Reply #5: I am curious as to what you think may be a satisfactory solution for Tibet.

[Jim__]

Tibet is being absorbed into China. The May 26th edition of the New York Review of Books had an article on Tibet (it's not available online without a subscription). But, a few paragraphs from that article go some way toward describing the situation in Tibet:

As the Dalai Lama's life enters its final stretch ... more and more Han <ethnic Chinese> migrants will arrive on the Tibetan plateau, and almost inevitably Tibet will head the way of Inner Mongolia and other regions of the mainland subsumed by the vast Han majority. The race is nearly over.

The Mongolian comparison is especially grim: in 1949, Mongols in their region outnumbered hans by five to one. By the year 2000 there had been so much Han migration that there were 4.6 Hans for every Mongol in Inner Mongolia, and now only 17% of the population are Mongols, "confined largely to nomadic settlements and ethnic oases in a sea of Han."

...

This damage can take surprising forms. In Nepal, Johnson met a young Tibetan with frostbitten toes from his agonizing trek across the mountains. Why had he fled? He didn't get along with his older brother. Truly amazingly, when asked if he longed, as most such refugees passionately insist, to meet the Dalai Lama in India, the young man said. "I've never heard of the Dalai Lama." Some may suppose his village was extremely remote, but in my own travels through Tibet I never met a single Tibetan, no matter how far from the cities, who didn't worship the Dalai Lama. That was twenty years ago. Chinese domination may be more pervasive than we suppose.

We can all regret the loss of the Tibetan culture. But, if the current situation in Tibet is that the culture is being subsumed by Chinese culture, the best thing for the people of Tibet may be to live their lives as Chinese rather than fight a losing battle against China. If the Tibetans are persecuted by the Chinese, then we should try to aid the Tibetans; but if they are being absorbed into a new culture, the best thing may be to allow it to happen.

I don't know what the actual situation is for the Tibetan people. Do you? Do you think there is something to be done to preserve their culture?