[www.skepticblog.org]

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How many heads of state are addressed as “His Holiness?” Actually according to the official Tibet government, his full title is: Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom ! Aren’t such flowery honorifics reserved for leaders in totalitarian states like North Korea (“Dear Leader”, “Great Leader” etc.) or reigning monarchs with no real powers like the Queen of England? Is it possible that being addressed as “His Holiness” is important for a politician who wants to get a free pass from a cynical public. When he repeats the oft quoted figure of 1.2 millions Tibetans killed by the Chinese during their brutal annexation exercise, “His Holiness” does not have to provide proof or cite sources and no one in the popular press found it necessary to check up on those figures. Given that the population of Tibet in 1950 was 1.5 million from Chinese sources and 4 million from Tibet government-in-exile source, the 1.2 million casualty number has to be highly suspect. (The 1994 Report of the Conference of International Lawyers on Issues Relating to Tibet cited a population of 1.8 million in 1964 and 2.1 million in 1990.)

He was selected as the re-incarnation of the Buddha when he was TWO years old. In 1950, at the age of 15 — yes — fifteen — as in 1 — 5 — he was installed as the political head of state and government — not just a titular head like some baby monarch of the past but one with real power. In 1954, when he was 19, he went in person to engage in peace talks with Chinese Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and Premier Chou En-Lai. Did he really think that these two seasoned revolutionaries and survivors of years of political struggles and now undisputed leaders of the most populous country would take him seriously? Just imagine if the Iranian government were to send a teenager to negotiate with the U.S. to try to reestablish diplomatic relations, we would be highly insulted and the rest of the world would laugh — and deservedly so. Well, of course “His Holiness” was not a teenager then, he was re-incarnated, so he was already really a few hundred year old even though his chronological age was only 19. No really! This is what happens when a group of people actually believe fantasies of their own making and assume that everyone else will play along.

Accurate reporting of the Dalai Lama and Tibet is very rare — even in the age of Internet communications. Almost all articles not written by the Chinese Government are Pro-Dalai Lama. Any articles critical of the Dalai Lama are immediately suspected as being propaganda of the Chinese. There is definitely a conspicuous absence of articles describing the conditions of the Tibetan peasants, or comparing pre and post-Chinese occupation Tibetan society. Whether it’s Times, Newsweek, Harpers, New Yorker or National Review, popular magazines in the U.S. all paint a rosy picture of a smiling avuncular Dalai Lama driven from his peaceful Utopian mountain paradise and appealing to the world to help him return. (“Help” usually means “send money.”) It is not until the curious readers get their hands on more academic publications like Foreign Affairs or Asian Journal of Political Science that a more studied picture of the real Tibet can be understood in context with its history, religion and culture. Among popular press, this UK Telegraph’s article from last year, Myth and Reality in Tibet is a rare exception. The March 2008 article opened with this observation:


The myth, of course, is an outgrowth of Tibet’s former inaccessibility, which has fostered illusions about this mysterious land in the midst of the Himalayan Mountains — illusions that have been skillfully promoted for political purposes by the Dalai Lama’s advocates.

And for a peek into the lives of the serfs under the old regime, this from historian Michael Parenti’s Friendly Feudalism is most telling:


Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning at age nine. The monastic estates also conscripted children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.

Parenti’s well documented account of conditions of women under the Lama-regime will outrage any of the women students standing in line waiting for tickets to hear “His Holiness” expound on the rights of men and pleas to “free” his country:


Not all Tibetan exiles are enamored of the old Shangri-La theocracy. Kim Lewis, who studied healing methods with a Buddhist monk in Berkeley, California, had occasion to talk at length with more than a dozen Tibetan women who lived in the monk’s building. When she asked how they felt about returning to their homeland, the sentiment was unanimously negative. At first, Lewis assumed that their reluctance had to do with the Chinese occupation, but they quickly informed her otherwise. They said they were extremely grateful “not to have to marry 4 or 5 men, be pregnant almost all the time,” or deal with sexually transmitted diseases contacted from a straying husband. The younger women “were delighted to be getting an education, wanted absolutely nothing to do with any religion, and wondered why Americans were so naïve [about Tibet].”

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to point out the motes in the Dalai Lama’s adoring fans eyes is not to say we endorse the Chinese actions in Tibet 50 years ago. But by the same token, romanticizing the old misogynistic aristocratic theocracy of the old Tibet and ignoring the social and civil progress post-occupation, and blindly supporting the figurehead of the old regime, would be equally counterproductive.

