The People’s Republic much vaunted support for literary turned out to be a charade.

Thus in Tibet it was quite clear that the literacy promoted by the regime was in Chinese and not Tibetan; in the surprisingly large bookshop we found in Lhasa, all the books were in Chinese, except for the “Little Red Book” of Mao’s select quotations. No Tibetan records or posters were to be had, and the use of that ancient written language is now confined to the slogans on the walls and to some script on the locally produced matchboxes. Nor can a Tibetan read any Buddhist texts, for none are available, old or new.

The Chinese guides for the delegation inadvertently revealed volumes about their true attitude to their Tibetan comrades.

In Tibet we had seen the gentle and always exceedingly polite Chinese undergo a transformation into classic district-commissioner types. Their gestures became visibly more expansive, and their language with our local hosts quite clearly abrupt. Our escorts did not bother to hide their sniggers as we were served Tibetan yak-butter tea, and they acted out for us little wordless playlets of ridicule as we toured the altars of one restored Tantric temple in Lhasa. I asked a Chinese official resident in Tibet since 1960 how to say “please” and “thank you” in Tibetan. He did not know. I asked him to translate “move”, “go,” and “faster”. He knew.

Within a month of the Schlesinger visit, the political landscape in the People’s Republic was rocked by the arrest of Mao’s widow and her three radical ideologues, the so-called Gang of Four. This political volte-face was wildly and enthusiastically welcomed by people throughout China for rejecting the idiotic brutality of the Maoists, along with their bankrupt theory of human nature and their relentless assault on classical Chinese humanism.

With Deng Xiaoping’s ascent to power, Peking also sought a rapprochement with His Holiness. As a prerequisite to negotiations, the present Dalai Lama asked to be allowed to get an accurate assessment of the conditions under which his fellow Tibetans were living. In a surprise gesture, Peking allowed three delegations of trusted officials at the Dalai Lama’s court and members of his family to visit Amdo, Kham, and Central Tibet on a fact-finding tour.