Phagpala vs. Lhalu

Recently I’ve been reading in Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French about Phagpala and Lhalu, who are both traitors to their homeland, Tibet.   Patrick French contrasts and compares the traitors in an interesting way that leaves me wondering who is more of a traitor.  Phagpala is known as a “hate figure” and father of a murderer, while Lhalu isn’t seen as a “committed” traitor, but a “pragmatic traitor.”   Lhalu simply agreed to work for the CCPC and promote Chinese propaganda in order to ensure a comfortable life for his family, in hopes of them not growing up bitter and disadvantaged.  However, when I read that rationale, I thought it was really unfounded.  As a parent the greatest gift to be given to a child is an example of what it means to be a good person (which it is definitely a good person that worries about his family).  A parent should be honest with integrity, striving to do the right thing. 

Earlier today I was talking with a friend who is a parent to three adorable young children.  He was relaying to me the fact that in high school he used to be very violent and beat on people frequently.  I asked, “Are you going to tell your kids that?” He wasn’t sure if he would, of course, as he wants to set a good example.  I explained that my parents acted on the same hesitation in my youth, and later on when I found out more about their pasts I felt a little annoyed at having such high standards and expectations placed on me by my parents; they themselves didn’t live up to some of them in their youth.  Even though they were petty things like education, career, friends, etc., I still felt annoyed at the pressure I’d felt throughout my life, and that it wasn’t based on anything really except my parents “hope for a better life for me,” similar to that hope of Lhalu for his children (but not really, because Lhalu was dealing with life or death).   I know this is a stretch, but I had a strong feeling that Lhalu’s children would could have in some way benefited in harder living conditions and seeing their dad fighting for what was right and being true to himself and his beliefs.  Honesty and integrity under dire circumstances are such inspiring traits to witness.  Seeing my parents as humans earlier in my life would have been beneficial not only to our relationship, but to my motivation to live up to expectations that were explained to me better.  At the same time, however, I did see honesty and integrity in my parents all the time.  

It must be said somewhere in here that I haven’t spent six years in Chinese prison and seen horrible torturous and murderous things, so I absolutely cannot really assess Lhasa's choice.  All I can say as an outsider is that Lhasa could have gifted his family with something much different, and possibly greater, than a comfortable temporal lifestyle.  I find much greater and lasting comfort in a comfortable spiritual and moral lifestyle (this does not necessarily mean mormonism ;)).  Lhasa definitely traded something in agreeing to betray his people, his country, and even his religion.