Extensive repair, renovation, restoration and protection of cultural treasures under a strict and elaborate cultural protection regime. THE UNESCO HAS SHARPLY CRITICIZED CHINA'S RESTORATION METHODS AND PARTICULARLY THE RENOVATION OF THE POTALA PALACE, MOTIVATION IS MORE MUSEUMIFICATION THAN PRESERVATION A splendid Tibet Autonomous Region Museum in Lhasa, A SCARY AND AWKWARD MUSEUM, PERSONAL OPINION. with a floor space of 21,000 square metres, constructed during 1994-97 at a cost of $12 million.
Environmental consciousness and concerns expressed in strict regulations YES, RAILWAY ADHERED TO ADMIRABLE ENVIRONMENTAL CODE, BUT THESE CODES TO NOT CARRY OVER TO MINING, THE GREATEST THREAT, OR OTHER POLLUTION, policies, an Environmental Protection Bureau, afforestation -- READ HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 2007 REPORT ON TIBET -- DEFORESTATION MUTILATED THE COUNTRYSIDE OF EASTERN TIBET AND CONTRIBUTED TO GREAT FLOODING IN THE EAST OF CHINA -- THEY CAN ONLY WISH TO UNDUE PART OF THEIR MISTAKE. OTHERPLACES LAND USE POLICIES FRIGHTENING AND RACIST, greening....Newspapers, radio, television ALL CONTROLLED BY STATE MEDIA, mobile phones, twenty-first century telecom, even a few Internet bars.... Hotels for various budgets, organised tourism, and a host of other modern tertiary activities.
BACK TO ME... I would suggest anyone interested in truly understanding the nuanced situation in Tibet study the available resources carefully before accepting either the viewpoint of this person above, or that of the Western Tibet activists.
Finally, I spent most of my time in the Tibetan bars, not just Babila.
What They're Really Fighting for in Tibet
On a winter night not long ago, I walked through the glowing doorway of Lhasa's newest nightclub, Babila, for an interview with its owner, a Chinese entrepreneur. Disco balls spun from the ceiling. Fiber-optic strands of plastic beads drizzled down like rain to a long, sleek stainless steel bar. On the stage, dancers in stiletto heels and lingerie gyrated to thumping music.
"Tibetan culture is so deeply rooted here," the owner told me. "I don't think it will be diluted -- it's important for business." Yet looking around, I saw no Tibetan employees, and Tibetans represented only a smattering of customers. The bar served mostly Chinese businessmen and army officers, whose tabs could run as high as $2,000, several times the per capita income in Tibet.
The nightclub owner's comments underscored the problem Tibetans have with Chinese rule. Their culture has been packaged for tourism. Business is booming. But they aren't getting any of the bounty.
This, more than violations of human rights and religious freedom, is what fueled the riots in Lhasa and across Tibetan areas that started March 14 -- the largest and most violent protests since an uprising in 1989, when Tibetans last rebelled against Chinese rule. Today, Tibetans stand at an economic threshold, about to be overwhelmed by the tsunami of China's great expansion in ways that may ultimately be more devastating than the previous decades of repressive rule.
It is certainly true that human rights abuses continue in Tibet, including imprisonment and torture, the banishment of Tibetans from their farmland, and draconian restrictions on activities and thought within the monasteries. And it is these restrictions that may have sparked this latest resistance. But the mayhem in Lhasa was most notable for its focus on the symptoms of the economic shift. What began as a protest by a few hundred monks from Lhasa's monasteries turned into a riot that brought shopkeepers, traders and farmers into the streets.
The targets of destruction and violence were not random. The cars toppled and burning in front of the Jokhang Temple, the 7th-century holy site at the heart of Lhasa's old city, and on the nearby Beijing East Road were expensive Toyota Land Cruisers and slick Hondas and Audis. They represent the upper class of Tibet's bureaucratic society and the ruling Han immigrants from China. The shops burning were Chinese-owned stalls and businesses, many of which were built since Beijing renewed its push to bring intensive development and encourage Han migration to the Tibet Autonomous Region in the late 1990s.
Six years ago, on my first visit, Lhasa could still be described as a quaint city brimming with Chinese influence but largely characterized by its ancient Tibetan architecture, Tibetan goods and, of course, Tibetan people. The Chinese who did reside there often left in the winter, when temperatures drop below freezing and the 12,000-foot-high city is whipped with winds off the Himalayan plateau.
