Certainly, by the mid-20th century, Tibet had become, relatively to modern capitalist societies, socially and economically backward. But it is nonsense to claim that "an impoverished mass paid tribute to an idle caste of priests," and not merely because *bonzes* are monks, not priests or even mullahs, nor even because Buddhist monastic practice is notoriously based on austerity, not luxury. The obvious point is that the huge portion of Tibetan society comprising "monks" and "nuns " consisted almost entirely of the sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of that same "impoverished mass."
Shane Mage
"Mortals immortals, immortals mortals,
living their deaths, dying their lives"
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 62