Britain has had great, longstanding ties with Tibet in history and should shoulder the mission of advancing and reforming the history on Tibet issue, claimed the Dalai Lama in British parliament recently. And he also urged various sectors in British society to render even greater support and attention on the Tibet issue.
The man who made these remarks to Britons was not Colonel Francis Younghusband, who forced his way into the holy city of Lhasa at the turn of the 20th century, but a monk of Tibet ethnicity, the revered Dalai Lama, who had gone on prating "on behalf of the Tibetan people". If he is not entirely ignorant of traditions of his own country or has a very poor memory, he is indeed shameless and impudent with his vain attempt to capitalize on foreign backing for increasing his own capacity.
In history, Tibetans and their fellow countrymen of the Han ethnicity had long been thrown in a state of grief, humiliation and indignation, as they were immersed in an abyss of suffering inflicted by Western aggressors. No one can expect someone would make such an awful fuss at the parliament of the former "British Empire" when the Chinese nation has totally rid itself of a yoke of aggression and oppression and are erected on an equal footing in the family of nations today.
After having received some applauses from some members of parliament, how can the speaker face to those heroic Tibetan martyrs, who laid down their lives in battles against intruding British soldiers and "whose death is heavier than Mount Tai, and how can the speaker face to the great Chinese nation, which had been trampled underfoot by the eight-power allied forces of Britain, the U.S. Germany, France, tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria in the year 1900 and had been imbued with the deepest hatred for the attempt to rely on foreign support to increase weight.
Here, we might as well recall the great, longstanding ties between Britain and Tibet, on which the Dalai Lama lavished praises.
Britain brazenly launched armed invasions into Tibet in 1888. More than 1,000 British armed soldiers sent to Tibet intruded into Gyangze with sufficient ammunition. The Tibet forces battled courageously against the well-equipped intruders with only limited matchlocks, or harquebuses, bows, arrows, swords and spears at their disposal.
On March 31, 1904, the British forces faced off Tibetan troops in a mountain valley, and more than 1,000 Tibetan infantrymen were killed or wounded. Gyangze county fell on July 7, and the remaining 500 Tibetan soldiers jumped off cliffs to death. On August 3 of the same year, British forces invaded and forced into Lhasa, the first time this ancient holy city was overtaken, and the entire city was permeated with burning hatred. "Look, how they hated us," wrote War Correspondent Edmond then. "If we fall into their hands, I'm sure they will tear us to shreds."
When British troops looted or ransacked the Purple Palace (or temple), Colonel Francis Younghusband ordered to open fire with artillery, and some 60 Buddha halls collapsed with all Buddhist monks inside killed, and all the property or valuables they looted were carried away by 400 ass-pulled carts.
Have the Dalai Lama forgotten the history or attempted to stand facts on their heads when he was addressing the British parliament?
What's the price for capitalizing on the backing from overseas? Now, let's hear what foreigners say. Patrick French, a British scholar and author of the book "Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land", said without any hesitation that it was "aggression". Even former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has acknowledged that the Dalai Lama is not only a political figure but also a spiritual leader, who has his own political agenda...
What's the price for capitalizing on the backing from overseas? On this question, the 14th Dalai Lama, who has appealed for Britons to render Tibet still greater support and attention, may as well hear what his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama, had said at the start of the last century: All Tibetan monks were ready to make the heavy, maximum sacrifice and to fight to the bitter end with the British intruders, the arch foe of Buddhism.
What's the price for capitalizing on the backing from overseas? Let the Dalai Lama, who has traveled frequently to Western nations like a heavenly steed, talked with great fervor to press media and harangued in the British parliament, listen to what Lamas of the early last century say. "They have harbored a deep hatred for us, and a monk among Tibetans named Qiangba has never uttered a word," as quoted in a diary of Colonel Younghusband.
By People's Daily Online, and the author is Ye Xiaowen, vice-president of the China Association for the Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture (CAPDTC)
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