回复塞崗村夫的评论:

我佛慈悲, 请原谅他吧, 因为他的“土炮”打不响了,所以只能那不阴不阳的了!
塞崗村夫 回复 悄悄话 李宏志先生:

說話就坦坦然然地說話嗎,干甚麼帶那種味道?
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 回复李宏志的评论:

我看你看你那“土炮”也“阳”不起来了吧? 在美国“干”什么呢???
塞崗村夫 回复 悄悄话 TO荒唐:

從第的第一句話就看出了你的為人,幸虧你沒有從事政治,也不生在文革時期。
66116 回复 悄悄话 喇嘛教的组织结构就是活佛说了算,其他人谁都不好使,所以要不是有人在背后怂恿,就那几个在红旗下长大的农奴后代,借它几个胆它也不敢。
wxcdave 回复 悄悄话 5R:我看你才是个250! 只知其一不知其二! 你以为洋鬼子真的关心中国老百姓的人
权吗?
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 ordinaryguy:

"Shame on you and your husband!"

May I reply on behalf of the brave lady and her husband with sense of justice?

If you are simply naive, it is a pitty that you feel so.
If you ally yourself with the liars and refuse to critially think when facing the many facts, isn't it a pride to be shamed by you?
qiqi007 回复 悄悄话 谢谢,写的真是太好了!
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 "达赖喇嘛几次公开声明反对暴力,反对西藏独立,维护中国的统一,并支持北京奥运,这么明确的表示了他的观点."

Confuscius says: 听其言,观其行。
Do you know what he has been promoiting for? The large area covering many parts of Gan Su, QIng Hai and Si Chuan. And rule by him and Tibetans? Do you know if the many other minorities agree or not? I tell you, I contacted many minoriteis, most of them don't like those aggressive Tibetans represented by the rioters. So before ask Han, ask other minorities first.
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 李宏志:

"搂主如此“爱国”,竟也热衷于扛“洋炮”呢??? 虚伪!"
--please tell me who is 当代的义和团?
5r 回复 悄悄话 你的德国老公可以有他自己的观念,并得到大家的尊重.这就是西方民主的可贵之处, 也是中国目前所缺乏的,也是许多的问题和麻烦会产生的重要原因之一. 但请你的先生不要散布谣言, 听到了一些未经证实的传言而不负责任的把它传播出去,这样的人品不像一个所谓的微软公司总裁的行为,像是街头游民,八婆的很,他的真实身份到底如何无人可知,只有你自己知道吧. 达赖喇嘛几次公开声明反对暴力,反对西藏独立,维护中国的统一,并支持北京奥运,这么明确的表示了他的观点.使用暴力的只是藏青会等极端组织.
中国政府应当和较温和的达赖喇嘛接触,团结他,感化他,并由此影响整个国际社会对中国的观感. 要知道一个国家是否受到国际上的尊重,不仅仅是其经济上的繁荣,不错,这几年中国的经济发展的很快,民众的生活水平有显著的提高,国力也在增强,但是其他方面也应当同步的跟上. 如果只是强调经济好了,老百姓生活好了,那与关在动物园或者家养的宠物们有何区别,宠物们的生活也很好呀, 可就是没有自由和尊严, 人是需要精神食粮的.
不可否认, 中国的人权状况比起文革时期进步了许多,这是个好的势头,问题是步伐太慢,和国际社会脱钩,这无疑是提供子弹让反共势力来攻击我们,这样很被动.这些年许多的事情的发生也说明了这一点.政府应当区分达赖喇嘛和藏青会,对藏青会等暴力组织决不手软,但对达赖喇嘛要接触,交流,善于用他的影响力以创建一个和谐和社会.如果失去良机,达赖喇嘛失势,那时政府在西藏问题上必将与藏青会这样的暴力组织交手,处理起来会更麻烦.
supernova13 回复 悄悄话 一个洋人编辑的揭露藏独和介绍西藏历史的视频,望广为散播
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY
ordinaryguy 回复 悄悄话 Shame on you and your husband!
傲霜斗雪 回复 悄悄话 有眼力!觅得好夫婿!
李宏志 回复 悄悄话 搂主如此“爱国”,竟也热衷于扛“洋炮”呢??? 虚伪!
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 smith34

"should there be a democratic vote in tibet about indepence motion and i bet you 99% will vote yes, just like if asked shanghainess to vote to be part of us or china, 99% would vote in favor of us.
just like 99% of you here are not in china.........tell me if i am wrong...."

In your dream! How much do you know about the majority Tibetans in China? Do you know hoe much the appreciated the communist party (even though I have other opinions about the party, but I have to respect the fact) for giving them back the land, the freedom to live by their own will, the doctors who gave the mhealth, the electricities, the clean water, the road they can do business with people, the privilaged beneficial policies special to minorities including all Tibetans, and all the infrastructures? They say they thank communicst party more than 1000 times for all these. The only complaint they have is that they feel their life style and young generations are too much 'Hanized', by which actually they are refering to modernized with more like western cultures such as blun jeans, coko cola, pop music. They thought these are Han culture, because today's China is indeed very much westenized. just like these Tibetans claim they are Hanized, can we also claim that China is westernized? But isn't that you are promoting for China? Then how do you see Tibetan being Hanized? Because it is the fact that they like all other minoirties in China do have the freedom of religion and their cultural heritages are better preserved with the help of all other people in China, mostly Hans.

