Tibet: Letter from Lhasa!
After our grand Tibet adventure, October 2026, it’s time to reflect. What progress has Tibet made since 1959? Is it better off independent or under China? Does a higher standard of living mean assimilation is the next step? Is all the fancy infrastructure on the Tibetan Plateau a recipe for ecological disaster? Let’s dig in!
To be clear: China is as unlikely to give up Tibet as India is to give up Sikkim! (Maybe that’s a faulty analogy, but read my footnote). The question remains: is Tibet better off in 2026 than it was in 1959 when the average life expectancy was 35.5 years? It is double that figure today at 72 years!
Tibetans have seen their land progress from abject poverty to prosperity and from autocracy to limited self-government (albeit imperfect) with the sweeping away of centuries of feudal serfdom.
It should be noted that the Tibetan miracle of development is the result of massive subsidies that may not have done much to foster productive enterprise.
Better Off?
Whether Tibet is "better off" under Chinese rule or as an independent nation is a polarized question depending on whether one prioritizes economic modernization or political freedom — or makes comparisons with the level of poverty and underdevelopment in surrounding countries!
Proponents of Chinese rule point to mega state investments that have radically changed Tibet from what was once an isolated agrarian society. China has famously tunneled through mountains, bridged multiple high-altitude rivers, and built rail lines over permafrost in some of the toughest terrain in the world to deliver extensive modern infrastructure: roads, airports, power grids, high-speed rail (see footnote on railways).
It should also be noted that Tibet is highly earthquake-prone; it is located in an active collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates — so, perhaps not the best place for state-of-the-art infrastructure? (See footnote).
Statistics from Chinese state sources and development reports show major improvements to public transportation, housing, healthcare, education, and social mobility that have been credited with expanding access and integrating remote communities into the broader economy. Fueled largely by subsidies from Beijing, GDP per capita — 81,502 RMB or roughly US$11,500 in 2025 — has grown considerably compared to neighboring Himalayan regions in Bhutan, Nepal, and even India.
Criticism
Human rights organizations like Freedom House consistently rank Tibet among the least free regions in the world, citing repression, surveillance, indoctrination, and the denial of an independent political opposition.
Tibetan exile groups argue that Chinese policies actively threaten the identity of Tibet through restrictions on language, controls over Buddhist monasteries, relocations, and demographic shifts driven by Han Chinese migration.
According to U.N. human rights groups, about one million Tibetan children have been placed in state-run residential schools where the medium of instruction is Mandarin. Authorities have shut down Tibetan-run community schools and barred monasteries from teaching the Tibetan language.
Meanwhile, ordinary Tibetans face heavy policing and restrictions on obtaining passports and travel overseas.
Can Tibetans Practice their Religion?
Let me be clear: I am not a Communist Party shill, nor do I live in China. We did not know what to expect from our travel to Tibet. What we got was apparent normalcy!
We saw Tibetans freely practice their religion while availing themselves of the benefits of Chinese rule: poverty alleviation programs, microcredit loans, financial subsidies for agricultural equipment, access to the Internet, electrified villages, and a well developed tourism infrastructure that — by contrast — is sadly lacking in much of India.
Peaceful Utopia?
Prior to 1951 when China overran it, Tibet was not “a peaceful Utopia,” as some Western observers claim. It was a feudal theocracy, say historians, where over 95 percent of the population were serfs. With the advent of China came land reforms and modern high-quality education. Literacy has skyrocketed from 5 percent to 95 percent compared to pre-1951.
From what we could observe, Tibetans speak their language, practice their faith and celebrate their culture. Temples are under state protection. According to one statistic I saw, there are thousands of protected religious sites and over 50,000 resident monks and nuns.
Although we saw no evidence of it, I read reports later that monasteries are regulated and surveilled.
Ethnic Tibetans
The ethnic Tibetan population has not been wiped out, as critics say. They have increased from 2 million in 1950 to 7 million in 2020, with over 90 percent still speaking their own language.
Ethnic Tibetans still make up the majority of the population in Tibet even though many have moved to eastern China for work. Note that Tibetans were exempt from the one-child policy which only applied to Han Chinese.
History
The tensions between China and Tibet go back more than a millennium. In the 8th century, Tibet was a sizable empire, extending into Central Asia. Under the Mongols, in the 13th century, it was almost completely overpowered. For long periods, Tibet and China were politically linked while remaining culturally and ethnically distinct: Chinese emperors sent official representatives to Lhasa where they served as symbols of Chinese authority. Tibet was most assertive when China was at its weakest!
