One of the difficulties in the Tibetan situation is separating their traditions for gaining realization, the practices, meditations, etc that lead to greater unfolding of human consciousness, from what was Tibetan culture.

While I am not a Chinese sympathizer, I am equally not in favour of an unexamined sentimentality regarding all things Tibetan. We in the West have taken, hook, line and sinker a bite of all things Tibetan as though they alone of all the races, societies and ethnicities on the planet had figured out a way to live in peace, harmony and enfranchisement for all.

Nothing could be further from the truth about Tibet in its cultural history.

The culture when in Tibet was medieval: five families,each headed by a supreme leader whose powers were infinite and without question, who held all the wealth dominated the poor disenfranchised peasants who worked the fields, made barely subsistence living and received no infrastructure, no medical benefits or even paved roads.

Is this the Tibet for which people are willing to break skin, shed blood?

A cursory effort to research the former Tibet reveals some disturbing facts: 85% of the GNP went to monasteries, medical evolution was on a par with western Europe's medieval years including the gross stat of a 50% birth mortality rate. That means 50% of the women and babies, in normal birth procedures, died!

No dentistry, clumsy roads, (so think no fire departments, no police, no access out if a medical center were built)no education, nothing we take for granted as representative of human rights in the west!

Certain issues can't be argued: no Tibetan education, no equalization of wages with Chinese counterpart and the historic blood bath under which Tibetan monks and nuns were slaughtered in the first Chinese invasion, these are ugly historic facts.

Yet the Tibet these dominantly young people are willing to fight for was one in which the women were left completely out of power positions, with no chance of improving their life circumstances, and in which a handful of men, regarded as Holy Men to be sure, ruled with impunity.

If the articles of rage include freeing Tibet for a future of modernity and democracy, it is arguable whether Tibet would do better on its own or as the Dalai Lama indicates, under the judicial Chinese law, with freedom to practice Buddhism.

Recall that Buddhist monasteries have been built throughout China proper since the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Seems religious freedom at some level is being tolerated and supported by the Chinese government.

I have been in contact with a number of Tibetan Lamas through my life. A few things are clear.
As high a dignitary as Kalu Rinpoche, with whom I took refuge, was quite interested in "body blessings." That is the practice whereby all Tibetan men of any stature in the convoluted hierarchy have freedom to chase and "bestow body blessings" on any number of women: of any age, description and independent of the Lama's marital status.

That amounts, in the West, to abuse of students by teachers.

At the very least, Tibetan culture represents such a 180 shift from North American it is naive in the least to consider a simple overlay of their culture with ours, or our values with theirs.

It is important to research information, to know what is going on. What are the "human rights" the Tibetans are currently fighting for? How are those rights different from what was historically active in Tibet?

Before we sign on with a massacre, either from Tibetans or Chinese, we need to look carefully.