New York Times columnist sneaks into Tibet
May 15, 2008:
Communist Party rule has been good for Tibetans in a material sense. Herdsmen now use motorcycles to round up their yaks, electricity and satellite television are common, and education is spreading. Tibetans are manifestly better off than in my previous visits, yet unhappiness is growing along with incomes.
One herdsman in the hills served me yak butter tea in front of a television and DVD player in his new home. His wife never went to school, but his daughter is attending high school.
“Living standards have improved,” the herdsman conceded, yet he had joined the demonstrations against Chinese rule. His priority, he said, wasn’t wealth but freedom to worship the Dalai Lama.
May 18, 2008:
A Tibetan monk, recently out of jail and still in pain from beatings by the police, said he reveres the Dalai Lama but also regards him as a political failure. “We think the Dalai Lama has been too peaceful,” he said. “There is a big discussion now about whether we should turn to violence.” This impatience seems widespread among young Tibetans, and the rioting and protests across ethnic Tibetan areas of China in the last couple of months may be a turning point. Unless the Tibet question is resolved, we may see a Tibetan equivalent of the Irish Republican Army or Hamas....
“Most of us think that the policy toward Tibetans has been too soft,” said a Han Chinese man in Qinghai Province who often travels in Tibetan areas. “They get all kinds of special preferences, but they’re just not as hard-working, and they drink too much. And then after we help them so much, they riot against us. So most of us think the policy toward Tibetans should be stricter.”
Communist Party rule has been good for Tibetans in a material sense. Herdsmen now use motorcycles to round up their yaks, electricity and satellite television are common, and education is spreading. Tibetans are manifestly better off than in my previous visits, yet unhappiness is growing along with incomes.
One herdsman in the hills served me yak butter tea in front of a television and DVD player in his new home. His wife never went to school, but his daughter is attending high school.
“Living standards have improved,” the herdsman conceded, yet he had joined the demonstrations against Chinese rule. His priority, he said, wasn’t wealth but freedom to worship the Dalai Lama.
May 18, 2008:
A Tibetan monk, recently out of jail and still in pain from beatings by the police, said he reveres the Dalai Lama but also regards him as a political failure. “We think the Dalai Lama has been too peaceful,” he said. “There is a big discussion now about whether we should turn to violence.” This impatience seems widespread among young Tibetans, and the rioting and protests across ethnic Tibetan areas of China in the last couple of months may be a turning point. Unless the Tibet question is resolved, we may see a Tibetan equivalent of the Irish Republican Army or Hamas....
“Most of us think that the policy toward Tibetans has been too soft,” said a Han Chinese man in Qinghai Province who often travels in Tibetan areas. “They get all kinds of special preferences, but they’re just not as hard-working, and they drink too much. And then after we help them so much, they riot against us. So most of us think the policy toward Tibetans should be stricter.”