Autobiography of Dalai Lama’s Elder Brother

choi

Michael Fathers, His Brother's Keeper. The Dalai Lama's older brother deeply regrets accepting CIA aids. It 'contributed to the complete destruction of Tibetan culture.' Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2015
www.wsj.com/articles/his-brothers-keeper-1431299979
(book review on Gyalo Thondup and Anne F Thurston, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong)

Quote:

"In 1945 * * * Tibet, then independent * * * The Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek appointed himself the young Tibetan’s [Thondup's] guardian and patron, paid him a substantial allowance, and urged him to study Chinese history at Nanjing University. According to the author, Chiang Kai-shek said that if Tibet preferred to remain an independent nation 'without foreign exploitation,' he was prepared to accept it.

"The book reveals a catalog of lost opportunities to open a dialogue between the Tibetan government in exile in India and Beijing in search of a settlement that would allow the Dalai Lama to return home and provide Tibet with a degree of self-government. In each case the overtures were sabotaged by the CIA or India’s intelligence service, or they were brushed aside by Britain’s MI6.

"US military support [to Tibetan rebels against communists] was meager, and its impact on the rebellion against the Chinese military occupation was marginal. On the Chinese side, however, U.S. support led to ever greater violence against Tibetans.

"The consequences of accepting CIA military aid and training still cause Mr Thondup 'terrible pain.' It provoked the Chinese, he says, and led directly to massive reprisals against Tibetans in which tens of thousands were killed. It 'contributed to the complete destruction of Tibetan culture.'

Note:
(a) " ‘The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong' is a fatuous and demeaning title for a fascinating and important book."

fatuous (adj; Latin fatuus foolish)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatuous

(b) In 1968 "The Russians offered to take over the US role and said that they would deliver 'real results,' setting up a headquarters in Tashkent where Tibetan insurgents would be trained and armed. Their offer was rejected when they refused to drop their support for China at United Nations voting on Tibet."
(i) Tashkent
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashkent
(literally "Stone City;" is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan; "The modern Turkic name of Tashkent (City of Stone) comes from Kara-Khanid rule in the 10th century ('Tash' in Turkic languages means stone). After the 16th century, the name evolved from Chachkand/Chashkand to Tashkand. The modern spelling of 'Tashkent' reflects Russian orthography and 20th-century Soviet influence")
(ii) I am clueless about the demand on Soviet Union to "drop their support for China at United Nations voting on Tibet."  It is unclear when Tibetans made the demand (in or after 1968, for sure), and yet at the time Taiwan held the China's seat at UN. I did search the Web and found nothing about UN vote on Tibet in this time frame.

(c) "The strength of this memoir is the pictures it paints of an old, traditional, medieval Tibet, of squabbles among exiles over finance, of the perfidy of Tibet’s Western supporters, and of the barbarism of the Chinese military."

perfidy (n; etymology)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfidy