Ludi's Travels: November 2026

Tibet: Letter from Lhasa!

In October 2026, my group and I made a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Tibet, known popularly as TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) or Xizang. In my experience, the trip was enlightening and transformative — and would return in a heartbeat!

Let’s be clear: China is as unlikely to give up Tibet as India is to give up Sikkim! (See footnotes). The question remains: is Tibet better off in 2026 than it was in 1959? Before 1959, the average life expectancy was 35.5 years. It is more than double that figure today at 72 years!

Tibetans have seen their land progress from poverty to prosperity and from autocracy to limited self-government (albeit imperfect) with the sweeping away of a centuries-old system of feudal serfdom.

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 comparisons with the state of poverty and underdevelopment in the surrounding countries!

Proponents of Chinese rule point to mega state investments that have radically changed Tibet from what was once an isolated and 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, railways (see footnote on rail construction).

Statistics from Chinese state sources and development reports show major improvements to public health, education, and social mobility. 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.

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 of the population lived in poverty under monastic rule.

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 the capital city, 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. Many Tibetans resisted the military takeover, and, in 1959, during a failed uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama (the current one) fled to 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 the language, controls over Buddhist monasteries, relocations, and demographic shifts driven by Han Chinese migration.

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 normalcy — seeing Tibetans freely practise their religion while availing themselves of the benefits of Chinese rule: schools, hospitals, roads, high-speed rail, electrified villages, and a well developed tourism infrastructure that — by contrast — is sadly lacking in parts of India with comparable Tibetan Buddhist populations — such as in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, as well as places with non-Buddhist people!

Peaceful Utopia?

Prior to 1951 when China overran it, Tibet was not a peaceful utopia. It was a feudal theocracy 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 during our visit, Tibetans speak their language, practice their religion, and celebrate their culture. Temples are protected by the state. According to one statistic I saw, there are thousands of protected religious sites and over 50,000 resident monks and nuns in the region. Tibetan is the primary language in schools, and cultural practices appear to be actively preserved.

Ethnic Tibetans

Western observers have a tendency to glorify old Tibet as a "peaceful utopia" and ignore any apparent progress. Contrary to what they say, Tibetan culture, language, and religion have not been wiped out! The ethnic Tibetan population has 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.

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 the 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 border.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly called for dialogue over confrontation and has asked China to allow Tibetans to follow their traditional religion and safeguard the culture. He has noted over the years that Tibet lacks the modern technology and resources to develop its economy and has consistently advocated for a "Middle-Way" approach of genuine cultural and religious autonomy within China.

Tibet would be better off remaining in China rather than regaining its independence, the Dalai Lama has stated. In an old interview with TIME Magazine, he said, "Tibet is a big land, rich in natural resources, but we lack the technology or expertise [to exploit them]. So, if we remain in China, we might get a greater benefit, provided it respects our culture."

The Dalai Lama gave up his struggle for Tibetan independence at the end of the 1980s, and his remarks about China are usually conciliatory. "Some Tibetans accuse me of selling out their right to independence, but my approach is in our interest," he has said from his home in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala.

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.

Visit to Dharamshala

I visited Dharamshala more than three decades ago with a group of hikers. This happened after an arduous trek in Lahaul-Spiti, a beautiful but stark and (at the time) a 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 the 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, sidewalk stalls, and small restaurants. Tibetan monks and nuns with shaved heads and crimson robes walk the streets while tourists shop for Buddha statues, prayer wheels, jewelry, and scarves.

Our goal at the time was to get a meeting with and blessing from the Dalai Lama and we were very fortunate to do so! I recall him speaking both Hindi and English, down-to-earth but also otherworldly, as I’m sure many truly spiritual people are. (I got the same feeling when I met and was blessed by Mother Teresa in Calcutta a few months later)! My quick assessment of the Dalai Lama: friendly, progressive, cool!

Authority to Choose 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.

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. (Note that 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 (unironically!) that only the governing Communist Party — an avowedly atheist organization — has the power to oversee choosing the next Dalai Lama incarnation. Note that China claims state authority over all Tibetan Buddhist reincarnations and requires government approval to recognize reincarnate lamas!

The Panchen Lama plays a key role in recognizing the next Dalai Lama. 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 the picture of the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama to be displayed in every Tibetan Buddhist place of worship and monastery throughout China, not just in Tibet.

