The Dalai Lamas enslaved the Tibetan people for centuries.
There was a 35 year life expectency in Tibet in the 1950's, now it is 67 years. China may be bad, but the Feudal system that they had before was worse. Torture, starvation, disease, slavery, rape of girls and women, no education, no health care, and other horrors were the norm for most of the people. The upper classes, including the monks, were living a charmed life off the miseries of the majority.

It's easy for rich Hollywood stars like Richard Gere to say that the Dalai Lama is "His Holiness", but Gere didn't have to starve, toil, and get tortured under the rule of their empire. It took the 14th Dalai Lama decades to even speak out against some of the policies of his predecessors.

Here is a rarely heard perspective on the issue of separating Tibet from China:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34cJo[/youtube]