The Secret Behind China’s Economy

I went to a “Falun Gong Organ Harvesting Briefing” yesterday on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and during the question period one of the speakers, David Kilgour, described China as something along the lines of a Capitalist Communist totalitarian state, thus a “no holds barred capitalism”, where economic prosperity is pursued with little concern for the well being of citizens, especially those who are seen as enemies or offer no valuable benefit to the government. This reminded me of this video.

Here is also a brief video on the harvesting of organs in China.

If you any of you have ever seen the series called “The Corporation” it describes how corporations pursue the “almighty dollar” at any cost. It also talks about how we should look to the government as good guys and how we can look to them to combat unresponsible corporations. Well in China’s case its the government itself trying to make a profit from its citizens at any cost, so sadly they have no where to look to for help.

Autonomy vs. Independence

Here’s a quick run through of what I perceive to the pros and cons to autonomy and independence, should Tibet obtain either:

Autonomy:

Overview:
-A self governing state that would manage its own internal and local affairs. However international affairs and military would be managed by China.

Pros:
-Economic benefits from China’s rich and quickly growing economy.
-Command of Tibetan internal affairs.
-Military protection from China.
-Quicker infrastructural development.

Cons:
-A dependency on China.
-Larger Chinese cultural influence on Tibet.
-No international relations as a separate state.
-Media and educational censorship.
-Totalitarianism of CCP(Chinese Communist Party): therefore little say in national government affairs and also possibility to be overruled by the CPC government.
-Capitulation to the CPC justification of Tibet having been always part of China.
-Accepting China’s national policies and international baggage and policies.

Independence:

Overview:
-A self governing state, at every level, not under the control of any other power.

Pros:
-National pride as an independent Tibetan state.
-The satisfaction of accomplishing a long hard struggle.
-Complete command over Tibet’s own independent national government.
-Ability to deal with the large Chinese population within Tibet. Whether that means deportation or denying Chinese migrants entry into Tibet.

Cons:
-Most probably, bitter relations with China.
-A land locked state, thus no access to any ocean.
-Poor economy.
-Vulnerability to foreign influences/control.
-Difficulties to create infrastructure or development at a much slower rate.

These are the few that quickly came to mind for me, if I can think of any others I’ll edit and add them. Comment on what your think should be added to the list or maybe taken away.

The Tibetan Paranormal and Supernatural

Tibet is a land that has always been perceived as mystical and mysterious because of its geographic location, deep religious beliefs and seclusion from the outside world.

I’m someone whose very skeptical about supernatural things and really I am someone who does not fully believe in them but I don’t deny the possibility of their existence.

So here are some of the few “supernatural and unexplainable” things I’ve heard about Tibet or Tibetans from personal experience. Also I’ve posted about this on other sites and I got some feedback on other people with their own experiences of Tibetan paranormal things, which I’ll post as well.

-My cousin once talked to this renowned chef who in his youth was in the circus and they had decided to send him Tibet for spiritual training, or something like this, he had stayed in a Tibetan monastery with other monks and he said that when he was there he had seen a monk bend a spoon with his mind and levitate.

-My late uncle told me that when he was coming from Tibet to India in his teens with his family across the Himalayas, he had gotten lost in a storm and became separated from the family. He started looking around for his parents or siblings but couldn’t find them. Then he saw a bird in the sky that he remembered was religiously auspicious. He followed the bird and it led him right towards where his dad was coming from looking for him.

-Many children who are said to be reincarnations of High Lamas can recollect things like where the past reincarnations placed things and important people in that past lama’s life upon first meeting.

-I was watching Dateline, I think it was, and they were doing a special on religious powers around the world. One of the segments showed a story about a Western man who was also a doctor who went on a mountain climbing expedition in the Himalayas with a group of Sherpa’s. One of the Sherpas during the climb had slipped and fell a long distance straight onto his face and he was in critical condition on the verge of dying. The other Sherpas took him and placed him in a tent and the doctor had a look at him and he came to the conclusion that the man would be dead by the next day. At night the other Sherpas gathered around the dying man’s tent and began to chant Buddhist prayers and gradually the doctor noticed that the man was becoming more stable and by morning he was able to speak and was no longer in a critical state.

