The Chinese spread all sorts of strange ideas about Tibetan Buddhism. But certainly it was different from the Chinese.
The Tibetan Buddhist traditions come directly from India, most of them, via Naropa and Marpa Lotsawa according to tradition.
Marpa Lotsawa
Though - this was not the first introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, and according to legend, then it was introduced originally by various teachers including Padmasambhava
While the Chinese traditions came from India also, but they came via
Bodhidharma - at least according to tradition.
Anyway - so the upshot is that there ended up being these separate lineages with a rather different style of teaching and practice, though of course with the core teachings of the Buddha in both such as the Four Noble Truths and the Vinaya (monastic discipline)
So one difference, Tibetans practiced "sky burial" - maybe because it was difficult to bury their dead - but there is the idea - also in Indian traditions of Hinduism etc - that it is helpful to the dead to offer the body up to vultures. Reason is - because then that way the dead person is able to pass on to their next life more easily when they see their old body gone.
See Sky burial on wikipedia (but some of the images there are perhaps not for the squeamish)
It's an idea that is a little hard to accept if you are not used to it and maybe one of the reason the Chinese find Tibetan Buddhism a bit hard to understand.
All these tales modern Chinese report about Tibetans flailing living humans for sacrifice mentioned in the other answers - I think they may be retellings of these sky burials mainly. The corpses of course are dead before they are offered to the vultures - but this detail gets forgotten in the tales they tell.
Or could be that Chinese observers seeing a Sky burial of this sort didn't realize that they were watching a burial, especially if they didn't speak Tibetan. Because as part of the ritual the bodies are hacked to pieces before they are offered to the vultures.
Then also the Tibetans - they used pieces of human bodies - especially parts of the human skull, as part of their rituals. They get the bones from sky burial sites. See Charnel Ground (wikipedia) and The practices and rituals of Tibetan Kapala skull caps
Again - not a human sacrifice. It's part of this way of remembering that all beings die.
Some meditators go so far as to meditate in charnel grounds, in both India and Tibet. That way, they can't avoid the always present reminder that all beings die. It's like - this is what is real, and by meditating right next to remains of dead human bodies, you relate to it as clearly as you can.
And all those fierce images of humans getting trampled in some of the tangkas - that's a way of showing in vivid terms how none of the things we rely on in our lives last for ever. You have a lovely house maybe, great friends and family, nice healthy body etc. But at some point all that is going to go - when you die.
So - in those images - it's not human sacrifice. You could say that the humans being trampled are the practitioners themselves. It is reminding us how nothing lasts for ever in this world. It reminds us not to take the likes of good friends, a nice house, expensive car etc, as your ultimate refuge.
But is no need to destroy anything yourself. That would be a big misunderstanding of the teachings. All that is part of the way you engage in the world and with others.
It's great to have friends, and close friends, and relationships, and to get married. And to have a good home and a job. All that is fine. Most of us are not monks or nuns and the Buddha taught a middle way, to be kind and gentle to ourselves and to others. Monks and nuns do that also in their way. We all have different paths in life, and have to find our own middle way.
Where it becomes a problem is if you start to think "If only I had a better job, that would solve all my problems". Or, "If only I had a bigger more expensive house, it would solve everything". Or "If only I had lots of friends, hundreds, or thousands of friends, it would solve everything". Or another example, some people try to maximize sexual satisfaction, many partners, etc, again - that's taking sexual experience as your ultimate refuge.
But nobody can save you from dying. And when that happens - all that is gone. That's all it is saying, an obvious truth but one we often try to ignore. That's what the imagery of the charnel ground and human sacrifice is about fundamentally.
There are many other aspects to that imagery - so I'm just touching on it. It is more generally to do with the process of awakening, and seeing that the things you relied on - that you thought were so fundamental to your life - that you don't have to cling to them any more. That you can afford to let go and have a more open creative approach to life. You can have your house and job and friends and family. But you can give them more space, let them be themselves more. And when you do that - then things that you clung to, old habits and tendencies, they can just go away. You don't have to do anything.
