{"id":10253,"date":"2023-06-17T10:08:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T10:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/?p=10253"},"modified":"2023-04-13T19:38:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T19:38:18","slug":"friendly-feudalism-the-tibet-myth-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/articulos\/friendly-feudalism-the-tibet-myth-2003","title":{"rendered":"Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth\u00a0(2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Michael Parenti<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<article id=\"friendly-feudalism\" style=\"font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em;\">\n<blockquote><p>Updated and expanded version from January 2007.<\/p>\n<p>For a snapshot of the situation as of 2019, Shashi Kei\u2019s\u00a0<em>Why are Tibetans leaving India when the Dalai Lama is still there?<\/em>\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline1\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<h2 id=\"toc\" style=\"font-size: 1.3em;\">Contents<\/h2>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li><a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#for-lords-and-lamas\">For Lords and Lamas<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#secularization-vs-spirituality\">Secularization vs. Spirituality<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#exit-feudal-theocracy\">Exit Feudal Theocracy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#references\">References<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"for-lords-and-lamas\" class=\"content-header\" style=\"font-size: 1.3em;\">For Lords and Lamas<\/h2>\n<p>Along with the blood drenched landscape of religious conflict there is the experience of inner peace and solace that every religion promises, none more so than Buddhism. Standing in marked contrast to the intolerant savagery of other religions, Buddhism is neither fanatical nor dogmatic\u00a0\u2014 so say its adherents. For many of them Buddhism is less a theology and more a meditative and investigative discipline intended to promote an inner harmony and enlightenment while directing us to a path of right living. Generally, the spiritual focus is not only on oneself but on the welfare of others. One tries to put aside egoistic pursuits and gain a deeper understanding of one\u2019s connection to all people and things. \u201cSocially engaged Buddhism\u201d tries to blend individual liberation with responsible social action in order to build an enlightened society.<\/p>\n<p>A glance at history, however, reveals that not all the many and widely varying forms of Buddhism have been free of doctrinal fanaticism, nor free of the violent and exploitative pursuits so characteristic of other religions. In Sri Lanka there is a legendary and almost sacred recorded history about the triumphant battles waged by Buddhist kings of yore. During the twentieth century, Buddhists clashed violently with each other and with non-Buddhists in Thailand, Burma, Korea, Japan, India, and elsewhere. In Sri Lanka, armed battles between Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils have taken many lives on both sides. In 1998 the U.S. State Department listed thirty of the world\u2019s most violent and dangerous extremist groups. Over half of them were religious, specifically Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Juergensmeyer\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Juergensmeyer\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In South Korea, in 1998, thousands of monks of the Chogye Buddhist order fought each other with fists, rocks, fire-bombs, and clubs, in pitched battles that went on for weeks. They were vying for control of the order, the largest in South Korea, with its annual budget of $9.2 million, its millions of dollars worth of property, and the privilege of appointing 1,700 monks to various offices. The brawls damaged the main Buddhist sanctuaries and left dozens of monks injured, some seriously. The Korean public appeared to disdain both factions, feeling that no matter what side took control, \u201cit would use worshippers\u2019 donations for luxurious houses and expensive cars.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Seok\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Seok\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>As with any religion, squabbles between or within Buddhist sects are often fueled by the material corruption and personal deficiencies of the leadership. For example, in Nagano, Japan, at Zenkoji, the prestigious complex of temples that has hosted Buddhist sects for more than 1,400 years, \u201ca nasty battle\u201d arose between Komatsu the chief priest and the Tacchu, a group of temples nominally under the chief priest\u2019s sway. The Tacchu monks accused Komatsu of selling writings and drawings under the temple\u2019s name for his own gain. They also were appalled by the frequency with which he was seen in the company of women. Komatsu in turn sought to isolate and punish monks who were critical of his leadership. The conflict lasted some five years and made it into the courts.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:LA Times 2006\/02\/25\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:LA%20Times%202006\/02\/25\">[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>But what of\u00a0<em>Tibetan<\/em>\u00a0Buddhism? Is it not an exception to this sort of strife? And what of the society it helped to create? Many Buddhists maintain that, before the Chinese crackdown in 1959, old Tibet was a spiritually oriented kingdom free from the egotistical lifestyles, empty materialism, and corrupting vices that beset modern industrialized society. Western news media, travel books, novels, and Hollywood films have portrayed the Tibetan theocracy as a veritable Shangri-La. The Dalai Lama himself stated that \u201cthe pervasive influence of Buddhism\u201d in Tibet, \u201camid the wide open spaces of an unspoiled environment resulted in a society dedicated to peace and harmony. We enjoyed freedom and contentment.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline2\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline2\">[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>A reading of Tibet\u2019s history suggests a somewhat different picture. \u201cReligious conflict was commonplace in old Tibet,\u201d writes one western Buddhist practitioner. \u201cHistory belies the Shangri-La image of Tibetan lamas and their followers living together in mutual tolerance and nonviolent goodwill. Indeed, the situation was quite different. Old Tibet was much more like Europe during the religious wars of the Counterreformation.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline3\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline3\">[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In the thirteenth century, Emperor Kublai Khan created the first Grand Lama, who was to preside over all the other lamas as might a pope over his bishops. Several centuries later, the Emperor of China sent an army into Tibet to support the Grand Lama, an ambitious 25-year-old man, who then gave himself the title of Dalai (Ocean) Lama, ruler of all Tibet.<\/p>\n<p>His two previous lama \u201cincarnations\u201d were then retroactively recognized as his predecessors, thereby transforming the 1st Dalai Lama into the 3rd Dalai Lama. This 1st (or 3rd) Dalai Lama seized monasteries that did not belong to his sect, and is believed to have destroyed Buddhist writings that conflicted with his claim to divinity. The Dalai Lama who succeeded him pursued a sybaritic life, enjoying many mistresses, partying with friends, and acting in other ways deemed unfitting for an incarnate deity. For these transgressions he was murdered by his priests. Within 170 years, despite their recognized divine status, five Dalai Lamas were killed by their high priests or other courtiers.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline4\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline4\">[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>For hundreds of years competing Tibetan Buddhist sects engaged in bitterly violent clashes and summary executions. In 1660, the 5th Dalai Lama was faced with a rebellion in Tsang province, the stronghold of the rival Kagyu sect with its high lama known as the Karmapa. The 5th Dalai Lama called for harsh retribution against the rebels, directing the Mongol army to obliterate the male and female lines, and the offspring too \u201clike eggs smashed against rocks\u2026 In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline5\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline5\">[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 1792, many Kagyu monasteries were confiscated and their monks were forcibly converted to the Gelug sect (the Dalai Lama\u2019s denomination). The Gelug school, known also as the \u201cYellow Hats,\u201d showed little tolerance or willingness to mix their teachings with other Buddhist sects. In the words of one of their traditional prayers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Praise to you, violent god of the Yellow Hat teachings<br \/>\nwho reduces to particles of dust<br \/>\ngreat beings, high officials and ordinary people<br \/>\nwho pollute and corrupt the Gelug doctrine.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Bachelor\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Bachelor\">[9]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>An eighteenth-century memoir of a Tibetan general depicts sectarian strife among Buddhists that is as brutal and bloody as any religious conflict might be.