From: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Subject: Re: "Superiority"
Organization: Computer "Science" Dept, Yale University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 05:40:47 GMT

In article <1992Apr8.151317.18947@udel.edu>, shin@duck.ee.udel.edu (Jeong-Gyun Shin) writes:
<In article <1992Apr8.081720.8084@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> hyx1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Harry Y Xu) writes:
<
<>I'm pissed off to see people (Ex. Scott Horne) being attacked for simply 
<>and plainly stating what they believe to be historical facts.

Bravo!  It's good to hear a voice of reason amid all the groundless
accusations of racism, chauvinism, and every other -ism.

<Where were you, my dear, 'what believe to be historical facts' by Scott
<Horne includes, among others, as I once posted, legitimacy of Chinese 
<occupation of Tibet based on some 13th century Chinese kingdom.

That's not the basis of my statement, "my dear".  See below for a leaflet I
wrote and circulated at the October speech of the Dalai Lama XIV here in
New Haven, Connecticut.  (The leaflet also bore Chinese and Tibetan text in
my own handwriting; I regret that the constraints of ASCII prevent me from
including that text here.)

<Obviously
<s.c.k and Tibet is far farther apart but I am sure it adds up since many
<netters are still waiting to see the names of Chinese scholars who decisively
<contributed to the creation of hangul.

You won't see them from me, even though I could list a few if I were
inclined to do so.  Again, go do some reading.

Also, feel free to circulate this leaflet so long as you put my name
and e-mail address on it.

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\input horne
\footline={}

\centerline{\xivbf The Dalai Lama:  A Closer Analysis}

\def\TG{Ten\-zin~Gya\-tso}

Welcome, friends, to this speech by His Holiness \TG, Dalai Lama~{\sc xiv}.
We hope you will enjoy the presentation.  Some students have prepared this
leaflet in order to provide you a brief introduction to the history of Tibet
and its relations with China as well as a few important details of the life
of the Dalai Lama, topics with which most Americans are not familiar.

\TG\ heads up a fundamentalist Lamaist group based in India 
(or at least the part of Kashmir that is now under Indian control),
where he has lived since~1959.  They aim to return him to power as head
of a theocratic r\'egime deposed in the early fifties.
His message of freedom and human rights has won him and his cause great
popularity, even a Nobel Peace Prize.

To understand this message and to form an intelligent opinion on the issue,
one must become familiar with some basic historical facts.  First, Tibet
was {\it not\/} acquired in ``a Communist takeover''.  It has been part
of China for at least seven hundred years.  Nothing can change this fact.
To say that it was or is not part of China is wrong, period.

Second, the Dalai Lama's talk of human rights and freedom is extremely
hypocritical.  The Tibetan lamanocracy was one of the most vicious theocratic
serfdoms ever.  Monasteries owned slaves.  Commoners were bound to the land
they worked and were required to perform services for the lamas, including
carrying lamas around on their backs.  Capital punishment was as common
as it was brutal.  The smallest of crimes brought unspeakably inhumane
punishments:  a serf who stole two sheep lost both eyes (according to one
source, ``one was gouged with a knife and the other sucked from its socket with
a half-hollowed ball'').  Taxes were, according to a saying, ``as numerous as
the hairs on a yak''.  (Even mutilation was taxed, commensurate to the degree
of the mutilation, so that the poor serf just mentioned had to pay for his
punishment.)  In no way did the lamanocracy respect the human rights of
ordinary Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama is preaching a racist, anti-Chinese message.

His r\'egime was a corrupt one.  His present campaign resorts to outright
lies as well as crude misrepresentations.  His attitude toward the
``Chinese'' is one of hatred, as definitively demonstrated by his writings.
He is appealing to the brutish instincts of every group of human beings.
He is taking advantage of anti-PRC sentiment in the West to promote his
personal agenda under the guise of ``human rights''.  In the interest of
justice and world peace, Americans should reject his race-laden appeals.

His racist disregard for the Han Chinese is well documented, even in his
own book \book{Freedom in Exile}, wherein he shamelessly and startlingly
asserts, among other things, that Westerners behave deferentially before
Chinese, ``most'' of whom, he writes, are ill-tempered.

Needless to say, every living soul is entitled to his opinions, even a
reincarnate or recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  What is remarkable
is that his aura of near sainthood is being so assiduously built by his
non-Asian sponsors.  Unfamiliar with Chinese history and largely ignorant
of Asia in general, they innocently succumb to the Dalai Lama's vague
talk of ``human rights'' and ``self-determination''.  They are unaware
of the brutality of his now deposed lamanocracy.  They do not know that he
has used the term ``hereditary indebtedness'' to describe slavery and
to defend his vicious serfdom.  They are not told that the Dalai Lama's
Lamaist followers conspired to assassinate the king of Bhutan in an
attempt to take over the hapless Tibetan-speaking country.

The US government has always treated Tibet as part of China.  British
and Russian imperialist attempts in the first half of the century to
detach Tibet from China were time and again frustrated by American
opposition.  Attempts to have the UN intervene in the dispute between
the Beijing government and the followers of the Dalai Lama were rejected
in~1950 and thereafter.  The American position on this issue is seen as
fair and wise by most Chinese, whether they live in the mainland, Taiwan,
or elsewhere, and whether they are anti-Communist or pro-Communist.

As you listen to the Dalai Lama's speech, please keep these points in mind.
Before applauding today, think a little about what you're supporting.

\bye

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					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1848                Residence:  Rm 1848 Silliman College, New Haven, CT
ZANG4 HAN4 YI4 JIA1 / GONG4 JIAN4 ZHONG1HUA2!