virtually all monastic institutions and much of the re-
ligious art and literature. Some had read the signs, and
Tibetans carried out or hid an astonishing amount of
their portable art and books.
The fourteenth Dalai Lama had already fled Tibet
in 1959, and over the next decade a steady stream of
refugees began to populate the camps on Indian soil—
perhaps 100,000 in all. Ever true to their traditions, Ti-
betans immediately set about to construct temples,
monasteries, monastic schools, and print their sacred
books. The latter project was assisted by the Public Law
480 Program of the United States, especially when di-
rected by the brilliant Tibetologist E. Gene Smith, so
that Tibetan (and other) books were purchased as part
of Indian debt servicing to the United States. The Pub-
lic Law 480 Program allowed foreign scholars access to
Tibet’s great literature for the first time, while pub-
lishers could provide monasteries with discounted
copies of their literature.
Post-Maoist Tibet
Since the opening of Tibet after the Cultural Revolu-
tion, there has been a resurgence of Buddhist practice.
The Chinese have resurrected religious buildings—the
POTALA, Norbulinka, the Jo khang, and so on—as mu-
seums for tourism, and Tibet’s cities have become Han
Chinese enclaves, but Buddhism is thriving in the
countryside. Ever suspicious of religion, the Chinese
have sought to control monastic construction and the
number of clergy. The participation of monks (and
foreign sympathizers) in insurrections has exacerbated
Beijing’s mistrust. Even then, individual teachers have
temporarily managed against great obstacles, although
their building efforts are often dismantled. Certain
lamas find allies in Han businessmen, who provide
capital and political legitimacy to construction pro-
jects. China has also played politics with the process of
reincarnation, installing its own PANCHENLAMAand
incarcerating the Dalai Lama’s choice. More curiously,
Tibetan publishing has taken off in the People’s Re-
public of China since Mao’s death, making many rare
chronicles available for the first time.
The continued tug-of-war between the Dalai Lama’s
government in Dharamsala and Beijing over human
rights and religious freedom is in part incomprehen-
sion by Beijing, in part stalling tactics until the Dalai
Lama’s death. Many young Tibetans in diaspora chafe
at the Dalai Lama’s pacifism, and there is unhappiness
among some Tibetans in India or Nepal about either
the Dalai Lama’s policies or his ecumenical religious
position. Some Dga’ ldan pa sectarianism continues
and promotes Rdo rje shugs ldan, a divinity repre-
senting the dominance of the Dga’ ldan pa. American
movie stars and the 1989 Nobel Prize for peace for the
Dalai Lama have provided legitimacy to Tibetan aspi-
rations, at the cost of some integrity. Yet, despite ten-
sions inside Tibet and elsewhere, there can be little
doubt that Buddhism and national identity are so in-
tertwined in Tibetans’ minds that the continuation of
some sort of Buddhist practice by Tibetans is assured.See also:Apocrypha; Communism and Buddhism; Hi-
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