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Dhoring\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Dhoring\">[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0This grim history remains largely unvisited by present-day followers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<p>Religions have had a close relationship not only with violence but with economic exploitation. Indeed, it is often the economic exploitation that necessitates the violence. Such was the case with the Tibetan theocracy. Until 1959, when the Dalai Lama last presided over Tibet, most of the arable land was still organized into manorial estates worked by serfs. These estates were owned by two social groups: the rich secular landlords and the rich theocratic lamas. Even a writer sympathetic to the old order allows that \u201ca great deal of real estate belonged to the monasteries, and most of them amassed great riches.\u201d Much of the wealth was accumulated \u201cthrough active participation in trade, commerce, and money lending.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline6\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline6\">[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Drepung monastery was one of the biggest landowners in the world, with its 185 manors, 25,000 serfs, 300 great pastures, and 16,000 herdsmen. The wealth of the monasteries rested in the hands of small numbers of high-ranking lamas. Most ordinary monks lived modestly and had no direct access to great wealth. The Dalai Lama himself \u201clived richly in the 1000-room, 14-story Potala Palace.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Wilson\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Wilson\">[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Secular leaders also did well. A notable example was the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, a member of the Dalai Lama\u2019s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline7\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline7\">[13]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Old Tibet has been misrepresented by some Western admirers as \u201ca nation that required no police force because its people voluntarily observed the laws of karma.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline8\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline8\">[14]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In fact it had a professional army, albeit a small one, that served mainly as a gendarmerie for the landlords to keep order, protect their property, and hunt down runaway serfs.<\/p>\n<p>Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tash\u00ec-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning at age nine.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Goldstein 1997\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Goldstein%201997\">[15]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The monastic estates also conscripted children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>In old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the \u201cmiddle-class\u201d families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. There also were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline9\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline9\">[16]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care. They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord\u2019s land\u00a0\u2014 or the monastery\u2019s land\u00a0\u2014 without pay, to repair the lord\u2019s houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline10\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline10\">[17]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline11\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline11\">[18]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>As in a free labor system and unlike slavery, the overlords had no responsibility for the serf\u2019s maintenance and no direct interest in his or her survival as an expensive piece of property. The serfs had to support themselves. Yet as in a slave system, they were bound to their masters, guaranteeing a fixed and permanent workforce that could neither organize nor strike nor freely depart as might laborers in a market context. The overlords had the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n<p>One 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf, reports: \u201cPretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished\u201d; they \u201cwere just slaves without rights.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline12\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline12\">[19]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture those who tried to flee. One 24-year old runaway welcomed the Chinese intervention as a \u201cliberation.\u201d He testified that under serfdom he was subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold. After his third failed escape, he was merciless beaten by the landlord\u2019s men until blood poured from his nose and mouth. They then poured alcohol and caustic soda on his wounds to increase the pain, he claimed.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline13\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline13\">[20]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline14\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline14\">[21]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The theocracy\u2019s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<p>The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation\u00a0\u2014 including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation\u00a0\u2014 were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline15\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline15\">[22]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Journeying through Tibet in the 1960s, Stuart and Roma Gelder interviewed a former serf, Tsereh Wang Tuei, who had stolen two sheep belonging to a monastery. For this he had both his eyes gouged out and his hand mutilated beyond use. He explains that he no longer is a Buddhist: \u201cWhen a holy lama told them to blind me I thought there was no good in religion.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline16\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline16\">[23]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Since it was against Buddhist teachings to take human life, some offenders were severely lashed and then \u201cleft to God\u201d in the freezing night to die. \u201cThe parallels between Tibet and medieval Europe are striking,\u201d concludes Tom Grunfeld in his book on Tibet.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline17\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline17\">[24]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 1959, Anna Louise Strong visited an exhibition of torture equipment that had been used by the Tibetan overlords. There were handcuffs of all sizes, including small ones for children, and instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs. There were hot brands, whips, and special implements for disemboweling. The exhibition presented photographs and testimonies of victims who had been blinded or crippled or suffered amputations for thievery. There was the shepherd whose master owed him a reimbursement in yuan and wheat but refused to pay. So he took one of the master\u2019s cows; for this he had his hands severed. Another herdsman, who opposed having his wife taken from him by his lord, had his hands broken off. There were pictures of Communist activists with noses and upper lips cut off, and a woman who was raped and then had her nose sliced away.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline18\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline18\">[25]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Earlier visitors to Tibet commented on the theocratic despotism. In 1895, an Englishman, Dr. A. L. Waddell, wrote that the populace was under the \u201cintolerable tyranny of monks\u201d and the devil superstitions they had fashioned to terrorize the people. In 1904 Perceval Landon described the Dalai Lama\u2019s rule as \u201can engine of oppression.\u201d At about that time, another English traveler, Captain W. F. T. O\u2019Connor, observed that \u201cthe great landowners and the priests\u2026 exercise each in their own dominion a despotic power from which there is no appeal,\u201d while the people are \u201coppressed by the most monstrous growth of monasticism and priest-craft.\u201d Tibetan rulers \u201cinvented degrading legends and stimulated a spirit of superstition\u201d among the common people. In 1937, another visitor, Spencer Chapman, wrote, \u201cThe Lamaist monk does not spend his time in ministering to the people or educating them. [\u2026] The beggar beside the road is nothing to the monk. Knowledge is the jealously guarded prerogative of the monasteries and is used to increase their influence and wealth.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline19\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline19\">[26]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As much as we might wish otherwise, feudal theocratic Tibet was a far cry from the romanticized Shangri-La so enthusiastically nurtured by Buddhism\u2019s western proselytes.