Tibet's Administration Surrendering Nationhood
Image:tibetsun
To Buddhist thinking political concepts such as nation, territory and national identity would no doubt be filed under illusion and attachment, more obstacles on the road to enlightenment. Perhaps such interpretation explains the willingness of exiled Tibetan Prime Minister, Kalon Samdhong Rinpoche to lower-the-flag on any prospect of self-determination and independence for Tibet. After decades of study into the obtuse and rarified philosophical backwaters of Tibetan-Buddhism such earth-bound objectives presumably hold little meaning.
What counts is the maintenance of Tibet’s spiritual traditions, not the political aspirations of its people, if some accommodation with communist China can be arranged, which will secure the continuance and freedom of Buddhism inside Tibet, then that will be considered a success. It matters not that under China’s so-called law on Regional Autonomy Tibetans will remain under the jackboot of communist Chinese control, victim to the draconian dictates of communist national and regional law, Tibetan women subject to a policy which forces them to undergo sterilisation by order of the comunist regime. While Tibetans are permitted, by their communist rulers, to practice Buddhism without limitations and enjoy the right to speak their language, all will be well. Such is the horizon of achievement held by the exiled Tibetan Administration. The lack of genuine political and civil freedoms, denial of free speech, absence of a truly independent legal system, exploitation of natural resources, continuing colonization through population transfer can it seems be happily accepted, providing Tibetans enjoy-the-right to offer mantras and meditate in peace.
Can we imagine a similar arrangment being considered a reasonable solution by Jewish leaders in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the reading of the Torah is tolerated while Polish Jews continue to be subjugated by Nazi-Law? Is the Palestinian leadership going to follow a similar road by agreeing to Israeli occupation and governance on the provision its people can freely practice Islam? Yet Tibetans are being forced by their own Administration to consent to communist Chinese rule, surrender any hope of self-determination and independence and become another so-called national minority of communist China, in exchange for religious and language freedoms.
“Whereas the unity among nationalities is the basis of a country’s stability, China’s stability is the basis of peace throughout the world. Nobody can take this issue lightly. The exile Tibetan Administration led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, serves as an independent spokesperson of the six million Tibetan people. This Administration has now and again made it amply clear to the relevant authorities of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that it firmly holds on to the mutually beneficial Middle-Way policy, which seeks to resolve the problem of Tibet along the line of the existing constitutional provisions of the PRC. The envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama have, in particular, made this very clear — both verbally and in writing — to the heads of China’s Central United Front Work Department in the course of the eight rounds of formal talks and one round of informal talk they have had with them since 2002. That we are committed to finding a solution to the Tibet problem within the Chinese political framework can also be gleaned from the contents of the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for All Tibetans (this memorandum has already been made public now) the Tibetan interlocutors presented to the PRC during the latest, eighth round of talks. From our side, because we are committed to pursuing an approach that does not seek estrangement of the Tibetan and Chinese peoples, there is no change whatsoever in our thinking that in the future also, we should engage in dialogue with the Chinese leadership on the memorandum we submitted last year.
