Zen and the art of hypocrisy
The West’s misplaced praise of the Dalai Lama
Derek Rosin
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with “his holiness” Tenzin Gyatso, better known as the Dalai Lama, the highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. The visit sparked controversy for all the wrong reasons, with commentators expressing concern that the meeting could harm relations with China.
What’s more worrying is the man himself. The Dalai Lama is the biggest con-artist on the world political stage today. He’s craftily built himself up in the West as a benevolent religious figure who, in the words of Jason Kenney, Canada’s secretary of state for multiculturalism, is a “pacifist Buddhist monk who advocates nothing more than cultural autonomy for his people.”
Nonsense. The Dalai Lama is a shrewd political operator bent on returning to power. He only gets a reception by political leaders in the West because he’s seen as someone who could help weaken and contain China should he be able to regain power and influence in Tibet.
People may be wondering: if the Dalai Lama is successful, just what kind of “cultural autonomy” would he restore? For a clue, take a look at the history of Tibetan society under his rule, as well as the rule of his predecessors.
For centuries before the Chinese invasion in 1950, Tibet was a feudal society ruled over by the Lamaist hierarchy. A small minority of Tibetan aristocrats — officials and high-ranking monks - lived a life of leisure off of the back-breaking labour of serfs. Those serfs, along with the land they tilled, were considered the property of this religious oligarchy. Other people were outright slaves — bought and sold like the yaks that dot the Tibetan landscape.
Conditions for the vast majority of people were brutal. Infant mortality in the first year of life was over 40 per cent. Malnutrition and famines were commonplace — but that didn’t stop monks from uselessly burning precious yak butter in various superstitious rituals. Women were considered unclean and inferior to men. For the vast majority of people, hygiene standards were dismal, latrines were a luxury. As such, disease was rampant, but the monastic and religious culture of Tibet’s rulers meant that basic health care couldn’t exist. The Dalai Lama stood at the top of this society — a divine ruler presiding over all-too-human misery.
It’s further proof that theocracies suck, whether Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist.
The Dalai Lama’s claims to pacifism are similarly bogus. As one can imagine in such a stratified and brutal society, Tibet has had its fair share of violence. The feudal fiefdoms that dominated the countryside enforced their rule with armed gangs. Peasants who stepped out of line — say by touching some of their owner’s possessions — were beaten. Serfs who escaped their lands were hunted down and imprisoned and tortured as punishment.
Moreover, after China invaded Tibet and overthrew its monasterial and feudal structures, the Dalai Lama’s organization waged a CIA-funded guerilla war in an attempt to return to power.
The last time I was in China, I visited the ethnically Tibetan areas of western Sichuan province that was part of Tibet proper prior to 1950. It’s a remote area, far from the glitz of the market-driven metropolises of Shanghai and Beijing. In towns like Litang and Kanding, the remaining Lamaist traditions are more of a block to social progress than anything else. It’s a place where you can see a sight unique in all of China: able-bodied young men begging for money. They’re monks. These saffron-robe-wearing parasites can be seen lining the sidewalks of the major market streets, holding out their hands for change while chatting on their cellphones.
A visit to the monasteries provides a further glimpse into the culture that the Dalai Lama wishes to bring back. Despite the poverty of the countryside, the monasteries’ coffers are practically bursting — sucking up the meagre wealth of the surrounding peasants to pay for a bunch of lazy monks to remain idle as they burn incense and chant their prayers under their gold-leafed rooftops. If you visit these places you can see this for yourself, though be forewarned that as soon as the monks notice you they will stop chanting, bolt towards you, and offer to sell you some cheap trinkets from the display cases found inside every prayer room. Even today, these “enlightened” ones bar both cigarettes and women from their kitchens, so as not to contaminate the food
It makes me laugh when I see people who should know better urging us to “free” Tibet. Because you know, serfdom and medieval feudal traditions are, like, so non-materialist and groovy, man. Puh-lease. Despite what some hippies and the Beastie Boys think, the Tibetan people do not want a return to the old ways. That’s why the always-pragmatic Dalai Lama has watered down his call from independence to mere “regional autonomy.”
Regional autonomy for Tibet in the right context could be a very good thing, but if it serves to strengthen the influence of the Dalai Lama and his supporters, it will do nothing to improve the conditions of the Tibetan people.
Derek Rosin is a recent graduate from the University of Winnipeg.
