Cultural Survival in Tibet

Cultural Survival In Tibet

Tibet is "considered one of the most remote regions on earth," even for a Chinese citizen. An ordinary Chinese only has "a vaguest notion of Tibet [through] official story sanctioned by the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party" (Donnet 11). Following a "peaceful liberation" in 1950, both sides, the Chinese government and The government in exile, blame each other for an increasingly deteriorate condition of living in Tibet. On the Chinese side, the Communist government insists that "condition in Tibet are better than they were before China took over Tibet administration of the region in 1959" (Blondeau 81). Opposing this idea, the government-in-exile is convinced the 1950 intervention from China an invasion of an independent country (Daniel, James xiv). Internationally, common consensus from all countries states that the international community "recognized and still recognized China's sovereignty over Tibet" (Blondeau 50). This recognition partly due to the fact that the Western countries at the time has not yet embraced on decolonization and, thus, feared of losing their own colonies since they believed Tibet, more or less, a Chinese colony (Blondeau 52). However, if we cast aside political disagreement, basic human right was never at the center of attention. As the result, the Chinese government was free from international pressure to implement policies which directly or indirectly results in deaths of "perhaps a million Tibetans" (Metraus 275), and alleged destruction of Tibet as a culture by deploying "a systematic campaign to obliterate the culture, language and religion of Tibet-in short it sought to eradicate anything that gave definition to Tibetans as people" (Metraus 274). But the past has been served, recently Dalai Lama, head of government-in-exile in India, announces his plan to unify Tibet following his belief in non-violence and compassion from Buddha (Donnet 176), even...