Don't be too naive, too. Should there be a democratic vote in China about Taiwan, the civil war would have resumed long time ago.

Again, China's gevernment is no perfect, it has a long way to go. But I think we should be objective to fact China today and relate back to history. And all Tibetan issues are no exception. Tibet's situation has always be the same as the rest of China, if not better with all the voluntary support from all over the country. And I know since the 80s, and especially 90s and 00's, all China has made huge improvement towards the right direction. Tibet witness the same change.

IT is easy to tell what critiques or 关切 are sincere, positive and constructive, and what critiques or 关切 are simply the excuses to vent out the long-pented frustraion over China's raising based on the dark psycho of superiority and self-righteous.

If you are really willing to discuss, check this link:
Driving Alone through Regions Inhabited by Ethnic Tibetans after the Riot
http://www.517sc.com/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=14&replyid=1674908&id=267963&page=1&skin=0&Star=1

http://themodernchina.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/driving-alone-the-riot/
--with English Introduction
赤脚大仙 回复 悄悄话 也感谢你对你老公的教育,希望每一个嫁给老外的女同胞都向你学习
adc 回复 悄悄话 写得非常好!感谢你和你的老公。应该授予你的先生“中国人民的好女婿”的称号。
nktlymphocyte 回复 悄悄话 西藏永远是中国的领土,13亿中国人愿意为此牺牲生命。不认清时务的人只会自讨没趣。

让我们看看这些秋后的蚂蚱能蹦多久。

承载5000年文明的中华儿女苦心经营,荣辱与共。我们国家有很多不足,但凡是有人的哪个角落是十全十美的?只要大家众志成城,我们不会做得比任何人差。有些人一谈人权上帝听了就笑。

我很高兴中国越来越民主,越来越开放。
豆瓣 回复 悄悄话 你德国老公?看上去倒更像是你的“火星”老公啊,呵呵。
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 荒唐:

回美男玉米:

"相信你的英文水平并不比我高明"
--I never claimed so.

"中国人之间用中文交流更实在。"
--now you think you are a Chinese? I am an American Chinese. I just speak for truth.

1)谁告诉你西藏以前是农奴制,你知道“农奴制”一词是怎么来的吗?
--what books did you read?
2)你看过达赖喇嘛的书吗?你对达赖喇嘛思想有多了解?你对非暴力思想有多了解?
--Which do you think is more improtant? Saying or doing? To your disappointment, I know Gan Di and Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa, not only what they say but also what theyu did.
3)为什么这么多西方人支持达赖喇嘛,可以说是一边倒地支持(当然排除这位德裔老公),难道仅仅用阴谋论可以解释?
--Of cause not all Dalai supporters know what they are doing. Al ot of them are jus tlike you--naive in terms of upholding human rights, freedom and democracy in the simplest form without any dielectic thinking, which should be a tradition of western civilization since Socrates. It is not your fault to be naive. It is your fault to be lacking of independant thinking even when facing so many facts and truth.

Please tell me the difference between flu and right?
If you don't understand this, how can you claim to be independant thinking (actually, critical thinking)?
多想想,不要仅仅做一个当代的义和团。"


nov11 回复 悄悄话 To 荒唐:

去问问你那些一边倒支持达赖喇嘛的西方“友人“们这三个问题:
1)在地图上指出西藏在哪里, 西藏以前是什么制,现在是什么制?
2)你看过达赖喇嘛的书吗?你对达赖喇嘛思想有多了解?你对非暴力思想有多了解?
3)为什么这么多中国人(包括不支持CCP的)反藏独,难道仅仅用洗脑论可以解释?
xy888 回复 悄悄话 支持思慧女士和她的丈夫!如果美国的印第安人,阿拉斯加原住民要求独立,那么西方人的残忍性就会充分暴露了。
smith34 回复 悄悄话 and ladies and gentlement, go to baidu.com news windown, type in "torch relay", 3 pages of news, none of them mentioned discruption to the torch relay. what a peaceful and wonderful atmosphere the chinese government has created inside china.................................... conclusion: only a democratically elected capable and strong government will be able to bring the chinese to the top of the world.............we are not yet there.....
西湖歌舞 回复 悄悄话 谢谢,写的真是太好了,感觉甚至比很多中国人的认识都要深刻得多。
smith34 回复 悄悄话 should there be a democratic vote in tibet about indepence motion and i bet you 99% will vote yes, just like if asked shanghainess to vote to be part of us or china, 99% would vote in favor of us.
just like 99% of you here are not in china.........tell me if i am wrong....
maplenew 回复 悄悄话 回复荒唐的评论:
就你能。达赖喇嘛就是西方养的一条狗,对西方说一套,做的是另外一套。出了事,都推到别人身上,功劳都是自己的。得个和平奖有什么了不起,那个杀了很多巴勒斯坦的以色列总理还得了呢(不是拉宾)。达赖就是一个骗子,蹦跶不了几天了。我也听过达赖的演讲,搞得好象很崇高很神秘似的,很能迷惑一些无知群众。他在西方的形象,全是包装出来的,就跟杰克逊全球演唱会一样,无数东京无知少女尖叫,其实他们很多人根本听不懂,就是觉得酷,觉得爽。
smith34 回复 悄悄话 达赖dalai is only a little soldier of cia, its the muscle wrestling between 8 western countries against middle kingdom again..........now lets see how the current chinese leadship will do......
smith34 回复 悄悄话 "女人乳房做的碗"? bro, how to do that?
smith34 回复 悄悄话 certainly a lot comments here! pity when you guys get high blood pressure these days for the unsuccessful torch relay, some chinese government officers may be upset about the possiblities of making less pocket money because of possible boycott.
隔壁小草 回复 悄悄话 达赖喇嘛如果只是一个宗教领袖,我还对他有几分尊重,如果他只是想通过谈判争取西藏独立我也还对他留有起码的尊重,但是今天的暴力行为,让我看贬他,让我鄙视他。不过像其他政客一样,是一个为自己谋取政治利益的,捞取政治资本的无耻政客而已。
隔壁小草 回复 悄悄话 19年前,我像天安门广场上的学生一样以为西方世界能够帮助中国走向民主,繁荣。10年的国内生活,9年的北美生活让我懂得,繁荣,富强,民主的中国只能靠中国人自己。中国人不需要,也不可能从西方世界得到中国人自己的民主。
荒唐 回复 悄悄话 回美男玉米:

相信你的英文水平并不比我高明,中国人之间用中文交流更实在。

1)谁告诉你西藏以前是农奴制,你知道“农奴制”一词是怎么来的吗?
2)你看过达赖喇嘛的书吗?你对达赖喇嘛思想有多了解?你对非暴力思想有多了解?
3)为什么这么多西方人支持达赖喇嘛,可以说是一边倒地支持(当然排除这位德裔老公),难道仅仅用阴谋论可以解释?

多想想,不要仅仅做一个当代的义和团。
cbs2008 回复 悄悄话 关于独立,让我想起了满族.要说独立,在中国可能没有哪一个民族比满族(或东北地区)更有资格和条件了,他们的皇帝被推翻了,而且在那之后他们曾经也成立了"满洲国",那里有辽阔富饶的土地,并且在他们统治中国之前,东北也不属于中国.但是现在一谈起台湾或西藏的独立,我身边的朋友中最控制不住情绪表示愤慨的就是身边的那些东北朋友(有满族的,也有不是满族的),他们早已认定自己是个纯粹的中国人了,他们已经被中国同化了,他们中甚至没有一个人会读,或写他们自己的语言.也许有人会说这样不好,他们丢失了自己的传统和文化,但是这就是现实.我想西藏的问题也需要时间,现在火车已经通到那里,将来还会有越来越多开放和沟通的渠道,它的地理位置摆在那里,那里人的心早晚会属于中国,中国是一个非常能包容的国家,这也是她几千年历尽磨难还能生生不熄的原因.至于外国势力的挑拨,可能还会持续下去,但是他们不会得逞的,相信我们的政府会越做越好,也包括在人权方面的改善,但是可能会由于这些外部势力的干扰而放慢步伐.
yhl88 回复 悄悄话 让西方了解中国中国人要从点滴做起,像思慧这样,要做但不要性急,以理服人!
yhl88 回复 悄悄话 让西方了解中国中国人要从点滴做起,像思慧这样,要做但不要性急,以理服人!
ununpentium 回复 悄悄话 很有说服力。尝试发给BBC或VOA看看如何。
估计发给赔裸析是不会起任何作用的。
人一旦被洗脑,后果严重。
Deconinck 回复 悄悄话 Hi, Still me. I was just interrupted by my family doctor.
Please let your friends as many as possible read the English article in the first link because it shows who is behind the Tibet turmoil---the US itself.
I'll try to send these two links to the European Commission and the European Parlarment. Due to my previous major, I still have contact with them.
天仇 回复 悄悄话 你老公很牛,相信你对他的影响很大

谢谢
Deconinck 回复 悄悄话 Hi,

We are almost the same age. I am in Belgium.
Please open this link and let your husband read this article. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8625
By the way, do you or your husband can understand french? Here is another link, an interview of a Wersterner working in Tibet 3 years.
http://socio13.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/tibet-reponses-sur-lhistoire-la-religion-la-classe-des-moines-les-problemes-sociaux-la-repression-le-role-des-usa/
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 荒唐
"但中国必须了解在现代社会中一个国家如何对待自己的公民,国际社会有正当理由表达关切,这并不只是国家主权的问题。"

Ok, let's suppose that China had left Tibet alone with its slavery system and the Politic-Region Unity governement, it is actually very easy for China to do. But what would today's western world would be saying? what would you be saying? would you be praising that counter-civilization social system or would you condamn China for doing nothing, just like today the accusation for Burma issue? And what should China do according to Westerners standard? not only 有正当理由表达关切, but also has the absolute right to change it. like President Lincoln did to the sourth states in the civil war. Isn't this what should be expected from western's standard? But it is so ridiculous that when China did so and today these self-righteous people accuse China of depriving Tibetans of their human rights, culture and tradition.

It is easy to accuse people than doing it yourself.

Cihna still has a long way to go to reach to the general civilization standard matching to most of the western countries, this is true. But at the same time, we have to be objective to the huge improvement China has made towards this direction.

