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China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

tchrd.org

211–220 of 246 posts

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be obvious that I am Han. I agree that this analogy would give some people an impression that I considered Tibetans savages. But no, that's not how I saw it. The way I saw them is not unlike the way Jon Snow saw the free folks. Tibetan and Han actually share the same ancestry. We happened to be separated by a natural barrier (unlike the wall in GOT that is man made) only a couple thousands years ago. We are…

> It should be obvious that I am Han Doesn't hurt to check!

If I were a Tibetan and had earned a Ph.D. in US. I probably would have been a member of the Tibetan elite, I would not be writing in the HN comments section here, but in the NYT opinion section to condemn the Chinese government by now. Wouldn't that be more realistic?

I am sure my cousin in law would not agree with whatever I could have written in NYT as a member of the Tibetan elite though.

What I am saying is that the elite may not represents the best interests of the people they claim to represent.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#212
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> India's Jammu and Kashmir Except there was no ethnic cleansing by the Tibetans like in Kashmir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Kashmiri_H...

And yet 5 posts away you see people blaming Israelis for refusing to expose themselves to that same treatment. The big detail always omitted is that Palestinians have their culture in a massive area, yet Israelis don't have one square meter more than what they have there. Oh, and the Palestinian culture is the one with the extensive history of violently oppressing other cultures and religions ( https://en.wikipedia.o…

Please don't post any more political-religious-race war comments to HN. We don't want them here, and you've done this repeatedly.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#213
post #203
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nevada and California make the same complaint of Colorado I hope this is supposed to be a joke. There is the small difference that citizens of Nevada, California and Colorado elect their representatives in the Congress and other institutions where the decisions on how to share the resources are made. While Israel just takes what it wants by force, and the West Bank Palestinians have no say in it.

No joke. The 2008 Great Lakes protection compac provides the Great Lakes States authority over the water and neighboring states have no say in it. The Colorado river compac deal similarly with Mexico and several states. And, just like the Great Lakes and Colorado do supply water outside their boundaries, Israel's water authority does so for the West Bank and Gaza. In fact, Israel is working with Gaza on a desalinizat…

The Great Lakes compact was presented in the US Senate, passed through the House of Representatives, and was signed by the POTUS. All these are democratic organs that all the US citizens contribute to elect, meaning that all the states had a say in it. Palestinians don't have a say in what Israel does with their water, resources, economy and land.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At some point, it too will disintegrate into 100 pieces. That generally doesn't happen with democracies; they could adopt democratic reforms.

China has a much longer history than the modern democratic nation-state. The US has held itself together for a couple of hundred years... that's not a bad track record but it is very, very short.

That's a pretty uninformed understanding of US culture and history, the western legal system dates back far longer than just a few hundred years (over a millennium).

A more apt comparison is the post cultural revolution government, which occurred during the last century.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#215

I do not understand the cowardice and fear the Chinese government seem to have of a small buddhist settlement in the middle of nowhere high up in the mountains of Tibet... It looks like they feel the opposite of a superpower and that a few buddhist monks might threaten them so much they have to destroy them. It's very easy to forget how free we are by comparison to those persecuted in occupied territories.

China is primarily Confucian today, with more rigid social structures/order and a "parental" ruling class or oligarchy, so any different ideology, especially one that does not advocate for social/political structures (as not typically involved) is seen as a threat.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#216
post #150
post #29

I was there literally three days ago. The place is nothing short of breathtaking. Nestled at 4200km, it was a three day motorbike ride from Chengdu. Even at its foothills, you have no concept of the scale of the town hiding in the hills. This will truly be a tragic loss - the town is much more than the 'slum' it is represented as - it's arguably the most important Buddhist learning institution in the world.. Photos f…

hey, what camera settings did you use for those pictures? they are amazing

Camera settings don't matter -- and they would vary from picture to picture and on different camera and lens models anyway. Plus, they won't apply as is to any other lighting condition.

It's all about the subject being inherently nice, and getting the framing as the photographer intended and the exposure right.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#217
post #29

I was there literally three days ago. The place is nothing short of breathtaking. Nestled at 4200km, it was a three day motorbike ride from Chengdu. Even at its foothills, you have no concept of the scale of the town hiding in the hills. This will truly be a tragic loss - the town is much more than the 'slum' it is represented as - it's arguably the most important Buddhist learning institution in the world.. Photos f…

That looks like a clean and civilized first class city compared to parts of Mexico that I drive through regularly.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#218
post #151
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing the photos. There is one showing a metal rooftop with logs and rocks on top. Why are the logs and rocks on top of the roof?

Not OP but I'd guess they're to help keep the sheet metal from blowing off the roof.

Right, I had always assumed that it was to keep the roof on. For the reply below, temperatures vary wildly, as it's in altitude - even between the shade and sun in summer, there's a large variation, and in winter, it gets coooold.

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It should be obvious that I am Han Doesn't hurt to check!

If I were a Tibetan and had earned a Ph.D. in US. I probably would have been a member of the Tibetan elite, I would not be writing in the HN comments section here, but in the NYT opinion section to condemn the Chinese government by now. Wouldn't that be more realistic? I am sure my cousin in law would not agree with whatever I could have written in NYT as a member of the Tibetan elite though. What I am saying is that…

That statement applies to you being Han too - your level of education puts you into an elite category I'd have thought?

Re: China issues demolition order on world’s largest religious town in Tibet

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has a much longer history than the modern democratic nation-state. The US has held itself together for a couple of hundred years... that's not a bad track record but it is very, very short.

That's a pretty uninformed understanding of US culture and history, the western legal system dates back far longer than just a few hundred years (over a millennium). A more apt comparison is the post cultural revolution government, which occurred during the last century.

> the western legal system dates back far longer than just a few hundred years (over a millennium).

But not western democracy. Notable mentions are Greece and Rome, but those cultures also became history.

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