Li Ao on Tibet and Dalai Lama

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Here are 2 TV clips, from his TV talk show 李敖有话说 (Li Ao Speaks Out), episode title 西藏问题 (Tibet Issue), by the Chinese historian Li Ao (born 1935, died 2018.).

Tibet Issue 1/6 西藏问题 李敖有话说
Tibet Issue, 西藏问题 李敖有话说

The juice of first video is that US's CIA has supplied weapons and trained guerrilla fighters to aid Tibet in rebelling the Chinese government. (Wikipedia says USD$1.7 million per year in the 1960s)

The juice of second video is that under the 14th Dalai Lama's rule (Tenzin Gyatso), he has his administration flay human skin, gouge out eyeballs, and cut off serf's arms, for religious ceremonies.

Here's the English transcription of the second video (i typed it up). (2011-12-09: the timing code no longer corresponds to the video above because the video i used to type this was a different upload than the one above (it was deleted on YouTube). (the video content is the same, however.))

They gave Dalai Lama the Nobel peace prize, saying that he used peaceful means to protect human rights. No such thing. Let me show you some history.

[0:15] Let's see [show photos], this is how Tibet, the high class people the Dalai Lama people abuse human rights. Human skin torn out. They said, Dalai Lama commanded -- we need to do a religious ceremony and need human skin, thus human are flayed for the skin. Human skin! Everybody look! Serf's eyes, gouged out. Eyes gouged out. Serf's arms cut off. From here, chopped off. This is how it looks after hand is chopped off. This is serf's thigh bone, made into a horn. I take out a few photos to let you all see. This is a serf with arm chopped off. This is human skin, from a adult, and from children. This is the shackles.

[1:20] All this is gotten -- that's why I'm telling you all -- Tibet is such a dark place -- thousand years of darkness, only one party, the Chinese Communist Party, can deal with it, can solve this problem. Communist Party solved this problem. But why you Li Ao say such things? Because history recorded thus.

[1:48] China heartland couldn't deal with Tibet, couldn't solve the problem of Tibet's darkness. Can you see? (Internationally…) So many records of human rights abuse [of Tibet], yet he received the Nobel Peace prize. Tell me, isn't this disgusting? These imperialists, extremely disgusting.

[2:15] Then you all take a look, Dalai Lama his own self is not too complicated. You see, this Dalai Lama at age 5 as a child. Dalai Lama and me are the same age. We were both born in 1935. I was born in April, he was born in July. He is a farmer family's child in Qinghai. So, as I said before, when the 13th Dalai Lama died, he was facing north east, so they believed that the reincarnation of Dalai Lama must be in the north east, so they went north east and found him in Qinghai, 2 years after the death of 13th Dalai Lama, and say he is the reincarnation of Dalai Lama. By weird circumstances, that's how he became the leader of Tibet. History is this simple.

[3:15] So when Nobel prize is given to Dalai Lama, this is from my article, it is a very obscene incident. Why? Because the reason Nobel gave for awarding him the prize is that: Dalai Lama in the struggle to free Tibet, always have opposed using means of violence, and advocated peaceful means based upon tolerance and mutual respect, in order to preserve the historical and culture of Tibet. What type of culture? The culture of removing human eyes and cutting off one's hands! The culture of controlling all Tibet's resources! This type of rule, this type of ruling group, yet supported and protected by international imperialism, and gave him a beautiful halo -- by giving him a Nobel Peace Prize. That's what a peace prize really is.

[4:08] So I'm so angry when i heard this. But what can you do? We build this railway across it. Did you see it? This year, July 1st, No 1 Qinghai-Tibet Railway all the way to Lhasa, into it.

[4:30] Communist party can solve this problem. Because they are effective, in other words, bold! Isn't this liberating the people of Tibet? It is. Which part of this world would allow gouging eyes, chopping hands, flaying people? Only Tibet. We care about Tibet. They are a minority group in China. They are our kin. But when we realize that our kin are humiliated and tortured by their regional leaders, we must take action. But this action, as i mentioned before, from the beginning of history, only Chinese Communist is able to resolve it.

[5:20] So, i tell you, i made this conclusion. Look at this quote: From Sweden's Nobel Prize, to meeting president George Bush, all claimed that Dalai is the protector of human rights in Tibet. But according to historical documents , they have “Dalai celebrating his birthday, commanded his leaders, that all are required to recite this Tibet Buddhism passage. To complete this Buddhism practice, they must fast for the day, and require 2 human skulls, 1 human skin, …” these type of requests. So you see, how dark is Tibet under Dalai Lama's rule.