After the collapse of the Qing dynasty, in 1912, the 13th Dalai Lama declared Tibet independent. But, in 1950, after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Communists invaded a poorly defended border region and negotiated an agreement that brought Tibet all but entirely under Beijing’s control. According to the official Chinese narrative, the 1950–1951 entry of the People’s Liberation Army to Tibet ended a traditional theocratic system where a large majority lived under monastic rule. Many Tibetans resisted the military takeover and, in 1959, during a failed uprising, the current Dalai Lama (the 14th) fled to India.
14th Dalai Lama
After China occupied Tibet in 1951, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism — revered as a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion — became leader of the Tibetan struggle for independence. He and his supporters set up a government-in-exile in Dharamshala, a hill town in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, three hundred miles from the TAR. (See footnote on India’s Tibet policy).
The Dalai Lama gave up his struggle for Tibetan independence at the end of the 1980s and has said that Tibet would be better off remaining in China. He has repeatedly called for dialogue over confrontation, and has consistently advocated for a "Middle-Way" approach of genuine cultural and religious autonomy within China.
In an old interview in TIME Magazine, he said “Tibet is a big land, rich in natural resources, but we lack the technology or expertise… So, if we remain in China, we might get a greater benefit, provided it respects our culture” and added “some Tibetans accuse me of selling out their right to independence, but my approach is in our interest.”
Among other concerns, the Tibetan government-in-exile is said to be seeking assurances from China that the Dalaï Lama be given full control over the publication and editing of religious texts, and authority over the appointment of abbots for monasteries. (See footnote on India’s Policy toward Tibet and the Dalai Lama).
Choosing His Successor
Millions of Tibetans have been deprived of seeing their spiritual leader for more than half a century, and the prospect that he could die in exile poses a challenge for Beijing. Note that there is an absolute ban in Tibet on displaying Dalai Lama images.
In 2025, as he approached his 90th birthday, the Dalai Lama asserted that his successor will be born in the “free world.” He also declared that the sole authority to recognize his reincarnation rests with Tibetan Buddhist leaders, free from Chinese or external influence. (Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama is reincarnated in his successor, who is identified after a search, in the form of a young boy).
Will China accept this? Very likely not! China’s leaders claim (sans irony!) that only the governing Communist Party (avowedly atheist) has the power to oversee the next Dalai Lama incarnation! In addition, China claims state authority over all Tibetan Buddhist reincarnations and requires government approval to recognize reincarnate lamas!
In 1995, China installed its own Panchen Lama, laying the groundwork to influence the Dalai Lama’s succession. As we repeatedly observed during our visit, it is mandatory for a photo of the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama (often accompanied by portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao) to be displayed in every Buddhist place of worship throughout China, not just in Tibet. It is part of Beijing's “Sinicization” campaign, enforcing political alignment over traditional religious practice.
China’s official position on reincarnation used to be more nuanced: they only required the right to confirm a choice made by senior Tibetan monks. But, in the 1990s, Beijing became more hardline. A Tibetan expatriate and foreign policy expert in Washington said to me that, if China moderated its approach, there would be “room for talks.”
The succession remains a fraught issue. It is a symbolic battleground for Beijing to make a fundamental claim about who rules Tibet — and not one they are likely to relinquish.
Tibet is Not the Cause Célèbre it used to be
For many years, Tibet was a celebrated cause in the West, and supporters flocked to Dharamshala from around the world, including Western legislators and Members of Parliament, as well as Hollywood and Bollywood film stars and celebrities. But, with China's increasing clout, Tibet has faded from the international conscience, from popular imagination, and from newspaper front pages although, it must be said, that the Dalaï Lama seems more practical and realistic than his followers or the Western governments that once supported him more fully.
As China’s economy grew, other countries became more reluctant to criticize it on human rights issues or allow official delegations to meet with the Dalai Lama. Young Tibetans living in the West are increasingly resigned to Chinese rule or, at least, decidedly apolitical.
However, Tibet continues to remain one of China’s greatest challenges. Despite the millions in subsidies that Beijing has used to raise living standards over the last nearly 70 years, Tibet has erupted in protest from time to time.
Forging a Single Unified National Identity
President Xi made a rare visit to Lhasa in August 2025 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of TAR’s founding. He called for stronger regulation of religious affairs to help Tibetan Buddhism “adapt to socialist society.”