An energetic discussion here

[inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com]

Friendly Feudalism

[www.michaelparenti.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 09:05AM by corboy.

corboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> [www.skepticblog.org]
>
> And for a peek into the lives of the serfs under
> the old regime, this from historian Michael
> Parenti’s Friendly Feudalism is most telling:
>
>
> Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from
> their peasant families and brought into the
> monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there,
> they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk,
> reports that it was common for peasant children to
> be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He
> himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning
> at age nine. The monastic estates also
> conscripted children for lifelong servitude as
> domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.
>
> Parenti’s well documented account of conditions
> of women under the Lama-regime will outrage any of
> the women students standing in line waiting for
> tickets to hear “His Holiness” expound on the
> rights of men and pleas to “free” his
> country:
>
>
> Not all Tibetan exiles are enamored of the old
> Shangri-La theocracy. Kim Lewis, who studied
> healing methods with a Buddhist monk in Berkeley,
> California, had occasion to talk at length with
> more than a dozen Tibetan women who lived in the
> monk’s building. When she asked how they felt
> about returning to their homeland, the sentiment
> was unanimously negative. At first, Lewis assumed
> that their reluctance had to do with the Chinese
> occupation, but they quickly informed her
> otherwise. They said they were extremely grateful
> “not to have to marry 4 or 5 men, be pregnant
> almost all the time,” or deal with sexually
> transmitted diseases contacted from a straying
> husband. The younger women “were delighted to be
> getting an education, wanted absolutely nothing to
> do with any religion, and wondered why Americans
> were so naïve [about Tibet].”
> [/quote]
>
>

Quote

to point out the motes in the Dalai
> Lama’s adoring fans eyes is not to say we
> endorse the Chinese actions in Tibet 50 years ago.
> But by the same token, romanticizing the old
> misogynistic aristocratic theocracy of the old
> Tibet and ignoring the social and civil progress
> post-occupation, and blindly supporting the
> figurehead of the old regime, would be equally
> counterproductive.

>
> An energetic discussion here
>
> [inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com]
> 22/tibet-myth-reality/
>
> Friendly Feudalism
>
> [www.michaelparenti.org]


Corboy, I need to interject a cautionary note, here. Unfortunately, not all of Parenti's testimony is accurate or trustworthy. For example, Tashi Tsering wasn't a monk, he was given by his parents to a special troupe of boy dancers in the Dalai Lama's elite corps, in payment of a tax imposed by the Tibetan government. This took place later than age 9. He was never subjected to repeated rape in the monasteries. He never lived in a monastery. T. Tsering published a book on his experiences in Tibet and the West, which is available from Amazon. The discrepancy between T. Tsering's actual experiences as outlined in his auto-biography, and Parenti's writing was pointed out to Parenti, but he hasn't corrected his errors.

On the other hand, Tashi Tsering did end up living as a sort of male "consort" to a high-ranking government official in exchange for lessons in reading and writing, or valuable connections, or some such, I forget the details now. But there's no mention of that in Parenti's "history". Also, over time, Parenti has revised and added to the testimony of the Tibetan women that Kim Lewis worked with, as has suited his fancy. It's very unfortunate, because it means we can't rely on him as an accurate source of information in that regard. I do believe that most of what he writes is true; some of his portrayals of life in "old Tibet" are corroborated by other researchers, but here and there he gets a bit creative, which damages his overall credibility.


I will add one thing about life in what you referred to as Tibet's misogynistic society. Of course, in a society dominated by male monasticism oriented towards sexual tantra, there will be misogyny and abuses. Turrell Wylie, who founded the first Tibetan Buddhism department ever in a US university, said that when he brought a branch of the Sakya royal family to the US, including the abbott of one of the monasteries along with some of his monks, there was a near tragedy one day, when he was escorting one of the monks around the university where he taught. A female student got off the bus as they were walking nearby, and the monk suddenly took off running after her, saying she was a dakini (Tib.: khandroma), a goddess capable of bestowing Enlightenment if he could have sex with her. This is the belief of Tibetan monks of all stripes, and this one was ready to assault the girl right then and there, in broad daylight, in the middle of the sidewalk. Wylie had to run after him and stop him, and explain that he couldn't do that in the US, it was against the law, and he could go to jail. In Tibet, raping seemingly random women on the spot in public was a perfectly normal thing for monks to do. So after that, the professor had to explain to all the monks that customs and laws were very different in their new home, and that they would have to curtail some of their activities. This also included taking food and other items from stores without paying for them. They would have to get used to paying for things with cash.