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 hard-line. 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.

Present Day

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to Lhasa in August 2025, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of TAR. He said “the priority” must be to maintain political order and called for stronger regulation of religious affairs to help Tibetan Buddhism “adapt to socialist society.”

To promote integration, Beijing has invested heavily in infrastructure which has led to better standards of living, particularly for a Tibetan élite that has adopted the language and entrepreneurial outlook of the Chinese. But, according to news reports, this boom has mainly benefited Han Chinese migrants as Tibetan locals often lack the education and capital to participate.

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 Tibetan children to boarding schools where the language of instruction is almost exclusively Mandarin Chinese.

Autonomy vs. National Unity

China created a large number of autonomous areas with Tibet being one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. In theory, minorities had the right to preserve or reform their language and customs, and their regions were given preferences in education and development funding.

But autonomy has been skewered by the dominance of the Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 per cent of the overall population. A consensus is now emerging among China’s political élite that the model of autonomous regions should be discarded in favor of assimilation. 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 Tibet, they also come from provinces with significant Tibetan populations (Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu). Similar deaths have taken place in India and, most recently, outside the 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. Protesters have called for religious freedom, the return of the Dalai Lama, and the preservation of Tibetan culture, language, and identity. Acts of protest have frequently spiked in response to assimilation policies.

Beijing has labeled these acts as criminal behavior while imposing severe punishment, including detaining family members. Chinese security forces seal off areas where immolations occur 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 position of neutrality, recognizing the personal sacrifice of the immolators while questioning their effectiveness and urging Beijing to address the root cause. The protests are a form of political theatre designed to attract attention but with little likelihood that Chinese policies will change or that other countries would expend diplomatic energy on them. Yet, the more oblique and human aspect is that self-immolations are the agonized expression of a people who have been deprived of the freedom to organize and express themselves politically —while no doubt causing shame and embarrassment to the state.

Strategic Area

The Tibetan Plateau is the source of major rivers — including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Brahmaputra — which provide water to over a billion people. Controlling Tibet allows China to build massive hydroelectric dams (such as the Three Gorges) 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.

It goes without saying that 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 Taiwan.

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 growing clout, Tibet has faded from the international conscience 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 challenge it on human rights issues or even allow official delegations to meet with the Dalai Lama. Some fellow Tibetans also seem to be resigned to Chinese rule.

However, Tibet remains one of China’s greatest challenges. Despite the millions that Beijing has sunk into infrastructure and provided in subsidies over the last nearly 70 years, Tibet has erupted in protest from time to time.

Romance and Wonder!

A journey to Tibet will always be associated with romance and joy and wonder. Lhasa's allure for any world wanderer is evident: its remoteness, its isolation and — despite the forces of globalisation and Sinicization — it is one of the most out-of-the-way places to get to. We flew from Lijiang in Yunnan Province to Kunming and from Kunming to Lhasa and were glad to leave the huge October holiday crowds behind in Chengdu, Juizhaigou, Huanglong, and Dali!

"Welcome to Lhasa,” said our guide at Gonggar Airport — one of the highest altitude airports in the world at an elevation of 11,800 feet. He draped long white silk scarves (the traditional Tibetan welcome) around our shoulders before snapping a couple of mandatory pictures and ushering us aboard a van filled with water, snacks — and the ubiquitous oxygen canisters which we saw everywhere in China although I don’t recall seeing them in Machu Picchu where the altitude gave me constant headaches — in Tibet, though, headache-free!

Healthwise, we weathered the low oxygen pretty well with our altitude pills and patches. Sure, we may have panted a bit the day we went to Yamdrok Lake — who wouldn’t at 16.5 thousand feet — but the secret is going at one’s pace and not rushing as advised by our guide. We all loved Lhasa — thanks to every individual in our 7-member group, all of whom contributed to making it a memorable trip!

Staying Focused on Faith and Culture!

I decided to keep sentiments of wonderment front-of-mind and refrain from getting too mired in the politics of it all — while channeling one’s expectations in more constructive directions, such as, say, in exploring the religion, rituals, culture, and landscape, while engaging with local communities: we enjoyed a visit to a beautifully furnished village home for lunch and went on to observe men and women engage in threshing a rapeseed harvest, while walking past pastures dominated by large fierce-looking yaks!

