Dalai Lama to retire from political life

[Tiki Tam Tam]

One wonders if Dalai Lama's move is very pragmatic and astute in keeping the Tibet issue alive in the international arena.

Right now, the Dalai Lama is both the political and spiritual head of the Tibetans in general and the Tibetan Govt in exile.

By quitting the political aspect of the avatar of the Dalai Lama and remaining merely the spiritual head, he is giving the Tibetan Govt in exile a larger than life image so as to make it the nodal agency for political issues concerning Tibet (from exile).

This is possibly an astute move, because after the current Dalai Lama's demise, even if China appoints a Dalai Lama, this Dalai Lama would be only the spiritual head and not the political (temporal) head. Thus, the political head of the Tibetan Govt in exile will be calling the political shots having been made relevant by the current Dalai Lama, who is stepping down and handing over the political power to the Tibetan Govt in exile.

That the Dalai Lama as the is relevant in Tibet both politically is evident from the statements:

"There is a great difference between the Dalai Lama retiring as a political head and his retiring as a religious leader," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the standing committee of the Tibet autonomous region's people's congress and former chairman of the region...

and

"I cannot deny that the Dalai Lama, as Living Buddha and a religious leader, does have some influence on his believers," said Qiangba Puncog

Both the quotes are from Eastday-Dalai's plan to retire nonsense: Tibet top official.

The fact that the Tibetan functionary of China states that the Dalai Lama is relevant when he is otherwise demonised in China and called a 'splittist' indicates that the aura of this Dalai Lama is powerful and China has not been able to be wished it away in Tibet.

 

[below_freezing]

Dalai used to bet China would collapse before he died.

After a dictatorial reign over Tibetans for longer than Gaddafi, he has finally given up.

 

[cross1993]

Dalai used to bet China would collapse before he died.

After a dictatorial reign over Tibetans for longer than Gaddafi, he has finally given up.

China govt can allow the Dalai Lama back to China, but not allow other defectors. Those terrorists will destroy the social stability of Tibet.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

With his latest act, he has very cleverly kept the Tibet issue burning even after his demise.

What is dangerous is that, with the exposure to democracy and unrestricted and unhindered thinking of many young Tibetan in India and more so in the West, they are potential powder kegs.

These hotheads would unnecessarily upset the India Chinese relationship, which as it is, is still tenuous.

 

[Tin Man]

Dalai used to bet China would collapse before he died.

After a dictatorial reign over Tibetans for longer than Gaddafi, he has finally given up.

He hasnt died yet.....

 

[below_freezing]

He hasnt died yet.....

We may allow him to get a burial in Tibet if he gives up terrorist and racist activities. Otherwise he will be the only Dalai Lama to not be buried on Tibetan soil.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

shame on you people who call such a peaceful and noble sole as terrorist..difference of perception can be understood but calling him a terrorist is not good.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

I would not do to that extent to state that the Dalai Lamas were dictators.

I am sure that while the West felt that Mao and the CCP are dictators, the Chinese people, notwithstanding the horror stories from the media.

I don't think that the Chinese feel that Mao was a dictator or that the he and CCP had kept them in bonds, Tienanmen Square and all that notwithstanding.

Therefore, if the Tibetans did not feel that His Holiness The Dalai Lama was not a dictator, I wonder if it would be correct for others to comment and pass judgement as the Gospel Truth.

If indeed His Holiness the Dalai Lama's rule was that bad and dictatorial, then why should the Tibetan official appointed by the Chinese Govt be so wary, fretful and scared about the influence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet that is currently under Chinese rule?

The idea of being a dictator and unloved vs the total fear freeze of the Tibetan official at the actions of the Dalai Lama far away in India, does appear a trifle incongruous.

 

[twoplustwoisfour]

We may allow him to get a burial in Tibet if he gives up terrorist and racist activities. Otherwise he will be the only Dalai Lama to not be buried on Tibetan soil.

So basically you steal their land, and offer to give a part of it back if they humiliate themselves in front of you?

So very magnanimous of you. :sarcasm intended:

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

We may allow him to get a burial in Tibet if he gives up terrorist and racist activities. Otherwise he will be the only Dalai Lama to not be buried on Tibetan soil.

I do not want to get into the racist angle, but then it is a question of the pot calling the kettle black, if I maybe permitted to state.

