Dalai Lama to step down from politics

10/3/11 08:33
[identity profile] a-new-machine.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
CNN Story

Just thought I'd comment on how brilliant (and long overdue) this is. This solves the succession problem, takes the wind out of the Chinese program to hand-pick the new Lamas, places the Tibetan resistance as firmly democratic in opposition to China, and removes concerns about theocracy in Tibet. Brilliant move, but I wonder how they'll democratically elect a president-in-exile given their limited access to actual Tibetans.
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(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 17:49 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malasadas.livejournal.com
Wow.

This is the only post ever tagged with "Tibet".

That's kind of...well...sad.

Did even Brad Pitt stop caring about Tibet?

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 19:53 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] htpcl.livejournal.com
Dunno, just invented the tag. I realize we haven't talked about it yet. (embarrassed look)

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 18:45 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-rukh.livejournal.com
People seem really cynical about the Dalai Lama, not sure why.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 22:33 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skull-bearer.livejournal.com
He's a religous leader who has had a hand in repressing other religions in his home country. Maybe more nincely than a lot of others, but still. He's nice, but religious leaders have no place in politics.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 22:44 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
*He* did not have a hand in it, he took over at 15 and it fell to Mao's armies shortly thereafter. His precursors, OTOH, ran one of the most Medieval states in Asia until Mao took over the place. Of course their introduction to "modernity" was Chairman Mao of Cultural Revolution fame........

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 18:50 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
And Tibet enters the modern era at last. Meanwhile, same shit happens in Xinjiang but nobody cares about Turkish Muslims to the extent that they do about a Buddhist theocrat-in-exile.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 19:37 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-new-machine.livejournal.com
Yeah, the Uighur oppression is pretty terrible. I think we have a romanticized view of Tibet because of its mystical associations and all that, whereas the Uighurs are just an ugly-to-spell group of Muslims, who nobody in the West likes anyway.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 19:47 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-rukh.livejournal.com
And the Dalai Lama is really charismatic and interesting to listen to. Even if you don't care that much about Tibet / accept its fate.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 22:42 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
The problem is that on some matters he's really not that different from the likes of Jerry Falwell, particularly where LGBTQI rights are concerned. It's an ironic thing, that, given he for some reason is associated with the more progressive causes, but it is so. He *is* charismatic, and it helps that the people he opposes are the Chinese Communist Party.....

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 23:09 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-rukh.livejournal.com
Actually he changed his mind on gay rights over the years. He still says that for buddhist adherants, any sex but penis--->vagina is restricted, but that doesn't single out homosexuality, and it doesn't treat homosexual sex as worse than say oral sex or a woman and man having anal sex. He says for people who aren't trying to be practicing buddhists, there should be no restrictions on equality.

http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teachings/gayrites.htm

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 23:10 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
Ah. Well in that case I retract that particular statement. And at least he's consistent on what sexual practices are excluded and not orientation-specific.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 22:41 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
We have a *very* romanticized view of Tibet, as the Dalai Lama looks good primarily because the Medieval state that Tenyin Gyatso would be dictator of right now if not for Mao was conquered by the same Maoist China that went on to cause the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Mao was definitely much nastier, but that in no means makes Gyatso a nice man. In fact quite a few of his views aren't that much different than Christian fundamentalists on certain issues.

This, however, does not mean that the repression there is not a real and ongoing sequence of nastiness.

(no subject)

Date: 11/3/11 05:15 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/-wanderer-/
This is true. It is funny because I think at this point the Uighurs have a bigger chance of destabilizing China than the Tibetans do.

(no subject)

Date: 10/3/11 22:31 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skull-bearer.livejournal.com
Good. The fewer religious leaders in positions of power, the better.

(no subject)

Date: 11/3/11 05:19 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/-wanderer-/
I can't really see any democratically elected president having anywhere the same prestige as the Dalai Lama does not among Tibetans within the PRC. He is idolized because he's the Dalai Lama, not because he's a guy that lives in India that doesn't like China. I think this is the beginning of the death throws of any sort of real Tibetan opposition to China in Tibetan-populated areas.
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