Dayle Walters
04/ 19/ 12
Writ. 101
Draft
Is China over Stepping their boundaries 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 in my senior year of high school that I actually understood why there was so much tension between China and Tibet. 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.
Coming into this topic I had an outline of the situation. However, doing more research on both sides of this conflict helped me better understand why countries can have such tension within themselves and still be a global front runner. Religion is different all over the world. Even within countries that grew with the same basic premise of a religion can become very different. I have always been fascinated by religions hold on people, there have been wars over religion and people fight because they feel that their religion is the true religion. Since i have no religious tendencies i find it hard to believe that a government would have the power to say what is right and wrong about a religion. I don’t see the Tibetan Buddhists as any different than any other religion they are just following their beliefs. But why would a government become involved in the decision as to whether or not their religious practices are acceptable?
After concurring the territory of Tibet, China became very involved in the provinces’ government. Tibet’s theocracy that has changed to a more democratic country over the past 60 years is heavily influenced with the Buddhist movement from India in the 8th century. After China conquered the territory in 1950 Tibetan government went through a multitude of changes. The Dalai Lama was forced into excel and created a Tibetan government in exile called the Central Tibetan Administration. As the spiritual leader of Tibet he played an important role in the governmental view of the nation and at the beginning of this provisional government held the post of chairperson but over time the position of kalon tripa would be filled by a democratically elected leader that would share executive power with the Dalai Lama. The Central Tibetan Administration funds projects in Tibet but are not considered the government of Tibet by mainland Chia’s government. 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 not be able return to Tibet after his death. The government of China wants him to 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. Being exiled from his country after being reincarnated 14 times, he might never get the chance to go back. The Dalai Lama is the Spiritual leader of Tibet. The Dalai Lama is not opposed to the Chinese government and does not wish them to leave. However, the religious impact that china is having on the province of Tibet is affecting their culture. It is important that people know that the Dalai Lama hold an important role in the Tibetan society and still is in support of the Chinese government. 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 by taking away a proponent of the Chinese involvement in Tibet who also happens to be their religious leader.
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. 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 remains 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 The Chinese government is not not stopping people from completing the wish to have a sky burial or become a monk but with the massive amounts of troops flooding into Tibet and the last riot left 100 monks missing the Tibetan people are frightened of what might become of them because of their beliefs.
I feel that many governments have tried to do this over time 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. China is ripping apart at the seams as its provinces try to secede. Tibet is becoming more opposed to the idea of chine being involved in their day to day lives. China is running the risk of separating itself by being too hostile towards its outlying provinces. China has imposed religious laws including posting military personnel at monasteries. Their impact has been mostly social but that is a big part of what brings Tibet together. 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. However when you base the reason for wanting to back out of a relationship with a government on something close to your heart it’s easier to se where the Tibetan people are coming from. If the University of Montana for instance decided that no longer could anyone stay out past 11 and that we all had to be in our respected houses by this time there would be an up roar. People get comfortable with their own way of doing things and when a person with power whats to change a comfortable habit the people that are now under them now feel like there independence is threatened. Tibet might not want to detach from China completely but Tibet had their own rules before they became a part of China and becoming apart of another nation means compromises on both sides.
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.
Bibliography
1. “Tibetan Buddhism.” BBC- BBC Religions. 2004. Web. 14 Jan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/tibetan_1.shtml
James Dunn. “China Steps-up Religious Restrictions Inside Tibet” The Tibet Post International. 2011. Web 15 Feb.
http://www.thetibetpost.com/en/news/tibet/1461-china-steps-up-religious-restrictions-inside-tibet
“Tibetan ‘sky burial’ to continue under protection”. The Buddhist Channel. 2006. Web 07 Mar.
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=46,2406,0,0,1,0
“ History of Tibet”. History World. Web.
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa71
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