Even when you do practices that help you to relate to the liberating energy of the release of your constricting concepts - it's not you doing any of that. Not your old familiar self that you are so used to, it can't do anything like that. All it can do is to bind you into more and more complex concepts. Your concepts just kind of dissolve into the sun of enlightenment.
I'm not the one to explain it in any more depth. But that's the basic idea behind it all.
And - what it is not - it is not to do with being fierce to yourself and trampling yourself and your thoughts and ideas and setting up an inner warfare of yourself with yourself.
In the Buddhist teachings, about non self - so often misunderstood - he doesn't say that there is a self that needs to be destroyed. If you try to destroy yourself then you are just building up this illusion even more
He taught that there is no self, never has been. That we can see through this illusion.
So, it is a gentle process. The middle way, being kind for yourself.
But for some practitioners, at some stages in their path, this vivid imagery may be helpful to them. Especially, it's a reminder that meditation is about waking up, rather than going to sleep.
A sky burial is the best form of burial for most Tibetans traditionally - and can be an expensive one because of the rituals involved.
But for the Lamas recognized as realized reincarnations - they are generally cremated instead. The Tibetans use a special method of cremation which preserves the bones so you get many bones amongst the ashes. And these are then used as relics which Tibetans think have blessing powers.
That is something that goes back to the Buddha. Many of the early stupas are based around small fragments of bones of the Buddha. See Relics associated with Buddha
Some of the Tibetan traditions are a bit more like the Chinese ones - especially the older Tibetan traditions in the Nyingmapa school. That's the one that I follow. It has a much simpler approach - not that it doesn't have the imagery of the other schools, for those who need them - but that it also has this direct approach with very simple meditation instructions that you can follow - and ideas a bit more like those of the "sudden enlightenment" of the Chinese schools with possibilities of glimpses - and ideas also of "Buddha nature" that you don't have in all the schools.
So - the Chinese - they have - on the whole - much simpler practices. They don't have quite the elaboration of imagery and complex ceremonies of the Tibetans. Zen Buddhism originated originally in China before spreading to Japan and Korea, if I understand it right. So it's quite a different style of practice and meditation from the Tibetans. Also with this idea of koans. Though you have those to some extent in the Tibetan traditions as well again especially the older traditions.
So, as I understand it - it is not a complete split. There are elements of each in both. And also - they are all Buddhist traditions with the four noble truths etc.
But again - another difference, Chinese Buddhists are much more into melding Buddhist ideas with other traditions. So a Chinese Buddhist might well also be Taoist and Confucian as well. Some may teach a mix of several traditions in this way rather than pure Buddhist teachings.
While the Tibetan Buddhists are just pure Buddhist (except for those who are Bon) at least that's how they see themselves.
Also of course they don't speak each other's languages. And the script is different. Tibetan script is related to Sanskrit, and Indian scripts and has no resemblance at all to Chinese script.
Of course the Dalai Lama - is not a head of Buddhism even in Tibet. There is no head of Buddhism, we don't have "popes".
That I think though is something the Chinese don't understand often.
They don't have anything quite like the Dalai Lama in China, don't think they ever did. But he is not able to dictate anything about religious beliefs. For instance, no Buddhist anywhere in the world can change a single word of the monastic vows.
Those were set out by the Buddha, and can't be changed at all after he died. This is a major issue in the case of the nun's full ordination vows - which are not really appropriate for modern times - but there is no procedure to follow to change them. Nobody is sure quite how to resolve that.
And - the Dalai Lama can't advise anyone how to interpret the Buddha's teachings or give them personal advice, except for those who go to him and take him on as their personal teacher. And there will not be that many who do that - not to the extent that he would be expected to give them detailed advice to help them personally - because it is a connection that you build up over some years.
So when the Chinese say "The Dalai Lama should say this", or "that " expecting him to make a pronouncement that all the Tibetan Buddhists must follow - that is simply not something he can do. Nobody can. All he can do is to present his interpretation of the sutras and the Buddha's teachings. But other teachers will present them differently and may not agree at all with what he suggests if he makes any suggestions.