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"secularization-vs-spirituality\" class=\"content-header\" style=\"font-size: 1.3em;\">Secularization vs. Spirituality<\/h2>\n<p>What happened to Tibet after the Chinese Communists moved into the country in 1951? The treaty of that year provided for ostensible self-governance under the Dalai Lama\u2019s rule but gave China military control and exclusive right to conduct foreign relations. The Chinese were also granted a direct role in internal administration \u201cto promote social reforms.\u201d Among the earliest changes they wrought was to reduce usurious interest rates, and build a few hospitals and roads. At first, they moved slowly, relying mostly on persuasion in an attempt to effect reconstruction. No aristocratic or monastic property was confiscated, and feudal lords continued to reign over their hereditarily bound peasants. \u201cContrary to popular belief in the West,\u201d claims one observer, the Chinese \u201ctook care to show respect for Tibetan culture and religion.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline20\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline20\">[27]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Over the centuries the Tibetan lords and lamas had seen Chinese come and go, and had enjoyed good relations with Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and his reactionary Kuomintang rule in China.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline21\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline21\">[28]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The approval of the Kuomintang government was needed to validate the choice of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. When the current 14th Dalai Lama was first installed in Lhasa, it was with an armed escort of Chinese troops and an attending Chinese minister, in accordance with centuries-old tradition. What upset the Tibetan lords and lamas in the early 1950s was that these latest Chinese were\u00a0<em>Communists<\/em>. It would be only a matter of time, they feared, before the Communists started imposing their collectivist egalitarian schemes upon Tibet.<\/p>\n<p>The issue was joined in 1956-57, when armed Tibetan bands ambushed convoys of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. The uprising received extensive assistance from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including military training, support camps in Nepal, and numerous airlifts.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Conboy\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Conboy\">[29]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Leary\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Leary\">[30]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Meanwhile in the United States, the American Society for a Free Asia, a CIA-financed front, energetically publicized the cause of Tibetan resistance, with the Dalai Lama\u2019s eldest brother, Thubtan Norbu, playing an active role in that organization. The Dalai Lama\u2019s second-eldest brother, Gyalo Thondup, established an intelligence operation with the CIA as early as 1951. He later upgraded it into a CIA-trained guerrilla unit whose recruits parachuted back into Tibet.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Coleman\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Coleman\">[31]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Many Tibetan commandos and agents whom the CIA dropped into the country were chiefs of aristocratic clans or the sons of chiefs. Ninety percent of them were never heard from again, according to a report from the CIA itself, meaning they were most likely captured and killed.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref2:Leary\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Leary\">[30]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u201cMany lamas and lay members of the elite and much of the Tibetan army joined the uprising, but in the main the populace did not, assuring its failure,\u201d writes Hugh Deane.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Deane\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Deane\">[32]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In their book on Tibet, Ginsburg and Mathos reach a similar conclusion: \u201cAs far as can be ascertained, the great bulk of the common people of Lhasa and of the adjoining countryside failed to join in the fighting against the Chinese both when it first began and as it progressed.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Ginsburg\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Ginsburg\">[33]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Eventually the resistance crumbled.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<p>Whatever wrongs and new oppressions introduced by the Chinese after 1959, they did abolish slavery and the Tibetan serfdom system of unpaid labor. They eliminated the many crushing taxes, started work projects, and greatly reduced unemployment and beggary. They established secular schools, thereby breaking the educational monopoly of the monasteries. And they constructed running water and electrical systems in Lhasa.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline22\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline22\">[34]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Heinrich Harrer (later revealed to have been a sergeant in Hitler\u2019s SS) wrote a bestseller about his experiences in Tibet that was made into a popular Hollywood movie. He reported that the Tibetans who resisted the Chinese \u201cwere predominantly nobles, semi-nobles and lamas; they were punished by being made to perform the lowliest tasks, such as laboring on roads and bridges. They were further humiliated by being made to clean up the city before the tourists arrived.\u201d They also had to live in a camp originally reserved for beggars and vagrants\u00a0\u2014 all of which Harrer treats as sure evidence of the dreadful nature of the Chinese occupation.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline23\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline23\">[35]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>By 1961, Chinese occupation authorities expropriated the landed estates owned by lords and lamas. They distributed many thousands of acres to tenant farmers and landless peasants, reorganizing them into hundreds of communes. Herds once owned by nobility were turned over to collectives of poor shepherds. Improvements were made in the breeding of livestock, and new varieties of vegetables and new strains of wheat and barley were introduced, along with irrigation improvements, all of which reportedly led to an increase in agrarian production.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline24\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline24\">[36]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:LT 1966\/06\/04\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:LT%201966\/06\/04\">[37]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Many peasants remained as religious as ever, giving alms to the clergy. But monks who had been conscripted as children into the religious orders were now free to renounce the monastic life, and thousands did, especially the younger ones. The remaining clergy lived on modest government stipends and extra income earned by officiating at prayer services, weddings, and funerals.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline25\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline25\">[38]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Both the Dalai Lama and his advisor and youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal, claimed that \u201cmore than 1.2 million Tibetans are dead as a result of the Chinese occupation.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Choegyal\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Choegyal\">[39]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The official 1953 census\u00a0\u2014 six years before the Chinese crackdown\u00a0\u2014 recorded the entire population residing in Tibet at 1,274,000.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline26\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline26\">[40]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Other census counts put the population within Tibet at about two million. If the Chinese killed 1.2 million in the early 1960s then almost all of Tibet, would have been depopulated, transformed into a killing field dotted with death camps and mass graves\u00a0\u2014 of which we have no evidence. The thinly distributed Chinese force in Tibet could not have rounded up, hunted down, and exterminated that many people even if it had spent all its time doing nothing else.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese authorities claim to have put an end to floggings, mutilations, and amputations as a form of criminal punishment. They themselves, however, have been charged with acts of brutality by exile Tibetans. The authorities do admit to \u201cmistakes,\u201d particularly during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when the persecution of religious beliefs reached a high tide in both China and Tibet. After the uprising in the late 1950s, thousands of Tibetans were incarcerated. During the Great Leap Forward, forced collectivization and grain farming were imposed on the Tibetan peasantry, sometimes with disastrous effect on production. In the late 1970s, China began relaxing controls \u201cand tried to undo some of the damage wrought during the previous two decades.