Dalai Lama

[Tavia]

Thanks Doug for thought-provoking historical background on Tibet, which I
read with interest. But it doesn't seem to answer my question: where can I
find quotes from the present-day Dalai Lama going around upholding feudal
or antidemocratic or imperialist or pro-slavery views? He has lived his
life mostly in exile, and increasingly it seems, in the West. He claims to
be primarily a monk. Has anyone read his books, like the recent 'Art of
Happiness'?

His problematic relationship to feudalism seems akin to Gandhi's; the
grounding of their experience and values is agrarian and I don't see why
that should seem inherently offensive to us. There something vulgar in the
position that forced modernization is grand because it 'liberates' peasant
societies from their backwardness. That doesn't characterize the views of
anyone on this list, I trust. I don't pretend to know whether Tibet is
legitimately part of China or not. Regardless, could one say that Chinese
conduct in Tibet post-1959 fits a loose definition of cultural genocide?
Like the Indonesian in East Timor? Or do we say the 'Free Tibet' movement
in the US is mistaken, and the Free Tibeters are like the exiled Cuban
elites driving around Miami with bumper stickers "Next Christmas in Havana"?

I am happy to hear Buddhism is resergent in China. The book Doug excerpted
made the point that Buddhism was founded as a liberation theology
propounding egalitarianism, and that Tibetan society--which the current
Dalai Lama did not create but was born into--is a distortion or deviation
from Buddhist tenets. This seems a useful corrective to, for example,
Robert Thurman's position in "Inner Revolution" that Tibet is some sort of
model society for the world's future. The strong (and in my mind incorrect)
claim for Tibetan Buddhism is that life back there in the mountains was
superior and magical and none of the usual forms of emiseration and
domination existed becaused enlightened monks ruled. I don't accept that.
The weak claim, which seems defensible, is the observation that Tibetan
Buddhism in the US proposes a peace testimony as a core value, focuses on
the individual and freedom of conscience, and displays relative humility as
an explanatory system (how unlike the totalizing aspirations of charismatic
"American" Christianity for example).

Since I think the secularization hypothesis (people are steadily growing
less religious) is probably mistaken, I think atheists like myself are
stuck trying to cooperate with religionists, and have to find as much
common ground as possible. Calling the powerless, exiled, and ascetic Dalai
Lama names and laying the blame for feudalism at his feat seems like the
wrong strategy for building solidarity with American Buddhists. Am I
missing something?

Tavia

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Tavia Nyongo Turkish                   Doctoral Student
American Studies                       Yale University

"I don't mind: Being called a Marxist-Leninist makes me feel young
again. It's like being asked for ID in a bar." -- Mark Kingwell
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