He is respected, is inspiring to other Tibetans - they feel it is a great blessing to just see him and listen to him in person - but they wouldn't for a moment think that they have to believe things because he says to believe them, or to do things because he says to do them. It just doesn't work like that in Buddhism.
So - I think that's the problem really. The Chinese just never had this lineage of reincarnate lamas like the Tibetans did. That is to say - surely they had the same thing that teachers would reincarnate - but they never identified lineages of teachers through their previous incarnations in the way the Tibetans did. So I don't think they really understand how it works too well.
Then add to that the political dimension, that the Dalai Lama was respected not just as a spiritual but also a political leader - and the wish of the Chinese to take political authority over the Tibetans.
And - Chinese commentators often talk about the doings of the Tibetans. But they seldom mention, for instance the Panchen Lama identified by the Dalai Lama, who became the world's youngest political prisoner at the age of 6.
He has said for instance that he won't be reborn in China (no surprise after what happened to the Panchen Lama).
There's a lot of confusion about this. There is a "Free Tibet" movement. But the Dalai Lama does not support them. He is asking instead for autonomy for matters of education, ecology, and so on. And autonomy on prisons. He also wants Tibet to become a non militarized zone of China. But he isn't asking for independence. He thinks that if these demands are met then it's a solution that could be acceptable to both Chinese and Tibetans.
This is an official statement of what they wish:
See Tibet-China Dialogue
Basically they want autonomy to manage internal affairs (e.g. prisons, education, religion), and management of environment / ecology (e.g. no longer forcibly rehouse nomads), and want to move towards a future where Tibet can become a demilitarized zone of China.
Details here:
Memorandum on Geniune Autonomy for the Tibetan people
Note on the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People
So - anyway - of course China is officially atheist and Marxist - but also increasingly consumerist - and also a religious country also - apparently it is on track to become the largest Christian country in the world in a decade or two by numbers of Christians. And also many Buddhists - so you have the officially sponsored religions - but also many religions that are not quite the same - even different Christian churches, that are repressed.
So it is a land of many contradictions. I don't know where it is going to head. It is interesting that it is becoming so religious. I didn't realize that until recently until I watched a TV program about this and then followed up checking a few of the facts they mentioned.
It's understandable I think that it is though. As a country with such a long tradition of religion over many not just centuries but millennia. And now that the material needs of many Chinese are met - is not too suprising that, just as is happening in the West, many turn to their ancient religions, which they have never totally lost even through the Marxist revolution - it is a huge country after all.
The Tibetan Buddhist traditions come directly from India, most of them, via Naropa and Marpa Lotsawa according to tradition.
Though - this was not the first introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, and according to legend, then it was introduced originally by various teachers including Padmasambhava
While the Chinese traditions came from India also, but they came via
Bodhidharma - at least according to tradition.
Anyway - so the upshot is that there ended up being these separate lineages with a rather different style of teaching and practice, though of course with the core teachings of the Buddha in both such as the Four Noble Truths and the Vinaya (monastic discipline)
SKY BURIAL
So one difference, Tibetans practiced "sky burial" - maybe because it was difficult to bury their dead - but there is the idea - also in Indian traditions of Hinduism etc - that it is helpful to the dead to offer the body up to vultures. Reason is - because then that way the dead person is able to pass on to their next life more easily when they see their old body gone.
Sky burial site where bodies are put out for vultures to eat - to help the dying person on their way to their next life - considered the best form of burial for ordinary Tibetans when you can manage it.
See Sky burial on wikipedia (but some of the images there are perhaps not for the squeamish)
It's an idea that is a little hard to accept if you are not used to it and maybe one of the reason the Chinese find Tibetan Buddhism a bit hard to understand.
All these tales modern Chinese report about Tibetans flailing living humans for sacrifice mentioned in the other answers - I think they may be retellings of these sky burials mainly. The corpses of course are dead before they are offered to the vultures - but this detail gets forgotten in the tales they tell.