The probelms remain in Tibet is not typical of Tibet or Tibetans only. All China had experienced the worst time during the Cultural Revolution. Tibet as part of China is no exception. Even Confucious' home got damaged.

But things have greatly changed since 80s, and especially in the 90s and this century. Tibet's situation has been improving the same as the rest of China. To claim genocide and clutural destruction wis a completely lie. Basic statistics will show you the fact. And you ignore the majority of Tibetans in China and focus on a small group of the exciled Tibetans, is this indepedant thinking?

China has been changing? Did you change your mind-set? Did the west change the mind-set?
newhuaren 回复 悄悄话 回复反共先丰的评论:
你是反共还是反华?我看你的论调完全是反华。如果你曾经是一个华人,现在加入了美国国籍,我想美国不一定欢迎一个不热爱自己国家的人作为自己的公民.如果你是一个土生土长的美国人,你为什么要反华哪?你并不了解中国,那是中国人的事,与你和干?
collector 回复 悄悄话 棒!替所有中国人感谢你老公哦!
岁月无敌 回复 悄悄话 顶!如果有德文的就更好了,我可以拿给邻居们看。呵呵,谢谢!
caoyuan 回复 悄悄话 I am looking for such a husband as well. Any clue? thanks
裘女 回复 悄悄话 -have u thought about what would China like if 6/4/89 was successful????印度解放了50年,他们的经济又怎样了???

思慧-best wishes for your love ones
panasdfg 回复 悄悄话 Very good letter. Thank you and your husband very much.
godlovechina 回复 悄悄话 Thank you!!! We support you!!!!
nov11 回复 悄悄话 To 荒唐:

"国际社会有正当理由表达关切"?又想来个“友邦惊诧“?你的脑子进水了?你就是用这幅脑子来独立思考的?你就是用这幅脑子来定义你的“人类良知“?难怪呢!
summer_rose 回复 悄悄话 回复反共先丰的评论:Are you an America citizen? Are you even able to write your message in English? I am so sick of so many fake bastards who never can speak English either write English, they are just shameless saying they are AMERICAN!
gd 回复 悄悄话 像你老公致敬;祝福你们全家!
荒唐 回复 悄悄话 共和党亚利桑那州参议员麦凯恩星期四通过书面声明表示,美中关系至关重要,美国重视与中国政府在战略、经济以及外交议题上的合作;但中国必须了解在现代社会中一个国家如何对待自己的公民,国际社会有正当理由表达关切,这并不只是国家主权的问题。
生于七零年代 回复 悄悄话 回复nov11的评论:
support you.
china's human right, chinese decide!
by the way,
shame on p928! you are ignorant and naive!
老流氓 回复 悄悄话 The letter was very objective and informative.

Thank you, and your husband!

生于七零年代 回复 悄悄话 applaud and show my respect to your husband.
it is hard for white people who grew up circumstanced by distorted reports about CHINA to open their mind to react fairly.
you know, since i came to Germany three years ago, i have never seen any agreement with China on German newspaper and magzines, no matter how good China has done. all unjustice and biased reports. for the olympic flame relay in london and paris, you were not able to see any shots of china supporters on screens, but full of your eyes are protestors. this is what they are proud of "free media". what a shame!
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 p928

You assumed to much and still has the sense of superiority over Chinese capacity of independant thinking. I went throught June 4th tragedy in 89 at Tiananmen Square and has for a long time deemed western counties as the heaven of free speech and independant thinking. Now I realize no matter how you think independantly and how good your will is, there are somehing that cannot be changed even in this country, some deep-rooted bias, prejudice, sense of supriority and self-righteousness. Free speech doesn't mean everyone has open mind, fair stand, or good will. If you refuse, even the truth is facing directly at you, you can choose to ignore or get angry, of find other excuses. You seem to be one type of these kind of persons. I don't expect you to be able to change your mind to agree with me, but I feel the obligation to speak out what I think is truth and right so that more people will tell by themselves.
冰雪珊 回复 悄悄话 首先恭喜思慧姐姐找到如此好的老公,恭喜!!!
其次,我觉得不管怎样,2008是中国辉煌的一年,不管是哪一个民族都应该一起努力让中国在世界伫立,这是所有人的骄傲!!
有网无名 回复 悄悄话 有理有据。
祝福你们全家!
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复p928的评论:
If you say Chinese people cannot think independently, did you ever heard of 1989? Many people (including myself) was up against the government, with the risk of losing jobs, even lives.
如果你觉得西方的民主良药可以拯救中国,请问在过去的150年中,外国给中国带来些什麽东西?是鸦片,是南京大屠杀,是割地赔款,是”华人与狗不得进入“的告示,是经济封锁,是火烧圆明园。
问题的根本不在于民主人权, 而在于只有中国人才能解决中国人的问题。 这不是民族主义,而是理性的思考,是中国人一百多年的血泪教训。
gjhk 回复 悄悄话 给你全家送上最美好的祝愿。
你老公真棒。希望他对你也很“棒”。
nov11 回复 悄悄话 To p928:
"西方國家為中國老百姓爭取自由! 爭取人權!" Ha, what a big lie!