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Kurtenbach\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Kurtenbach\">[41]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 1980, the Chinese government initiated reforms reportedly designed to grant Tibet a greater degree of self-rule and self-administration. Tibetans would now be allowed to cultivate private plots, sell their harvest surpluses, decide for themselves what crops to grow, and keep yaks and sheep. Communication with the outside world was again permitted, and frontier controls were eased to permit some Tibetans to visit exiled relatives in India and Nepal.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline27\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline27\">[42]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0By the 1980s many of the principal lamas had begun to shuttle back and forth between China and the exile communities abroad, \u201crestoring their monasteries in Tibet and helping to revitalize Buddhism there.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline28\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline28\">[43]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>As of 2007 Tibetan Buddhism was still practiced widely and tolerated by officialdom. Religious pilgrimages and other standard forms of worship were allowed but within limits. All monks and nuns had to sign a loyalty pledge that they would not use their religious position to foment secession or dissent. And displaying photos of the Dalai Lama was declared illegal.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:SF Chronicle 2007\/01\/09\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/09\">[44]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s, the Han, the ethnic group comprising over 95 percent of China\u2019s immense population, began moving in substantial numbers into Tibet. On the streets of Lhasa and Shigatse, signs of Han colonization are readily visible. Chinese run the factories and many of the shops and vending stalls. Tall office buildings and large shopping centers have been built with funds that might have been better spent on water treatment plants and housing. Chinese cadres in Tibet too often view their Tibetan neighbors as backward and lazy, in need of economic development and \u201cpatriotic education.\u201d During the 1990s Tibetan government employees suspected of harboring nationalist sympathies were purged from office, and campaigns were once again launched to discredit the Dalai Lama. Individual Tibetans reportedly were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and forced labor for carrying out separatist activities and engaging in \u201cpolitical subversion.\u201d Some were held in administrative detention without adequate food, water, and blankets, subjected to threats, beatings, and other mistreatment.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:ICL4T\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:ICL4T\">[45]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Tibetan history, culture, and certainly religion are slighted in schools. Teaching materials, though translated into Tibetan, focus mainly on Chinese history and culture. Chinese family planning regulations allow a three-child limit for Tibetan families. (There is only a one-child limit for Han families throughout China, and a two-child limit for rural Han families whose first child is a girl.) If a Tibetan couple goes over the three-child limit, the excess children can be denied subsidized daycare, health care, housing, and education. These penalties have been enforced irregularly and vary by district.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref2:ICL4T\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:ICL4T\">[45]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0None of these child services, it should be noted, were available to Tibetans before the Chinese takeover.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<p>For the rich lamas and secular lords, the Communist intervention was an unmitigated calamity. Most of them fled abroad, as did the Dalai Lama himself, who was assisted in his flight by the CIA. Some discovered to their horror that they would have to work for a living. Many, however, escaped that fate. Throughout the 1960s, the Tibetan exile community was secretly pocketing $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the State Department in 1998. Once this fact was publicized, the Dalai Lama\u2019s organization itself issued a statement admitting that it had received millions of dollars from the CIA during the 1960s to send armed squads of exiles into Tibet to undermine the Maoist revolution. The Dalai Lama\u2019s annual payment from the CIA was $186,000. Indian intelligence also financed both him and other Tibetan exiles. He has refused to say whether he or his brothers worked for the CIA. The agency has also declined to comment.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Mann\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Mann\">[46]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 1995, the\u00a0<em>News &amp; Observer of Raleigh<\/em>, North Carolina, carried a frontpage color photograph of the Dalai Lama being embraced by the reactionary Republican senator Jesse Helms, under the headline \u201cBuddhist Captivates Hero of Religious Right.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline29\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline29\">[47]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In April 1999, along with Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and the first George Bush, the Dalai Lama called upon the British government to release Augusto Pinochet, the former fascist dictator of Chile and a longtime CIA client who was visiting England. The Dalai Lama urged that Pinochet not be forced to go to Spain where he was wanted to stand trial for crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n<p>Into the twenty-first century, via the National Endowment for Democracy and other conduits that are more respectable sounding than the CIA, the U.S. Congress continued to allocate an annual $2 million to Tibetans in India, with additional millions for \u201cdemocracy activities\u201d within the Tibetan exile community. In addition to these funds, the Dalai Lama received money from financier George Soros.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Cottin\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Cottin\">[48]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Whatever the Dalai Lama\u2019s associations with the CIA and various reactionaries, he did speak often of peace, love, and nonviolence. He himself really cannot be blamed for the abuses of Tibet\u2019s ancien r\u00e9gime, having been but 25 years old when he fled into exile. In a 1994 interview, he went on record as favoring the building of schools and roads in his country. He said the corv\u00e9e (forced unpaid serf labor) and certain taxes imposed on the peasants were \u201cextremely bad.\u201d And he disliked the way people were saddled with old debts sometimes passed down from generation to generation.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline30\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline30\">[49]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0During the half century of living in the western world, he had embraced concepts such as human rights and religious freedom, ideas largely unknown in old Tibet. He even proposed democracy for Tibet, featuring a written constitution and a representative assembly.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref2:Choegyal\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Choegyal\">[39]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 1996, the Dalai Lama issued a statement that must have had an unsettling effect on the exile community. It read in part: \u201cMarxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.\u201d Marxism fosters \u201cthe equitable utilization of the means of production\u201d and cares about \u201cthe fate of the working classes\u201d and \u201cthe victims of \u2026 exploitation. For those reasons the system appeals to me, and \u2026 I think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Dresser\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Dresser\">[50]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>But he also sent a reassuring message to \u201cthose who live in abundance\u201d: \u201cIt is a good thing to be rich\u2026 Those are the fruits for deserving actions, the proof that they have been generous in the past.\u201d And to the poor he offers this admonition: \u201cThere is no good reason to become bitter and rebel against those who have property and fortune\u2026 It is better to develop a positive attitude.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Thyssen\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Thyssen\">[51]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In 2005 the Dalai Lama signed a widely advertised statement along with ten other Nobel Laureates supporting the \u201cinalienable and fundamental human right\u201d of working people throughout the world to form labor unions to protect their interests, in accordance with the United Nations\u2019 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In many countries \u201cthis fundamental right is poorly protected and in some it is explicitly banned or brutally suppressed,\u201d the statement read. Burma, China, Colombia, Bosnia, and a few other countries were singled out as among the worst offenders. Even the United States \u201cfails to adequately protect workers\u2019 rights to form unions and bargain collectively. Millions of U.S. workers lack any legal protection to form unions\u2026\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:NYT 2005\/12\/06\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:NYT%202005\/12\/06\">[52]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The Dalai Lama also gave full support to removing the ingrained traditional obstacles that have kept Tibetan nuns from receiving an education. Upon arriving in exile, few nuns could read or write. In Tibet their activities had been devoted to daylong periods of prayer and chants. But in northern India they now began reading Buddhist philosophy and engaging in theological study and debate, activities that in old Tibet had been open only to monks.