More facts on Tibet

These are belated comments to Mehru Jaffer's article titled Tibetan monks dream of returning home in The Jakarta Post of Sept. 23, 2001. Mehru Jaffer needs to be corrected in many respects.

China has not ruled Tibet for just 50 years, but since the Mongolian Yuan dynasty in 1268 AD. The title of Dalai Lama was given to the third Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso in 1587, not by Gusri Khan but by Altan Khan. And the reign of King Songtsen Gampo was not in 605 BC but from 618 till 641 AD.

Not only monks in Dharamsala practice debate but almost every afternoon monks in Sera Monastery in Lhasa practice lively debate in the garden. While the spiritual title was given by the Mongolians, the temporal power to rule through lay officials of a council of four ministers was conferred upon by China, especially since the Ching dynasty.

All the so-called international treaties, the Anglo-Tibetan Convention in Lhasa in 1904, Anglo-Chinese Convention in Beijing in 1906, Anglo-Russian Convention in St.Petersburg in 1907 and even the Simla Convention conspired by Henry McMahon, which aimed at splitting Tibet into inner and outer Tibet, did not recognize Tibet's independence but recognized Chinese suzerainty over Tibet.

The Tibetan language, Buddhism and customs are not dead but thriving in Tibet. Tibetans learn only the Tibetan language in primary schools, while thousands of Tibetans can be seen practicing ritual ceremonies and Barkhor daily around Jokhang temple, built during the reign of Songtsen Gampo more than 1300 years ago, whereas there have been a few who have been converted to Christianity in Dharamsala.

The West is a sanctimonious hypocrite to blame China for cultural genocide if and when Tibetans learn Chinese and other Chinese culture while they proselytize Christianity to Tibetans and then glorify such conversions, as reported by the International Herald Tribune not long ago, referring to a Christian Tibetan village near ZhongDian in China's northwestern Yunnan province.

SIA KA-MOU

Jakarta