China marks 50 years of direct control over Tibet

“Tibetans consider this observance offensive and provocative"

I can see their point of view. It's rather typical of the Chinese dictatorship to openly flaunt theit domination over Tibet in this manner. If the Tibetans were serfs to their Buddhist theocracy what are the Chinese to the CCP?

It never ceases to amaze me how OssanAmerica can continually take a complicated issue and reduce it to black and white terms. Your approach with the constant, cheap one liners (which you no doubt think is clever) has all the nuance and subtlety of a sledgehammer.

I'm not even sure you understand what a serf is. The following is taken from Michael Parenti's article, available at: http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

"The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery."

This was the reality 95% of the Tibetans faced under Lamastic rule.

Like a good many other things, the Tibet issue consists of shades of grey. No, the CCP are not angels. But neither are they demons. Similarly, the lamas are not devout, pacifist Buddhists (and yes this includes the exalted Dalai Lama). They can be, and were militants, funded by the CIA (see link below) to conduct guerrilla warfare and generally be a thorn in the side of communist China. This is the reason for China's deep mistrust of the Dalai Lama.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/02/world/world-news-briefs-dalai-lama-group-says-it-got-money-from-cia.html