Much of our interest also lay in observing faith and culture woven into everyday life — not just confined to monasteries or temples — but seen in prayer, pilgrimage, meditation, sacred art, and debate. This is evident in the practices that connect generations of Tibetans to a spiritual tradition that has flourished for more than a thousand years — and one we were privileged to bear witness to: pilgrims prostrating themselves in the sacred act of “kora” while encircling temples and embodying a message of compassion and nonviolence.

What I found most intriguing about the Buddhist faith — besides delving into the differences between Tibetan and classical Indian Buddhism — is that compassion and goodwill are centered on nurturing empathy and care for all living beings. Rather than petitioning an external deity, the goal of reciting mantras is to transform one’s mind by distancing oneself from attachment and ego. Let me conclude with the Sanskrit recitation of the Shakyamuni Mantra, which is said to draw out the “pure Buddha nature” that resides in us all:

Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakyamuniye Svaha!

ॐ मुनि मुनि महामुनि शक्य मुनिये स्वाहा (in Devanagari)

Ludi Joseph

October 25, 2026

Lhasa, Tibet

NOTES:

Sikkim

Following years of political turmoil and weakening of the Chogyal monarchy amidst calls for democratic reform, Indian troops entered Sikkim’s capital of Gangtok in 1975 during a military takeover that led to the end of the monarchy and annexation of Sikkim into India. The same year, a special referendum was held where people of Sikkim voted to abolish the monarchy and join India as its 22nd state. Before that, under a 1950 treaty, Sikkim had been a protectorate of British India and later of independent India. While critics called the 1975 referendum a “coercive takeover,” it achieved formal constitutional integration. China initially rejected the annexation as illegal, though it moved toward acceptance. Unlike Tibet, the transition in Sikkim did not involve large-scale bloodshed, mass refugee exoduses, or the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and cultural heritage. The local Tibetan-Buddhist cultural fabric in Sikkim largely persisted, though the Chogyal was stripped of power and marginalized.

Railways in Tibet: Environmental Destruction?

Although they are marvels of human engineering, high-profile rail projects in Tibet — the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR), the 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 temperatures threaten the structural integrity of the tracks while heavy construction increases soil degradation and thawing. Massive engineering projects interfere with seismically active and volatile terrain, thereby increasing the risk of landslides and downstream disruption.

Chinese engineers have incorporated "green construction" elements: wildlife migration passages, elevated rail viaducts, and revegetation. However, independent environmental experts note that the sheer scale of the STR and QTR are major stresses on China’s (and Asia’s) watershed and ecosystems and that disturbance from heavy machinery and thermal absorption further speeds up permafrost degradation. In the wake of the recent tragedy in Nepal with the glacial melt and cataclysmic flooding, it should also be noted that permafrost destruction can amplify earthquake damage while deep mountain tunneling can trigger seismic events.

Kora

The Tibetan word kora (parikrama in Sanskrit) refers to the act of walking around or circumnambulating a sacred place. Tibetan Buddhists practise kora as a form of pilgrimage. It is an integral part of devotion (also practised by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs) to purify the body, speech, and mind in order to eliminate delusions, negativity, and bad karma. To prostrate correctly, the pilgrim stretches out full length on the ground, marks the spot where his or her fingertips reach, then stands and steps forward to that spot, before prostrating again. To protect limbs and clothes, they may wear leather aprons, knee pads, and gloves or even attach wooden planks to their hands to facilitate stretching out and sliding on rough cobblestones!

Tibetan Buddhism

A centuries-old tradition centered on wisdom, meditation, and the interconnectedness of life, Tibetan Buddhism has thrived in Tibet since the 7th century and has profoundly shaped culture, identity, and daily life through its four major schools — Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug —along with the indigenous Bön religion. It follows the Mahayana tradition, emphasizing bodhichitta or aspiring to enlightenment by freeing all sentient beings from suffering. Vajrayana, or Tantric, tradition builds on Mahayana and uses visualization to transform the mind on its path to enlightenment.

Shakyamuni Mantra

Known as the sacred heart mantra, it pays homage to the first Buddha or Shakyamuni, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, the historic Buddha who embodies “pure Buddha nature.” It is a play on his name: muni means sage, maha means great. The mantra reads “Om wise one, wise one, great wise one, wise one of the Shakyans, Hail!” In Buddhist tradition, reciting this mantra can accumulate spiritual merit or good karma, and connect the chanter to the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom.

Pics from Tibet: