50th Anniversary of Tibetan Uprising

The March 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising against Chinese rule in March 1959, and the escape of the spiritual leader Dalai Lama, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, across the Himalayas into India. It also marks the first anniversary of an unprecedented wave of protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau, to be met by a brutal crackdown. A prayer meeting was held by Dalai Lama commemorating the Tibetans who died in 1959 and 2008’s riots in Tibet. More unusual are the reports from China of two bomb explosions in Qinghai province and clashes between Tibetans and the local police.

Hardline Policies
During the last 50 years, China has instituted increasingly hardline policies that undermine Tibetan culture and religion; the Tibetan people have been denied freedom of expression; their language has been downgraded; and their economic resources appropriated by the Chinese state, with increasing numbers of Chinese migrants moving to the Tibetan plateau. The Tibetan people had reached a breaking point, and a cycle of dissent began in March 2088 and continues today, striking at the heart of Communist Party rule and challenging its legitimacy as never before.

Bombings have previously occurred in Tibetan areas. Beijing has portrayed them as being part of a campaign of violence by the Dalai Lama and his supporters to overthrow Chinese rule, although authorities have provided little evidence to support the allegation. In April 2008, about 16 Tibetan Buddhist monks were arrested for their alleged involvement in a series of attempts to blow up an electricity substation, a police post and a fuel depot in eastern Tibet. No injuries were reported in the bombings, some of which failed.

Tibetan IdentityGanzi, a rugged, deeply Buddhist region filled with monasteries and nunneries, is known for its strong Tibetan identity and has been at the center of dissent for years. It saw some of the most violent protests last spring.

The unrest in Lhasa in 2008 was triggered when monks staging a peaceful commemoration of the aborted March 10, 1959, uprising were blockaded by police. It spread to three other provinces in western China — Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai — and was the most sustained and widespread Tibetan uprising in decades.

The Government of China, especially during the past year, has engaged in a comprehensive cover up of the torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across Tibet combined with a virulent propaganda offensive against the exiled Tibetan leader, Dalai Lama. During the 50th anniversary period this month, Tibetans continue to “disappear”, often being taken from their homes in the middle of the night to face extreme brutality in “black jails”. About 1,200 Tibetans remain unaccounted for since the protests started.

Disappearing Culture
Tibetans may be moving down their own path of unreality. The 2008’s riots and the bomb explosions of 2009 underline that Dalai Lama’s nonviolent creed is finding fewer takers among younger Tibetans. Dalai Lama has long understood that the battle for Tibet is not about independence, it is about preserving his people’s slowly disappearing culture.

Despite the esoteric elements of his role, like his leader, the Dalai Lama, the monk medium for the Oracle is also a thoroughly contemporary religious figure. And, like Dalai Lama and the young Karmapa, he is engaged in a critical initiative that is the key to Tibet’s future and the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist cultural identity — the forging of new alliances and understanding with the people of China. What is needed is a hard re-look, especially by China, as to how the status quo on Tibet can be changed to everyone’s advantage.