Tibetan Struggle For Independence Essay Research Paper

Tibetan Struggle For Independence Essay, Research Paper The Tibetan struggle for independence is illuminated by the flight of the Chinese controlled religious leader. China feels they have the right to persecute and destroy a culture that has survived peacefully for so many years. Unfortunately nobody is currently stopping them from these atrocities, but some shocking actions have been taking place recently in China. These events must show the world that China must be stopped in their actions in Tibet. Tibet was once a land of peace and prosperity. It once was fill with free thoughts and ideas. The people of a religion called Buddhism were not a part of conquest and seizure. That type of behavior was for surrounding Asian Nations. Unfortunately, for mankind, in 1949, Mao

Zedong set the conquest for Tibet as a major priority. The Red Army invaded Khams through Dajain Lu in 1950. Tibetan opposition was ineffective, and in 1953 the young fourteenth Dalai Lama s government was forced to sign and accept the seventeen-point agreement with China that dictated terms of modernization under China s control. This agreement did not only dictate terms of modernization, but promised self-rule, freedom of religion and protection of Tibetan traditions and culture (LA Times, 1). This promise was violated in every way, shape, or form by 1956. After six years of punishment through cooperation with China, the Dalai Lama escaped into exile in India with more than 80,000 Tibetan refugees. The Dalai Lama saw this journey out of his own country as the only possibilities

to one day bring peace and prosperity back to his country. When asked what his exile has done for him, during an interview with Professor Robert Thurman, the Dalai Lama responded, When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength (Jones, 3). While most leaders give up, the Dalai Lama has shown, by example that if you truly believe in something, he goes after it. Since the Dalai Lama s escape, he has been traveling around the globe speaking of the atrocities taking place in Tibet. The fourteenth Dalai Lama has always followed the path of negotiation to resolve the Tibetan issue. On September 21, 1987, addressing the Human Rights Committee of the American

Congress, he proposed a Five Point Peace Plan: 1. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace; 2. Abandonment of China s population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people; 3. Respect for the Tibetan people s fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms; 4. Restoration and protection of Tibet s natural environment and the abandonment of China s use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste; 5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples (Pema, 210). The Chinese to this day have not yet acknowledged this plan, nor have any other attempt for peace by the Dalai Lama. In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize. The award citation reads: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the religious and political leader of the Tibetan people. The committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama, in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet, has consistently opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people. The Dalai Lama has developed his philosophy of peace from a great reverence for all things living, upon the concept of universal responsibility embracing all mankind as well as nature. In the opinion of the Committee, the Dalai Lama has come forward with