Sadly, Billy, I do rather fear that you are almost certainly quite correct. Not unlike the Aboriginal peoples of North America, the Tibetans are more or less culturally ill-suited for modern commerical culture. As such, they are in effect altar sacrifices to the idolatry of "success". Or, to very roughly qutoe that famous statement by the British civil servant of the Raj, the poor things "crushed under the wheels of the Juggernaut of progress".
That said, I was quite shocked by the intensity of the feelings towards non-Chinese by the Tibetan rioters. I mean, Han and Hui were deliberately sought out for abuse and killing, and some were even burned to death. That sort of thing leaves permanent scars on the collective consciousness. For those reasons alone - and the factors underlying them -, an insurgency is not entirely out of the question, though most unlikely.
Bookmarks