Authoritarianism Rears its Ugly Head in China...Again

Check out this link to a story on a recent protest in Tibet and the Chinese crackdown.  During a horse festival, a Tibetan man took the stage and asked the crowd if they wanted the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet.  According to the article, hundreds shouted "Yes!".  The man in question has been detained (along with many other I believe).

The worst part of this is that the Chinese government has reiterated its stance that the government must aprove all tulku apointments.  Tulkus are those lamas recognized as reincarnations of previous masters or even incarnations of various enlightened beings such as Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.  Personally, I don't have much faith in the tulku system as I've heard to many Tibetan lamas say it's corrupt. However, religious Tibetans do believe it, so it's a tragedy that the religion hating, communist government of China that illegally rules Tibet is interfering the process.

Comments

[JQ]

I have mixed feelings about the tulku system & think its not necessary to Buddhism. The Chinese authorities seek to control it because it's an obvious source of influential religious leaders, who may not support the government's ideology. The need to control arises from fear. The Chinese authorities create problems for themselves and suffering for others as a result.

[Konchog]

The Chinese government is apparently entirely lacking in a sense of irony. It occured to me as I read this article that the madness of the Cultural Revolution has not really gone away; it;s just mutated. I wonder how tightly all this will get scrutinized by the global media as we ramp up to Beijing's '08 Olympics.

[Rick Finney]

Gyatso: Take a look at the Radio Free Asia home page (www.rfa.org). We've been reporting a lot on this situation, along with some related things, over the last few weeks.

Rick