The Leninator!
Tibet was a brutal Buddhist Theocracy with the Lamas in power, and the Dalai Lama would have been no better then the others. Fun fact- One of them (the Lamas) had a throne made of human remains.
Hmm... such words could only come from ignorance.
It was pretty much raw feudalism with all the usual abuses that come with such a system. Not unlike Europe when Catholicism was the dominate influence. And like in Europe then, becoming a monk was one of the few ways you could get a scholarly level of education unless you were just lucky enough to be an aristocrat. To be sure... it had to go, but acting like it was some uniquely cruel society when for the longest time it was the world standard... just doesn't do much. They have their stages to go through too.
razz Tibet did try to reform the government system centuries before. Lamas used to be entirely hereditary (the school sometimes called the "Red-Hats"). The "Yellow-Hat" school changed it so monks would be born anywhere, and it would be up to the current lamas to find them. The Dalai Lama was the top position for this, followed by the Panchen Lama. As a consequence, Lamas were from all sorts of classes and families.. the current Dalai Lama was from a peasant family. Of course, that also meant it was basically a lottery, and how well they turned out as leaders remained to be seen until they were older.
The human bone thing is true. I'm more familiar with the bowls made from skullcaps. They're usually from other monks. Pretty much all the Asian religions, philosophies, and folklore have traditions and ideas about death. It's often morbid on purpose... but it had to be to get the point. It's essentially the European equivalent to "momento morte" ....be mindful of death. You know.... like all the old Western paintings with skulls among the props, or that one cathedral built entirely from human bones. Impermanence is a major theme in Buddhism... and of course, that applies to people too.
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