Several monks from Tibet, a plateau sitting between India and China, have set themselves on fire to protest the Chinese suppression of religion and Tibetan culture. Often called “The Top of the World,” Tibet sits between central, east, and south Asia. The mountains, lakes and rivers in Tibet add to the peaceful culture that should be flowing throughout the country. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, stated this: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.” Tibetan culture is being taken away from the people who live there. The Chinese state that occupies Tibet is ubiquitous. They control every aspect of their lives and is taking away their human rights. The Chinese people have even outnumbered the Tibetans in their own country. Tibetans are having a hard time keeping their culture and traditions alive because “there are 2 Chinese people for every Tibetan in Tibet” (“Human Rights”). The Chinese race is becoming pervasive throughout Tibet. Tibetan culture is unlike any other, and as the Dalai Lama accuses the Chinese of “deliberately annihilating Buddhism,” their culture is being forgotten. The Chinese are hurting the diversity of the world by ridding the world of the Tibetan culture.
Tibet has created a peaceful and spiritual culture over the past thousand years that is linked to their religion, Buddhism. Tibetans have lifestyles that have not changed much over the past generations. One unique difference is the suppression they face from the Chinese. In 1950, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an invasion of Tibet that interrupted centuries of Tibetan independence (Stokes). About nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to northern Indi...
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...he Chinese command, Tibetans find themselves doing anything they can to keep their culture and traditions alive. The world’s diversity is decreased with every culture that is diminished and the Tibetan culture is one that needs to stay alive. Although some may say that the Tibetans have done nothing to prove that they want independence, there is only so much they can do while being under suppression. Monks and nuns are setting themselves on fire to gain the attention of the world and the Chinese are not doing anything about it. The problem in Tibet needs to be solved. Keeping the Tibetan culture alive is an important task that can be done. The Dalai Lama and other Tibetan exiles should spread the culture and religion to other countries and other groups of people. Diversity of the world is important, and Tibetan culture needs to be a part of that diversity.
The Communist Party of China (CCP), in power since 1950, is not famous for its tolerance of those who do not agree with its ideology and opinion. People must adhere to the Party’s legislation, and face consequences (the severity of which is debated) if they resist or rebel. One way the CCP controls members is through religion. Although the government encourages almost cult-like devotion to the Party, it allows its constituents to participate in certain major international religions. One religion that is illegal to participate in under Chinese law is the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. A new movement, the Falun Gong grew quickly in China and globally, and was officially banned in 1999. The CCP claims the Falun Gong is evil, and should be destroyed humanely to save China. However, the Falun Gong is peaceful, and the Chinese government is the institution that tortures, jails, and abuses its citizens if they are practitioners of the religion. The international response calls for the halting of these immoral actions, but China still claims that it is destroying an evil institution. The simple fact China denies its members freedom of religion violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which China has signed, but the violence against its people if they adhere to Falun Gong beliefs is a gross abuse of its power. Although China bans many religions, there is special emphasis on the Falun Gong, and many wonder why. One highly possible reason is that the growth, international reach, and popularity of the Falun Gong threatens the universal power the CCP holds in China, weakening the government, and therefore leading to the destruction of the threat: the Falun Gong.
For 48 years, China has occupied Tibet. In Tibet's history, there has been over 17 percent of the Tibetan people killed, and 6,000 monasteries ruined. For starters, Tibet was never part of China. During the first few years when China was in control of Tibet, the Chinese declared that Tibet should be part of China, because an Emperor of Tibet once married a Chinese princess. Years later, the Chinese said that Tibet was part of China because of the warrior Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan and the Mongolians were in control of Tibet, but they never made Tibet belong to China. Secondly, the Tibetan people and the Chinese are totally different, culturally and socially speaking. Both peoples have their own culture, way of life, and religion. Of course the language is very diverse, too. Tibet had their own government before the Chinese took over. It was led by His Royal Highness, the Dalai Lama. Before the Chinese came in and took over Tibet, Tibet had nothing to do with China. The Chinese invaded Tibet in July of 1949. They caused many disasters and much sadness to the Tibetan people. Today Tibet is nothing but a prison. The Chinese continually spy on the Tibetan people. Seventeen percent of the Tibetan population was killed. Many Chinese forcibly removed Tibetans out of their homes at any time, day or night, and sometimes these people were thrown into prison. These people also were often killed for no reason. Ever since the Chinese have taken over the Tibetan people, there have been over 1 millon people killed. There were 6 million Tibetans living in Tibet before the Chinese came and took over the country. In the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, the natives of Tibet are being rid of by the Chinese; the Chinese are filling up Lhasa with Chinese people and the Chinese want to make Tibet throughly Chinese. Today, the Tibetan people are a minority in their own country! All the better jobs go to the Chinese people living in Tibet. The Tibetan people cannot find jobs for themselves, the best job sometimes they can get is to become a truck driver.
Before any of these questions can be answered though, one must first know the origin of the conflicts between the two regions as well as the history of the Free Tibetan Movement. As said above, Tibet used to be a place that not many people knew about. This made it much easier for the Chinese government to come in and take control of the people and the land without much protest from the outside world. In fact even if other countries, like bordering India, had known, not much would have been done. This is because no nation had ever recognized Tibet as an independent country. Rather, it was the events that followed which caused the uproar. According to defected citizens of Tibet that traveled to India and then dispersed throughout the world, the Chinese started a form of spiritual cleansing. Monks and spiritual leaders that would not follow their ground rules were detained, captured or killed. The lama's of the Tibetan people were either taken as political prisoners or exiled. However, there are also those that said that some of this never happened.
Many Tibetans are arrested and put through such treatment with little to no evidence supporting them as criminals. In a sudden “clampdown” that started in February of 1992, groups of ten Chinese raided Tibetan homes in Lhasa arresting more than 200 people. Those arrested were said to be in possession of “subversive materials, such as photographs, and tapes or books containing speeches or teachings of the Dalai Lama” (Kumar, 77).
The Dalai Lama expresses the importance of publicity that has first been generated by the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Not only did it create awareness for the Chinese as the Dalai Lama suggested; it also created awareness around the world, especially in North America. Ask any North American teenager,"What they feel towards the idea of Tibetan oppression from the Chinese?", just ask him "Where Tibet is?" three years ago and he would probably look confused and answer by asking "Would you like fries with that?".<THIS MADE VERY LITTLE SENSE.> Ask that same teenager now, and he would likely give an educated response. The Tibetan Freedom Concert is just an example of how powerful modern media is if it can be used properly.
It has happened to most native peoples, they’re pushed out of their homelands by a big, foreign power. Peoples’ rights get violated, and they are treated as second class citizens. Native Americans, Africans, Siberians, Indians, it has happened to all of them. In Asia, a new superpower has risen up, communist China, and has gained a massive amount of influence, using the largest military in the world. The native peoples in the western borderlands have suffered the greatest, and most people have heard about the struggle of Tibet. Most of us, however, have not heard of another, more violent crackdown, on the Uyghur people. This paper will take you through all the inner workings of the conflict, from the background, to the reasons, to the violence.
If China had not reannexed Tibet, that peace park would never have existed. Its entire raison d'etre is predicated on Chinese oppression and western interest. Without oppression the Tibetan traditions lose their most alluring aspect. Tibetan Buddhism is no longer dangerous or sexy. Without western interest, their potential converts and donation pool shrinks to a trickle crippling their ability to sustain the tradition.
Rinpoche, Samdhong. Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism in Today’s World; forward by 14th Dalai Lama. (Tibet: World Wisdom, 2006), 264.
When one hears mention of Tibet certain things initially come to mind, most commonly images of an isolated, peaceful, extremely religious society. One of the last things one would imagine from such a seemingly docile people would be a history deeply entwined with athletic showmanship, yet this actually is the case. Unfortunately most historians overlook this pivotal piece of information when studying the Tibetans’ rich culture and consequently the casual scholar rarely sees this side of the Tibetan people. One of the factors that may have influenced this attitude towards Tibetan sports is that the Dalai Lama has in fact previously banned certain sports citing various religious reasons. This may lead people to believe that the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, in principal, are against all sport, although in reality many of the Dalai Lamas have been quite the opposite. The banning of certain sports was mainly due to the fear of outside influence corrupting Tibet as opposed to actual problems with the sports themselves. Tibetans have a strong historical bond with sport and use religion as an excuse to expel foreign authority.
Chinese Culture Chinese culture has many aspects to it’s culture, spreading all throughout China many different groups belong to the Chinese culture, each similar to each other. The Chinese culture is extraordinarily different compared to my family and I’s culture in many ways. Three out of the numerous differences are clothing, religion, and language. All of these things make up only a small portion of the unique Chinese culture. My cultures clothing, religion, and language is almost opposite in most ways compared to the Chinese.
several Tibetan Buddhist monastics, coerced to elude their land when the Chinese occupied it in 1959, settled at Dharmsala in northern India below the leadership of the fourteenth Dalai Lama; they later predicated colleges and monasteries in Europe, North America, and Australia. supposed “Western Buddhism” evolved among European, North yanked, and Australian lay and monastic adherents. Their disputable practices custom-made Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Southeast Asian
(27) Canada Tibet Committee. “World Tibet Network News.” 1 Jan 2003. www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2003/1/1_3.html (6 March 2003).
In Tibet one might use the words “religion” and “culture” almost as synonyms, especially for the arts—literature, drama, painting, and sculpture. Not only were they inspired by religion, but religion was their very raison d’être (Pal 18).
Cultural anthropology known as the comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development. Cultural anthropology is also known as the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. Cultural anthropology studies how human cultures are shaped or shape the world around them and it focus a lot on the differences between every person. Human societies has been culturally involved throughout generations because of human development and advanced. The goal of a cultural anthropology is to teach us about another culture by collecting data about how the world economy and political practices effect the new culture that is being studied. However, cultural anthropology has gave us a understanding of world affairs and world problems, the way to interpret the meaning of social actions by putting them in as much context as possible, and a deeper insight of humankind-at all times, in all places and of yourself as part of a culture.
The Chinese culture is one of the most popular cultures in the world today and it has been around for a very long time. The Chinese people are known for their eloquent ceremonies and customary behaviors in the society throughout the world. They are known for their distinctive cultures, which include art and crafts, calligraphy, embroidery, and operas. Another part of Chinese culture that has been enjoying attention worldwide is the Kung Fu, and it has been an integral part of the Chinese culture for ages. The Chinese food, of course is another interesting piece of culture they exhibit as their food is sold around the world, they are very nutritious and healthy.