The Steadily Fading Mirage of Tibetan Autonomy

What a patient man is the Dalai Lama. Biding his time. Exuding good faith. Celebrating life and encouraging others to do likewise.

Laughing and making of life what one will. Doing the very best under trying circumstances. In 49 years of exile from his country, he has worked unceasingly, quietly, diplomatically, to try to impress upon the international community that his people are entitled to their social security as Tibetans.

With their singular language, religion, culture, traditions. He is their principal spokesperson, their lodestone, their benevolent and thoughtful theocratic head of state. His efforts have availed him support among activists for whom the brutal occupation and take-over of Tibet paints China as a malevolent aggressor.

China, however, sees Tibet as a significant portion of its inalienable territory, and has for the past sixty years and more. The Chinese government remains unmoved by the plight of the Tibetan people, and is infuriated at the very thought that many heads of state have welcomed the Dalai Lama to their countries and have expressed sympathy for his position.

The Dalai Lama is a reasonable man. What he wants, above all for his people, is peace and a level of independence, and prosperity. Allied with the human right to be able to practise their devotion to Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. To speak their own language. To celebrate their culture, and their proud traditions. China, on the other hand, resolutely intends to bring Tibetans to the Chinese way.

Tibetans must accept unequivocally, China's absolute right to govern them. And China would prefer they speak Mandarin, not worship and respect the Dalai Lama, and leave their traditions in the past; adopt Chinese culture, and fade gracefully into the mainstream. Harmony must be achieved at any and all costs. Dissent will not be tolerated, 'splittism' is anathema.

Recalcitrant Tibetans and their spiritual leaders must be hammered into submission. For their own good. For the good of the greater community that is China. China must control the situation, and it most certainly does; others term it brutal suppression of a people's will. A human rights tragedy.

The Dalai Lama has pleaded with Beijing to meet with him, so they can discuss this reality and alter it marginally to better represent the needs and aspirations of an ancient culture. His pleadings have been steadfastly ignored, the government of China labelling him a threat to the country.

And, finally, reality is setting in. "I have to accept failure", he mourns. "My trust in the Chinese government has become thinner, thinner, thinner. Suppression in Tibet is increasing and I cannot pretend that everything is OK. I don't know what will happen."

What seems now destined not to happen, after such a long and passionate struggle, is that Beijing will never agree to partial autonomy for Tibet. The government of China is resolute and not open to nuanced empathy resulting in permitting any deviation from their political-ideological-social code.

The different solution the Dalai Lama refers to in his sorrow can only mean total capitulation to the reality of their subjugation to a brutal agenda that will deny them their history in perpetuity.