DHARAMSALA, India: In this Himalayan hill town, where Tibetan prayer flags flutter and red-robed monks study Buddha's call for forbearance, talk is brewing of kicking off the world's next separatist movement. Posters around town advertise the word "rangzen" -- Tibetan for "independence." Not in years has it been heard so much in the streets here, falling from the lips of members of the Tibetan diaspora whose frustration runs as deep as the mountain ravines of their homeland. Decades of dialog with the Chinese government, they say, have failed. "Support for independence will definitely increase," Dhondup Dorjee, 30, said, as he took a break from heated discussion with fellow exiles to grab lunch in the cafeteria of the Tibetan medicine hospital. "What are the pressures we can put on the Chinese? The pressures will come in any form." The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, has called hundreds of representatives from the world's 150,000 Tibetan exiles to a crisis meeting here this week so people like Dorjee can speak their mind. Dorjee is vice-president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an exile organization that wants independence from China. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, based here in Dharamsala, have long advocated autonomy under Chinese rule, not outright independence.
DHARAMSALA, India: In this Himalayan hill town, where Tibetan prayer flags flutter and red-robed monks study Buddha's call for forbearance, talk is brewing of kicking off the world's next separatist movement.
Posters around town advertise the word "rangzen" -- Tibetan for "independence." Not in years has it been heard so much in the streets here, falling from the lips of members of the Tibetan diaspora whose frustration runs as deep as the mountain ravines of their homeland. Decades of dialog with the Chinese government, they say, have failed.
"Support for independence will definitely increase," Dhondup Dorjee, 30, said, as he took a break from heated discussion with fellow exiles to grab lunch in the cafeteria of the Tibetan medicine hospital. "What are the pressures we can put on the Chinese? The pressures will come in any form."
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, has called hundreds of representatives from the world's 150,000 Tibetan exiles to a crisis meeting here this week so people like Dorjee can speak their mind. Dorjee is vice-president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an exile organization that wants independence from China. The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, based here in Dharamsala, have long advocated autonomy under Chinese rule, not outright independence.
There is currently a meeting of Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, India, to discuss the future of their movement. In March several Han Chinese were killed by violent Tibetan protesters in Lhasa. As the 'western' media misrepresented the issue, I wrote a small piece on the history of the Tibet conflict:After he won control over most of China Mao Tse Tung in 1950 reasserted Chinese rule over Tibet, but allowed the local religious aristocracy and government to carry on. Then most of the Tibetan people were still working as serfs for the big land owners. These were the thousands of monasteries controlled by various lama lineages, feudal religious ruler clans. Despite the peaceful image of Buddhism the various lamas and monasteries regularly fought over territory and economic benefits. ... During the 1950s the Chinese implemented land reform and secular schooling in Tibet. The lamas fought against the loss of their economic, social and political power by sending their monks into the streets. With the active help of the CIA the lamas had some success against the communists, but the movement was crushed when in 1959 the Chinese again occupied the capital and the seat of the Dalai Lama, Lhasa. Financed by the CIA, the Dalai Lama fled to India to set up an exile government.
There is currently a meeting of Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, India, to discuss the future of their movement.
In March several Han Chinese were killed by violent Tibetan protesters in Lhasa. As the 'western' media misrepresented the issue, I wrote a small piece on the history of the Tibet conflict:
After he won control over most of China Mao Tse Tung in 1950 reasserted Chinese rule over Tibet, but allowed the local religious aristocracy and government to carry on. Then most of the Tibetan people were still working as serfs for the big land owners. These were the thousands of monasteries controlled by various lama lineages, feudal religious ruler clans. Despite the peaceful image of Buddhism the various lamas and monasteries regularly fought over territory and economic benefits. ... During the 1950s the Chinese implemented land reform and secular schooling in Tibet. The lamas fought against the loss of their economic, social and political power by sending their monks into the streets. With the active help of the CIA the lamas had some success against the communists, but the movement was crushed when in 1959 the Chinese again occupied the capital and the seat of the Dalai Lama, Lhasa. Financed by the CIA, the Dalai Lama fled to India to set up an exile government.
After he won control over most of China Mao Tse Tung in 1950 reasserted Chinese rule over Tibet, but allowed the local religious aristocracy and government to carry on.
Then most of the Tibetan people were still working as serfs for the big land owners. These were the thousands of monasteries controlled by various lama lineages, feudal religious ruler clans. Despite the peaceful image of Buddhism the various lamas and monasteries regularly fought over territory and economic benefits. ... During the 1950s the Chinese implemented land reform and secular schooling in Tibet. The lamas fought against the loss of their economic, social and political power by sending their monks into the streets. With the active help of the CIA the lamas had some success against the communists, but the movement was crushed when in 1959 the Chinese again occupied the capital and the seat of the Dalai Lama, Lhasa. Financed by the CIA, the Dalai Lama fled to India to set up an exile government.