Or could be that Chinese observers seeing a Sky burial of this sort didn't realize that they were watching a burial, especially if they didn't speak Tibetan. Because as part of the ritual the bodies are hacked to pieces before they are offered to the vultures.
Then also the Tibetans - they used pieces of human bodies - especially parts of the human skull, as part of their rituals. They get the bones from sky burial sites. See Charnel Ground (wikipedia) and The practices and rituals of Tibetan Kapala skull caps
Again - not a human sacrifice. It's part of this way of remembering that all beings die.
MEDITATING IN CHARNEL GROUNDS
Some meditators go so far as to meditate in charnel grounds, in both India and Tibet. That way, they can't avoid the always present reminder that all beings die. It's like - this is what is real, and by meditating right next to remains of dead human bodies, you relate to it as clearly as you can.
And all those fierce images of humans getting trampled in some of the tangkas - that's a way of showing in vivid terms how none of the things we rely on in our lives last for ever. You have a lovely house maybe, great friends and family, nice healthy body etc. But at some point all that is going to go - when you die.
So - in those images - it's not human sacrifice. You could say that the humans being trampled are the practitioners themselves. It is reminding us how nothing lasts for ever in this world. It reminds us not to take the likes of good friends, a nice house, expensive car etc, as your ultimate refuge.
But is no need to destroy anything yourself. That would be a big misunderstanding of the teachings. All that is part of the way you engage in the world and with others.
It's great to have friends, and close friends, and relationships, and to get married. And to have a good home and a job. All that is fine. Most of us are not monks or nuns and the Buddha taught a middle way, to be kind and gentle to ourselves and to others. Monks and nuns do that also in their way. We all have different paths in life, and have to find our own middle way.
Where it becomes a problem is if you start to think "If only I had a better job, that would solve all my problems". Or, "If only I had a bigger more expensive house, it would solve everything". Or "If only I had lots of friends, hundreds, or thousands of friends, it would solve everything". Or another example, some people try to maximize sexual satisfaction, many partners, etc, again - that's taking sexual experience as your ultimate refuge.
But nobody can save you from dying. And when that happens - all that is gone. That's all it is saying, an obvious truth but one we often try to ignore. That's what the imagery of the charnel ground and human sacrifice is about fundamentally.
There are many other aspects to that imagery - so I'm just touching on it. It is more generally to do with the process of awakening, and seeing that the things you relied on - that you thought were so fundamental to your life - that you don't have to cling to them any more. That you can afford to let go and have a more open creative approach to life. You can have your house and job and friends and family. But you can give them more space, let them be themselves more. And when you do that - then things that you clung to, old habits and tendencies, they can just go away. You don't have to do anything.
Even when you do practices that help you to relate to the liberating energy of the release of your constricting concepts - it's not you doing any of that. Not your old familiar self that you are so used to, it can't do anything like that. All it can do is to bind you into more and more complex concepts. Your concepts just kind of dissolve into the sun of enlightenment.
I'm not the one to explain it in any more depth. But that's the basic idea behind it all.
YOU ARE NOT TRYING TO TRAMPLE OUT YOUR SELF
And - what it is not - it is not to do with being fierce to yourself and trampling yourself and your thoughts and ideas and setting up an inner warfare of yourself with yourself.
In the Buddhist teachings, about non self - so often misunderstood - he doesn't say that there is a self that needs to be destroyed. If you try to destroy yourself then you are just building up this illusion even more
He taught that there is no self, never has been. That we can see through this illusion.
So, it is a gentle process. The middle way, being kind for yourself.
But for some practitioners, at some stages in their path, this vivid imagery may be helpful to them. Especially, it's a reminder that meditation is about waking up, rather than going to sleep.
SKY BURIAL AND RELICS
A sky burial is the best form of burial for most Tibetans traditionally - and can be an expensive one because of the rituals involved.
But for the Lamas recognized as realized reincarnations - they are generally cremated instead. The Tibetans use a special method of cremation which preserves the bones so you get many bones amongst the ashes. And these are then used as relics which Tibetans think have blessing powers.
