Tibet and Torches
Tibet, to me, has almost always been a dimly-known place. It’s not like my high school education spent much time talking about (or India, or modern China, or much about the Soviet Union, whose wall was falling at the time). I’ve read “7 years in Tibet”, of course, and I’m pretty sure I saw the Dalai Llama at Fry’s once.
Anyway, Tibet appears to be thrust onto the world stage more than usual by the Beijing Olympics, particularly the torch carrying through countries known for their highly vocal support of potentially not-well-understood issues
This article is pretty good, talking about a bit of the history and some of the modern issues. They’re complex and don’t fit on bumper stickers, of course. It’s a somewhat long (and pretty interesting) read.
There are a lot of parallels drawn between the westward expansion of the United States and the displacement of the American Indians in the name of progress. This seems to be occasionally used to justify what China is doing in Tibet, although I would prefer that it be used as an example of what not to do — if only on the grounds that the US expansion opened up huge resources, while the modernization of Tibet appears to be a pretty costly boondoggle. Even the original reasons for China’s interest in the area (as a geographical buffer zone against invaders) are somewhat moot these days (I doubt that Hannibal will be riding his Elephants into Sichuan any time soon).