Here are some other things I heard from other people when I posted on another site:

-I had a friend whose father was in the hospital here in US, At the point of death. The doctors had given up and he wasn’t to live very much longer.
My friend spoke to my Tsawai while in He was in town. Tsawai performed Chod for my friends father. Within a short time (a few days maybe) the father had a complete turn around and was well enough to go home.

-Eating dinner with H.E. Lho Bongtul Rinpoche after the last session of teachings, there was a question I didn’t get the chance to ask during the teachings. While having comfortable “chit-chat”, He looks at me and answers the unvoiced question. It had nothing to do with conversation taking place.

-Tulku Nyima Gyaltsen Rinpoche— again at the dinner table— we get a phone call that a sangha member was on the way to the emergency room. Rinpoche softly starts praying. About 10 minutes later, we get a phone call that she is fine and heading back home.

Post any Tibetan paranormal things you’ve heard about or experienced first-hand. Also comment on whether or not you believe in these Tibetan supernatural things or people and why.

Sexism in Tibetan Society

Traditionally Tibetan Tibetan women enjoyed more equality compared to women from other parts of Asia. But this is because women from other parts of Asia were treated very badly, for example, the practice of foot binding in China. However sexism did exist even in Tibetan belief, “Tibetans traditionally explained their own origins as rooted in the marriage of a monkey and a mountain ogress. Tibetans who display compassion, moderation, intelligence, and wisdom were said to take after their fathers, while Tibetans who were “red-faced, fond of sinful pursuits, and very stubborn”were said to take after their mothers.” Also even currently in Tibetan monasteries there are no high ranking nuns. Nun’s are largely only taught basic teaching and how to recite prayers and are not given the opportunity or encouraged to ascend to the higher Buddhist positions. However this is currently changing according to the Dalai Lama.

So my question is: Does sexism still exist today in Tibetan society? In comparison with other societies is it worse or better? Is it getting better? Give specific examples if you can.

Buddhism in Tibet: Vice or Virtue?

Buddhism is said to have been introduced by King Songsten Gompo during the 7th Century. Tibetans during this time period were a much more warlike people than what they developed into after the spread of Buddhism. During this time Tibet had created an empire that pressed into Western China, Bengal, Mongolia and Central Asia. Tibet had even sacked the Chinese capital of Chang’an during this period and was a dominating force in the Tarim Basin. In fact Tibet was such a force during this time that China had to form a multi-regional pact with ever major state bordering Tibet. This pact was made up of the Uighur Khagnate North of Tibet, Arabs to the West of Tibet, Nanzhao and Hindustan from the South and the Chinese from the East. With this pact China could effectively do what they could not do alone, contain Tibet by having it attacked from all sides to make sure it could not threaten to invade China. This strategy worked since Tibetan forces could not concentrate on China with its enemies attacking from all its surrounding regions. Tibetan power in the region soon declined and collapsed in 866 AD, later on Tibetans adopted an isolationist policy.

So my question is do you think the spread of Buddhism in Tibet was a negative thing for Tibetans that contributed to Tibet’s decline in power since the decline in Tibetan power and the spread of the Tibetan Buddhism seem to have come right at the same moment. Or do you think that in the long run Buddhism spreading into Tibet was a good thing?

Links: http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=18367

Tibet: Historically A Part of China?

Many Chinese, especially the Chinese Communist officials, like to point to history as their justification for sovereignty over Tibet. However in my opinion their arguments don’t hold much value, let me explain why in this post.

The CCP(Chinese Communist Party) and its supporters generally look to the Qing’s dynasty (1644 to 1911), a period where they believe the Qing Emperor had sovereignty over Tibet to justify their current sovereignty. However the Qing did not have sovereignty over Tibet during this period, it was more closer to a suzerainty with Tibet having its own degree of autonomy managing its own internal affairs. The Qing dynasty was also ruled by Manchu emperors, and the Manchu are people that are recognized as ethnic minorities within China by the CCP just as Tibetans are. Thus its absurd for the CCP to claim sovereignty over Tibet when they themselves were subjugated by the Manchu rulers just as Tibet was. In fact if the CCP wants to use this skewed logic then we Tibetans are in the same position to claim sovereignty over China just as they claim sovereignty over Tibet.

