Other Press March 12, 1994 Bulls tsns Bodicath: "7 hotA it corvardice to vest mistrustful, vere a voble hea Witham Shakespeare HeayV Part 3 By Angus Adair If this be true, and I believe it is, then the government of China is rife with cowardice. I can conclude no differently when I consider the facts related to their “liberation” of Tibet. In the early 1950s China’s People’s Liberation Army began their “liberation” of Tibet from Western influences. Tibet, a peaceful Buddhist nation, had been isolated from the out- side world for centuries. There were, however, Westerners inside Ti- bet at the time. Six of them. Just six. When the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded they left. The PLA did not. And the number of dead became more than just six. By 1991, at least 1.2 millionTibetans had been killed as a result of the PLA’s liberation. During the liberation, they sought to eradicate any religion or any signs of re- ligion. the literature is permitted-anywhere. Re-education programs have be- gun in earnest. Tibetan children have been taken from their parents and taken to China to be indoctrinated in the glories of Maoist doc- trine. China was once the biggest Buddhist nation on earth. Great and wise Taoist poets and philosophers sprung from it’s rich spir- itual culture. Mao’s “ cultural revolution” changed all that. Taoist China was replaced by Maoist China and it is the revisionist history of Mao and The Gang of Four taught to these peaceful, innocent Tibetan kids. There is no time forTaoist poetry or Buddhist thought. The first fact finding delegation to Tibet discovered that a coun- try the size of Western Europe, namely Tibet, had been invaded by the PLA. They discovered a country, an exemplar of peace, that was in the midst of a genocide. They discovered that all the world com- munity’s talk of “never again” and “ we shall not forget” at the end ofWW2 was simply talk, for here was a peaceful nation besieged by hostile forces that were killing people on the basis of their religion. They discovered that before the ink was dry on the peace treaty blood was being spilled and no one would stop it. They were too busy licking their respective wounds. So the horror continued and escalated. The hypocrisy of our inaction should have shamed us all. We said and did nothing. We could have and we didn’t. We were mute when a woman shouted “ TIBET IS INDEPEND- ENT !” to the first fact finding delegation. She was jailed forever for treason. The second fact finding delegation was somewhat more vocifer- ous than the first. John Fraser, of the Toronto Globe and Mail, was a member of that delegation. He wrote a scathingly condemning arti- atrocities were horri- fying.A sol- dier joked as he cut off a) man’s arm, “ God will give you a new arm !”. An- other was asked if he preferred to die stand- ing or lying down. Standing, he said. So they buried “The Chinese sotdier langhed and joked as he cut off the man s arm." Your God will give yon a nerv aru!" Al n- other man twas asked if he sorefered to die tying dovvn or standing uy. [he man refered standing. Sp they buried him alive- standing up. Monks were publicly crucified-literally. Monks and nuns were stripped of their robes and forced to copulate, in direct violation of their vows, and when they all resisted were tortured to death. Monks can do only coolie work in Tibet now. They have become, for the Chinese invaders, simply living icons of Buddhism. And all icons are destroyed without mercy by the PLA. An International Commission of Jurists has declared what is hap- pening in Tibet to be “religious genocide”. The term is not even near to being adequate. Over 6,254 ancient monasteries, temples and shrines have been reduced to rubble and ashes. The great monastic universities of Lhasa -rubble; Samye-razed; the spiritually inspired architecture of Rating- gone; Tsurph-a pile of stones and Sakya is just simply described by those who have fled as “devastated”. The sacred mani stones where prayers are carved in acts of devo- tion into the mountains have all been torn down and put to other uses. The prayer stones which once resonated mystic mantras through- out the Himalayas have become paving stones, drainage stones and . . . toilets. c Monastic frescoes dating back six centuries were declared of no commercial value by the Chinese government and burned. Intricate and priceless gold works of devotional art have been declared of com- mercial value and melted. The loot is then shipped back to China. All the monks and nuns of high mystic orders have been declared criminals. The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has been declared the leader of the “splitists”. Possession of this Nobel Peace Prize winner's pic- ture or likeness is illegal. And severely punished. Buddhism is now a crime. Any opponent of the government's reign of terror is executed pub- licly. These are called “ struggle sessions”. “Serfs” are ordered to beat former landowners , “old green minds”, “practitioners of OldTibet”, and “ bourgeois intellectuals” to death in public squares. Landowners who have blatantly cooperated with the Chinese are spared. “Serfs” who fail to show the proper zeal are themselves beaten and tortured publicly. Mass arrests and crowded prisons are commonplace. The only lit- erature permitted in prison is Mao’s “ little red book”. No Buddhist cle of the Chinese actions in Tibet. Shortly thereafter China ejected them from Tibet. And as the horror continued, our criticism waned. They were left to fend for themselves. It is a testament to the spirituality that China has worked so hard to extinguish that they survived. The conflict between spirituality and brutality was exemplified when Dr. Tenzin Choedak was arrested. He was the Junior Physician to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet at the time. For 17 years he endured regular beatings and systematic torture and a star- vation diet. Of 75 men arrested with Dr. Choedak, only 21 would survive. They owed their survival to an ancient Tibetan meditation practice, Dr. Choedak recognized that several of his fellow inmates were suffering from digestive failure. He knew that increased stomach heat would prolong life and ease the pain. He also knew that there was little likelihood of his captors providing a remedy willingly. So he asked for Mao’s little red book. This he knew they would provide. Then he and the others spent time every day appearing to read the book and silently mouthing the mantra for tummo, or “gen- erating inner body heat” and through meditation managed to sur- vive. Dr. Choedak is now the Senior Physician to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and living in exile with the Dalai Lama. Despite the fact that for the first time in over 500 years Tibet is without her Dalai Lama some things do not change. The world is full of suffering. All things are impermanent * Clinging to or desiring that which is impermanent is the cause of all suffering And these Noble Truths are all the Buddha taught. And every day with each mounting injustice, these truths are affirmed for the Tibetans, who continue to stay on the Buddha's Eightfold Path for the cessation of suffering. Thus, every attempt to destroy Tibetan Buddhism affirms it. China, unable to extinguish Buddhism has settled for extinguish- ing the Buddhists. For that reason the world must act without delay. The loss if the world refrains from action will be the loss of sem-zangpo.The Good Heart. China has begun it’s “final solution”. There are over 5,000 Chinese military personnel in Tibet. Over 7.5 million Chinese have been “persuaded” to settle in Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region has been established. It is a large reserva- tion that theTibetans have been driven onto. The words “Ti- bet is Independent” are still treason. The contrast is bizarre.Ti- bet , in chains is alled “autono- mous” and inde- pendence is treason. The hypocrisy goes further when one examiines the “persuasion” used to convince Chinese to settle in Tibet. The state of the worlds last communist em- pire tells it’s citizen’s that if they move to Tibet they will be re- warded with the “pleasures” of being “first class” settlers among “peasant na- tives”. They will also get the best housing, first take of all food, the best schooling, the only medical care and bonus wages for living in a “inhospi- table climate and so- cial atmosphere.” All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than oth- ers. The result of this “communist” policy of “liberation” is that Tibetans are now a minority in their own land. Soon it will be unable to continue to fight China’s claim toTibet because there will be no more Tibetans or Tibetan culture. Countless thousands of Tibetans are fleeing their homeland to refugee centers in India and Nepal. Even the Dalai Lama himself has been forced into exile. When the Dalai Lama is not traveling around the world attempting to educate others to his people's plight he lives, at Dharamsala, India. It is the first time in over 500 years thatTibet is without her Dalai Lama. Any refugee wishing to travel back into Tibet to visit or rescue others left behind must sign a document declaring themselves a “Chinese Overseas National”. In effect they must sign a document that says they are Chinese not Tibetan if they wish to see family or loved ones. It is akin to taking hostages. Even Tibetans with new citizenships in other countries must sign this docu- ment. China thereby blackmails a people into given up their identity. Despite all the horror and cruelty that China has wrought they are fought with compassion. No guns are raised. The Tibetan’s are fighting for peace and know that to raise even one gun is to fail in that fight. They will not take the life of others in combat or them- selves through hunger strike. They fight the same way they live; with wisdom and compassion. Their wisdom and compassion had led them to the conclusion that China must go home for it can not set right what is wrong with itself unless it is at home. They believe that if China were to cease behaving in a disharmonious manner it would benefit all. For the sake of both Tibetans and Chinese they ask the Chinese to leave. TheTibetan conflict is unique in this way. It is not, as is evidenced so many other places in the world, a conflict between state spon- sored terrorism and community sponsored terrorism. It is an army of war, violence, torture, intolerance, and militant ignorance versus a nation of peaceful people, resolute in their stand to maintain their way Of life. This is simply a choice between peace and war; good and evil; bullets and bodhisattvas .