Dayle PAA 04/17

Dayle Walters
04/ 17/ 12
Writ. 101
Draft
                    China in Tibet

    I read the news and I always knew that there were problems in Tibet do to the  China’s government’s involvement. However it was not till I took an anthropology class that I actually understood why there was more tension between China and one of their provinces. I watched this movie on sky burials and was in complete awe at what they were doing. I am not religious in any capacity of the word so I feel no strong tendencies to say that there actions are anymore disconcerting than any other religion.
  

    A sky burial sticks to its name quite accurately. After someone dies their body is carried by family to a temple where monks and family help guild the spirit of the dead toward a new life. After, the body is no longer anything but a vessel for the soul and can be disposed of. The reason, however, that the bodies of the dead are cut up is so that if by chance any remnants of the spirit remans in the body it is released into the world. The body is only a case for the soul and is no longer important after death. Many religions have a problem with this idea of cutting up there dead. However as the Buddhist Channel reports “About 80 percent of the Tibetans still prefer celestial burial, as it has been observed for hundreds of years, acknowledged Basang Wangdu, director of the Nationality Research Institute of the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences.” 3         I don’t see it as any different than any other religion in that they are just following there beliefs. But why would a government become involved in the decision as to whether or not this is an acceptable behavior?
    After concurring the territory of Tibet, China became very involved in the provinces’ government. Tibet’s theocracy was heavily influenced with the Buddhist movement from India in the “” century. After China conquered the territory in “” Tibetan government went through a multitude of changes. The Dalai Lama was forced into excel   as the spiritual leader of Tibet he plays an important role in the governmental view of the nation. Though most Tibetan people still take spiritual and political advice from the Dalai Lama the Chinese government still does not permit him back into his own country. 
    The Chinese government has taken further steps to keep control over Tibet by enforcing that the Dalai Lama will be buried in mainland chain, and in so doing, the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will come from mainland China insuring that the Chinese government will have a say on who becomes the next reincarnation. The Chinese have over-stepped there boundaries in this conquered territory and have become too forceful in their quest to make Tibet a section of the People’s Republic of China.
    The Chinese government has also affected the Tibetan people’s ability to complete religious obligations such as sky burials and the possibility of becoming a monk.  I feel that many governments have tried to do this over the history including the U.S.A when the tried to keep the south from receding from the north. China is only trying to keep it’s country together, but in so doing I say that they are crossing boundaries that were discovered by the trial and errors of other countries and the outcome of other nations battles within themselves. China can learn from these trials and errors and not make the same mistakes as other nations while come out on top as a whole nation.  
    Controlling a conquered territory for a long period of time is difficult. Bringing even somewhat similar cultures under one government can be a challenge. Tibetan culture is supremely centered around their religion. Even though mainland China and Tibet are both mainly Buddhist the branches of different types of Buddhism are very different. The differences between the two are very different. Through these differences religion has become one of the strongest ways for the Chines government to keep a hold on most of the Tibetan population. The BBC comments on how “at one time it was thought that 1 in 6 Tibetan men were Buddhist monks”1. If this happened in the U.S.A today, where one states governmental ideas differed so greatly from the government in place that they felt that seceding was the only way to gain the government that they could live with there would be an uproar in the other states.
    The Idea that one of the states would separate from America is probable. It has happened before and the government in place stopped out the idea of seceding with a war. The Civil War is a great proponent of what China is doing to Tibet. Most imperialistic counties have at one point gone to war over a section of their empire that wanted to secede. 
    There have been many changes for the people in Tibet and regulations from the chines government are becoming more prominent. James Dunn a writer for The Tibetan Post International reports on how “China is set to announce a new constraint on Buddhist practicing in Tibet, with a barring of Buddhist monks outside of China to be recognized as a reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The ban, set to be made law next month would effectively permit the Chinese government to select the future Dalai Lama.” 2 This is a fine line the government walks, they can’t agitate the people too much causing a retaliation but at the same time they can’t let them become a separate nation.
 This is going too far. The China’s government is crossing a line between trying to make things work between their government and their provence, and taking away the very base of what Tibet stands for. If the future Dalai Lama is chosen by the Chines government then the Tibetan way will be gone.  However, China does not want to let go of Tibet. They can’t let their country just fall apart because the outer regions of China are not as patriotic as the central China happens to be. The Tibetan people are being oppressed by the China’s government. China can not afford to lose Tibet because if one province goes they all will. China has resorted to using what brings Tibet together the most against them; their religion. Forcing religious leaders into exile and restriction religious practices has brought a lot of sorrow to the Tibetan people.