Plus: Blood and Tears in Tibet: The Dalai Lama says he appreciates Christian attempts to address persecution in his homeland

Feature

Home > Magazine > 2001 > June 11

Plus: Blood and Tears in Tibet

The Dalai Lama says he appreciates Christian attempts to address persecution in his homeland

James A. Beverley

[ posted 6/11/2001 12:00AM ]

It is essential that the world at large be made aware of what has taken place in Tibet." So writes the Dalai Lama in the foreword to Mary Craig's Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet. Craig's book provides chilling reports of the physical and psychological assault on Tibetans, from the invasion of Mao's armies in 1950 to 1991.

In one account three monks were thrown into a deep pit. "The public were made to urinate on them while the Chinese urged the monks to fly out of the pit." In another report, "a monk who begged the Chinese not to use the Buddhist scriptures as toilet paper had his arm cut off and was told to ask God to give him another one."

The Tibetan Government in Exile reports that 6,000 monasteries were destroyed by the Chinese armies in the first decade of their rule in Tibet. More than a million deaths have been attributed to Chinese oppression. Tibetans have been subject to mass reeducation programs, and resistance has meant abuse, rape, torture, and imprisonment.

One nun gave this testimony of her beating by Chinese guards: "They told me to take off my clothes. They made me take off everything. They told me to lie with my face down, and started beating me with sticks. I died with shame as so many people were watching. Later the beating was so unbearable that I forgot about my shame."

As of 1998 there were over 1,000 Tibetans in prison for their political, religious, and ethical views. The Beijing government has outlawed pictures of the Dalai Lama and forced Tibetan monks to denounce him. Tibetan women are often forced to be sterilized, to use contraception, and to abort their children. Some reports estimate that almost one-fourth of China's nuclear missile force is now located in Tibet. Chinese immigrants now outnumber ...