There’s no denying it: The West has been under the spell of Tibet for centuries.

I had to contradict him: Westerners do project with total abandon, but that doesn’t make the Chinese oppression of Tibetans less cruel. He tried to make the case that to some, human rights violations seem worse when the victims are Tibetan. The reporter asked whether Westerners’ outrage over the plight of the Tibetan people is primarily motivated by the romantic image they project onto Tibet.

In 2009, when he approached me, self-immolations of men and women burning themselves to death had become a staple of the international news on Tibet. In the run-up to the Tibetan spiritual leader’s last visit, five years ago, a journalist tried to elicit some critical observations about the popular interest in Tibet from me. A month and a half later, the Dalai Lama follows suit.

This is a slightly edited English version of that text.Ĭhinese President Xi Jinping will soon pay a state visit to the Netherlands. In 2014, shortly before the state visit to the Netherlands by the Chinese president Xi Jinping and a subsequent visit by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, I published a preview in Dutch on my personal website.