Sadly, the attitudes of its Han Chinese majority serve to further China's mistreatment of Tibetans and to block moves within China to change direction in Tibet.
Over the past 50 years, approximately 1 million Tibetans (about one-seventh of Tibet's total population) have been killed by Chinese military and police forces for resisting China's invasion and occupation of their land, and for trying to maintain their cultural and religious practices, even their very language.
Further, Han Chinese immigration has overwhelmed Tibetans in their own homeland, and Chinese immigrants have taken over the best agricultural land.
Not only have such government policies been used to oppress Tibetans, but negative attitudes among average Chinese toward Tibetans underlie their government's actions. Interviews with Chinese who have settled or traveled in Tibet are revealing of their condescension toward Tibetans.
Profoundly negative views of Tibetans are contained in statements such as those by one Chinese gentleman who, during his travels in Tibet, was surprised to discover Tibetans had feelings of happiness and sadness very similar to those of his own people.
Couple this with the idea that Tibetans need China's help to escape a Buddhist theocratic society the Chinese see as feudal, help to "modernize" their society and help to get rid of a language, religion and culture that is backward and used to oppress and keep them locked in superstition. It matters not that Tibetans may not want to receive all of this help.
I had an especially revealing exposure to one major Han Chinese rationale for suppression of China's own citizens recently in a comparative politics class I teach. About a dozen mostly Han Chinese students from Nankai University who were visiting our campus came to exchange ideas about politics and other topics with our students. I'd say to a person they agreed that China's economic development must take priority over everything else.
Generating wealth, in their view, trumps equality, environmental protection, worker rights to decent incomes, civil rights and political freedoms in China.
When asked specifically about Tibet, they retreated behind modernization and development lingo and seemed to feel that most Tibetans like what's happening in Tibet. They invoked the symbolic language of China-as-helper, which, as I see it, is truly China's blind spot when it comes to Tibet.
In light of this stress on economic development, then, we must ask what the Chinese takeover of Tibet is really all about. Acquiring water for hydroelectric generation of electricity, and trees, minerals and land on which to settle China's teaming ethnic Han masses seem to be the best explanations for the brutal treatment of Tibetans.
It's just that they have to be kicked off the land in order for development to take place.
Every year, on March 10, Tibetan exile communities everywhere demonstrate to show their continued commitment to freedom, resistance to China and preservation of their culture and religion.
I know from personal experience that they appreciate having non-Tibetans join them in supporting the world's most peaceful, nonviolent culture against one of its most repressive regimes.
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* CHUCK TRIPP is a professor of political and environmental studies at Westminster College.