In fact during the Qing dynasty it was the Tibetans who were better treated by the Qing rulers then then Han Chinese population. Tibetan religious leaders were revered by the Qing emperors since many Manchus practiced Tibetan Buddhism. In contrast the Chinese were made to submit to the Manchu rulers and assimilate to their culture. For example once the Manchus took power within China they forced every Chinese male to shave their head except for the hair on the very back of the head which was tied into a pony tail. This was a Manchu nomadic hairstyle known as the “queue” that was supposed to represent the tail of a horse. If a Chinese male decided not to shave his head to wear this hairstyle he would have his head cut off. In fact a popular saying during this hairstyle enforcement was “Lose the hair, keep the head. Keep the hair, lose the head.”

Another reason why I think the CCP’s argument using history for its justification for sovereignty over Tibet is absurd is because the CCP does not represent the Chinese people since they allow no true representation so how can they claim the achievements of the past Chinese people when in fact they have killed so many of these people and also shunned and destroyed Chinese history during the Cultural Revolution and now they look to claim the same sovereignty of the same emperors they once despised.

Is Tibet a part of China? and why or why not?

Special Lecture with Chinese Historian Haonian Xin

I went to special lecture held at my university for Xin, Haonian: -”Renowned scholar and historian”, -Author of the book “Who is the New China?”, -Chief Editor of the Magazine “Huang Hua Gang.” -Director of New York’s Institute for Research in Modern Chinese History, and -Guest lecturer at over 250 forums in North America and elsewhere in recent years.

In his lecture he focused mostly on the Cultural Revolution within China, including his own first hand account of living inside China during this period. The Lecture was in Chinese but English translation by earphone was provided, which I used. Here are some notes I took on a few things he lectured about. (They may be a little unclear at certain places or unfinished since the translation wasn’t the best and I had to go to the washroom somewhere in the middle of the lecture):

Notes:
-The CCP higher committee was behind the Cultural Revolution and it was Mao who controlled the committee thus Mao carries the main responsibility for the Cultural Revolution since without his approval it would not have started.
-Mao stated to the public that the target during the revolution was capitalist supporters and followers however Mao really wanted to use the revolution as a means to eliminate his political rival Liu Shaoqi and his followers using the excuse that they were capitalist followers.
-Mao led a team of followers to incite the revolution’s schemes and orders.
-After the Cultural Revolution Mao consolidated his power over the CCP.
Strategy and Process of the Cultural Revolution:
-Mao and Liu both had their strategies:
-Liu wanted to maintain the current order in the part so that he could maintain his power and clique.
-Mao wanted to overthrow the current order to gain control for himself.
-Liu Shaoqi had 80-90% of the party prior to the revolution. ( I posted this on a Chinese History site and a scholar told me this was a little inaccurate, he said Mao actually did still have power over the military which granted him more power than this).
-However Mao defeated Liu, his strategy was to scheme, track and throw everything into the fight.
Why?: -Liu Shaoqi controlled 80-90% of the power.
-Mao believed that he deserved the power since he had it originally.
-Thus Mao must find a reason to kill Liu Shaoqi. That reason was the revolution.
-He charges Liu Shaoqi with being a revisionist capitalist.
-The Revolution was used to deceive the people.
-Mao therefore said that he was following the peoples wishes to kill Liu Shaoqi, since he was a revisionist.
-Mao had to overthrow Liu Shaoqi, but had the be careful not to destroy the CCP.
-Thus he used class struggle so that no one is there to oppose him.
-Mao launched countless class struggles and killed many.
-Changeability: Friends of Mao could become enemies in his class struggle the next day.
-Criticised the culture to support political struggle-
-Lenin: “all the culture must be organized and led by the party” = “Party Culture”.
-Therefore Mao had used culture to launch and carry out the revolution.
-Many scholars were killed and many committed suicide.
-Mao Zedong portrayed himself into an image of a God, while Liu Shaoqi was still considered a person to his followers.
-The Red book became the bible for the people, everyone had to raise it, recite it , read it, celebrate it.
-Mao was to be praised as a God.
-Whoever was against: Mao, his theories, or attacked his theories were killed.
-Mao was the God and could not be argued against/
-Therefore Liu could not compete against the image of a God.
-Mao was worshipped as a God which determined his victory.
-Liu also failed because he was not as ruthless and sinister as Mao.
-Mao claimed that it was the people who wanted to fight Liu Shaoqi not himself.