[6:23] Today, the darkness of Tibet, is solved. This is how history will record it. Only Chinese Communist part can solve it, of such a region in the world, where gouging eyes, cutting arms, flaying skin, as a method of rule, and that is the China's Tibet. The problem is finally solved.

[6:50] This year, July 1st, the railway penetrates into Lhasa. Overcoming the technical challenge helped paving the solution. As a historian, my perspective, is just as simple as this. To me, i don't see the tourism aspects [of the railway]. But to the problem of Tibet, i see a historical significance.

Wikipedia Excerpts

Following is from Wikipedia 14th Dalai Lama. Quote:

In October 1998, the Dalai Lama's administration acknowledged that it received US$1.7 million a year in the 1960s from the U.S. Government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and had also trained a guerrilla army in Colorado, (USA). [26][27]

Quote from Wikipedia 2008 unrest in Tibet:

Chinese newspaper China Daily reported that there has been bias in Western media's coverage of the rioting in Tibet, especially in the captioning and cropping of images and deliberate mispresentation of the situation. The newspaper pointed out Western media sources such as Washington Post used pictures of baton-wielding Nepalese police in clashes with Tibetan protesters in Kathmandu, claiming that the officers were Chinese police. The article stated that Chinese netizens across Beijing were angered by what they saw “biased and sometimes dishonest” reporting by Western media.[123] CNN's John Vause, who reported this story, responded to the criticism saying “…technically it was impossible to include the crashed car on the left…”[124]

On March 24, 2008, the German TV news channel RTL disclosed that one photograph depicting rioters had been erroneously captioned. Separately, another German station, n-tv, admitted that it had mistakenly aired footage from Nepal during a story on Chinese riots.[125]

Summary of Li Ao's Points

The complete show is about a hour. (see bottom of this article) Here's his key points:

CIA in Tibet

The fact that CIA provided military training and USD$1.7M to Tibet is today well known. There are lots of youtube vids on this from i think US made documentaries.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ei3gBQNb6XY
CIA in Tibet - Escape of The Dalai Lama - part 1/3

Bertrand Russell on Tibet

Found the following from Bertrand Russell (1872 to 1970):

What is true of Christianity is equally true of Buddhism. The Buddha was amiable and enlightened; on his deathbed he laughed at his disciples for supposing that he was immortal. But the Buddhist priesthood -- as it exists, for example, in Tibet -- has been obscurantist, tyrannous, and cruel in the highest degree.

From Bertrand Ressell's essay: Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?.

Discovered a book criticizing Asian religion leaders, with a chapter on Dalai Lama. In the chapter, he discussed how many these lama have a pack of wifes, among other things.

Stripping the Gurus By Geoffrey D Falk. At http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/dalai.asp Buy at amazon [Chapter 22, “Hello, Dalai!”]

(2011-07-17 thanks to Francis Siefken [ https://twitter.com/fsiefken ])

Politics of Nobel Peace Prize

Following is from Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for? By Barry Sautman And Yan Hairong. At http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-chinese-dissident, citing the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 to 1980).

The Nobel peace prize is a prize for politics of certain kind. The Norwegian Nobel Institute director has noted that the Nobel Committee has most often selected “those who had spoken out … against the Communist dictators in Moscow and the dictators in Beijing.” French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre recognized the Nobel prizes' role in the Cold war and refused to accept one in 1964. He stated: “In the present situation, the Nobel Prize stands objectively as a distinction reserved for the writers of the West or the rebels of the East.” That role has been continued with Liu's prize.

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Li Ao on Tibet, Complete Episode

Here's complete episode i collected from YouTube. Most don't have English subtitle.

Videos YouTube comes and go due to copyright issues, but often again uploaded by others. If the videos below are deleted, just search the title.

讚美共產黨解決西藏問題 李敖有話說 2006.09.26

liao on tibet 2006-09-26 WR9F
liao on tibet 2006-09-26 B gSmQf

The following is the same video as above, but 4 minutes longer, and clearer. No subtitle.

668 李敖有话说:谁是支持西藏独立的元凶? A
支援西藏獨立的元兇?2006.09.27李敖有話 B

Tibet and Dalai Lama