The Indian Summer of Tibet

I have spent three weeks in Tibet, “where the mountains are high and the land is pure,” as a seventhcentury hymn put it. I have traveled more than 1,300 miles by bus, army truck, and hiking boots, and have gone up to 18,000 feet on Mount Everest. I have seen more of Tibet than 98 per cent of all Western visitors, ever. I must tell the tale.

Tibet, an independent country and culture for more than 1,300 years, was invaded by the Chinese Communists in 1950, but was not really crushed till after its terrible rebellion of 1956-59. Its Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India. Mao shut all monasteries and destroyed many with 105-mm. cannon. Monks and nuns were forcibly married and/or raped. Many monks were imprisoned; some were castrated and killed; a few abbots were killed by having their ears drilled with a brace and bit and molten lead poured into their brains, or by having their eyes scooped out with spoons and their brains scooped out through the eye sockets. Popular piety was suppressed: Pilgrimage, prostration, prayer flags on one’s house, an “Om Mani Padme Hum” in one’s mouth—all brought death. Perhaps a million Tibetans, out of six million, were killed or exiled. Tens of thousands of widows were rape-married to Chinese soldiers. This is the face of Communism.

FR

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Francis B. Randall

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I have spent three weeks in Tibet, “where the mountains are high and the land is pure,” as a seventhcentury hymn put it. I have traveled more than 1,300 miles by bus, army truck, and hiking boots, and have gone up to 18,000 feet on Mount Everest. I have seen more of Tibet than 98 per cent of all Western visitors, ever. I must tell the tale.

Tibet, an independent country and culture for more than 1,300 years, was invaded by the Chinese Communists in 1950, but was not really crushed till after its terrible rebellion of 1956-59. Its Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India. Mao shut all monasteries and destroyed many with 105-mm. cannon. Monks and nuns were forcibly married and/or raped. Many monks were imprisoned; some were castrated and killed; a few abbots were killed by having their ears drilled with a brace and bit and molten lead poured into their brains, or by having their eyes scooped out with spoons and their brains scooped out through the eye sockets. Popular piety was suppressed: Pilgrimage, prostration, prayer flags on one’s house, an “Om Mani Padme Hum” in one’s mouth—all brought death. Perhaps a million Tibetans, out of six million, were killed or exiled. Tens of thousands of widows were rape-married to Chinese soldiers. This is the face of Communism.