Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth2-3

For the rich lamas and secular lords, the Communist intervention was an unmitigated calamity. Most of them fled abroad, as did the Dalai Lama himself, who was assisted in his flight by the CIA. Some discovered to their horror that they would have to work for a living. Many, however, escaped that fate. Throughout the 1960s, the Tibetan exile community was secretly pocketing $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the State Department in 1998. Once this fact was publicized, the Dalai Lama’s organization itself issued a statement admitting that it had received millions of dollars from the CIA during the 1960s to send armed squads of exiles into Tibet to undermine the Maoist revolution. The Dalai Lama's annual payment from the CIA was $186,000. Indian intelligence also financed both him and other Tibetan exiles. He has refused to say whether he or his brothers worked for the CIA. The agency has also declined to comment.⁴⁴

In 1995, the News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, carried a frontpage color photograph of the Dalai Lama being embraced by the reactionary Republican senator Jesse Helms, under the headline “Buddhist Captivates Hero of Religious Right.”⁴⁵ In April 1999, along with Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and the first George Bush, the Dalai Lama called upon the British government to release Augusto Pinochet, the former fascist dictator of Chile and a longtime CIA client who was visiting England. The Dalai Lama urged that Pinochet not be forced to go to Spain where he was wanted to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

Into the twenty-first century, via the National Endowment for Democracy and other conduits that are more respectable sounding than the CIA, the U.S. Congress continued to allocate an annual $2 million to Tibetans in India, with additional millions for “democracy activities” within the Tibetan exile community. In addition to these funds, the Dalai Lama received money from financier George Soros.⁴⁶

Whatever the Dalai Lama’s associations with the CIA and various reactionaries, he did speak often of peace, love, and nonviolence. He himself really cannot be blamed for the abuses of Tibet’s ancien régime, having been but 25 years old when he fled into exile. In a 1994 interview, he went on record as favoring the building of schools and roads in his country. He said the corvée (forced unpaid serf labor) and certain taxes imposed on the peasants were “extremely bad.” And he disliked the way people were saddled with old debts sometimes passed down from generation to generation.⁴⁷During the half century of living in the western world, he had embraced concepts such as human rights and religious freedom, ideas largely unknown in old Tibet. He even proposed democracy for Tibet, featuring a written constitution and a representative assembly.⁴⁸

In 1996, the Dalai Lama issued a statement that must have had an unsettling effect on the exile community. It read in part: “Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability.” Marxism fosters “the equitable utilization of the means of production” and cares about “the fate of the working classes” and “the victims of . . . exploitation. For those reasons the system appeals to me, and . . . I think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist.⁴⁹

But he also sent a reassuring message to “those who live in abundance”: “It is a good thing to be rich... Those are the fruits for deserving actions, the proof that they have been generous in the past.” And to the poor he offers this admonition: “There is no good reason to become bitter and rebel against those who have property and fortune... It is better to develop a positive attitude.”⁵⁰

In 2005 the Dalai Lama signed a widely advertised statement along with ten other Nobel Laureates supporting the “inalienable and fundamental human right” of working people throughout the world to form labor unions to protect their interests, in accordance with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In many countries “this fundamental right is poorly protected and in some it is explicitly banned or brutally suppressed,” the statement read. Burma, China, Colombia, Bosnia, and a few other countries were singled out as among the worst offenders. Even the United States “fails to adequately protect workers’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively. Millions of U.S. workers lack any legal protection to form unions….”⁵¹

The Dalai Lama also gave full support to removing the ingrained traditional obstacles that have kept Tibetan nuns from receiving an education. Upon arriving in exile, few nuns could read or write. In Tibet their activities had been devoted to daylong periods of prayer and chants. But in northern India they now began reading Buddhist philosophy and engaging in theological study and debate, activities that in old Tibet had been open only to monks.⁵²

In November 2005 the Dalai Lama spoke at Stanford University on “The Heart of Nonviolence,” but stopped short of a blanket condemnation of all violence. Violent actions that are committed in order to reduce future suffering are not to be condemned, he said, citing World War II as an example of a worthy effort to protect democracy. What of the four years of carnage and mass destruction in Iraq, a war condemned by most of the world—even by a conservative pope--as a blatant violation of international law and a crime against humanity? The Dalai Lama was undecided: “The Iraq war—it’s too early to say, right or wrong.”⁵³ Earlier he had voiced support for the U.S. military intervention against Yugoslavia and, later on, the U.S. military intervention into Afghanistan.⁵⁴

