reply to post by gs001
Great pics, but of the people in them who's features clearly shows, I only see two or three Tibetans. You do know that 30-35% of the population today
in Lasha are Chinese. Being there recently and you probably had a good trip I better understand your prejudice. The info you bring here is what you
was told by your (Chinese) guide, right?
You get the horror pics from them too? Of those I recognise the first one from one of Alexandra David-Neel's books. Yes, when I was a teen I used to
read any book on Tibet I could get my hands on. Beside her books I've read Charles Bell, Henrich Harre, Lobsang Rampa and of course W. Y. Evans-Wentz
rendition of Bardo Thodol, The Tibetan Book on Death. So though I've never been inside Tibet myself, I do know a little about it. But the 'peeling
of skin' I've never heard about. I've heard about the practise of chopping dead bodies and place them on hilltops for vultures to devour (the air
of Tibet is practically germ free, so bodies don't decompose and firewood is scarce).
You do know that the Chinese in their annextion of Tibet killed 100s of thousands of monks, destroyed 6500 (the recognized number) monestaries, maybe
double that, and that there still is an Tibetan insurgency with daily episodes of fire. Refugees are still crossing into Nepal and India and episodes
of Chinese troops shooting at them is occasionly witnessed by mounteneers.
I hope you also know within China itself, riots daily occur followed by immediate and mercyless repression from authoreties, and that these uprisings
often are a reaction to living condition almost solely of enviromental kind. There's hardly a living river left in China, you know. These instances
of civil disorder are seldom reported simply because their are no Westerns there to witness, but words do get out.
The price of 'a modern life' comes at a cost out of proportion, and I definately don't think the young people in your pictures will get happier in
terms of peace of mind, than their ancestors were - though they might have been serfs.
Finally let me say the Tibetans I have met in Northern India were among the most joyfull people I've ever met - despite they were refuges.