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:SF Chronicle 2007\/01\/14\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/14\">[53]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In November 2005 the Dalai Lama spoke at Stanford University on \u201cThe Heart of Nonviolence,\u201d but stopped short of a blanket condemnation of all violence. Violent actions that are committed in order to reduce future suffering are not to be condemned, he said, citing World War II as an example of a worthy effort to protect democracy. What of the four years of carnage and mass destruction in Iraq, a war condemned by most of the world\u00a0\u2014 even by a conservative pope\u00a0\u2014 as a blatant violation of international law and a crime against humanity? The Dalai Lama was undecided: \u201cThe Iraq war\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s too early to say, right or wrong.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:SF Chronicle 2005\/11\/05\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:SF%20Chronicle%202005\/11\/05\">[54]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Earlier he had voiced support for the U.S. military intervention against Yugoslavia and, later on, the U.S. military intervention into Afghanistan.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Times of India 2000\/10\/13\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Times%20of%20India%202000\/10\/13\">[55]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Conti\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Conti\">[56]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Pal\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Pal\">[57]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"exit-feudal-theocracy\" class=\"content-header\" style=\"font-size: 1.3em;\">Exit Feudal Theocracy<\/h2>\n<p>As the Shangri-La myth would have it, in old Tibet the people lived in contented and tranquil symbiosis with their monastic and secular lords. Rich lamas and poor monks, wealthy landlords and impoverished serfs were all bonded together, mutually sustained by the comforting balm of a deeply spiritual and pacific culture.<\/p>\n<p>One is reminded of the idealized image of feudal Europe presented by latter-day conservative Catholics such as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. For them, medieval Christendom was a world of contented peasants living in the secure embrace of their Church, under the more or less benign protection of their lords.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline31\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline31\">[58]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Again we are invited to accept a particular culture in its idealized form divorced from its murky material history. This means accepting it as presented by its favored class, by those who profited most from it. The Shangri-La image of Tibet bears no more resemblance to historic actuality than does the pastoral image of medieval Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Seen in all its grim realities, old Tibet confirms the view I expressed in an earlier book, namely that culture is anything but neutral. Culture can operate as a legitimating cover for a host of grave injustices, benefiting a privileged portion of society at great cost to the rest.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Parenti\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Parenti\">[59]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In theocratic feudal Tibet, ruling interests manipulated the traditional culture to fortify their own wealth and power. The theocracy equated rebellious thought and action with satanic influence. It propagated the general presumption of landlord superiority and peasant unworthiness. The rich were represented as deserving their good life, and the lowly poor as deserving their mean existence, all codified in teachings about the karmic residue of virtue and vice accumulated from past lives, presented as part of God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n<p>Were the more affluent lamas just hypocrites who preached one thing and secretly believed another? More likely they were genuinely attached to those beliefs that brought such good results for them. That their theology so perfectly supported their material privileges only strengthened the sincerity with which it was embraced.<\/p>\n<p>It might be said that we denizens of the modern secular world cannot grasp the equations of happiness and pain, contentment and custom, that characterize more traditionally spiritual societies. This is probably true, and it may explain why some of us idealize such societies. But still, a gouged eye is a gouged eye; a flogging is a flogging; and the grinding exploitation of serfs and slaves is a brutal class injustice whatever its cultural wrapping. There is a difference between a spiritual bond and human bondage, even when both exist side by side.<\/p>\n<p>Many ordinary Tibetans want the Dalai Lama back in their country, but it appears that relatively few want a return to the social order he represented. A 1999 story in the Washington Post notes that the Dalai Lama continues to be revered in Tibet, but<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2026few Tibetans would welcome a return of the corrupt aristocratic clans that fled with him in 1959 and that comprise the bulk of his advisers. Many Tibetan farmers, for example, have no interest in surrendering the land they gained during China\u2019s land reform to the clans. Tibet\u2019s former slaves say they, too, don\u2019t want their former masters to return to power. \u201cI\u2019ve already lived that life once before,\u201d said Wangchuk, a 67-year-old former slave who was wearing his best clothes for his yearly pilgrimage to Shigatse, one of the holiest sites of Tibetan Buddhism. He said he worshipped the Dalai Lama, but added, \u201cI may not be free under Chinese communism, but I am better off than when I was a slave.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:Pomfret\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:Pomfret\">[60]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It should be noted that the Dalai Lama is not the only highly placed lama chosen in childhood as a reincarnation. One or another reincarnate lama or\u00a0<em>tulku<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a spiritual teacher of special purity elected to be reborn again and again\u00a0\u2014 can be found presiding over most major monasteries. The\u00a0<em>tulku<\/em>\u00a0system is unique to Tibetan Buddhism. Scores of Tibetan lamas claim to be reincarnate\u00a0<em>tulkus<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The very first\u00a0<em>tulku<\/em>\u00a0was a lama known as the Karmapa who appeared nearly three centuries before the first Dalai Lama. The Karmapa is leader of a Tibetan Buddhist tradition known as the Karma Kagyu. The rise of the Gelugpa sect headed by the Dalai Lama led to a politico-religious rivalry with the Kagyu that has lasted five hundred years and continues to play itself out within the Tibetan exile community today. That the Kagyu sect has grown famously, opening some six hundred new centers around the world in the last thirty-five years, has not helped the situation.<\/p>\n<p>The search for a\u00a0<em>tulku<\/em>, Erik Curren reminds us, has not always been conducted in that purely spiritual mode portrayed in certain Hollywood films. \u201cSometimes monastic officials wanted a child from a powerful local noble family to give the cloister more political clout. Other times they wanted a child from a lower-class family who would have little leverage to influence the child\u2019s upbringing.\u201d On other occasions \u201ca local warlord, the Chinese emperor or even the Dalai Lama\u2019s government in Lhasa might [have tried] to impose its choice of tulku on a monastery for political reasons.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline32\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline32\">[61]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Such may have been the case in the selection of the 17th Karmapa, whose monastery-in-exile is situated in Rumtek, in the Indian state of Sikkim. In 1993 the monks of the Karma Kagyu tradition had a candidate of their own choice. The Dalai Lama, along with several dissenting Karma Kagyu leaders (and with the support of the Chinese government!) backed a different boy. The Kagyu monks charged that the Dalai Lama had overstepped his authority in attempting to select a leader for their sect. \u201cNeither his political role nor his position as a lama in his own Gelugpa tradition entitled him to choose the Karmapa, who is a leader of a different tradition\u2026\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline33\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline33\">[62]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As one of the Kagyu leaders insisted, \u201cDharma is about thinking for yourself. It is not about automatically following a teacher in all things, no matter how respected that teacher may be. More than anyone else, Buddhists should respect other people\u2019s rights\u00a0\u2014 their human rights and their religious freedom.