Tbf and I'm not very knowledgeable about the history of this or anything, but I'm not certain the current dalai lama ever had "hundreds of slaves" at least as an adult. He was born in 1935 lol
He was 5 when he was named Dalai Lama and 25 when he fled to India after the Tibetan and Chinese people said enough to Tibetan serfdom. He was an adult, he was the leader of a nation, and he certainly had slaves at his disposal. Whether they were his personally or the property of the "crown," as it were, is immaterial. What is true is that only 5% of the inhabitants of Tibet were free people during its time as a religious theocracy, the rest serfs and slaves.
Here is an intro to the topic of Tibetan feudalism, although the author goes off onto a weird tirade against China at the end, the facts on Tibet are well sourced.
It's just interesting and a bit disappointing that Parenti could see the good of past revolutionary movements but was never able to see the good of current revolutionary movements, flawed and works in progress as they are.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Tibet, I know how bad it was. I'm just saying that the current Dalai Lama didn't really have much agency in the matter and, at 88 years old, probably has almost no memory of the time when that system existed.
Tbf and I'm not very knowledgeable about the history of this or anything, but I'm not certain the current dalai lama ever had "hundreds of slaves" at least as an adult. He was born in 1935 lol
He was 5 when he was named Dalai Lama and 25 when he fled to India after the Tibetan and Chinese people said enough to Tibetan serfdom. He was an adult, he was the leader of a nation, and he certainly had slaves at his disposal. Whether they were his personally or the property of the "crown," as it were, is immaterial. What is true is that only 5% of the inhabitants of Tibet were free people during its time as a religious theocracy, the rest serfs and slaves.
Here is an intro to the topic of Tibetan feudalism, although the author goes off onto a weird tirade against China at the end, the facts on Tibet are well sourced.
https://redsails.org/friendly-feudalism/
TBF China circa 2003 is a lot easier to call capitalist roaders than China now.
That's a fair point.
It's just interesting and a bit disappointing that Parenti could see the good of past revolutionary movements but was never able to see the good of current revolutionary movements, flawed and works in progress as they are.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Tibet, I know how bad it was. I'm just saying that the current Dalai Lama didn't really have much agency in the matter and, at 88 years old, probably has almost no memory of the time when that system existed.