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Holes in Dalai's story

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-10 07:46

Your Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama:

You are worried. Or so you told the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau the other day.

Worried that fellow Tibetans are getting impatient about your peaceful approach.

Worried that those advocating non-peaceful ways may "fall into the trap set by the Han people" and lend the latter the coveted excuse to justify "violent suppression".

Worried that the Han people are "denigrating" the Tibet of your days.

Worried that the Han people have a "long-term strategy" to "eliminate" Tibetan language and culture.

What a compassionate spokes-person and spiritual leader you are for your fellow Tibetans. How can one stay unmoved by such sentimental accounts by someone whose denied request is just "genuine autonomy" for his victimized ethnic group?

You are no ordinary publicist. No doubt about it. You know when to say what to which audience. That is why your apparent innocence and sensational stories of Tibet's past and present have sold so well - to some audiences.

But a quick note to Your Holi-ness - a little more respect for the truth , the real truth - may do tremendous good to your personal credibility.

Not everyone in your audience is as ignorant about Tibet as a piece of white paper, where you can doodle as you wish.

We understand your frustration regarding the designation of a Serfs' Liberation Day. Neither do we really love to see those bloody pictures and horrifying footage from Tibet of your days. Those are truly unseemly images.

But please do not worry. Nobody is identifying that with Tibetan culture, or your religion. So displaying those pictures, as we see it, has nothing to do with humiliating, or insulting (was that what you mean?) Tibetan culture. Instead, they are supposed to illustrate the serfs' real lives in old Tibet. OK. Now we know you do not like them. But are they not true? You told the Germans: "They (the Chinese) even claim that Tibetans were very gladly embracing a new era in history at that time (you mean when Tibet was peacefully liberated, right? Though we know you dislike the word liberation)."

But was that just a claim anyway? We do see from historical footage and many other records that they were happy. Do you mean all those smiling faces and wild dances were feigned? It is a pity we have to date never heard Your Holiness giving a wholesome account of what things were like in those days. If the Han people are making them up, how we wish Your Holiness speak up and lay it bare.

By the way, you mentioned the human skull thing. On that, too, you have worried too much. We have no idea who told that National Geographic reporter that horrible story that Your Holiness used a human skull to drink. Whoever it was, he or she needed lessons on Tibetan culture and religion. Please rest assured. So far as we know, the authorities here have not resorted to such far-fetched association to denigrate Tibet, its culture, or religion.

And finally, may we suggest that Your Holiness use a little more evidence when dealing with the press? Your Holiness must know the media are thirsty for sensation. So please do not be shy to be more specific next time around.

Your Holiness told the Germans the Han people have a "long-term, more important strategy" to uproot your language and culture. But facts, figures and evidence on the ground show how well the Tibetan language and culture has been preserved and promoted.

We think there are holes in Your Holiness' argument.

(China Daily 03/10/2009 page9)