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline34\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline34\">[63]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>What followed was a dozen years of conflict in the Tibetan exile community, punctuated by intermittent riots, intimidation, physical attacks, blacklisting, police harassment, litigation, official corruption, and the looting and undermining of the Karmapa\u2019s monastery in Rumtek by supporters of the Gelugpa faction. All this has caused at least one western devotee to wonder if the years of exile were not hastening the moral corrosion of Tibetan Buddhism.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline35\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline35\">[64]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>What is clear is that not all Tibetan Buddhists accept the Dalai Lama as their theological and spiritual mentor. Though he is referred to as the \u201cspiritual leader of Tibet,\u201d many see this title as little more than a formality. It does not give him authority over the four religious schools of Tibet other than his own, \u201cjust as calling the U.S. president the \u2018leader of the free world\u2019 gives him no role in governing France or Germany.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline36\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline36\">[65]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Not all Tibetan exiles are enamoured of the old Shangri-La theocracy. Kim Lewis, who studied healing methods with a Buddhist monk in Berkeley, California, had occasion to talk at length with more than a dozen Tibetan women who lived in the monk\u2019s building. When she asked how they felt about returning to their homeland, the sentiment was unanimously negative. At first, Lewis assumed that their reluctance had to do with the Chinese occupation, but they quickly informed her otherwise. They said they were extremely grateful \u201cnot to have to marry 4 or 5 men, be pregnant almost all the time,\u201d or deal with sexually transmitted diseases contacted from a straying husband. The younger women \u201cwere delighted to be getting an education, wanted absolutely nothing to do with any religion, and wondered why Americans were so na\u00efve [about Tibet].\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline37\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline37\">[66]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The women interviewed by Lewis recounted stories of their grandmothers\u2019 ordeals with monks who used them as \u201cwisdom consorts.\u201d By sleeping with the monks, the grandmothers were told, they gained \u201cthe means to enlightenment\u201d\u00a0\u2014 after all, the Buddha himself had to be with a woman to reach enlightenment.<\/p>\n<p>The women also mentioned the \u201crampant\u201d sex that the supposedly spiritual and abstemious monks practiced with each other in the Gelugpa sect. The women who were mothers spoke bitterly about the monastery\u2019s confiscation of their young boys in Tibet. They claimed that when a boy cried for his mother, he would be told \u201cWhy do you cry for her, she gave you up\u00a0\u2014 she\u2019s just a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The monks who were granted political asylum in California applied for public assistance. Lewis, herself a devotee for a time, assisted with the paperwork. She observes that they continue to receive government checks amounting to $550 to $700 per month along with Medicare. In addition, the monks reside rent free in nicely furnished apartments. \u201cThey pay no utilities, have free access to the Internet on computers provided for them, along with fax machines, free cell and home phones and cable TV.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They also receive a monthly payment from their order, along with contributions and dues from their American followers. Some devotees eagerly carry out chores for the monks, including grocery shopping and cleaning their apartments and toilets. These same holy men, Lewis remarks, \u201chave no problem criticizing Americans for their \u2018obsession with material things.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline38\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline38\">[67]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0To welcome the end of the old feudal theocracy in Tibet is not to applaud everything about Chinese rule in that country. This point is seldom understood by today\u2019s Shangri-La believers in the West. The converse is also true: To denounce the Chinese occupation does not mean we have to romanticize the former feudal r\u00e9gime. Tibetans deserve to be perceived as actual people, not perfected spiritualists or innocent political symbols. \u201cTo idealize them,\u201d notes Ma Jian, a dissident Chinese traveler to Tibet (now living in Britain), \u201cis to deny them their humanity.\u201d\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline39\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline39\">[68]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>One common complaint among Buddhist followers in the West is that Tibet\u2019s religious culture is being undermined by the Chinese occupation. To some extent this seems to be the case. Many of the monasteries are closed, and much of the theocracy seems to have passed into history. Whether Chinese rule has brought betterment or disaster is not the central issue here. The question is what kind of country was old Tibet. What I am disputing is the supposedly pristine spiritual nature of that pre-invasion culture.\u00a0<em>We can advocate religious freedom and independence for a new Tibet without having to embrace the mythology about old Tibet.<\/em>\u00a0Tibetan feudalism was cloaked in Buddhism, but the two are not to be equated. In reality, old Tibet was not a Paradise Lost. It was a retrograde repressive theocracy of extreme privilege and poverty, a long way from Shangri-La.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, let it be said that if Tibet\u2019s future is to be positioned somewhere within China\u2019s emerging free-market paradise, then this does not bode well for the Tibetans. China boasts a dazzling 8 percent economic growth rate and is emerging as one of the world\u2019s greatest industrial powers. But with economic growth has come an ever deepening gulf between rich and poor. Most Chinese live close to the poverty level or well under it, while a small group of newly brooded capitalists profit hugely in collusion with shady officials. Regional bureaucrats milk the country dry, extorting graft from the populace and looting local treasuries. Land grabbing in cities and countryside by avaricious developers and corrupt officials at the expense of the populace are almost everyday occurrences. Tens of thousands of grassroot protests and disturbances have erupted across the country, usually to be met with unforgiving police force. Corruption is so prevalent, reaching into so many places, that even the normally complacent national leadership was forced to take notice and began moving against it in late 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Workers in China who try to organize labor unions in the corporate dominated \u201cbusiness zones\u201d risk losing their jobs or getting beaten and imprisoned. Millions of business zone workers toil twelve-hour days at subsistence wages. With the health care system now being privatized, free or affordable medical treatment is no longer available for millions. Men have tramped into the cities in search of work, leaving an increasingly impoverished countryside populated by women, children, and the elderly. The suicide rate has increased dramatically, especially among women.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline40\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline40\">[69]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s natural environment is sadly polluted. Most of its fabled rivers and many lakes are dead, producing massive fish die-offs from the billions of tons of industrial emissions and untreated human waste dumped into them. Toxic effluents, including pesticides and herbicides, seep into ground water or directly into irrigation canals. Cancer rates in villages situated along waterways have skyrocketed a thousand-fold. Hundreds of millions of urban residents breathe air rated as dangerously unhealthy, contaminated by industrial growth and the recent addition of millions of automobiles. An estimated 400,000 die prematurely every year from air pollution. Government environmental agencies have no enforcement power to stop polluters, and generally the government ignores or denies such problems, concentrating instead on industrial growth.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref2:SF Chronicle 2007\/01\/09\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/09\">[44]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s own scientific establishment reports that unless greenhouse gases are curbed, the nation will face massive crop failures along with catastrophic food and water shortages in the years ahead. In 2006-2007 severe drought was already afflicting southwest China.