Reducing Tibet to the Dalai Lama also seems somewhat inappropriate.
Agreed. It is indeed extremely inappropriate to reduce Tibet to the Dalai Lama and his fellow feudal theocrats. Which is why we don't consider the conflict waged against that tiny ruling elite to be an aggression against Tibet as a whole. It's why we celebrate the liberation of the overwhelming majority of regular Tibetans from feudal serfdom as the liberation of Tibet, because it is they who truly represent Tibet, and not the former ruling caste.