I was very shocked by what I had seen on the television and in China Daily about the riots in Lhasa. The most shocking thing for me was not the cruel events themselves but how the media in my country of origin, Finland, reported the events.

A friend has scanned and sent me articles and I also have checked what can be found on the Internet.

Very few Finnish people have ever visited Tibet, but I traveled there with my wife in 2006. I saw Lhasa with my own eyes, and talked with the local people.

The trip was without any restrictions. Therefore I think I can tell you of the Tibet in my memory.

I am well aware of the possibility that those self-righteous people who haven't been to Tibet will not like to hear the truth.

In the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), Tibetans and Han people had been closely linked through royal marriages. Songstan Gambo, the Tubo king, married Tang Princess Wencheng in AD 641.

The Yuan emperor established the Xuanzhengyuan, or Ministry of the Spread of Governance, to directly handle important military and political affairs involving the Tibet region. In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), post stations were linked up in a communication line extending from Tibet up to Dadu (currently Beijing).

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) replaced the Yuan Dynasty and inherited the right to rule Tibet.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) strengthened the administration of Tibet. The Qing emperor granted an honorific title to the fifth Dalai Lama and then did the same for the fifth Bainqen Lama in 1713, officially establishing the titles of the Dalai Lama and the Bainqen Erdeni, and their political and religious status in Tibet.

In late Qing Dynasty, Britain, France and other Western nations tried to colonize China under their colonial rule following the Opium Wars in the 1840s.