In view of this, it's little wonder that there are so many problems of "misconduct" and even rape in Tibetan Buddhist groups in the US, Europe and Australia. Several students in one Kagyu (Tibetan) center in France filed rape charges a couple of years ago against one of the lamas there. This was a center belonging to the young reincarnation of Kalu Rinpoche, who fired all the monks there, when he found out about routine gross misconduct going on there. The monks had the gall to sue him, claiming he had no authority to fire them. In the end, the young Kalu Rinpoche won after a higher authority in the Kagyu order intervened. The young Kalu Rinpoche, as has been posted elsewhere on this forum, himself was routinely raped from age 12 to 15 in the monastery he was assigned to. The assaults stopped when he began his 3-year meditation retreat.

Anyone considering studying Tibetan Buddhism should exercise caution in choosing a sangha and a teacher.

Thanks for correcting me on Parenti as a source.

Yet more thanks for telling of that monk who had
aggressive and dangerous delusions that he
was entitled to molest any female he thought to
be a tantric consort.

These are the incidents that need to be given media
attention.

At least in the West, the history textbooks tell us
about the Borgia papacy.

But media coverage of the Vajrayana clergy and its
monastics -- its sanitized and obsequious.

The Vajarayanas want Western hard currency,
and gladly exploit Western generosity
in granting tax exemption to spiritual
non profits, while despising Westerners
as lazy, as hippies and as materialistic.

(Go read Nikolai Grozhni's memoir Turtle Feet:
The Making and Unmaking of a Buddhist Monk)


They're the ones who can teach us a thing or two
about materialism.

They've mastered the siddhis of Western PR and
marketing, that's for sure.

I say to the Vajrayanists:

You you want our money, give us reciprocal respect.

You use our inventions, such as airplanes
and the internet and our banking systems --
show us reciprocal respect.

.

There are so many conflicting stories about Tibet and the conflict between China and the Dalai Lama. I never know who to believe!

I was speaking to some friends who had recently visited, who were very upset by the fact that Tibet has changed so much since their last visit back in the 70s. I guess the people and their culture and way of life was really disrupted by the invasion of the Chinese.

But, on the other hand, I've heard that it was helpful because the monks there basically ran things there, with the populace spending their last coins on prayers and prayer flags, and being told to long spiritual journeys (which, in and of themselves would be fine, imo.)

There are always two sides to a story, I guess. But I definitely feel that theocracies or governments that are overly engaged in dictating laws according to their religious beliefs are always places to stay away from.

Everyone should be free to choose or not choose to believe. It should not be forced upon them either way.

whatevahs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone should be free to choose or not choose to
> believe. It should not be forced upon them either
> way.

That's a good point and one I wish more people would understand.

Thanks Yelenejbean

Quoting Misstyk:

"In Tibet, raping seemingly random women on the spot in public was a perfectly normal thing for monks to do. So after that, the professor had to explain to all the monks that customs and laws were very different in their new home, and that they would have to curtail some of their activities. This also included taking food and other items from stores without paying for them. They would have to get used to paying for things with cash.

In view of this, it's little wonder that there are so many problems of "misconduct" and even rape in Tibetan Buddhist groups in the US, Europe and Australia. Several students in one Kagyu (Tibetan) center in France filed rape charges a couple of years ago against one of the lamas there."


OMG, I didn't carefully read that last time I was here! Ok I'm never going to Tibet. Ever. And you won't find me going to any Tibetan Buddhist groups anywhere else either. That is seriously scary, creepy, and weird!!

To Whatevahs,

But what is the basis, the evidence of Misstyk's statement? There is so much hear-say, especially when it comes to stuff like this. It is not good to jump into anything blindly, but also equally bad to reject anything blindly, simply because someone else says something against it. Wouldn't you think you ought to look into the authenticity of others' words before making up your mind? After all, its seems like everyone in the world has some kind of agenda or another...

That said, it doesn't mean that I am defending such acts by anyone, be they monks or not. I do see a lot of information out there about the misconduct of buddhist monks in the western world.