Word: tibet
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...current Dalai Lama, 14th in the line of succession, fled the palace for India in 1959. Eight years after Chinese troops seized control of Tibet, he had attempted an uprising against the Communists that ended in bloody failure. Thousands of Tibetans were slaughtered as the Chinese consolidated their control. Even the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution reached into this mountain fastness. Now, our Tibetan guide told us, "Tibet is an inalienable part of China...
...days, we were told, 5% of the population owned all of Tibet's land and 70% of its livestock. Roughly 1 million Tibetans-or more than half the total population, now 1.7 million-were serfs. We were shown a block-long exhibit of primitive torture instruments, knives, whips, chains and an iron pot in which the hands of serfs were boiled. Secretary Schlesinger was also shown a picture of Broadcaster Lowell Thomas, who visited Tibet in 1949. The country's rulers consider Thomas an "American imperialist" because he sought, on behalf of the Dalai Lama, to obtain...
...final portion of the exhibit was "Socialist New Tibet," where "the emancipated serfs have organized to develop production." It is a hall filled with all kinds of grains, fruits and vegetables, furs and agricultural machinery, along with various exhortations for communal economic development. In a filled-in swamp below the Potala, the Chinese have built an administrative complex and guesthouse...
...Monks. Chinese control seems complete, with a full administrative cadre on two-year tours and People's Liberation Army troops much in evidence. Tibet has 25% of China's area, but accounts for less than 1% of China's total population (about 850 million). Less than a dozen of Tibet's 5,000 former monasteries are functioning, and no new monks are being recruited. Buddhism is no longer practiced in Tibet...
...walled old quarter of the capital, Tibetans still rise at dawn to sweep and water the dirt streets, harnessing donkeys while children troop to Chinese-run schools. Old ladies stick out their tongues at foreigners in the traditional greeting of respect. Elsewhere, the new China is being built. Traditional Tibet has become a dying wonder of the world...