FREE TIBET - from the CIA (video)

Wisdom Quarterly and Dharma Lotus

"One World, One Dream: FREE TIBET"

Tibetans have practiced nonviolence for many generations. In 1959, the Communist Chinese government invaded Tibet and began the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet."

It is estimated that as much as half of the Tibetan population were killed or starved to death. Monasteries were bombed, many of the monks and nuns were executed. Only a handful of holy buildings were left standing. Its religious monarchy was forced into exile in neighboring India.

• VIDEO: Free Tibet II

Tibet was never an idyllic place but a theocracy promoting poverty and slavery. The PR machine has us cheering on divisive CIA operations (dalailama.com)

When traveling through Tibet, what seem to be ancient ruins are in fact monasteries. Everyone in Tibet has spent time at a monastery. Not everyone chooses to lead a monastic life permanently. But monasteries are schools where one learns a trade.

The Dalai Lamas were royalty, unquestioned politicians and spiritual heads of state. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was forced to flee Tibet. He now lives attempting to govern from Dharamsala, India.

The most famous building in Tibet, the Potala Palace in the capital, Lhasa, used to be his winter residence -- a monastic repository of ancient texts. Today it is a museum, and the few monks who live there are little more than caretakers.

While some suggest that the Tibetan people now have "religious freedom," they are strictly controlled by the Chinese. For example, it is illegal to fly the Tibetan flag in Tibet, and it is illegal to so much as possess a photograph of the Dalai Lama. But China says at least the people are no longer feudal serfs to Tibetan royalty.

But there's a whole other side to the story, and we can't "free Tibet" without knowing it.

What Tibet needs to be Free

Wisdom Quarterly

"The CIA in Tibet" reveals how US intervention in foreign affairs created the situation we have today. The way out is understanding what really happened not American PR or Chinese propaganda.

In failed attempts to control China and mediate relations between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and independent states throughout the region (formerly ruled by the British and Dutch), the CIA conducts secret and illegal operations as a matter of course. It has been going on for decades.

The Dalai Lama's popularity in America, particularly in Washington, is no accident: It is a PR success orchestrated and perpetuated as a hostile act towards China, itself also a notorious human rights abuser.

Tibetans may indeed love their former "god-king" (pope-president, saint-dictator) and greatly prefer him to Chinese abuses. But that is not to say that the Dalai Lama system of rich monastic politicians living in splendor on the backs of impoverished menials was a shangri-la for them.

The religious monarchy lost their shangri-la, and the Tibetans were forced to face the truth: They went from a bad situation to something worse.

Just as any population would prefer a dictator to chaos, Tibetans foolishly think the CIA or the US is interested in their welfare more than strategic American interests in the region.

But because Americans do not know the situation, and simply buy into the fairytale, they simply attack China as if only China were to blame. There are no fewer than three guilty parties: the CIA, Dalai Lama, and China. Why did Pres. Obama meet with the Dalai Lama?

• The US and CIA will sell out Tibet, not save it
• VIDEO: Gere, Bush, State Dept. defend Dalai Lama
• How the CIA helped the Dalai Lama into exile
• Chinese sensitivity over the Tibetan issue
From Nepal to China, we search for Tibet
The Dalai Lama's hidden past
Most solidarity and environmental groups calling for a free Tibet have not questioned the Dalai Lama's role in Tibetan history. In 1995 his office stated, "China tries to justify its occupation and repressive rule of Tibet by pretending that it 'liberated' Tibetan society from 'medieval feudal serfdom' and 'slavery.' Beijing trots out this myth to counter every international pressure to review its repressive policies in Tibet." It then coyly concedes: "Traditional Tibetan society was by no means perfect... However, it was not as bad as China would have us believe." Was this a myth? Tibet's Buddhist monastic-nobility controlled all land on behalf of the "gods." They monopolized the country's wealth... This system was similar to how the medieval Catholic Church exploited peasants in feudal Europe.