I was dumbfounded, on four subsequent visits, to see how much had changed. The population exploded -- from 250,000 to 500,000 -- and despite official figures that insisted otherwise, few of the newcomers were Tibetan. And they stayed in Lhasa year-round.
The Chinese had taken sledgehammers to large swaths of Lhasa's historic streets -- narrow cobblestone alleys pinned in by 400-year-old whitewashed buildings. They replaced entire neighborhoods with hastily built office buildings and dreary shops with all the hospitality of self-storage units. A $10 million shopping complex, its five stories bedecked in glass and billboards of scantily clad underwear models, opened blocks from the Jokhang. (The complex was torched in the protests.) Chinese dominated all sectors of the economy; they sold all the fruit, drove most of the taxis and mined all the minerals. And finally, in July 2006, the acclaimed Qinghai-Tibet railway opened for service, a transformation that released the floodgates.
In the accepted Western narrative on Tibet, economic development itself is villainized, the suggestion being that Tibet should remain as it was a thousand years ago because it represents something so peaceful and idyllic. Poor, yes, but how picturesque. It feeds the simplistic cliche of Buddha-loving pacifists oppressed by the atheist Chinese. The assumption is that Tibetans feel this way, too.
But in interviews with Tibetans, I heard a different thread: Many had been eager for modernization and had anticipated its perks -- higher living standards, more education and better jobs. At first, they had welcomed the promised price drops and opportunity the railway was supposed to bring. But as the perks failed to materialize, they lost faith in a system that seemed blatantly designed to leave them out.
On a cold winter night in the capital, a young Tibetan entrepreneur gave me his perspective. "This is the universal trend," he said, gesturing to the thriving rows of lit storefronts and bustling commerce around us. "It would be happening whether China was doing it or Tibetans were doing it."
This man was trilingual, educated at one of Beijing's best universities. But he was having trouble making it in the new economy, and he was not alone. Another Tibetan man complained that he'd lost his guiding license after police began to enforce rules requiring annual exams -- in Mandarin. Another reported that police forced him to rename his business after a Chinese investor chose the same name for his own shop. Meanwhile, signs for Tibetan businesses had universally been translated into Chinese, with small, scarcely visible Tibetan subscript as an afterthought. Tibetan identity was being chiseled away, replaced by the pell-mell flow of new businesses, new initiatives and new laws to support them.
In October 2006, several hundred young educated and otherwise "modern" Tibetans gathered in front of the local government administrative offices in Lhasa in what may come to be viewed as the precursor to the widespread unrest of March 14. The protesters didn't take aim at religious persecution or human rights complaints but at the unfair rules of their new economic world. They were upset that, despite their own education and middle-class standing, jobs were going to Han Chinese instead.
The Chinese portray all that has happened in Tibet as progress, attributing the whopping 12 to 15 percent growth in gross domestic product in recent years to an almost philanthropic commitment to Tibetan culture. But their policies seem to have been aimed at something quite different.
China has consistently pursued a policy of "taming" its far-flung western regions through economic and ethnic assimilation. It has crafted tax incentives to encourage Han business owners to move west from eastern cities and has loosened migration rules. "Go West, Young Han" is the clarion call of the times. Chinese state-run firms have staffed large construction projects such as the railway and even local road building with Han Chinese contractors and crews, who send their earnings home.
All the expansion and wealth that has streamed into Tibet has benefited Tibetans very little. Even after decades of investment, the illiteracy rate remains four times that of neighboring Sichuan province, and there are one-fourth fewer vocational schools per capita than in the rest of China.
The Beijing Olympics in August afford Tibetans -- and many other downtrodden Chinese -- what may be their last great opportunity to draw the world's attention to the inequity of China's economic miracle. For the Tibetans, it may be their final chance to hold onto an ethnically, religiously and economically unique homeland before it is lost forever. This is what makes the uprising of 2008 different from that of 1989, and this is what is bringing Tibetans into the streets.
Back at that nightclub in Lhasa, I asked the young owner whether he thought that the rising inequality was worrisome. His sanguine response nodded to the Chinese policy of seeking stability in Tibet by flooding it with Chinese: "It is very Han-friendly," he said. "There are many Sichuanese people now, [so] I feel more comfortable."
feedback[at]abrahm.com
Abrahm Lustgarten is the author of the upcoming "China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet."
