Human Rights in Tibet before 1959 Robert Barnett examines claims by China such as: 1) before 1959, all except 5 percent of the Tibetan population were slaves or serfs in a feudal system in which they were regarded as saleable private property, had no land or freedom, and were subject to punishment by mutilation or amputation; 2) serfs were liable to be tortured or killed; and 3) economy and culture were stagnant for centuries, life expectancy was 35.5 years, illiteracy was over 90 percent, 12 percent of Lhasas population were beggars, and the Dalai Lama was responsible for all of this

Tibet as Hell on Earth Elliot Sperling puts Chinas Serfs Emancipation Day and their strong ambition to dominate the Tibetan historical view into perspective. Theres no doubt that Tibets traditional society was hierarchical and backwards, replete with aristocratic estates and a bound peasantry. And theres no doubt that Tibetans, whether in exile or in Tibet voice no desire to restore such a society. Many Tibetans will readily admit that the social structure was highly inegalitarian. But it was hardly the cartoonish, cruel Hell-on-Earth that Chinese propaganda has portrayed it to be.

The Myth of Shangri-la Tsering Shakya wonders and investigates why the public support of the Tibetan cause has not materialised into political action. Why is it that no major political party has dared to pass a single resolution on Tibet? Shakya shows that the causes for this lack of political action are not only issues ofrealpolitik, but also how the West perceives Tibet and interprets the Tibetan political struggle. Western perceptions of Tibet and the images they have produced about Tibet have hampered the Tibetan political cause. The constant mythologisation of Tibet has obscured and confused the real nature of the Tibetan political struggle.

Shangri-la in Exile: Representations of Tibetan Identity and Transnational Culture In this paper Toni Huber is primarily concerned with the representational style and agenda of a new type of Tibetan exile self-image. He outlines the social and historical context of their appearance and he considers the manner of their deployment by the exile community. He discusses four main points, 1) the reinvention of a kind of modern, liberal Shangri-la image of Tibet; 2) how new identity images are largely the creation of a political and intellectual elite in exile; 3) that it is the experience of the diaspora that provides the initial stimulus for a modern Tibetan identity production; and 4) though the myth of Tibet was historically a Western enterprise, new Tibetan exile identity claims represent, at least in part, an appropriation of the Western discourse about Tibet

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Tibetan Buddhism in the West | Problems of Adoption ...