\u00a0<sup id=\"fnref:inline41\" style=\"font-size: inherit; vertical-align: inherit;\"><a class=\"footnote-ref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fn:inline41\">[70]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>If China is the great success story of speedy free market development, and is to be the model and inspiration for Tibet\u2019s future, then old feudal Tibet indeed may start looking a lot better than it actually was.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"references\" class=\"content-header\" style=\"font-size: 1.3em;\">References<\/h2>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: square;\">\n<li>Mick Brown,\u00a0<em>The Dance of 17 Lives<\/em>\u00a0(Bloomsbury 2004).<\/li>\n<li>Erik D. Curren,\u00a0<em>Buddha\u2019s Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today<\/em>\u00a0(Alaya Press 2005)<\/li>\n<li>Stuart Gelder and Roma Gelder,\u00a0<em>The Timely Rain: Travels in New Tibet<\/em>\u00a0(Monthly Review Press, 1964).<\/li>\n<li>Melvyn C. Goldstein,\u00a0<em>A History of Modern Tibet 1913-1951<\/em>\u00a0(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).<\/li>\n<li>Melvyn C. Goldstein,\u00a0<em>The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama<\/em>\u00a0(University of California Press, 1995).<\/li>\n<li>Felix Greene,\u00a0<em>A Curtain of Ignorance<\/em>\u00a0(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961).<\/li>\n<li>A. Tom Grunfeld,\u00a0<em>The Making of Modern Tibet<\/em>\u00a0rev. ed. (Armonk, N.Y. and London: 1996).<\/li>\n<li>Heinrich Harrer,\u00a0<em>Return to Tibet<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Schocken, 1985).<\/li>\n<li>Pradyumna P. Karan,\u00a0<em>The Changing Face of Tibet: The Impact of Chinese Communist Ideology on the Landscape<\/em>\u00a0(Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1976).<\/li>\n<li>Donald Lopez Jr.,\u00a0<em>Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West<\/em>\u00a0(Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1998).<\/li>\n<li>Gaby Naher, Wrestling the Dragon (Rider 2004).<\/li>\n<li>Anna Louise Strong,\u00a0<em>Tibetan Interviews<\/em>\u00a0(Peking: New World Press, 1959).<\/li>\n<li>Lea Terhune, Karmapa of Tibet: The Politics of Reincarnation (Wisdom Publications, 2004)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr style=\"border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid black;\" \/>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn:inline1\">Shashi Kei, 2019. \u201cWhy are Tibetans leaving India when the Dalai Lama is still there?\u201d,\u00a0<em>Medium<\/em>.\u00a0<a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@kei_shashi\/why-are-tibetans-leaving-india-when-the-dalai-lama-is-still-there-52d8e6fa0307\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[web]<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline1\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Juergensmeyer\">Mark Juergensmeyer,\u00a0<em>Terror in the Mind of God<\/em>, (University of California Press, 2000).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Juergensmeyer\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Seok\">Kyong-Hwa Seok, \u201cKorean Monk Gangs Battle for Temple Turf,\u201d\u00a0<em>San Francisco Examiner<\/em>, 3 December 1998.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Seok\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:LA Times 2006\/02\/25\"><em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>, February 25, 2006.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:LA%20Times%202006\/02\/25\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline2\">Lopez, p. 205.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline2\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline3\">Curren, p. 41.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline3\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline4\">Gelders, p. 119, 123; Goldstein 1995, pp. 6-16.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline4\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline5\">Curren, p. 50.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline5\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Bachelor\">Stephen Bachelor, \u201cLetting Daylight into Magic: The Life and Times of Dorje Shugden,\u201d\u00a0<em>Tricycle: The Buddhist Review<\/em>, 7, Spring 1998. Bachelor discusses the sectarian fanaticism and doctrinal clashes that ill fit the Western portrait of Buddhism as a non-dogmatic and tolerant tradition.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Bachelor\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Dhoring\">Tenzin Paljor Dhoring,\u00a0<em>A True History of the Dhoring Gazhi Family<\/em>, cited in Curren, p. 8.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Dhoring\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline6\">Karan, p. 64.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline6\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Wilson\">See Gary Wilson\u2019s report in\u00a0<em>Worker\u2019s World<\/em>, 6 February 1997.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Wilson\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline7\">Gelders, p. 62, p. 174.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline7\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline8\">Reported skeptically in Lopez, p. 9.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline8\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Goldstein 1997\">Melvyn C. Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, and Tash\u00ec-Tsering,\u00a0<em>The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tash\u00ec-Tsering<\/em>\u00a0(Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1997).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Goldstein%201997\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline9\">Gelders, p. 110.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline9\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline10\">Goldstein 1989, p. 5.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline10\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline11\">Strong, p. 15, pp. 19-21, p. 24.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline11\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline12\">Strong, p. 25.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline12\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline13\">Strong, p. 31.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline13\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline14\">Gelders, pp. 175-176; Strong, pp. 25-26.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline14\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline15\">For video evidence, see \u201cThe earliest known footage of Tibet\u201d (<em>BBC<\/em>, 2017-05-26): \u201cIt was shot by Captain John Noel in 1922 during the first attempt to reach the top of Mount Everest. [\u2026] Around the dancers\u2019 waists are aprons made from a lattice of human bone; their face masks are made from stretched human skin.\u201d\u00a0<a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/av\/science-environment-40050597\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[web]<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 R. D.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline15\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline16\">Gelders, p. 113.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline16\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline17\">Grunfeld, p. 9, pp. 7-33; Greene, pp. 241-249; Goldstein 1989, pp. 3-5; Lopez, N\/A.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline17\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline18\">Strong, pp. 91-96.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline18\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline19\">Gelders, pp. 123-125.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline19\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline20\">Goldstein 1995, p. 52.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline20\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline21\">Harrer, p. 29.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline21\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Conboy\">Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison,\u00a0<em>The CIA\u2019s Secret War in Tibet<\/em>\u00a0(Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2002)\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Conboy\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Leary\">William Leary, \u201cSecret Mission to Tibet,\u201d\u00a0<em>Air &amp; Space<\/em>, December 1997\/January 1998.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Leary\">\u21a9<\/a><a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref2:Leary\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Coleman\">Loren Coleman,\u00a0<em>Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti<\/em>\u00a0(London: Faber and Faber, 1989).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Coleman\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Deane\">Hugh Deane, \u201cThe Cold War in Tibet,\u201d\u00a0<em>CovertAction Quarterly<\/em>\u00a0(Winter 1987).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Deane\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Ginsburg\">George Ginsburg and Michael Mathos\u00a0<em>Communist China and Tibet<\/em>\u00a0(1964), quoted in Deane. Deane notes that author Bina Roy reached a similar conclusion.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Ginsburg\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline22\">Greene, p. 248; Grunfeld, N\/A.