Panel addresses violence in Tibet

Following protests by Buddhist monks in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in mid-March, the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet have been a focal point of news coverage leading up to this summer’s Olympics in Beijing.

“The Chinese government is trying to push the idea that monks are violent,” Barnett explained. “Actually, monks were very little involved in violence in [March].”

Last night’s discussion focused on the history of discontent and protest in Tibet as well as Burma in the hopes of shedding some light on today’s situation.

Historically, monasteries have always been political centers in Tibet, and protests against the Chinese were for the most part small and quiet events conducted solely by monks and nuns, said Barnett, the director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia.

The highly publicized March 10 protest was such a significant event, he explained, because it was the first street demonstration in Tibet in 10 years and included many laypeople who joined the monks in protest.

Using the Olympic tradition of passing the torch as a metaphor, “The battle has been passed from monks to laypeople again,” Barnett said.

The March Tibetan protest was very similar in method to those carried out by Buddhist protesters in the country of Burma, he noted.

Though mentioned less in the news, the Burmese people also suffer under a violent government that refuses to negotiate, leaving the population starving and impoverished despite the country’s abundance of natural gas and large rice crop, Silverstein said.

In September 2007, Burmese Buddhists reentered the political world.

“[Burmese] Buddhists involved in politics is not a brand new thing,” Silverstein said. “What is new is that they haven’t been involved … in the last 30 to 40 years.”

Monks walked out of monasteries onto the streets of towns and appealed to the military ruling body to accept four decrees, Silverstein explained. The monks called for the military to apologize for unnecessary violence, release political prisoners from jail, intercede in the shortage of fuel and begin dialogue with the people to gradually reform the political system.

Though the military never accepted or recognized these decrees, the recent protests in Tibet followed the Burmese example and moved in large numbers with specific demands, Barnett said.

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Radical action in Tibet is not solely caused by the publicity the Olympics gives the issue, Barnett said, explaining that China has recently tightened restrictions governing association with the Dalai Lama and has imposed harsher rule on Tibet as a whole.

There is also the practical concern that the Dalai Lama is getting older, so negotiations between the political leader and Chinese government must happen soon, Barnett explained.

The discussion, titled “Monks and Dissent,” was co-sponsored by the Buddhist Studies Workshop, the Office of Religious Life, the Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations and the Princeton Buddhist Students’ Group.