That is something that goes back to the Buddha. Many of the early stupas are based around small fragments of bones of the Buddha. See Relics associated with Buddha
SIMPLER MEDITATIONS - ELEMENTS OF EACH STYLE OF BUDDHISM IN THE OTHER
Some of the Tibetan traditions are a bit more like the Chinese ones - especially the older Tibetan traditions in the Nyingmapa school. That's the one that I follow. It has a much simpler approach - not that it doesn't have the imagery of the other schools, for those who need them - but that it also has this direct approach with very simple meditation instructions that you can follow - and ideas a bit more like those of the "sudden enlightenment" of the Chinese schools with possibilities of glimpses - and ideas also of "Buddha nature" that you don't have in all the schools.
So - the Chinese - they have - on the whole - much simpler practices. They don't have quite the elaboration of imagery and complex ceremonies of the Tibetans. Zen Buddhism originated originally in China before spreading to Japan and Korea, if I understand it right. So it's quite a different style of practice and meditation from the Tibetans. Also with this idea of koans. Though you have those to some extent in the Tibetan traditions as well again especially the older traditions.
So, as I understand it - it is not a complete split. There are elements of each in both. And also - they are all Buddhist traditions with the four noble truths etc.
MELDING OF IDEAS IN CHINESE BUDDHISM
But again - another difference, Chinese Buddhists are much more into melding Buddhist ideas with other traditions. So a Chinese Buddhist might well also be Taoist and Confucian as well. Some may teach a mix of several traditions in this way rather than pure Buddhist teachings.
While the Tibetan Buddhists are just pure Buddhist (except for those who are Bon) at least that's how they see themselves.
SCRIPT AND LANGUAGE
Also of course they don't speak each other's languages. And the script is different. Tibetan script is related to Sanskrit, and Indian scripts and has no resemblance at all to Chinese script.
NO POPE
Of course the Dalai Lama - is not a head of Buddhism even in Tibet. There is no head of Buddhism, we don't have "popes".
That I think though is something the Chinese don't understand often.
They don't have anything quite like the Dalai Lama in China, don't think they ever did. But he is not able to dictate anything about religious beliefs. For instance, no Buddhist anywhere in the world can change a single word of the monastic vows.
Those were set out by the Buddha, and can't be changed at all after he died. This is a major issue in the case of the nun's full ordination vows - which are not really appropriate for modern times - but there is no procedure to follow to change them. Nobody is sure quite how to resolve that.
And - the Dalai Lama can't advise anyone how to interpret the Buddha's teachings or give them personal advice, except for those who go to him and take him on as their personal teacher. And there will not be that many who do that - not to the extent that he would be expected to give them detailed advice to help them personally - because it is a connection that you build up over some years.
So when the Chinese say "The Dalai Lama should say this", or "that " expecting him to make a pronouncement that all the Tibetan Buddhists must follow - that is simply not something he can do. Nobody can. All he can do is to present his interpretation of the sutras and the Buddha's teachings. But other teachers will present them differently and may not agree at all with what he suggests if he makes any suggestions.
He is respected, is inspiring to other Tibetans - they feel it is a great blessing to just see him and listen to him in person - but they wouldn't for a moment think that they have to believe things because he says to believe them, or to do things because he says to do them. It just doesn't work like that in Buddhism.
So - I think that's the problem really. The Chinese just never had this lineage of reincarnate lamas like the Tibetans did. That is to say - surely they had the same thing that teachers would reincarnate - but they never identified lineages of teachers through their previous incarnations in the way the Tibetans did. So I don't think they really understand how it works too well.
Then add to that the political dimension, that the Dalai Lama was respected not just as a spiritual but also a political leader - and the wish of the Chinese to take political authority over the Tibetans.