我们中国老百姓的自由人权我们中国老百姓自己争取,用不着西方国家来给我们争取!
DADI_2000 回复 悄悄话 回复荒唐的评论:
个人认为:达赖喇嘛是最没有资格说人权的.几十年前,达赖喇嘛为农奴争取过人权吗?
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 4. dalai-lama-hero-in-western-world.html

cksun 回复 悄悄话 Ding! It is wonderful! Thank you.
彼岸的灯火 回复 悄悄话 顶,你老公真棒,向你们致敬!
Dr.Bo 回复 悄悄话 Dear all my frends including Han chinese and Tibetans, as a tibet born han chinese,I believe that I know much more real story about tibetans and Han chinese. My parent had contribute almost their whole life to the health care of tibetans and they speak tibetan's language better than even Han chinese. As doctors,they saved thousands of the life of tibetans. The relationship between Tibetans and Han chinese have been as good as everyone in the same family. The most common words I hear from my tibetan friends is: "yemjera,ya:gu:sta:do" ( doctor is very good) (Sorry,I do not know How to write Tibetan but only remember their pronunciation.). I am so upset what those separatist have done rently in Tibet.The violence the seperatist done are really hurting every member in our nice family,and I definitely believe that the separatists are terrorist ( they actually are)since what they did in tibet are no different from the terrorist did to the twin tower in New York. And we, including Tibetans and Han chinese ,should unite together to fight against them.Also I believe that these terrorist are the real enemy of humanbeingin the earth.
pj 回复 悄悄话 Agreed!
The most people in Western Countries are so naive that they are brain washed by Media.
Western Countries Media have Communist bias. They have very simple logic: Communism is evil, China is a communist Country, so China is evil. They don't know Communism is only the name in China. I think China is more Capitalism than USA nowadays.
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复荒唐的评论:
If you have better knowledge about Tibet, please post it so we can learn from you. Mr. Y's posting shows his passion for Chinese and Tibetan people. Even if you don't agree with him, you don't have the right to attack their personality and character. If you think you represent human rights, let me tell you something: you have just violated the human right of their family. You are the one who needs to 把手摸着自己的良心问问自己
moonwalker123 回复 悄悄话 How was your house in Shanghai? Hope the problem has been solved. Best wishes.
p928 回复 悄悄话 這不是看球賽吧!
民族主義並不適用在這邊!
西方國家為中國老百姓爭取自由! 爭取人權!
卻被說成無知!!
受思想限制的中國人到現在都還不會獨立思考!
只會用民族主義判斷對錯
看得爽就說好
看不爽就說人家無知

您真正了解藏民的生活嗎?
您真正知道藏民爭取的是什麼嗎?
人在國外有機會看到立場不同的言論
卻還是用民族主義判對是非
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 8. Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth
http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

9. THE SHADOW OF THE DALAI LAMA
Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism
http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Index.htm
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 7. Tibet: a nice video of tibet, open your eyes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv-2hMSnNSo&feature=related
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 6. Tibet: The Truth (oppression, monks, nuns... you're wrong)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 5. Dalai Lama's role in CIA by American official files.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCwC5RkdU4o&feature=related
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 3. CNN’s Program – Racist Remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=584D5fHB2H4
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 2. “Professional” Tibetan Protestor Exposed
http://themodernchina.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/professional-tibetan-protestor-exposed/
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 1. Driving Alone through Regions Inhabited by Ethnic Tibetans after the Riot
http://themodernchina.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/driving-alone-the-riot/
--with English Introduction
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 反共先丰and荒唐

Please click the following links. If you are still with consceince and sense of justice, you probably would at least put a doubt on what you always been told by western media or serious think the questions it is who that is brainwashed. I think you are not as naive as to draw a conclusion that since US is a country of free speech, people can never be brainwashed, and since China is ruled by communist party, people defending China must be brainwashed. If so, you are just a typical exanmple of how sturburn,naive, self-righteous and hypocrisy the people in this country can also be.

This 'either black or white' type of simple mind-set is indeed a typical of Cultural Revolution way of thinking.
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复caoyuan的评论:
Agree to caoyuan. This is a political issue. So how do you solve a political issue? Answer: politically.

Example: in 1500s, immigrants from Europe arrived in north America, fought many battles with native Indians and established a country called United States of America. They also fought battles with the British Royal army, because this Indian land was initially claimed by the rulers of England. History tells us that if you can keep it, it's yours.

Now this same country, which was established on Indian soil, is telling China to give up Tibit? Tibet had been a part of China long before the European immigrants set their foot in America. Is that legitimate enough to say that Tibet is part of China?

