Word: tibetans
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...first met Dorje in front of the gates of the Longwu Monastery in Tongren, a town in China's far-western Qinghai province. Like the majority there, he was an ethnic Tibetan, a nomadic yak breeder in town on a pilgrimage. While friendly toward foreigners, Dorje nodded at the video cameras mounted above the road and said we'd better speak somewhere private. It's a grim commentary on the iron grip China maintains on Tibetan areas of the country that even a yak herdsman knows to be wary of video surveillance. In a sheltered corner of the monastery...
...hardening attitudes on both sides mean there is no relief ahead for the Tibetan people. "I think violence is inevitable," says Lobsang Sangay, a senior fellow at Harvard Law's East Asian Legal Studies program who focuses on human rights in Tibet. So it's imperative for both sides to do their utmost to clear the logjam that has blocked progress since the Dalai Lama was forced to flee Lhasa nearly 50 years ago. On the Chinese side, there's little doubt that some officials realize their strategy of oppression at home and stonewalling overseas will one day backfire...
...cultural void in Tibet, the Chinese government has also laid the groundwork for filling it. Thousands of kilometers of railway have been built connecting Lhasa to many major Chinese cities: The express train from Beijing was completed in 2006, and luxury cars will be running in 2009. Having erased Tibetan culture, China will pump...
...capital makes it an easy target for predatory Chinese corporations. If that weren’t incentive enough, rampant housing discrimination makes Tibet a nice prospect for any Chinese entrepreneur. Most of the new subsidized housing—which the Chinese government made room for by razing thousands of Tibetan monuments—are given to new “Chinese settlers” to provide these new-age colonizers with the most comfortable facilities available. If current trends continue, the Tibetans may become a minority in their own homeland...
...cannot continue to ignore Tibet, nor can we continue to balk when human rights are in danger. The UN, NATO, the United States—any organization or nation with significant international sway—need to put pressure on the Chinese government to cease its suppression of the Tibetan people. The world learned the terrible consequences of imperialism long ago, and we must stamp it out entirely wherever it rears its ugly head. Tibet and its people are some of the world’s most beautiful remaining examples of piety, brotherhood, and peacefulness. But, if we wait much...