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new agricultural methods and practices THERE IS GREAT TENSION IN tIBET BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL FARMING AND THE WAY THE LAND IS USED BY HAN FARMERS AND TRADITIONAL TIBETANS' METHODS. MODERN FARMING HAS INCREASED PESTICIDE USE AND CONTAMINATION, DRAWN ON WATER RESOURCES, REPLACED TIBETAN FOODS WITH CHINESE FOODS LIKE PORK, BOK CHOY, AND RICE, ETC., tractors, surplus-producing peasants, commoditised agriculture, water conservancy, WATER IS A HUGE ISSUE IN TIBET. ITS GLACIERS ARE SHRINKING AND VERY LITTLE IS BEING DONE TO SLOW THE CONTAMINATION THAT IS ACCELERATING THROUGH MINING, PESTICIDE USE AND EXTENSIVE CONSTRUCTION AND QUARRYING.irrigation, hydroelectric, MASSIVE HYDRO PROJECTS ARE BEING BUILT TO POWER THE MINING INDUSTRY AND LHASA'S EXPANSION. tIBETAN VALLEYS ARE BEING SUBMERGED TO MAKE WAY. geothermal, horticulture, and animal husbandry projects TWO INSTANCES OF BIRD FLU AND ONE WIDESPREAD CATTLE DISSEASE IN LAST TWO YEARS AS A RESULT OF ANIMAL FARMING TECHNIQUES BROUGHT IN, WHICH INCLUDE FORCED USE OF GROWTH HORMONES.
...A sustained economic growth rate close to 10% per year... ACTUALLY -- CLOSE TO 15%, FASTER THAN ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
A substantial Tibetan Archives, active promotion and use of the Tibetan language (written and spoken),SHOW THIS???? NOT THE CASE and big projects, funded largely by the Central Government THIS IS THE BEIJING LINE., to record, collate, edit and publish Tibetan literary classics, such as King Gesar, and Buddhist sacred texts. THERE IS SUBSTANTIAL CRITICISM IN THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY OF CHINESE "TRANSLATIONS" OF TIBETAN BUDDHIST TEXT.
He writes:
...cont'd
"Unless the visitor chooses to get obsessively trapped in such images that are a small part of the reality, what he or she sees is a different kind of modernisation.
New or improved schools, a system of compulsory schooling for nine or six or three years (depending on the area and the stage of objective development), and quite competitive higher educational institutions... YES, THERE ARE NEW AND IMPROVING SCHOOLS, BUT AT A FRACTION OF THE RATE OF THE REST OF CHINA. IN THESE SCHOOLS EMPHASIS IS PLACED ON REPLACING TIBETAN LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY. OFTEN THE SCHOOLS ARE MANDATED BOARDING SCHOOLS, WHICH TAKES CHILDREN OUT OF THE INFLUENCE OF THEIR TIBETAN PARENTS. THERE IS A GOOD UNIVERSITY IN LHASA, WHICH RECENTLY CLOSED ITS TIBETAN STUDIES AND LANGUAGE PROGRAMS. ITS GRADUATES ARE HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME FINDING WORK.
Hospitals and health centres dispensing both modern and a flourishing Tibetan indigenous medicine. YES, MUCH OF TRADITIONAL TIBETAN MEDICINE HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO CONTINUE AND FLOURISH. MUCH OF THE HERBS ARE SOUGHT BY EASTERN CHINESE AND THE RESULTING PLUNDERING IS FAST LEADING TO THE NEAR EXTINCTION OF CRITICAL PLANTS. Surplus grain production, I DON'T BELIEVE THERE IS SURPLUS GRAIN PRODUCTION, NOR IS THAT A MODERN MEASURE FOR PROGRESS IN TIBET -- IT HARKS BACK TO THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION.
As the author of this article, I hope to respond to some of the comments here for the purpose of furthering the dialogue. First, it is quite true that the Western perspective on the issue of Tibet has been oversimplified and extensively romanticized. That does not mean, however, that my own objective reporting has not turned up issues that can arouse sympathy towards Tibetans and that the overall situation in Tibet for Tibetans, while it may not be exactly how Students for a Free Tibet portray it, are not favorable. The worst that can happen is that Tibetan's true plight is dismissed by those offended by the shrill tone of international activists. I set out merely to talk with Tibetans and record how they felt, in large part to test and often confront the popular message. To learn how Tibetans really feel, read my book.
The suppositions of the poster "wonderingstar", (it would be nice to know who you are) I find from independant non-biased extensive first hand reporting, to be an overly rosy and slanted portrayal of development in Tibet. I've responded to this person's posts with detailed comments in ALL CAPS below.