One of Beijing’s long-term policies — that worries the diaspora and Tibetan leadership — is aimed at absorbing Tibetans into Chinese mainstream language and culture, including a drive to send more Tibetan children to boarding schools. According to a new law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, July 2026, Tibetan is subordinate to Mandarin and is part of Xi’s push to forge a single unified national identify.
Tibetan has become a secondary language in state-run boarding schools while Tibetan history and Buddhism are omitted from the curriculum, and religious practice is forbidden. According to a PBS Frontline program (article below), Tibetan children returning home from school struggle to speak with their parents in Tibetan. Human Rights Watch (link below) says the state is “erasing the Tibetan language.”
Autonomous Regions vs. National Unity
The TAR is one of China’s 55 officially recognized autonomous areas for ethnic minorities who have the right to preserve or reform language and customs while receiving increased funding for education and development. But the migration of Han Chinese (more than 90 percent of China’s overall population) has been a barrier for ethnic minorities to reap sizable benefits — although Beijing insists that the Han only make up 12.2 percent of TAR’s population, compared to 86 percent Tibetan (2020 national census).
Members of the Tibetan élite have adopted the Mandarin language and entrepreneurial outlook to achieve a better standard of living. But, again, Han Chinese migrants and shopkeepers in Lhasa are major beneficiaries of the tourism boom as Tibetan locals often lack the capital to participate.
A consensus is now emerging among China’s political élite that the model of autonomous regions should be discarded in favor of assimilation and integration. The pro-assimilation camp points to the breakup of the Soviet Union as a sign that autonomy undermines national unity.
Self-Immolations
Over the past two decades, more than 200 Tibetans (monks, nuns, farmers, nomads, students, and restaurant workers) have immolated themselves in protest against Chinese rule. Besides TAR, they come from provinces with significant Tibetan populations (Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu). Similar deaths have taken place in India and, recently, outside U.N. headquarters in New York when a Tibetan activist self-immolated on July 2, 2026, shortly after China enforced its Ethnic Unity and Progress Law: such acts have frequently spiked in response to assimilation policies.
Beijing has called this “criminal behavior” while imposing severe collective punishment, including detaining family members. Chinese security forces seal off areas where immolations take place to block independent news coverage. Documentaries on the state-run network depict perpetrators as “delinquents and dupes of the Dalai Lama clique” and other outside powers. Organizations like Amnesty International and the International Campaign for Tibet say these acts stem from deep desperation.
The Dalai Lama has maintained a neutral position, recognizing the personal sacrifice of the immolators while urging Beijing to address the root cause. Chinese hardliners view the protests as “political theater” designed to attract attention but with little likelihood that policies will change. Despite everything, self-immolation remains the ultimate agonized expression of a people deprived of the freedom to organize and express themselves politically while causing shame and embarrassment to the state.
Strategic Purpose
The Tibetan Plateau is the source of major rivers: the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Yarlung Tsangpo (called the Brahmaputra in India), which provide water to over a billion people. Controlling Tibet allows China to build massive hydroelectric power stations and manage downstream water supplies. The Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau provide a massive natural barrier and high-ground military advantage along China's southwestern border.
The plateau is crisscrossed by an extensive and rapidly expanding network of dams, railways, roads, and bridges (including strategic bridges near contested borders like the Pangong Tso Lake) that traverse high-altitude terrain. Beijing frames this as being part of its Western Development Plan, a long-term strategy for economic integration. Analysts note that the infrastructure network also serves a military and political purpose: enhancing the army’s mobility, integrating the region into mainland supply chains, and tightening administrative control.
China would never allow Tibet to secede! From Beijing's perspective, it would set a dangerous precedent for other autonomous or separatist regions that may have grown similarly restive, like Xinjiang, Hong Kong, or even Taiwan.
Ludi Joseph
Washington, D.C.
November 11, 2026
NOTES:
Sikkim
Following years of political turmoil, calls for democratic reform, and weakening of the Chogyal monarchy, Indian troops entered Sikkim’s capital of Gangtok in 1975 in a military takeover that resulted in Sikkim’s annexation. A special referendum was held where people of Sikkim voted to abolish the monarchy and join India as its 22nd state. While critics called the 1975 referendum a “coercive takeover,” it was ratified by the Indian Parliament and Sikkim formally became an Indian state. Although China initially rejected the annexation as illegal, it moved toward acceptance. Unlike Tibet, the transition in Sikkim did not involve large-scale bloodshed, mass refugee exodus, or the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and cultural heritage. The local Tibetan-Buddhist cultural fabric in Sikkim remained largely intact, though the Chogyal was marginalized.