Please note, Dalai Lama himself does NOT support Tibet independence in his own speech. Regardless of his intentions, no one has the legitimate claim of this territory other than the Chinese government.
刀爷爷 回复 悄悄话 顶!谢分享!
在美一方 回复 悄悄话 回复民丰的评论:
对,我也和一些美国朋友交换过意见,发现他们支持藏独完全是听信了西方媒体一边倒的宣传。我给他们出示另一方的图片和资料(比如西藏以前的农奴状况和历史)以后,再让他们想想他们是否同意夏威夷和德克萨斯独立,他们大部分都说要再多想想。
nov11 回复 悄悄话 To 荒唐同学:
拜托!别动不动上纲上线的,质问人家有没有“人类的良知。“ 我看你给人扣大帽子的本事才真是得了文革的真传了呢, 还说人家文革,别在这儿起哄了。
战洪图 回复 悄悄话 人权呀?运毒轮能否告诉我人权包括那些具体内容?如果少数人的"人权"和多数人的人权诉求产生对立时怎么办?中国人更多的要求藏毒不要抢火炬,可他们还抢,是不是违反中国人的人权?
在美一方 回复 悄悄话 很好,谢谢!
民丰 回复 悄悄话 我是一个美国公民,我的理念是每个人都有发言权,不管是对是错。我认为你的老公写的信100%不是新华社的稿子, 这是一个美国明白人的发言. 我是一个中国地主的后人, 我不认为昔日的贵族 有权搞分裂因为他们在土地改革中失掉的土地和其他的东西. 凡发生的, 推动了经济和人权进步的, 都有其中道理. 不喜欢那块地方可以离开, 但无个人有权带着土地离开, 因为那片土地属于生息之上的人们, 这种权力是天赐的, 即使他们从不曾有过那张地契.
逆潮流而行, 心盲也.
atene 回复 悄悄话 谢谢分享!
moonwalker123 回复 悄悄话 Respectfully solute to you and your husband!

Thank god that Germany still have just and honest people who are willing and dare to speak out loud to tell the truth about a developing country with different culture, belief, and system.
wjbm3540 回复 悄悄话 反共先丰,你如果是中国制造你就不会因为你现在成了美国公民而诅咒制造你的爹妈,哪怕你是因为先用了美国人的钱后反共的。如果你是美国制造的美国佬,这里不是胡说八道的CNN,中国人听多了你们的谎言,不信你们的了。这就是你们的自由、民主?一旦有西方人说了你们认为对中国有利的公道,你们就会质疑此人是不是西方人?西方的民主、自由原来不过如此而已。
战洪图 回复 悄悄话 哈哈,运毒伦网上行动小组收拾起被中国人打乱的阵脚开始反攻了.CIA的经费到了,挣钱拉.
美男玉米 回复 悄悄话 思慧女士

May I collect your husband's letter and pass to our local people and/or use for activities to tell truth about Tibet?
nov11 回复 悄悄话 To Smith34:
Poor you! I feel so sorry for you. The one who has been totally brainwashed is YOU, because whenever you hear someone saying something different from what you hear from media, you would labeled him/her "brainwashed." Have you ever heard anything other than what is said in the Westen media? No! And you have lost your ability to think independently. This is why I say you are brainwashed.

荒唐 回复 悄悄话 你老公写这样一篇文章用中国的一句成语即是“爱屋及乌”,当然我没有把你说成是乌鸦的意思。看看街头上为什么这么多的白人支持西藏人,他们绝大部分是西方社会民间的声音。你和你老公想过为什么吗?西藏是否是中国的一部分是一个很简单的事实,达赖喇嘛也不否认是中国的一部分,中国对西藏拥有主权。问题的关键在于西藏独特的文化在中国的统治下正在走向灭亡,西藏人没有宗教信仰的真正自由,而这正是这么多西方人士同情支持达赖喇嘛的原因。还有。。。很多原因,你慢慢了解了,等你对西藏真正了解了,若你还具有人类的良知(不是民族情绪),你会收回此文。走上街头喊口号的人,都是文革一样瞎起哄的,其实他们对此一无所知。你生活在美国,你自己把手摸着自己的良心问问自己,如果具有普世价值的人权和民主思想都是无价值的虚伪的,难道中国的专制独裁才是普世的价值吗?
caoyuan 回复 悄悄话 Don't know if this is true. If it is, I think the guy does tell truth. The Chinese authorities have tried hard to develop Tibet, and has spent billion of dollars for this cause. The issue in Tibet is not economic, it is political, it is separism.
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复smith34的评论:
you are the one who is brainwashed. How many times have you been to China?
I was protesting the Chinese government in 1989. After that I left China in 1991 totally disappointed about the Chinese government. From 2000 to 2008, I have made about a dozen trips to China, visiting many cities. As a native Chinese, I was completely surprised by the progress in all aspects of people's lives in China.
Now I am proud of the Chinese government, not because I am a Chinese, but for what the government has achieved in past decade.

Many people in western world knows very little about today's China and believes that the preion of "freedom" will improve China's affairs. You need to open up your brainwashed mind and listen to some ordinary people who knows what's really going on there.
读拨林 回复 悄悄话 得民心者得天下,以前"天下"只是中国,现在该是全世界了吧怎么得法是政治问题我不太懂,如果全世界人民都不喜欢共产党就换一换,如果共产党下台中国就要乱,可不可以请共产党员们做好善后交接工作?如果不肯,又是为什么
smith34 回复 悄悄话 u certainly brainwashed ur husband somehow. he cerainly sounds extreme to me, like his leaderships.
jax 回复 悄悄话 什么人权自由, 只是西方终于找到了一个说得出口攻击中国的理由.

