Politics and Puking

View From Yak Hotel

I went to Tibet. That sounds weird. I will tell you right away that you are not going to get enlightened or whatever by taking a plane ride to Tibet. Sure those monks are cool and they smile a lot which is also cool, but I think you could get enlightened by listening to the priest instead of sleeping or tacking an extra couple miles onto your jog. No I think a lot of people think they are enlightened up there because there isn’t any oxygen. I mean seriously, you are pretty much delirious the whole time. We stayed at a place in Lhasa called the Yak hotel and it was fitting because I did exactly that the first night we were there. Lhasa is about 12,000 feet altitude. I have been at that altitude before but not for long and if you stay there long enough you get “enlightened” and then you puke.

Survivor of Cultural Revolution

Tibet is the highest region on earth, thus the puking (altitude sickness).

It borders India. Buddhism is the main religion. The Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950. Tibet did not have much of an army so they were conquered. A lot of Tibetans were killed. The Chinese always thought Tibet belonged to them but it is also militarily important so they decided to rule it and keep a military presence. The Chinese have embarked on a campaign to colonize Tibet. They incentivize native Chinese to live there so now the Chinese outnumber the Tibetans. The Chinese have done an excellent job of providing really good infrastructure and at the same time knocking down monasteries (during the Cultural Revolution). So when you see those sweet “Free Tibet” bumper stickers, that is what they are talking about. It is similar to when Americans eliminated Native Americans except with less bloodshed and more effort to provide services and infrastructure to the native people. Personally I think those bumper stickers are bubble gum philosophy (actually anybody trying to spread wisdom at 60 MPH might be a bubble gum philosopher). Firstly, The Dalai Lama gave it up. He doesn’t want independence, just autonomy. He knows that the Chinese are stubborn bastards and that barren piece of land is a buffer between India and China. So if you think about how many Indian dudes are in the Indian Army (as frail as they may be), and you think about how paranoid the Chinese communist machine is, you have to realize that “Free Tibet” just ain’t happening. So you have to work with the system so you can retain some culture, religious freedom and maybe have a little bit of political power in the hands of the indigenous people. Secondly, those “Free Tibet” bumper sticker guys should change those stickers to “If your country is militarily important, you had better get an army or an ally that is willing to go head to head with 1.3 billion Chinese dudes who will do whatever the government tells them to without question”. Tibet belongs to China now. Just like the American west belongs to America and not the people who lived there before. Americans are not giving it back and neither is China.

Monk Unaware of Imminent Indian Invasion

Sorry about the politics. Maybe my thoughts are bubble gum. I feel like a college student or something. In fact my head hurts now so forget I wrote any of that stuff.

To sum up, Tibet is awesome. China thought so too and took it. Now they let people go there for tourism. I went there and met excellent Chinese people and excellent Tibetan people. And puked.