*Around here I think was where I went to the washroom. He started to discuss about work units that were sent throughout the countryside but later dismissed after they were voted to be dismissed. I didn’t get the reasoning behind the dismissal though or why the people wanted them to be dismissed.

-Toss away old culture, traditions and replace with new
-Marxism: break away from all possible traditions and replace it with Marxism
-Endless temples, relics were destroyed. Monks were driven from monasteries.
-The Red Guard would unearth the bodies and ashes of the dead and forced the widows to condemn their dead husbands. (I think they were the remains of maybe dead religious figureheads?? Or scholars maybe, I think the translators skipped a bit here).
-Comparable to the Paris Commune (of 1871) but in China the culture was being burned and destroyed all over China compared to Paris Commune where it was confined to Paris alone.
-The students would condemn and parade teachers as humiliation, and eventually even kill them.
-Mao was openly supporting the Red Guard to kill these people.
-Mao Zedong tried to please the young people, he met with the Red Guards.
-He allowed these people to transport freely across China to put up posters and condemn people, so that they could also spread condemnation for Liu Shaoqi, and purge people who Mao wanted to fight.

After the lecture there was a short question period. I was going to ask a few questions in regard to Tibet but I was never able to since the lecture ran longer than intended making the question period so short. Before the lecture, and in some parts in between, Haonian told some of his experiences while he was inside China during the Revolution. He talked about how he was criticized by some for writing novels instead of writing literature to do with the Communist government so he was sometimes shunned for it. He also talked about how he vowed with his brothers and family members that they would not participate in the Cultural Revolution since he had seen what they were doing to people. He didn’t go into much detail about what he saw but he said he saw elders being killed and at times during the lecture he seemed like he got really angered when describing some events of the revolution. Particularly during the question period there was one man at the very end, when the question period was wrapping up, who came to the microphone and criticized Haonian for what he claimed was and unfair depiction of Mao since he had told only what he saw as “Haonian’s side of the story”. Afterwards Haonian basically went on a huge counterclaim to this man’s accusations. He brought up alot of things in this huge reply, I can’t remember everything he said but the one point that I can recall quite well is how he talked about this a Chinese emperor who had killed a few hundred Confucian scholar and was historically known as a butcher for his action, yet Mao had killed 80 million Chinese and was revered as a God by many Chinese.

I came into this lecture not knowing much about the cultural revolution so I thought this would be a good chance to learn. Please reply with and comments about this or questions if you have any. Peace.

Traditional Tibetan Saying

I came across a few books on Tibetan history passingly a while back and there was one book I briefly read called “A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye” written by Melvyn Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, William R. Siebenschuh.

What sticks out in my mind about the book is this quote by itself on an entire page at the start of the book. “Tibetans are ruined by hope, Chinese are ruined by suspicion.” It was credited as a “-Traditional Tibetan Saying” but I’ve never heard the saying before, and I still don’t fully understand the meaning or what it implies but I found it really interesting. I posted this here because I was wondering if anyone else on this blog has ever heard this saying and or completely understands what it is implying and/or why it is implying this notion. Feel free to post your own perception of what this possibly means. I’ll post back here myself as well if I get a better understanding of this “traditional Tibetan saying”.

Tibet and its Historical Foreign Influences

Overview:
Tibet geographic location throughout history has made it essentially the crossroads of Asia. The Middle Eastern influence from the West, Mongolian influence from the northeast and of course influence from the two most populous civilization in history: the Indians to the south and Chinese to the East. However Tibet still created and maintained its own distinct culture and language and also influenced these nations themselves and other smaller surrounding nations in return(some more that others). So the question I ask is which people had the largest influence on Tibetans throughout history and why? What examples are there of these peoples influence?