Permit me an extract from the book An ethnohistorical dictionary of China
By James Stuart Olson:

China’s topography has historically encouraged regional separatism, but Han culturalism provided unity for the Chinese. Han Chinese culturalism arose to distinguish between the culture of the Han, or inner people (nei ren) and the ‘barbarians’, the outer people (wei ren), Chinese social institution and feelings of cultural and aesthetic superiority have provided reassurance for the Han Chinese in the face of barbarian penetration and conquest.

The concept of Han culture began with the Shang dynasty, 1750 -1040 BC, whose political centre was located north of the Yellow River. The Shang provided China’s first written history as well as the assertion of central cultural superiority over the surrounding people by designating as barbarians everyone who did not yet acknowledge the central government supremacy. The Chinese distinguished between ‘raw barbarians’ (shengfan) or the unassimilated people and the ‘cooked barbarians’ (shufan) or assimilated taxpayers who enjoyed the fruits of Chinese culture. For example, Han Chinese officials separated the ‘cooked’ Li of the coast of Hainan, who enjoyed the benefits of Chinese civilisation, from the wild ‘uncooked’ Li of the central forests, far from the influences of Han culture.


Barbarians were given generic names in the Chinese classics and histories: the Yi barbarians to the east, the Man to the South, the Rong to the west and Di to the north (when westerners arrived by sea, they were officially designated until the late 19th century as Yi). Until the 1930s, the names of outgroups (wai ren) were commonly written with an animal radical: the Di, the northern tribe, were linked to the Dog; the Man and the Min of the south were characterised with reptiles; the Qiang was written with a sheep radical. This reflected the Han Chinese conviction that civilisation and culture were linked with humanity; alien groups living outside the pale of Chinese society were regarded as inhuman savages. To be labelled a barbarian was a cultural rather than racial distinction.

That the custom of sharply distinguishing went along with calling China the Middle Kingdom (zhong guo), , which began by ruling the Central Plain (zhongyang) in North China. Rather than using outright military conquest of outsiders, the theory of ‘using the Chinese ways to transform the barbarians’ (yongxiabianyi) was promulgated. By Chinese cultural absorption or racial integration through intermarriage, a barbarian could become Han Chinese (hanhua). To be counted within China, groups accepted the rituals and cosmology that gave the Han dynastic state the Mandate of Heaven to rule over mankind. Non acceptance of this politicised culture left one outside of Zhongguo or China

Link

It is not my own theory or imagination, but that of a scholar.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

So basically you steal their land, and offer to give a part of it back if they humiliate themselves in front of you?

So very magnanimous of you. :sarcasm intended:

LOL, if that is the way you feel, then you should give the Kashmiri people their land back too.

Since you guys are a democracy, why not let them have a plebiscite? I.e. a referendum.

 

[cross1993]

We think that Mao was a dictator, Deng Xiaoping also is. But CPC is not a dictator.

Does Hu Jintao have term limits ? Yes, 10 Years.
Does China's rights by one person to master it? No, nine people rule the country together. Hu Jintao's State Rights a lot less than Obama.

Plz tell me who is the dictator in China now?

In China, One of every ten adults is the CPC, 90% of young people is the Communist Youth League, almost everyone all have some CPC friend(Teachers, relatives, etc), each neighborhood and village all has a CPC branch.

 

[cross1993]

Dalai Lama is the terrorist.
2008-03-25, he created a riot in Lhasa, that is a terrorist act.

 

[Outman]

Dalai Lama is a demi-god to many, if not most, tibetans.
Even as today his photos and portraits are being openly worshiped in temples and common households in Tibet and a large part of Qinghai, there's no way the exile gov. in India could be remotely as relevant after his demise.
With the beloved son-of-India long gone, I wont be surprised if one day some radicals in Dharamsala would want a sweet little piece of land of their own, out of India that is.

 

[twoplustwoisfour]

LOL, if that is the way you feel, then you should give the Kashmiri people their land back too.

Since you guys are a democracy, why not let them have a plebiscite? I.e. a referendum.

Nice try to go off topic to save your a**. If you want to discuss Kashmir, you have the entire Kashmir War sub-forum to do so.

Regarding Democracy, first ask the CPC to give you the right to vote, then bat for similar rights of others.