"我们每个人都知道与和奥运会之后相比,奥运会前中国政府对任何挑衅的反应都会是微弱的。" -- Y 是个明白人. 等奥运结束了, 咱们等着瞧吧.
laozimmmm 回复 悄悄话 藏传佛教的本意绝对不是让人们到大街上去破坏一切设施,也不是领导信众跟政府作对和分裂国家。以前历代达赖都是维护国家统一和平的贡献者,这一次的事情实在让人心寒。可预见的未来:达赖喇嘛死后,流亡的西藏人寻找一个所谓的达赖继续流亡。中央政府在西藏寻找一个真正的转世灵童请进大昭寺。这件事情必然是这样的结局了。藏传佛教的高明之处就是他的最高领袖是“活着的佛”——佛学里面最高的境界“佛”,别的佛学流派只不过是 得道的高僧,而藏传佛教明明白白的告诉信徒:我就是佛,在理论上跟释迦牟尼一样。这是一种政教合一的高明手 段,比起“禅宗”这样的苦行领悟派要高明很多了。有人亲眼见过西藏的宗教活动,农民辛辛苦苦一年的收成,在 活佛抚摸一下头以后就被别的高僧收走,西藏穷的叮当响,而布达拉宫富的让你无法想象,这就是问题的本质。西方媒体永远都这样:只要一有冲突就是中国政府不对!让人无法接受!
laozimmmm 回复 悄悄话

达赖统治的西藏是农奴制,农奴还不如当年美国的黑奴。农奴主可以把农奴当马骑,当牛使。割舌头,挖眼睛。 现在博物馆里还有当年农奴制下的人骨乐器,女人乳房做的碗,人皮做的鼓。。。达赖“教导”农奴,让他们认为今世受苦是前世作孽,所以今世要“超度”,把钱捐给他。达赖还把自己的大便、小便当“圣餐”给信徒吃(奥姆真理教的麻原张晃只是卖洗澡水而已)。在北京开政协会 议时,他的随从还不断收集他的大小便,送回西藏当“圣餐”。
raineed 回复 悄悄话 我认为别人的观点不可能完全符合自己的理念,重要的是要从别人的观点中了解到自己忽略的方面。所以非常感谢楼主老公的评论。因为其中很多观点对我很有启发。

我非常同意的一点是在土地改革中绝大多数人得到了利益,并且也有少数人受到冲击。这和国内其他地方的情况是一样的。当然没人知道如果没有土改,没有外部干涉,西藏在现代社会会发展成什么样子。既然已经发生了,那些受冲击的人自然而然的回来,并以这些为口实。

我没有看出来,“大规模的民族迁徙与种族灭绝可以划等号”(”反共先丰“所谓的)。当你用中文说种族灭绝的时候,那给人直接的印象是屠杀。你可能讲广义的灭绝,但请不要哗众取宠。

maoanz 回复 悄悄话 我也给avaaz.org, 这个组织发过信. 但是至今没有回音, 我建议大家一起给这个组织发抗议信. 为什么只有支持藏独的, 没有反对藏独的petition. 而且先去的信都没有回复. 这本身就是不民主, 不让大家表达自己的意见.
SFLSer 回复 悄悄话 回复反共先丰的评论:
SB
坐家妈妈 回复 悄悄话 谢谢分享!
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复ilovenz的评论:
Mr Y is expressing his own opinion. What evidence do you have to accuse him of taking sides?
Even if he were on the side of Beijing regime, so what? Does democracy and freedom equals anti-Beijing regime?

Mr. Y speaks with fact and reason. Many people talk about promoting democracy in China but at the same time they freely and irresponsibly accuse anyone who do not agree with them. I am glad that Chinese government is keeping this kind of "democracy" out of China.
SFLSer 回复 悄悄话 回复yuan2的评论:
你非常无知,哪怕在你觉得“自由”的西方,也不是什么话都能说得,我们国家的确对舆论控制的比较严格,那也是发展需要,而且现在情况也越来越好。

你竟然会觉得这篇文章有像是中宣部的作品,真是不知道你是瞎了还是压根没看过中宣部的东西....

notcnn 回复 悄悄话 谢谢您们一家
站着 回复 悄悄话 支持Mr.Y的观点。ZD的暴力也不该是应该信仰佛教民族的选择。
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复反共先丰的评论:
Dear Mr.(Ms.) 反共先丰:

As a Chinese citizen, I'd like to say that the so-called "freedom of speech" that some (I say some, not all) people trying to "give" to China is completely worthless.

Freedom of speech is not a universal silver bullet to solve all problems.

In the 1930s, when Nanjing city fell to Japanese hands, 300,000 civilian citizens were slaughtered. Would freedom of speech do them any good?

As a Chinese I do think our Communist Party has lots of room to improve. But I also know that the "freedom of speech" recipe precribed by western world will
not do China any good. Why? When China was invaded by foreign countries in the last century, did they give the Chinese any "freedom of speech"? They put up signs such as "Chinese and dogs are not allowed".

It is like someone just trashed my house and the next day he came back to tell me how to do home improvement.
kenma 回复 悄悄话 超赞你老公!
达赖是个出色的外交家,他所做的一切不是为了让普通藏民过上好日子,他的组织也没有那个能力,他们是为了让以前西藏的旧上层势力,旧贵族和寺庙势力重新在西藏得到特权.
coke_ca 回复 悄悄话 西藏是中国的,中国是世界的。未来的世界属于伟大的中国。
秒秒 回复 悄悄话 敬礼!可爱的中华姐妹和您的夫君!Admire, the respectable sister and your husband!

To ilovenz: I think he knows better about Tibet and China than you do (if you are white people, if you are not a white then that's another different issue then as you do not want the fact regard to China) and he got an objective angle to see all matters. You should visit China and Tibet yourself to see and hear by your own.