Here are just a few foreign cultural influences in Tibetan culture, there are many others. Please list any other you can find.

Middle Easterners:
-Tibet has a small minority of Tibetan Muslims known as “Kyangsha or Gya Kachee“. “Tibetan Muslims…are largely of Kashmiri and Persian/Arab/Turkic descent through the patrilineal lineage and also often descendants of native Tibetans through the matrilineal lineage”.

Mongolians:
-Tibetan dress and clothes were adopted from the Mongolians.
-”The actual title [of Dalai Lama] was first bestowed by the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan upon Sonam Gyatso in 1578″. Reincarnations of the Dalai Lama were many times supported by Mongol rulers.

Indians:
-”The most important event in Tibetan Buddhist history…was the arrival of the great tantric mystic Padmasambhava in Tibet in 774 at the invitation of King Trisong Detsen. It was Padmasambhava (more commonly known in the region as Guru Rinpoche) who merged tantric Buddhism with the local Bön religion to form what we now recognize as Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to writing a number of important scriptures (some of which he hid for future tertons to find), Padmasambhava established the Nyingma school from which all schools of Tibetan Buddhism are derived”.
- Alot of Tibetan scholarly knowledge has been learned from Indians throughout Tibets Buddhist history, “In 1204 he Kashmiri master Shakyashribadhra arrived in Tibet accompanied by an entourage of Indian scholars…Tibetan scholars were inspired by this opportunity to learn directly from knowledgeable Indians”. From contacts like this Tibetans applied themselves to mastering Sanskrit grammar and other aspects of Indian linguistic and literary learning, whether Sanskrit was introduced by the Indians I am unsure of though but it seems most likely. Tibetans also learnt and developed much of what they know on Buddhism from the Indians, like most Buddhist states in Asia.
-”The Tibetan writing system was based upon sixth or seventh century North Indian or Central Asian scripts that were derived from the more ancient Brahmi script (which, in an early form, had been used to inscribe many of the edicts of the famous Indian monarch of the third century BCE, Ashoka)”.

Chinese:
-”The King of Nepal and the Emperor of China offered their daughters to the Tibetan Emperor in marriage. The wedding to the Nepalese and Chinese princesses were of particular importance, because they played important roles in the spread of Buddhism in Tibet”. There is controversy in regards to which princess played a major or predominant role in the spread of Buddhism in Tibet. Chinese sources claim that it was the Chinese princess Wen Cheng whereas Tibetans claim that it was the Nepalese princess and not the Chinese whose influence was greater.
- The Tibetans, like the Japanese, had loaned their pronunciation for numbers from the Middle Chinese pronunciation.

What I think:
In my opinion I think the greatest influence on Tibet is a very close choice between India and Mongolia with China third and the Middle Easterners fourth. I think I would give the slight edge to India since Tibetans seemed to be more accepting of Indian things. I say this because obviously today there is hostility between Tibetans and Chinese but also if you look back in history there was always animosity between Tibet and China for most of the relations between both states. We can see this sentiment in the Tibetan language. The word for China in Tibetan is “Gya-na” which translates into “Black Kingdom”, whereas the word for India comparably is “Gya-ga” which translates into “White Kingdom”. Also previous to the introduction and spread of Buddhism into Tibet, China and Tibet were in many battles over caravan routes along the Tarim Basin, thus adding to the hostility. Tibetans seemed to be more accepting of India than China especially later on with the spread of Buddhism since India is the land from where Buddhism originated. Now I know that just because Tibetans were more accepting of India than China historically does not equate to India having more of an influence on Tibet, but it does make it more plausible and more likely since obviously culture would be more easily spread where it is eagerly accepted than where it is not. In Tibetan history you hear of many Tibetans who sought after Indian religious teaching, scriptures, and Indian scholars, whereas I don’t believe Tibetans ever sent emissaries to China to learn Chinese culture and teachings and than bring it back to their native lands to be taught, like Japan and Korea had done throughout their histories.