I am writing in regard to the article Dalai Lama honor brings problem to light (SN 10/28) by Liz Kersjes. Has the writer surveyed the millions of Tibetans to claim what they believe about Dalai? Why are Tibetans assumed to prefer the days of Dalai as religious and political dictator in one, the kind of tyranny most Westerners reject? Why is theocracy bad for everyone else but is what Tibetans deserve?
Why can everyone in the world hope for modern comfort and improved living standards while the Tibetans are expected to give up their progress in life expectancy, education and economy? The horrible living conditions of old Tibet were not fabricated by Chinese communists but recorded by Western travelers to Tibet long before there were any communists in China.
Tibetans are no different from the rest of us: They prefer to vaccinate their newborns, they enjoy apartments with flush toilets and electricity, quality education for their kids and medicine for their ill. They surf the Internet at home, make lots of money off tourists and take a train ride to Beijing on the world’s highest altitude rail. I doubt any Westerners insisting that the freedom to partake of Dalai’s excrement is more important than all of the above, would trade the comfort of the West and live as a true follower of Dalai. After all, like all hypocrites, Dalai does not live such a life himself: He uses modern toilets, and when ill, he takes Western medicine rather than his own feces for healing, which, for his devotees, is supposed to be, well, “holy crap.”
Lijian Yang
professor and graduate director for the Department of Statistics and Probability
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