3w ago

China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

www.irrawaddy.com Just a moment...

88 comments

Its incredibly sad how Tibet was just completely forgotten in just a few years. Its legit scary how effective China is at conquest and the world should pay attention.
- Wasnt Tibetan society like 90% slaves working for the monastic rulers?
  
  A narrative that conveniently ignores that the Dalai Llama was, and is, more of a socialist than the CCP ever mustered to be and was always very much on board with reforming everything. Or, well, the current incarnation always was. The split only came after it became clear that tankies gonna tank, that is, the CCP cared less about the freedom of the people (both in a spiritual and material sense) than about having full control over a mineral-rich mountain fortress to build a military-industrial base that couldn't be shelled from the ocean. Tibet alas is, geographically, the Switzerland of the Himalayas. Another factor was the sheer popularity of the Llama in Tibet, spiritual leader + socialist is a sure-fire double whammy to popularity but threatened the party's prerogative of interpretation not to mention orthodox Marxist doctrine, opium for the people and everything.
  You know what's the most absurd thing about all this, especially considering Marxist materialism? That the CCP is claiming that it can legislate on reincarnation. And not in the "yeah this is all BS" sense, that'd be par for the course, but in the "ok here is how it's going to be done" sense. Went so far as to accuse the Dalai Llama of blasphemy for suggesting that whether and how he reincarnates will be up to him. And I guess the CCP is stuck on insisting that incarnation is real because otherwise the can't blame the current Dalai Llama for the politics of his previous lives?
  
  Yes.

Get out of those temples kids. It is time to consoooom

~~What is this website (is it reputable?) and~~ why are Myanmar journalists the ones to discuss this, when they have a civil war to worry about? Is China supporting the opposite side to these journalists'?
- China is a direct neighbour of Myanmar, with a history of political meddling in Myanmar and also of setting up illegal exploitative businesses by entrepreneurs. But even without the meddling, they are direct neighbours, which should be enough reason for Myanmar journalists to want to know what is going on in China.
  
  Huh, I thought every conflict in the world was the fault of the US...welcome to the multipolar world I guess :/
- it's one of the best sources in Myanmar

And nothing of value was lost
- Why doesn't a thousand year old culture matter to you? They work on peace and understanding oneself, and have never varied from that goal.
  What would make that non-valuable?

China working to prevent indoctrination of children with superstitious religious practices that are harmful to the people practicing them.
Edit:
Funny how everybody is downvoting based on knee jerk reactions, while nobody acknowledge the harmful practices.
Always this special pleading for religious practices, that we would never accept in any other context.
- More like China acting like a colonizer to kill the culture.
  
  Superstition and kidnapping of children is not "culture".
- So that's how they're euphemizing ethnic genocide these days, huh?
  Wonder what China is doing to prevent indoctrination of children with radical partisan CCP loyalism.
  
  Religious superstition is not culture worth preserving.
- Those superstitious barbarians just needed enlightenment... where have I heard that before?
- Wtf do you know about those practices?!
  
  For instance that children are send there against their will.
- Can you be more specific? I've heard some people say that any amount of religion/spirituality at all is inherently harmful and that's a little bit unreasonable.
  Admittedly, I don't have any knowledge here because this isn't an issue I've read about before, but the article says people under 18 aren't allowed to join anymore, so the extent to which monastic life is regulated seems excessive and the mandatory state approval of religious leaders seems strange.
  
  How would you like to be taken as a 4 year old child to grow up in a monastery?
- A judgment that forces the reader to think perhaps you were the one who was hurt.
- Never assume that mass downvoting in systems that allow up/down voting is organic when the subject matter is US foreign policy and stuff like articles that "thoughtfully" shit talk geopolitical adversaries. It's just a cheap way for fake consensus building, fake peer pressure etc. Tibet was a theocratic feudal kingdom before China ended that garbage, the kind of system that would make the KKK salivate.
  
  So colonialism/imperialism is okay? Either it is or it isn't. All I'm asking for is consistency.
  It's 100% possible to find beliefs and practices of cults and cultures to be abhorrent. But also acknowledge that trying to forcefully change things. Almost invariably backfires. As well as undermining any moral stance you may have once had.
- True. It's Classic anti-Chinese propaganda brought by undereducated Westerners. They are, in fact, completely ignorant of the degenerate and backward practices of the Buddhists in this region.
  
  ML not sucking up to China challenge: impossible

88 comments