I was at the Vancouver Tibet Rally this afternoon at 1 PM. Two weeks ago, On March 10 2008, Tibetans around the world celebrated the 47th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising. The 1959 uprising received extensive assistance from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including military training, support camps in Nepal, and numerous airlifts. While Tibetans living in big cities such as Paris and New York are protesting, demonstrators in downtown Vancouver are currently staging renewed protests for the reinstatement of their Theocracy and also against the Chinese occupation and human rights violations in Tibet. Participants were mainly from the Tibetan community in Vancouver, gathered at the Art Gallery from where they marched in the direction of the Chinese Consulate in Shaughnessy.

The conflicting ideologies are, Chinese totalitarianism versus an archaic theocracy; You choose. The People’s Republic of China invaded the region in 1949 and then took full control in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama fled to India with the help of the CIA. Nowadays, Tibetans live in a system that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior.The Chinese Goverment maintains itself in political power by means of secret police, propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.

For the Theocratic Dalai Lama, the rich lamas and other secular Tibetan lords, the Chinese Communist intervention was an unmitigated adversity and affliction. Most of them exiled , as did the Dalai Lama himself, who was assisted in his escape from Tibet by the CIA. Some discovered to their horror that they would have to work for a living. Many, however, escaped. During the 1960s, the Tibetan exile community was secretly pocketing $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the U.S tate Department in 1998.

Marching on a Granville Street Sidewalk

Entering the Granville Street Bridge

Yale University Politologist Michael Parenti wrote an intersting article about the Tibetan Myth. It is titled ” Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth“. Here’s a snippet:

“But what of Tibetan Buddhism? Is it not an exception to this sort of strife? And what of the society it helped to create? Many Buddhists maintain that, before the Chinese crackdown in 1959, old Tibet was a spiritually oriented kingdom free from the egotistical lifestyles, empty materialism, and corrupting vices that beset modern industrialized society. Western news media, travel books, novels, and Hollywood films have portrayed the Tibetan theocracy as a veritable Shangri-La. The Dalai Lama himself stated that “the pervasive influence of Buddhism” in Tibet, “amid the wide open spaces of an unspoiled environment resulted in a society dedicated to peace and harmony. We enjoyed freedom and contentment.”

A reading of Tibet’s history suggests a somewhat different picture. “Religious conflict was commonplace in old Tibet,” writes one western Buddhist practitioner. “History belies the Shangri-La image of Tibetan lamas and their followers living together in mutual tolerance and nonviolent goodwill. Indeed, the situation was quite different. Old Tibet was much more like Europe during the religious wars of the Counterreformation.” In the thirteenth century, Emperor Kublai Khan created the first Grand Lama, who was to preside over all the other lamas as might a pope over his bishops. Several centuries later, the Emperor of China sent an army into Tibet to support the Grand Lama, an ambitious 25-year-old man, who then gave himself the title of Dalai (Ocean) Lama, ruler of all Tibet. Here is a historical irony: the first Dalai Lama was installed by a Chinese army.

His two previous lama “incarnations” were then retroactively recognized as his predecessors, thereby transforming the 1st Dalai Lama into the 3rd Dalai Lama. This 1st (or 3rd) Dalai Lama seized monasteries that did not belong to his sect, and is believed to have destroyed Buddhist writings that conflicted with his claim to divinity. The Dalai Lama who succeeded him pursued a sybaritic life, enjoying many mistresses, partying with friends, and acting in other ways deemed unfitting for an incarnate deity. For these transgressions he was murdered by his priests. Within 170 years, despite their recognized divine status, five Dalai Lamas were killed by their high priests or other courtiers.”[Michael Parenti]

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