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline22\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline23\">Harrer, p. 54.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline23\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline24\">Karan, pp. 36-38, p. 41, pp. 57-58.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline24\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:LT 1966\/06\/04\"><em>London Times<\/em>, 4 July 1966.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:LT%201966\/06\/04\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline25\">Gelders, N\/A.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline25\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Choegyal\">Tendzin Choegyal, \u201cThe Truth about Tibet,\u201d\u00a0<em>Imprimis<\/em>\u00a0(publication of Hillsdale College, Michigan), April 1999.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Choegyal\">\u21a9<\/a><a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref2:Choegyal\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline26\">Karan, pp. 52-53.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline26\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Kurtenbach\">Elaine Kurtenbach,\u00a0<em>Associated Press<\/em>\u00a0report, 12 February 1998.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Kurtenbach\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline27\">Goldstein 1995, pp. 47-48.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline27\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline28\">Curren, p. 8.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline28\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:SF Chronicle 2007\/01\/09\"><em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>, 9 January 2007.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/09\">\u21a9<\/a><a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref2:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/09\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:ICL4T\">Report by the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet,\u00a0<em>A Generation in Peril<\/em>\u00a0(Berkeley Calif.: 2001)\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:ICL4T\">\u21a9<\/a><a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref2:ICL4T\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Mann\">Jim Mann, \u201cCIA Gave Aid to Tibetan Exiles in \u201960s, Files Show,\u201d\u00a0<em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>, 15 September 1998; and New York Times, 1 October, 1998.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Mann\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline29\">Lopez, p. 3.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline29\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Cottin\">Heather Cottin, \u201cGeorge Soros, Imperial Wizard,\u201d\u00a0<em>CovertAction Quarterly<\/em>\u00a0no. 74 (Fall 2002).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Cottin\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline30\">Goldstein 1995, N\/A.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline30\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Dresser\">The Dalai Lama in Marianne Dresser (ed.),\u00a0<em>Beyond Dogma: Dialogues and Discourses<\/em>\u00a0(Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 1996).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Dresser\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Thyssen\">These comments are from a book of the Dalai Lama\u2019s writings quoted in Nikolai Thyssen, \u201cOceaner af onkel Tom,\u201d\u00a0<em>Dagbladet Information<\/em>, 29 December 2003, (translated from Danish for me by Julius Wilm).\u00a0<a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.information.dk\/Indgang\/VisArkiv.dna?pArtNo=20031229154141.txt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[web]<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Thyssen\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:NYT 2005\/12\/06\">\u201cA Global Call for Human Rights in the Workplace,\u201d\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>, 6 December 2005.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:NYT%202005\/12\/06\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:SF Chronicle 2007\/01\/14\"><em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>, 14 January 2007.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:SF%20Chronicle%202007\/01\/14\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:SF Chronicle 2005\/11\/05\"><em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>, 5 November 2005.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:SF%20Chronicle%202005\/11\/05\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Times of India 2000\/10\/13\"><em>Times of India<\/em>, 13 October 2000.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Times%20of%20India%202000\/10\/13\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Conti\">Samantha Conti\u2019s report, Reuters, 17 June 1994.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Conti\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Pal\">Amitabh Pal, \u201cThe Dalai Lama Interview,\u201d Progressive, January 2006.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Pal\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline31\">Gelders, p. 64.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline31\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Parenti\">Michael Parenti,\u00a0<em>The Culture Struggle<\/em>\u00a0(Seven Stories, 2006).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Parenti\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:Pomfret\">John Pomfret, \u201cTibet Caught in China\u2019s Web,\u201d\u00a0<em>Washington Post<\/em>, 23 July 1999.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:Pomfret\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline32\">Curren, p. 3.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline32\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline33\">Curren, p. 13, p. 138.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline33\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline34\">Curren, p. 21.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline34\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline35\">Curren, passim. For books that are favorable toward the Karmapa appointed by the Dalai Lama\u2019s faction, see Terhune; Naher; Brown.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline35\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline36\">Erik D. Curren, \u201cNot So Easy to Say Who is Karmapa,\u201d correspondence, 22 August 2005.\u00a0<a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buddhistchannel.tv\/index.php?id=22.1577,0,0,1,0.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[web]<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline36\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline37\">Kim Lewis, correspondence to me, 14 July 2004.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline37\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline38\">Kim Lewis, correspondence to me, 15 July 2004.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline38\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline39\">Ma Jian,\u00a0<em>Stick Out Your Tongue<\/em>\u00a0(Farrar, Straus &amp; Giroux, 2006).\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline39\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline40\">PBS documentary,\u00a0<em>China from the Inside<\/em>, January 2007.\u00a0<a style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/kqed\/chinainside\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[web]<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline40\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"fn:inline41\">\u201cChina: Global Warming to Cause Food Shortages,\u201d\u00a0<em>People\u2019s Weekly World<\/em>, 13 January 2007.\u00a0<a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline41\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/article>\n<ol class=\"floater\" style=\"position: fixed; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; background-color: white; box-shadow: black 0px 0px 3px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 1em 0px 2.5em; width: calc(100% - 3.5em); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;\">\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"\" style=\"height: 0px; position: fixed; overflow: hidden;\"><a class=\"footnote-backref\" style=\"color: crimson; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/#fnref:inline41\">\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Fuentes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/redsails.org\/friendly-feudalism\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Parenti &nbsp; Updated and expanded version from January 2007. For a snapshot of the situation as of 2019, Shashi Kei\u2019s\u00a0Why are Tibetans leaving India when the Dalai Lama is still there?\u00a0[1] Contents For Lords and Lamas Secularization vs. Spirituality Exit Feudal Theocracy References For Lords and Lamas Along with the blood drenched landscape of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/articulos\/friendly-feudalism-the-tibet-myth-2003\" class=\"more-link\">Continuar leyendo<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u00abFriendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth\u00a0(2003)\u00bb<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[415,454,355],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autistici.org\/poderobrero\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}