First things first: there are no suicide bombers in Tibet. But unless the Chinese government makes some drastic changes to policies with Tibet, there will be, potentially very, very soon.
At the risk of being a finger-wagger, I can't help but be somewhat appalled at the lack of commentary on the violent protests that have taken place in the Tibet Autonomous Region and surrounding provinces this past week. When the election cycle takes 3 years, we should make a concerted effort to start thinking about some of the things the next president is actually going to have to deal with. Like a violent guerrilla movement against one of our more problematic and violence-prone allies.
The problems in Tibet have a long and complicated history-- one which people will argue about for hours, digging through detailed minutiae in an attempt to justify or deny Tibetan self-rule. But what these recent protests in Tibet signify is that discussions of ideology are increasingly beside the point.
Tibetans are oppressed and lashing out. This is a cultural issue-- the Chinese are actively seeking to marginalize and denigrate traditional Tibetan culture and identity. I visited Tibet last summer, and the Chinese government's attempts to humiliate Tibetans is very, very blatant. It is simply part of their propaganda. I'll give you one of the most visible examples. This is the Potala Palace.
The Potala Palace is Tibet's Statue of Liberty. It once towered over Lhasa, housed the living embodiment of compassion, the Dalai Lama, and served as the seat of his rule. It is the architectural landmark of Tibet and a landmark achievement of traditional Tibetan culture.
The Chinese built this across from the Potala Palace.
It is a monument to China's "Peaceful Liberation" of Tibet in 1950. It needs to be guarded 24 hours a day to prevent vandalism. It was no coincidence that it was built across the street from the Potala. There are lots of other small slaps in the face-- the Chinese set up tours of the Potala Palace to go counter-clockwise around the building, which is the equivalent of putting your left hand over your heart to make a pledge. At other temples, you can pay Chinese merchants to dress up in traditional Tibetan garb and have your picture taken. Small symbolic gestures towards the inferiority of Tibetan culture surround you in Tibet.
And there is actual religious suppression-- limiting the number of monks allowed to worship at any given monastery, forcing all monks and nuns to denounce the Dalai Lama. Imprisoning Tibetans for even discussing Tibetan culture. Google around for the gory details.
Point is, the riots this past week were by all reports a bubbling over of long-accumulating resentments. And their defining characteristic has been violence. These were not peaceful protests. Some of the smaller ones were, but in Lhasa, in the riots that sparked the wider protests, Tibetans looted and burned shops and cars owned by ethnic Chinese.
Although the initial peaceful protests in Lhasa were started by monks, the violent protests in Lhasa were not lead by monks. They were a spontaneous reaction. The only thing preventing this kind of angry mob from materializing more commonly and getting worse is the Dalai Lama, who has always advocated for Ghandi-style non-violence. Young Tibetans have long been grumbling about the inefficacy of non-violent means.
The Dalai Lama is getting old. He's almost 73. When he dies, his successor is traditionally discovered by the second highest lama in Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lama. They generally trade off-- the Dalai Lama leads the search for the reincarnated Panchen, then he returns the favor. Here's the problem. When the Dalai Lama announced that he'd located the new Panchen Lama in 1995, the Chinese abducted him, famously making him the world's youngest political prisoner. The Chinese government then concocted a ridiculous selection process of their own involving pulling names from a golden urn and found their own Panchen Lama.
Eventually, the 14th Dalai Lama will die. The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama will appointed a new Dalai Lama who will say anything the government wants him too, and will not be considered legitimate by the increasingly marginalized Tibetans. There will be a crisis in Tibetan Buddhism, the lynchpin of Tibetan society. And then the headline of this diary will appear regularly in newspapers across the world.