cisms of the Dalai Lama. Senior civil servants must produce 10,000-word essays while those in junior posts need only write 5,000-character condemnations. Even retired officials are not exempt.
When it comes to Tibet, China really doesn’t feel the need to dissemble. They’ve almost completed the destruction of the culture, and of the country:
Between 1966-1977, an entire civilisation was gutted as 2,000 years of Tibetan history was razed. Prior to China’s invasion, there had been 6,259 Buddhist monasteries and nunneries; by 1976, eight remained. In the name of socialist purity, untold numbers of statues, artefacts, ancient manuscripts and paintings vanished.
A few high-profile palaces and temples were restored in the 1980s. But since 1994, the Chinese government has opted for an active programme of destroying the nation’s sense of its autonomous history.
And they don’t care who knows about it, or what anyone thinks. A fight to the death, China against the Dalai Lama? Much as I’d like to believe in the power of being nice and smiling a lot, there’s not much doubt as to the outcome of this particular battle. Tibet’s lucky to make the inside pages of the papers now, and soon it’ll disappear altogether.
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