Interview: Dalai Lama distorts picture about Tibet: Luxembourg scholar

The picture painted by Dalai Lama about Tibet for the rest of the world is twisted by lies, said a Luxembourg scholar after six years of intensive study.

Albert Ettinger had two books published in German -- "Free Tibet? " and "Fight for Tibet" -- by Frankfurt-based Zambon press in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

He has managed to reveal to the world via his works a real Tibet in history and in reality, and exposed the lies deliberately made up by Dalai Lama and his followers.

WHAT MOTIVATED THE AUTHOR?

"I'm not a Tibetologist, I'm a teacher in middle school actually," Ettinger told Xinhua in a recent Interview in Luxembourg. "My first encounter with that subject was that I found the textbooks about Dalai Lama and Tibet Buddhism in front of my students were completely uncritical, which made me indignant."

He got vexed also with what the activists for Tibet independence had done to obstruct the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, which motivated him to make a deeper fact-based study on Tibet.

"Torchbearers of Olympic flame were attacked in the United States, France and other countries by activists for 'free Tibet'," Ettinger wrote in the forewords of his books.

Ettinger's study was not based on his personal experiences in Tibet, but on historical publications and literatures by scholars saturated with knowledge about Tibet. In fact, he has never been to Tibet.

"I would rather believe in the reports made by people who were well versed, had been staying in Tibet for longer periods, than by ones who just travelled to Tibet for two weeks or could talk to people only, " said the scholar.

WHAT DALAI LAMA LIED ABOUT?

Ettinger's books are not filled with his own standpoints about Tibet. Instead, he quoted and presented a large amount of chronicle and literatures about Tibet worldwide, such as Three Years in Tibet by Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk, as well as more than 100 documented photos -- many of which are from the German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv -- in order to objectively introduce facts about Tibet to readers.

It is not too much difficult to see through lies told by Dalai Lama, Ettinger said. "(It's) always the same old stuff."

"For instance, Dalai Lama said old Tibet was not perfect, it had problems but generally it was a good society," Ettinger said. "I always laugh at that."

A great deal of facts mirror and confirm that old Tibet, a society of serfdom, was a poor ignorant feudal society ridden with problems such as violence, insults, sexual discrimination, he added.

In addition, "the repression of Tibet's language and culture" claimed by Dalai Lama is also a lie, Ettinger said. "It can be seen nowadays that though pupils in Tibet's schools learn Chinese characters, Tibetan is still widely used among them as well."

Dalai Lama has persistently made propaganda by intertwining politics with religion in an obvious attempt to set back the wheel of history, Ettinger said. "'The Tibetan government in exile' has never succeeded and not even wanted to make separation between religion and politics, because otherwise it could dissolve itself."

WHY WESTERN PUBLIC HAVE LESS ACCESS TO REAL TIBET?

Most publications about Tibet seen in Germany drastically favor Dalai Lama and lots of German NGOs call him an embodiment of "free religion." However, they are actually ignorant of the basic facts about Tibet, said Ronald Koch, the editor of Ettinger's books.

"People in Western countries learn about Tibet dominantly from the media. However, large amounts of fiction about Tibet published in those countries have nothing to do with the reality of Tibet," Ettinger said. "They haven't made any factual research at all."

The Tibetan issue has been used by Western countries, including the United States and Germany, to make troubles with China in attempts to disintegrate China from inside, not from outside, said Koch.

"There are some people in the world who want to weaken China, not only economically but also always politically," said Ettinger, echoing his remarks.

Besides, Dalai Lama often makes use of Western pop culture as propaganda tools. For example, the script of Hollywood movie "Kundun" was overseen by Dalai Lama personally, and some pop stars support him and old Tibet, said Ettinger. "But they know in fact nothing about Tibet at all."

Ettinger's books have already drawn positive feedback from a wide readership, some of whom rated both books five stars at Amazon.de.

Plans are now underway to get both books translated into English to enable more people to learn about the real Tibet, said Ettinger and Koch. Endite