Tashi Delek Dessalines La, Don’t mistake a permitted existence for a free one. To trade the overt chains of feudalism for the subtle surveillance of the state is not progress; it is merely a change in architecture. A culture is not ‘thriving’ if it only exists by the state’s leave. A gilded cage is still a cage.

That “96% Tibetan language” stat is a classic distraction. It ignores the cost of that statistic. You can boast about language retention while simultaneously criminalizing the Dharma, arresting monks, and using state violence to suppress any mention of the Dalai Lama. A language isn’t “thriving” if its speakers are being systematically silenced through fear and imprisonment. Don’t mistake linguistic survival for cultural freedom.