Railways in Tibet: Ecological Damage?
Despite being marvels of human engineering, high profile Tibetan rail projects — the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR), Sichuan–Tibet Railway (STR), and the proposed Xinjiang–Tibet railway — could cause serious ecological damage to the Tibetan Plateau as rail lines are built on fragile high-altitude permafrost! Rising global temps threaten the structural integrity of the tracks while heavy construction increases soil degradation and thawing. Although “green construction" elements were incorporated, independent experts note that the sheer scale of the STR and QTR are major stresses on Asia’s watershed and ecosystems and that disturbance from heavy machinery and thermal absorption can accelerate permafrost degradation.
Ecologists have raised concerns in the wake of the August 26, 2026 glacial collapse and cataclysmic flooding in Nepal when floods ripped through Nepalese and Tibetan townships along the Bhote Koshi river, leaving more than 1,500 people dead and 5,600 missing, while destroying 100 bridges, 13 hydropower dams, 23 schools, and thousands of homes.
Earthquake-Prone
Located in the active collision zone between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, Tibet is seismically volatile! Two major quakes caused severe damage and casualties over the past two years, including a 7.0 quake on October 22, 2026 in Nagqu which killed at least 16 and destroyed hundreds of homes, and a 7.1 quake that hit Shigatse on January 7, 2025 killing over 126 and displacing 45,000 residents.
Undeterred, China is building the world’s largest dam, the US$167 billion Medog Hydropower Station in Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon which sits directly above the active Paizhen Fault. Chinese scientists are calling on engineers to guard against risks from earthquakes, instability of reservoir slopes, and landslides. See Yale article:
Yale.edu Risks Loom for Chinese Dam Project Built on Active Fault Line:
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/yarlung-tsangpo-fault-line
Originating in Tibet’s Ngari region, the Yarlung Tsangpo River becomes the Brahmaputra River as it flows into northeast India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states, before entering Bangladesh as the Jamuna River. The Medog project (which will dwarf China’s Three Gorges Dam) has raised concerns about environmental impacts downstream in India, including fears that, despite assurances, China could “weaponize” it in times of conflict by withholding water or unleashing floods.
According to the Tibetan Review (below), India is planning a hydropower project of its own, on its side of the border, “to buffer against future water bombs.” The Brahmaputra system is the lifeblood of northeast India, sustaining agriculture, biodiversity, and millions of lives.
Tibetan Review. India Raises its Guard as China Accelerates Dam: https://www.tibetanreview.net/india-raises-its-guard-as-china-accelerates-building-of-worlds-largest-potentially-most-dangerous-hydropower-dam-in-tibet/
Mandatory Boarding Schools, Erasing Tibetan
PBS.org. Boarding Schools Teach Tibetans to Become More Chinese:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/tibetan-children-boarding-schools-chinese/
Human Rights Watch.China Harmonization Plan Erasing Tibetan Language:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/04/china-harmonization-plan-erasing-tibetan-language
India’s Policy Toward Tibet and the Dalai Lama
India’s official policy toward Tibet and the Dalai Lama is a careful balance of strategic positioning and diplomatic caution with Beijing’s sensitivities being front and centre. The Dalai Lama is treated as an honored guest rather than a political leader. Officially, India recognizes the TAR as a part of China. Although India hosts a large Tibetan diaspora, it forbids refugees from engaging in organized anti-China activities. Besides Dharamshala which houses 15-20,000 Tibetan refugees, there is a community of the same size in Bylakuppe in Karnataka. India has said that the selection of the Dalai Lama’s successor is a spiritual matter for Tibetans to decide.
Audience with the Dalai Lama!
I visited Dharamshala more than three decades ago with a group of hikers after an arduous trek in Lahaul-Spiti, a beautiful but stark and (at the time) woefully underdeveloped, mostly Tibetan Buddhist region, also in Himachal Pradesh. I remember Dharamshala vividly as a cluster of villages in the Kangra Valley. The Dalai Lama’s residence and main temple complex are in the village of McLeod Ganj, high up in the hills, known as “Little Lhasa.” There are several streets with shops and small restaurants. Clean-shaven, crimson-robed Tibetan monks and nuns walk the streets counting beads, while tourists shop for Buddha statues, jewelry, and scarves. We were delighted to get an audience with the Dalai Lama and a special blessing! I recall him speaking Hindi and English, very friendly, and also spiritual!
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