Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A Rightful Restoration of Sovereignty

I come from a Buddhist family - my dad is a Buddhist priest - which means that I’ve grown up knowing the stories of people like the Dalai Lama; how he was born in Tibet when it was a sovereign nation, grew up and ruled during the Chinese invasion, and was eventually forced to escape into exile when it became clear that the Chinese had control of Tibet and would not allow him to remain in power. 
Having grown up with this knowledge, I feel very strongly that Tibet should once again become its own sovereign nation. My outlook on this is mostly religious rather than political, but I will attempt to explain it as best I can. 
Before China invaded in 1949, Tibet was an autonomous state, separate from China both geographically and in the type of governing system they had. China was communist, while Tibet was an absolute theocracy - two very different and incompatible systems. Buddhism, of course, was the national religion, while the leader of the nation was the Dalai Lama. There was relative peace except for relations with China, who argued that Tibet was originally part of their land, and ought to be so again. Tensions got to the point where the Chinese invaded, killing many and forcefully taking over Tibet’s system of government. 
Here are the specific reasons why I believe that Tibet has a right to sovereignty. First, Tibet was its own nation for many decades, until the Chinese took it by force. The population of that area still remains mostly Tibetan and Buddhist, so it would make sense for them to once again become their own nation. Second, the Dalai Lama was exiled and has not been able to return to Tibet since then. The theocracy and center of the Buddhist world has dissolved and become part of communist China; restoring that would both allow the Dalai Lama to return to his homeland, and perhaps strengthen Buddhism is that part of the world. Finally - and the most religious reason for the sovereignty of Tibet - is the future of the Dalai Lamas. There has been a Dalai Lama for centuries, and when each one dies, a successor is found in Tibet from the Tibetan Buddhist people who live there. Now that Tibet is part of communist China, the search will be much harder - if the searchers even have the authority to look for the next Dalai Lama. That brings up many questions, the most obvious of which are “will there be a next Dalai Lama?” and “If there is, will  he be Chinese?”. It may not be a horrible problem if a new Dalai Lama is not found, but it will be the end of a centuries-long religious tradition, and the end of a common leader of Buddhists around the globe. 

However, every one of these potential problems could be solved by the sovereignty of Tibet. 

No comments:

Post a Comment