Actually during the Tang dynasty of china. Tibet and China had established their borders. Princess Wencheng (13 years old) was married to king songtsan of tibet as part of diplomatic settlement that established the boundaries of Tibet and China.

you do realise the title of spiritual and temporal leader of tibet, was given to the dalai lamas by a MONGOLIAN emperor (ALTAN KHAN)? dont you? (Google it)
CHINA and Tibet were NOT independent nations during the Mongol rule (”yuan”). When Mongol Power collapsed, so did its rule over these countries therefore China and Tibet became Independent countries again.
(google maps of Ming dynasty,mongolia and tibet are not in there).
and during the “Qing Dynasty” the MANCHURIAN Empire had power over Both China and Tibet.
MANCHURIANS were not chinese. Half of Manchuria is in RUSSIA today.
When the Manchurian power (Qing)collapsed in 1911, China and Tibet became independent nations once again.
your lack of historical knowledge is depressing (google MANCHURIA or MANCHUKUO)
even though tibet was illegally occupied in the 1950s, what matters is Tibet is inside China TODAY and people should all work together bor a Better future for China and its people.

you also do realise that the dalai lama has been calling for Genuine Autonomy since he recieved the nobel prize over 20 years ago (and not just 10 years), dont you?
look up the five point peace plan.

nice attempt at demonizing a monk who is merely trying to bring ACTUAL freedom to his people.

you see videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUGAEOsEL4g

and then realize why the dalai lama wants GENUINE autonomy for tibetans.

This is you CARL:

“While human rights abuses should be deplored and addressed, there will always be times to resort to the convenience of abuses to achieve its strategic goal”

Human Rights Abuses should NEVER be convenient. that’s that.

“The Chinese leadership, I will still say they are the best crop of leaders today (if you take your ideology out)”

If you take the KILLING out of MURDER, then murder is not such a bad thing is it?

“BEST CROP OF LEADERS”
they are definitely the best leaders, for:
1)persecuting, imprisoning and torturing the Falun gong because the falun gong ideal of “Truth, Compassion & Tolerance” just happened to be different from the governments ideals.
2)imprisoning LIU XIAOBO for preaching democracy and freedom, which just happen to be ideologically different from the CCP.
3)house arresting LIU XIAOBOs wife for being LIU XIAOBOs wife.
4)house arresting AI WEIWEI for having ideals of freedom of speech and practicing it.
5)trying to cover up and ban talks about the TIANANMEN MASSACRE.
(for those who don’t know, the tiananmen massacre was when protests held in 1989 by students calling for democracy were brutally cracked down upon. thousands were killed for having IDEALS different from the governments.)
6)building schools in eastern china that crumbled like sand during the sichuan earthquakes that killed thousands of school children.

not only does CARL show that he doesnt “truly understand the situation and history of tibet”, but he also shows how asenine his idea of “best crop of leaders” is.

a big thank you to CARL for writing the longest and most moronic comment here.

P.S. i am a tibetan and i am for Genuine Autonomy for tibet and not independence. more and more tibetans are For Genuine Autonomy these days, hopefully more and more of my Chinese brethren are for Genuine autonomy too.

I’m sorry that the woman who wrote the letter felt ashamed, but I have to feel that a large part of the reason she felt that way was personal.

While there are narrow minded Han Chinese, there are narrow minded people everywhere. As education increases, ignorant people will decrease.

Tibetan stereotypes are in no way brought on by the government, which tries to enforce an image of ethnic harmony, if anyone has ever watched CCTV.

In China, minorities receive affirmative action, the new schools in Tibet are low cost and of better quality than in eastern China, the schools have dual Tibetan and Mandarin language classes (this is from an ex American English teacher’s blog, don’t remember the name), and are generally favored by government policies.

While discrimination and stereotyping can certainly exist on an individual level, on a governmental level, I have not seen any evidence proving such a thing exist.

I think the difference between a New York/Texas stereotype, a national-regional stereotype of any kind, and that expressed by the young Tibetan woman, lies in the question of power.

If those holding the stereotype also hold the power to deprive–of security, status, income, etc.–then this is something much different than typical regional characature of outsiders.

A New Yorker or Texan will still be an entitled American, no matter how bad the stereotype.

I’m not sure that Tibetans have the same security of identity and place when it comes to Han stereotyping of them.

I don’t see these are provincial or ethnic discrimination neither a dreadful situation. These becomes less and less after more understanding, more communication , more contacts between different Chinese people from different area.

Regarding the clothes and languages, many of the younger Han people in the cities don’t speak their local dialects anymore and don’t ware traditional Han clothes anymore. And many feel shameful if they are not able to speak good mandarin. Also the government work units wouldn’t allow a very traditional Han funeral in their memorial hall either. It’s just not a particular situation towards Tibetans.