慈悲的封建制——西藏迷思（第二章之三）

对富裕的喇嘛以及领主来说，共产党的介入无异于一场无法化解的灾难。大多数人逃往海外，就像达赖喇嘛他自己一样，他的逃亡得到了中情局的帮助。一些人惊恐的发现，他们不得不为了生计工作。但是，部分人摆脱了这种命运。根据美国国务院1998年的报告，20世纪60年代，每年西藏流亡社区都会从中情局得到1,700,000美元的拨款。事情真相公布以后，达赖喇嘛也发表声明称自己在60年代曾接受中情局数百万美元的援助，用以输送武装的流亡分子来破坏毛泽东的革命。达赖喇嘛每年从中情局得到的资金为186,000,000美元。印度情报局也资助了他和其他的流亡者。但他拒绝承认自己和兄弟是否为中情局工作。中情局也拒绝回答。[注44]

1995年，北卡罗来纳州的《拉里新闻和观察者报》（the News & Observer of Raleigh）在头版刊登了达赖喇嘛与反动的共和党议员Jesse Helms拥抱的彩色图片，标题为《佛教徒抓住了维护宗教权利的英雄》（Buddhist Captivates Hero of Religious Right）。1999年四月，与Margaret Thatcher、教皇乔治保罗二世、老George Bush一道，达赖喇嘛呼吁英国政府释放在英国访问的Augusto Pinochet，这位智利前法西斯独裁者，美中情局长期客户。达赖喇嘛怂恿Pinochet不要迫于局势，前往西班牙接受关于反人类罪行的审判。

进入21世纪，通过美国国家民族捐赠基金会（National Endowment for Democracy ）和其他一些名声比中情局要好的机构，美国国会每年继续向印度的西藏流亡者援助2,000,000美元，并给在西藏流亡社区内部进行“民主活动”的分子提供数百万美元的拨款。除此之外，达赖喇嘛还从金融家George Soros那里获得资金。[注46]

无论达赖喇嘛和中情局以及其他的反动分子有何瓜葛，他常提到和平、爱和非暴力。因为在25岁的时候便开始流亡，他自己并没有因为西藏过去的残酷统治而遭受非议。1994年的一次采访里面，他支持在他的国家里修筑铁路，建造学校。他称农奴制度（有工无酬）和施加于农民身上苛刻的税收都是“错误的”。他也不赞同一代又一代人被债务压垮。[注47]在生活于西方世界的这半个世纪里，他接受了人权和宗教自由的思想，这些在旧西藏里是从没有过的。他甚至提出在西藏执行民主，拥有宪法和代议制组织。[注48]

1996年，达赖喇嘛发表了一项声明，在流亡社区引起了令人不安的影响。声明中提到：“马克思主义是建立在道德原则上的，而资本主义关心的只有收入和利润。”马克思主义支持“对生产资料平等的所有权”，关心“工人阶级的命运”和“受剥削的受害者。援引以上理由，这种制度更吸引我，并且……我想我自己也是半个马克思主义者，半个佛教徒。”[注49]

但是他还安慰了“那些富裕的人们”：“富有是件好事情……这是善行所结的果实，是过去慷慨的回报。”对于穷人，他告诫道：“没有任何理由支持嫉妒并反抗富有的人们的行为……应该以积极的态度来看待这个问题。”

2005年，与联合国《世界人权宣言》相呼应，达赖喇嘛联合另十位诺贝尔奖获得者发表了一项广为传阅的联合声明，称建立工会以保障权益是全世界工人阶级“不可剥夺的基本人权”。声明陈述，在不少国家“这项基本权利并没有得到很好的保护，甚至某些国家里这些行为被明确的禁止和残酷的镇压”。缅甸、中国、哥伦比亚、波斯尼亚和一些其他国家被作为反面教材特别提到。甚至美国也“没有充分保护工人建立工会、讨价还价的合法权益。数百万的美国工人缺乏建立工会的法律保护……”[注51]

达赖喇嘛还十分反对传统中禁止西藏的尼姑接受教育的规定。在刚开始流亡的时候，没有几个尼姑会读写文字。在西藏，她们的主要工作就是整日的祷告和吟唱。但是在印度北部，她们开始阅读佛教经典，参与宗教学习和辩论，这些活动在旧西藏只有和尚才可以参与。[注52]

2005年11月，达赖喇嘛在斯坦福大学作《非暴力之心》（The Heart of Nonviolence）的演讲，但是并没有谴责所有的暴力。他认为，那些为了减少未来的苦难而行的暴力行为不应该被谴责，并援引了二战为保护民主而生的例子。在伊拉克进行的四年的屠杀和破坏行为，这场被大多数国家非难的战争——即便是保守的教皇也如是评价——公然违反了国际法，是对人类的犯罪，我们该如何看待呢？达赖喇嘛并未下定论：“伊拉克战争——现在就评价其对错，为时过早。”[注53]早些时候，他曾发言支持美国军队介入南斯拉夫事务，以及随后还支持美国对阿富汗的军事干预。

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