One white collegue of mine he used to think China was a very undeveloped country with very quite negative impreesion about the cheating taxi drivers and everything from his visit to China 8 years ago. This time he went China on business trip together with me. He saw taxi driver paid according to meters and he saw wide rode and the friendly of local people. He said "Everything has been perfect! It seems that Beijing is unmatchable as a place to gather for good business and good fun, but of course the heart of the city are the people. So, thank you! Besides, if somebody would have told me that a place like Chateau Laffitte exists near Beijing, I would have had difficulties to believe it, but now I have no choice but to trust my own eyes."

I do not wish to persude you about what you belive. Something out there are ture and people know the fact will have their opionion.
罪有应得 回复 悄悄话 现在幸灾乐祸的或是与中国政府有杀父之仇的人或是见不得穷人过年的人,作为正常的中国人应该为中国说话!
AZ009 回复 悄悄话 回复yuan2的评论:
yuan2's comment is totally nonsense:
(1) you accuse other people without any fact or reason
(2) no one has stopped you from speaking. you are trashing other people's speech with absolutely no knowledge and reason.
(3) you are the kind of person who thinks that "democracy = you must agree with me"
阿列克 回复 悄悄话 高英姬 妹妹
你俩连这点都达不成共识,还过个屁呀
委屈求群忍辱偷生的日子该到头了,按照这两天街上的形势,你老公是要狗血喷头的
反共先丰 回复 悄悄话 我是一个美国公民,我的理念是每个人都有发言权,不管是对是错。但我认为你的老公写的信是100%新华社的稿子,因为在美国早就痛定思痛,大规模的民族迁徙与种族灭绝可以划等号的。写这信的人竟然以为青藏铁路带来的移民是对土著有利,那就表示他不了解美国厉史,更表示他是一个真正的冒牌货。
themist 回复 悄悄话 回复yuan2的评论:你和藏独的强调差不多.SHAME ON YOU!
回复楼主:你老公还是明白人,难能可贵!我可以拿去给我们公司的看,省的我着急起来讲不明白,很好!
eveparis 回复 悄悄话 说的都是真实事件!应该让全世界的人们认清历史和正义!
回复 悄悄话 还是有明白的人。“如果把藏人换成是伊斯兰人,我们还会这样同情他们吗?”“如果那些平民是犹太人而武装分子是巴勒斯坦人,或者那些平民是世界其他国家人民的话,还会有任何美国人站在那些别的时候被称作是恐怖分子的人一边吗?”
能够换位思考,才显公平心。“唯一和这个不可逆转的潮流对抗的是那些旧贵族。这些旧贵族强行推行一种为自我服务的与世界其他地区完全脱节的落后的生活方式。也许改造西藏的最好方式应该让那些受压迫的劳苦大众自己起来反对他们的旧主人,这就会包括一些可预见的无政府混乱和经济的困境”能站在大多数人的利益立场看问题,益显深明大义。赞一个!
回复 悄悄话 还是有明白的人。“如果把藏人换成是伊斯兰人,我们还会这样同情他们吗?”“如果那些平民是犹太人而武装分子是巴勒斯坦人,或者那些平民是世界其他国家人民的话,还会有任何美国人站在那些别的时候被称作是恐怖分子的人一边吗?”
能够换位思考,才显公平心。“唯一和这个不可逆转的潮流对抗的是那些旧贵族。这些旧贵族强行推行一种为自我服务的与世界其他地区完全脱节的落后的生活方式。也许改造西藏的最好方式应该让那些受压迫的劳苦大众自己起来反对他们的旧主人,这就会包括一些可预见的无政府混乱和经济的困境”能站在大多数人的利益立场看问题,益显深明大义。赞一个!
大刀无刃 回复 悄悄话 楼上的,凡是和中宣部观点一致的就都“不像一个接受西方民主教育下成年人”吗?凡是“接受西方民主教育下成年人”就都不会和“中宣部观点一致”吗?这从逻辑学的角度就不通,更不要讨论问题了。
蛛儿 回复 悄悄话 不容易,你很幸福:)
sxfzz 回复 悄悄话 那么你认为一个接受西方民主教育的下成年人的该是咋说的????
clsdavid 回复 悄悄话 to yuan2, 倒,“民主的精髓之一就是要允许别人讲话,容忍不同的意见" 你必须允许Mr Y说他自己所知的西藏, Mr Y不代表中国,难道他就没有权利说出真相吗?少来那一套,你自己不让别人说话还说什么民主的精髓, 别人一说公正话你就说是中宣部,你以为你是谁,民主自由之神?你不配,我说的是实话,你必须允许我说话。
ilovenz 回复 悄悄话 your husband is a german-americans. so what? it only indicates your husband was standing on the side of beijing regime. it doesn't mean he was right or he knew tibet issues better than others.
me12 回复 悄悄话 sounds like a very educated man with great acknowledgement.
props.
高英姬 回复 悄悄话 谢谢。明天第一件事情就是让我老公读这封英语信,我可以少费很多口舌。
yuan2 回复 悄悄话 和中宣部的腔调差不多。不像一个接受西方民主教育下成年人的文章。

民主的精髓之一就是要允许别人讲话,容忍不同的意见。那个政府不许别人讲话?你应当清楚!
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