Tibet is under a spiritual mystique. "Shangri La" is a term for any kind of mystical paradise. The Dalai Lama is supposed to be an icon of all that is good, spiritual and true in this world (even in an Apple ad). He's considered progressive, and not just because of his savvy marketing but also because there's an implication that as a Tibetan he has a lot to teach us westerners about life. It's hard to imagine a conference that wouldn't be eager to have him -- but almost no leader from any other religion is afforded the same treatment. Can you imagine TED fighting to get Ovadiah Yosef to come to their conference?
Reasons for the mystique (methinks):
- Tibet's obvious natural beauty and majesty
- Its remote nature (which brings in associations of pristineness)
- It's been a closed country for centuries (hence mysterious).
- Like the mystique of celibacy this stems from the yearning for more in our world. It's a difficult problem to figure out how to run modern society in a way that's emotionally and spiritually fulfilling and humane. It's easier to just fantasise, even if this doesn't match reality.
- A general mystique of Buddhism and mysticism in our society. More on that in another post, however as noticed here, it appears there's a sentiment of "western religion is bad therefore eastern religion is good," a bad argument for obvious reasons.
In reality, Tibet was a brutal authoritarian medieval theocracy
- Its closed nature was very probably influenced simply by xenophobia (in the same way as in China's history). In truth, both of these cultures at least had a lot to be arrogant about, but still...
- Much violence. Maimings for minor offenses (arms being chopped off etc.) and being flogged to death in public were commonplace. A long history of political massacres and more. Mysticism is very connected to violence (more in a future post).
- The monks were (are?) a parasitic class. Eg. until recently neighbouring Bhutan had a law requiring every family with 3 or more sons to give one up to become a monk. This is common to Buddhist countries, whereby tens of thousands of monasteries with even more monks/nuns spring up -- supported by a starving peasant population.
- Despite what many may think Buddhism is a very conservative and authoritarian system that has kept social progress (eg. see the Dalai Lama's actual views on homosexuality and Hitchens socking it to Tenzin).
Of course the Chinese have been committing nothing less than genocide there for decades -- but that doesn't mean that the Tibet of old (or a potential future theocracy under the Dalai Lama) is anything to sing about.
2 comments ↓
I expect that you would like to be judged on the basis of your own personality and deeds. Not according to your nationality or ethnicity.
Has not the Dalai Lama earned the right to be evaluated on the basis of his life’s work? Consider his demonstrated personal commitment to practice tolerance; His work as a teacher both within the Tibetan exile community and abroad; His actions as the leader of his people and a statesman.
of course someone shouldn’t be judged on their ethnicity — but this is exactly what some westerners do when they automatically approve of anything just becuse it’s tibetan (or eastern or indigenous etc)
sure, the dalai lama is very tolerant but then again, any religion is all about tolerance and peace when it’s a persecuted minority. when the same religion is in charge of a state things are quite different — as the history of the tibetan theocracy shows
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