China forbids Dalai Lama from refusing to reincarnate.
The Han - the world's largest ethnic group and the present rulers of China- have become e il Monty Python.
I don’t think the Dalai Lama would mind if you saw this through the prism of Monty Python,” Robert Barnett, director of the modern Tibetan studies program at Columbia University, said in a telephone interview. “But he is reminding the Chinese that, from his perspective and the perspective of probably nearly all Tibetans, the Chinese don’t really have a credible role in deciding these things.”
Imagine sitting in on a meeting of the Politburo when it is discussing alternatives means of compelling compliance with it's dictates.
The meeting oc of the Politburo is both as hilarious and as chilling as a meeting of the Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee trying to figure out how to accept Iran's help in fighting the Islamist State: can't be done, by Republicans.
The atheist government of China trying to figure out how to frame an edict directed to the corps of the Dali Lama, to force the corps to reincarnate is -- well, can't be done either.
The Dali Lama, by suggesting that he will not reincarnate, is playing a last, best trick on the Han, who have gone mad with a desire to compel all within the borders of China to adopt the mores that work so well for the Han but that fit with great discomfort with Tibetans, Uighurs, Taiwanese, and many other ethnic groups who find themselves living within the artificial borders of "China."
The political elites of all countries except for the Republic of Tuva play out a Theater of thee Absurd and their power for harm is awful (original mealing).
Even as this blog post is published, Tibetans are immolating themselves in protest to the Han rule. One hundred thirty-seven Tibetans have self-immolated since 2009. There names are here.
Self-immolation hurts. You have to seriously object to governmental idiocy, and feel helpless to stop its insensible harm to do it.
The Dali Lama's suggestion that he might not reincarnate isn't just a problem for China. There are five Autonomous Republics in the Russian Federation that have a majority of folks who are Tibetan Buddhist, and who refer the Dali Lama. A failure by him to reincarnate would cause grater disturbances in those republics and dissension between China and Russia.
Priests praying and beating a drum at a new Buddhist temple in a suburb of Ulan Ude, capital of Buyatia Republic, Russia. Photo: Japhet Weeks
The Times story is after the jump.
