@Dazzer While religious practice does change over time, it is not due to internal forces but external ones; doctrine and dogma almost never change. The Catholics didn't stop burning non-Cathlics because they became "enlightened" but rather because the world had changed around them to make their behavior unacceptable lest they are welling to lose their constituency and the source of their income and power. The Catholic church would be perfectly happy if they are allowed keep burning people at the stake for the doctrine of supremacy of the church and that every human soul must yield to it has not changed.

While Tibetan Buddhism may or may not have changed, do you honestly believe they would've changed on their own without Chinese "intervention"? Citing your friend as an example is contradictory. How can he represent Tibetan Buddhist when he is secular? Perhaps he can represent Tibetans but he most certainly can not represent Tibetan Buddhist. And I don't think he can even represent the average Tibetans at all because he is in exile. It would be as if you are doing a survey on China and you only talk to second generation overseas Chinese.

Tibetan Buddhism and the DL is a political and religious institution combined, you can not separate the two. Tibet in the past has ruled the land in accordance to their interpretation of their religious text, therefor forming the doctrines of their religion. If given the opportunity they will go back to running their homeland according to it. The situation is similar to Saudi Arabia where the daily life is controlled and dictated by the Koran and there are religious police everywhere to enforce these doctrines regardless if you are Muslim or practice Islam.

As laotou said, at the core of Tibetan belief is the cast system much is like India of the past. There is a social order in with the peasants are at the bottom and the DL & minions are at the top controlling everything and the only way to change your life is through reincarnation into a higher caste. The only way to achieve this is guess what, to offer yourself and your family to the DL in order to be blessed. And by offer I meaning giving up all your economic means and become and indentured servant and offering up your daughters to the monks in the monasteries. (Tibetan Buddhism, unlike mainstream Buddhism, does not practice celibacy. In fact, practice dictates that in order to move up to a higher level of conscientiousness, you must consummate with a female REGULARLY, in order to absorb her female qi (chi), the Ying in the Ying and the Yang.) The women becomes nothing more than sex slaves for the monks if you take away the religious context)

Why do the Tibetans protest and demand to become independent, that's because they have been brainwashed for many generations to blindly follow their faith and so when the DL and its political machinery encourage the people to protest, that's what they'll do without question. If Tibet becomes independent who do you think will become the beneficiaries? Certainly not the peasants as they will lose all Chinese investment and go back to the caste system servicing the DL.

Now that I think of it, this situation is similar to the DPRK. The west has framed the Tibet situation as giving the Tibetan people freedom from Chinese oppression based on the fact that the people are protesting and demanding independence. However, it never looks past why they are protesting. Did the US take heed when Afganis and Iraqis demanded US troops leave their soil? The people of DPRK have consistently said they will defend their leader to the death and demanded American troops leave the peninsula, should we respect their wishes as well?

I can go on and on and on but I've already spent too much time on this non-topic as it has nothing to do to the original thread and the purpose of this forum.

Try not to think too much of this situation, there's a lot more going on than you or I know. When your neighbors argue over family matters, it wouldn't be wise to take sides.

Cheers~