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Rebirth of the lama kingdom

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-23 10:36

THE DALAI LAMA ENIGMA

After 1951, the 14th Dalai Lama became the first Tibetan religious and political leader who lived in socialist China, although socialism was actually introduced into Tibet as late as the middle 1960s.

He had talks with Mao Zedong and was apparently touched by the great man's personality. He even wrote a poem to praise Mao as the God of Creation. The 14th Dalai Lama vowed loyalty to the central government when he attended the first session of New China's top lawmaking body, the National People's Congress, in 1954. "There had been rumors saying the Communist Party and government would destroy our religion, which made me restless and dubious," he said. "But now I see they were all lies and we Tibetans truly enjoy religious freedom." But several years after the peaceful liberation, repeated rebel attacks took place in different areas of Tibet. They were led by members of old Tibet's upper-class who supported serfdom and opposed a planned democratic reform aimed at emancipating the serfs and slaves. Trinley Dondrup said he did not feel sad at the news of the Dalai Lama's fleeing after 1959's riot in Lhasa.

"There were no worries about being beaten by the master now that the tree of feudal serfdom was uprooted," said the serf, who used to work 10 hours a day without food. Going into exile, however, made the Dalai Lama a star. Over the years he has been lobbying his independence claim and collected more than 100 awards from around the world, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

In recent decades the Dalai Lama has been used as a cat's paw, and the Tibet issue as a subterfuge, for some Western countries when they want to put pressure on China. The Chinese government blamed the Dalai Lama and his overseas followers for instigating major riots in Lhasa between 1987 and 1989, and again in 2008. At least 10 rounds of negotiations have been held between the Chinese central government and the Dalai Lama's envoys since talks were restored in 2002, with the most recent round being held in Beijing last year. However, very little progress has been made as the Dalai Lama and his supporters have never wavered on Tibet's independence, whether they proposed the so-called "middle way approach," "high degree of autonomy" or "the Greater Tibet." "The Dalai Lama lacks sincerity," said Zhu Weiqun, a senior official who was present at all 10 rounds. Though chances for his return were slim, his nephew Gongpo Tashi, 65, cleans the Dalai Lama's former residence every day, hoping the spiritual leader would come back to his home village in northwestern Qinghai Province. Earlier this year, the Dalai Lama announced his "retirement" from the government-in-exile, a move that a senior Tibetan official shrugged off as "meaningless." "Since no country recognizes his self-declared 'exiled Tibetan government', whatever he does in his illegal political organization is nonsense and Tibet will not be affected at all," said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of Tibet's regional parliament and former chairman of the regional government. However, the local government rebuilt the Dalai Lama's residence according to its original appearance at his birthplace in Qinghai province. The residence now receives an increasing number of visitors.