CHINESE TIBETAN POLITICAL PRISONERS - ESPECIALLY THE SIX YEAR OLD PANCHEN LAMA
And - Chinese commentators often talk about the doings of the Tibetans. But they seldom mention, for instance the Panchen Lama identified by the Dalai Lama, who became the world's youngest political prisoner at the age of 6.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima photographed soon before the Chinese government took him in for "protective custody" at age of 6, as the world's youngest political prisoner - and who is now in his mid twenties if still alive - but though the Chinese say he has had a happy normal healthy upbringing with a good education, nobody in the international community has been permitted any contact with him to verify this. In his mid twenties there is no way they can say they are doing this to protect a child from influence of "separatists" which was their original reason given.
This is of course of political importance since traditionally the incarnation of the Panchen Lama chooses the next Dalai Lama when he dies. So the Chinese have selected an alternative "Panchen Lama". Presumably they hope this will be of use to them when the Dalai Lama dies in some way - but he of course is the one who chooses what is going to happen in his next rebirth, nobody else can of course, not the Chinese political leaders surely, who don't even believe in rebirth.
DALAI LAMA UNDERSTANDABLY SAID HE WON'T TAKE REBIRTH IN CHINA IN NEXT LIFETIME
He has said for instance that he won't be reborn in China (no surprise after what happened to the Panchen Lama).
DALAI LAMA ASKS FOR A MIDDLE WAY - NOT INDEPENDENCE
There's a lot of confusion about this. There is a "Free Tibet" movement. But the Dalai Lama does not support them. He is asking instead for autonomy for matters of education, ecology, and so on. And autonomy on prisons. He also wants Tibet to become a non militarized zone of China. But he isn't asking for independence. He thinks that if these demands are met then it's a solution that could be acceptable to both Chinese and Tibetans.
This is an official statement of what they wish:
"The Tibetan people’s deepest concern is the threat to the survival of their culture under the prevailing political dispensation, which has carved Tibet into several administrative units with the western half designated as the “Tibet Autonomous Region”, and the areas of eastern half designated variously as “Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures” and “Tibetan Autonomous Counties”, and merged with neighboring Chinese provinces.
The word “Autonomous” applied liberally to the Tibetan areas is nothing more than a cruel joke on the people, for whom all decisions are made in Chinese national and provincial capitals, and enforced with Stalinist brutality.
In the case of the “Tibet Autonomous Region”, decisions are made from Beijing. Similarly, in the case of Tibetan areas in the east, decisions are made from the capitals of the Chinese provinces into which they are merged.
To address this problem, His Holiness asks for the reunification of all Tibetan areas as a single Tibetan administrative entity, enjoying real autonomy, or local self-rule, within the political framework of the People’s Republic of China.
His offer for Tibet to remain within “the political framwork of the People’s Republic of China” is indeed a huge concession and aimed at addressing Beijing’s worst fear, which is the prospect of instability in Tibet and its eventual separation from China. Beijing remains firmly convinced that any attempt to loosen the leash on Tibet would result in a cry for independence.
His Holiness said that if Beijing were to accept his demand for Tibet, he would use his moral authority among the Tibetan people to give up their demand for independence."
See Tibet-China Dialogue
Basically they want autonomy to manage internal affairs (e.g. prisons, education, religion), and management of environment / ecology (e.g. no longer forcibly rehouse nomads), and want to move towards a future where Tibet can become a demilitarized zone of China.
Details here:
Memorandum on Geniune Autonomy for the Tibetan people
Note on the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People
CHINA AS A RELIGIOUS COUNTRY
So - anyway - of course China is officially atheist and Marxist - but also increasingly consumerist - and also a religious country also - apparently it is on track to become the largest Christian country in the world in a decade or two by numbers of Christians. And also many Buddhists - so you have the officially sponsored religions - but also many religions that are not quite the same - even different Christian churches, that are repressed.
So it is a land of many contradictions. I don't know where it is going to head. It is interesting that it is becoming so religious. I didn't realize that until recently until I watched a TV program about this and then followed up checking a few of the facts they mentioned.
It's understandable I think that it is though. As a country with such a long tradition of religion over many not just centuries but millennia. And now that the material needs of many Chinese are met - is not too suprising that, just as is happening in the West, many turn to their ancient religions, which they have never totally lost even through the Marxist revolution - it is a huge country after all.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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