Tibet

The Chinese government has a New Year's greeting for Tibetans: Celebrate, or else. The Tibetan New Year, or Losar, is normally the most festive holiday of the year, when Tibetans burn incense, make special dumplings and set off fireworks. But this year, Tibetans have declared a moratorium on celebrating their own holiday, saying they will instead observe a mourning period for people killed last year during protests against Chinese rule.

In a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising that forced him into exile, the Dalai Lama invoked unusually harsh rhetoric against Chinese authorities, highlighting the widening gulf between Tibetans and China. Among the Dalai Lama's comments during the speech Tuesday in Dharmsala, India, and to reporters afterward: "These 50 years have brought untold suffering to the land and people of Tibet . . .

If it had happened elsewhere, it might have been dismissed as a teenage prank. A couple of 15-year-olds last year hung a Tibetan banner on the wall of their classroom next to portraits of Mao Tse-tung and Deng Xiaoping. They drew Xs over the faces of the former Chinese leaders and scrawled "Long Live the Dalai Lama" on the wall. But in China, the incident was taken dead seriously.

In Hollywood, everyone takes the Dalai Lama very seriously -- except perhaps for the Dalai Lama himself. The 14th reincarnated primate of Tibetan-style Buddhism -- as well as his scattered people's political leader -- comes pretty close to being the entertainment industry's unofficial spiritual guide. Even many of those with no inclination toward Buddhism have embraced the cause of regaining independence, or, at least, autonomy, for Tibet, which remains under Chinese rule.