Buddhism in Tibet.

[Chairman Mao]

After spending two weeks traveling around Tibet I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. The beautiful religious architecture and mountain views are the only reason to visit (unless you intend to go mountain climbing I guess). Everywhere that was not a Chinese Government run tourist trap looked like a slum, far more run down than any other place in China that I visited.

Some would argue that is the fault of the Chinese "occupation" (while Tibetans believe it is an occupation/illegal annexation, China believes that Tibet has always belonged to them) while I observed something different. Every year thousands of Tibetan Buddhists make pilgrimages to important religious sites around the region in order to worship. Often they arrive so tired, hungry and poor that they are forced to beg for money on the steps of the very temple they came to worship. Our guide informed us that even though they were so hungry that they would grab onto your clothes to ask you for money, they would still donate a large portion of their income to the church, sometimes more than half. I would not have a problem with this sort of devoted giving if the church put that money back into the starving community... they don't. We visited a tomb for various religious leaders that had cost 66 million RMB (Yuan)(1USD=7.5RMB) to construct because the entire thing was ordained with precious metals and stones. So let me get this straight, while starving beggars give half their income to the church, the church spends almost 10 million dollars to build a gold plated, jewel encrusted tomb for some of it's high ranking members. Something is not right here.

While I agree that the Chinese "occupation" has been detrimental to the social and economic situation in Tibet, they are far from the only ones to blame. While I absolutely support freedom of religion I also see why the Chinese government tried to oppress Buddhism in Tibet. I seems that the Church is only seeming to make poverty worse in Tibet.

Has any one else visited Tibet? Anyone with an opinion on the matter?