Tibet's Historical Government & the Role of the Dalai Lama: A Comparative Study, Papers of Anthropology of religion

Download Tibet's Historical Government & the Role of the Dalai Lama: A Comparative Study and more Papers Anthropology of religion in PDF only on Docsity! Dale Slotman ANT 315 Comparative Religions Reaction Paper In the reading for today, Goldstein introduced the workings of the Tibetan government. Before communist China took control of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, who is believed to be a bodhisattva, ruled Tibet. A bodhisattva is a person who has reached Nirvana, but chooses to be reincarnated to help mankind reach Nirvana. The first bodhisattva was Buddha. This is the first that I have read about the government of Tibet. I have heard about those who wish to “Free Tibet”, but have never researched Tibet in any great detail. My first reaction to this was “This would never fly in America”. It would be something analogous to the Pope being elected president. The head of the religion is also the head of state. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. No matter how homogenous the population of a country is, there are always at least a few people of a different religion. There are probably a few Hindus and Confucians living in Tibet, who would have nothing to do with Buddhism. While religion is viewed differently in the East (many people belong to multiple religions), there would still be some that reject the ideas of Buddhism. I find it odd that Americans would support this style of government. Separation of church and state is a core value over here. Having the government be made up of the religious leaders is not good for freedom. That said, I will recognize that the Buddhist leaders would probably grant much more religious freedom to all people than do the Communists. Also, most people in Tibet are probably Buddhist, who given the chance, would freely elect the Dalai Lama as their leader. I do think that the Buddhists should have a right to practice their religion the way they wish, but I also believe the same for everybody else. Like I said, though, I haven’t researched this topic greatly. All I know is what I read for today, and that was my reaction to it. Hence, the “reaction” paper.