Dalai Lama says Tibet’s autonomy drive has failed

After decades of repression by China, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change.

On September 30, 2006, Chinese soldiers opened fire on 71 Tibetans who were escaping to Nepal. A 17-year-old nun died and a 20-year-old man was severely injured. Despite numerous international witnesses, the Chinese police insisted that the shooting was in self-defense.

One year later, China tightened its control over Tibetan Buddhism and it requires all reincarnated lamas to be approved by Chinese authorities, a requirement that flagrantly interferes with the tradition of reincarnation of living Buddhas as practiced in Tibet for thousands of years.

Anyway, if Tibet was not annex by China, may be Tibet might have turned out to be a benevolent semi-feudal theocratic kingdom like Bhutan or Assam or in a not so ideal scenario it might have become a turbulent corrupt monarchy like Nepal.

The reality is that Tibet is firmly under Chinese control and is going to remain that way. The Han Chinese will soon be the majority people in Tibet. Tibetans will soon be relegated to a subservient second class “minority” in their own country. I feel sorry for the Tibetans. I have been to Lahsa in 1975 and I saw the systemic dilution of the Tibetan Buddhism by the Hans.

Tibet is not Kosovo or Gaza or Mindanoe. It has the misfortune to be located next to a country of one billion plus Han Chinese who are going through a prolonged phase of massive resource-hungry economic development, combined with visceral nationalism. There is no way the Chinese Government will ever tolerate any serious degree of autonomy for Tibet, whether that be political, economic, religious or cultural. They are control freaks.

Beijing will now impose a complete news blackout on Tibet and there will be mass arrests soon. As I said in some of the blogs during the Olympics, that, after the Olympics, the arrests and executions of Tibetans will go full swing. We are seeing this happening now.

Chinese authorities still ban  His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and a world-renowned pacifist, from returning to Tibet.

It is sad to know that the prospects for Tibetan independence/autonomy are grim.

I know and I hope China does care about its international reputation.

My heart is for the People of Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.