The Tibetan Buddhists I’ve known have been lovely people, but that’s also true of the Catholics I’ve known, and their loveliness does not mean the horrors of the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the Conquistadors were not real.

There are two big problems with making an ad hominem rejection of the information in this post:

1. The only source I used that is paid, directly or indirectly, by the Chinese government is the writer of “Documents present picture of brutal past”. The rest of my sources are writers for capitalist magazines: Washington Post, the Atlantic, etc. (I was going to use “Friendly Feudalism” by Michael Parenti, but that didn’t make the final cut. I only mention him because apologists for Old Tibet bring up the fact that he’s a communist and ignore his scathing criticism of modern China.)
2. Though the China Daily writer is Chinese, there’s no reason to assume those documents are fake. Sure, you should always wonder about anyone’s claims — but that includes the claims of the Dalai Lama and the people who profit from him.

Now, if you have evidence that any of the writers are being paid by the Chinese to lie, please share it.

If it’s any comfort, I am sure the Dalai Lama never saw the worst side of Tibetan slavery. Masters tend to be protected from those sights by the people who manage their affairs. So I assume he was mistaken when he claimed the system was “mild”, not deliberately lying.

“One of your sources says 98% of all Tibetans were serfs”

That was in an interview. Whether the speaker was misremembering or the transcriber goofed up, I dunno, but obviously, the number of slaves was high.

“why does one of your sources say that “Despite a campaign of “patriotic education” that since 1997 has defrocked hundreds of monks and closed dozens of monasteries, support for the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious leader who is the target of the campaign, remains sky-high”. Why does the Chinese Government forbid foreign travelers from talking to Tibetans?”

Support for the Pope is high. That doesn’t mean there are many Catholics who would like to be his slaves. I opened with the Wangchuk quote because it seems perfectly plausible to me.

Like Parenti, I also criticize the Chinese government from the left. Whether it’s true or still true that foreigners aren’t allowed to talk to Tibetans, I dunno, but I’ll note that an Atlantic writer quoted at least one.