Perhaps Indian journalists such as Narasimhan Ram, who have seen their share of holy men, are better than Westerners at seeing through charlatans wearing monks' robes:
"Tibet is on the move. This becomes clear as soon as you are on the road, either to Lhasa, a smooth, asphalted 95 km northward drive from Gongkar, or to Tsetang, a somewhat longer drive to the east that we took straight from the airport. As you speed along the highway, you are offered rapid frame alternations of the new and the old, the modern and the traditional, in what can be a heady brew of first impressions.
In Tibet, as in most parts of the world, you can end up seeing and feeling, more or less, what you are pre-disposed to seeing and feeling.
And much of this pre-disposition in the West, especially in the United States, is the outcome of prolonged exposure to the 'independence for Tibet' propaganda campaign orchestrated by the Dalai Lama, aided and abetted by Hollywood, by a certain genre of highly subjective travel writing, and, at a more sophisticated level, by 'manufacture of consent' in the media passing off as professional reportage and analysis."
Tibet - a Reality Check, http://www.flonnet.com/fl1718/17180040.htm
I'm pretty disappointed with Lustgarden's article, that it is so cliched. Going by this article, it certainly falls short of the standards of creative insight of MacArthur Foundation grant awardees I have studied with.
...cont'd
"Unless the visitor chooses to get obsessively trapped in such images that are a small part of the reality, what he or she sees is a different kind of modernisation.
New or improved schools, a system of compulsory schooling for nine or six or three years (depending on the area and the stage of objective development), and quite competitive higher educational institutions...
Hospitals and health centres dispensing both modern and a flourishing Tibetan indigenous medicine. Surplus grain production, new agricultural methods and practices, tractors, surplus-producing peasants, commoditised agriculture, water conservancy, irrigation, hydroelectric, geothermal, horticulture, and animal husbandry projects
...A sustained economic growth rate close to 10% per year...
A substantial Tibetan Archives, active promotion and use of the Tibetan language (written and spoken), and big projects, funded largely by the Central Government, to record, collate, edit and publish Tibetan literary classics, such as King Gesar, and Buddhist sacred texts.
Extensive repair, renovation, restoration and protection of cultural treasures under a strict and elaborate cultural protection regime. A splendid Tibet Autonomous Region Museum in Lhasa, with a floor space of 21,000 square metres, constructed during 1994-97 at a cost of $12 million.
Environmental consciousness and concerns expressed in strict regulations, policies, an Environmental Protection Bureau, afforestation, greening....Newspapers, radio, television, mobile phones, twenty-first century telecom, even a few Internet bars.... Hotels for various budgets, organised tourism, and a host of other modern tertiary activities.
See TIBET - A REALITY CHECK, http://www.flonnet.com/fl1718/17180040.htm
Narasimhan Ram, a noted Indian journalist, says of many western writers on Tibet:
"Discrediting modernisation through selective, tendentious description has become a favourite device in recent first-hand western writing on Tibet. Whether it is ''Tibetan Tragedy,'' a Time magazine cover story written by Anthony Spaeth (issue of July 17, 2000), or a more pretentious two-part essay by Ian Baruma in The New York Review of Books (''Found Horizon'' in the issue of June 29, 2000 and ''Tibet Disenchanted'' in the issue of July 20, 2000), discos, karaoke bars, brothels, gambling casinos and so forth loom large in the reportage and analysis.
It is as though these are the distinguishing features of the modernising process that is on in Tibet, as part of China's gigantic, Deng Xiaoping-led post-1979 economic transformation. In Baruma's evocative account, the dominant image of modernising Tibet under China's 'colonial' rule is sleaze associated with wild frontier 'Chinese-style capitalism': ''Chinese carpet-baggers, hucksters, hookers, gamblers, hoodlums, corrupt officials, and other desperadoes lusting after quick cash.''
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1718/17180040.htm
Thanks for the "party" line...
I'll root for the underdogs thank you--even if they aren't all saints, they still tend to be getting screwed by some imperialist power...
Necron99
Which underdogs are you talking about - the 3% of the aristocrats, landlords and theocratic rulers like the Dalai Lama and his ilk who fled Tibet or the 90% of Tibet who were serfs under the feudal system?
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/elle/march_2008/myth_and_reality_of_tibet.htm
I'm sure the way China is running things now is much fairer.
Look, at best, you're some kind of serious lefty (me too, for the most part) who's bought into Chinese nationalist propaganda--which is too bad--you are like somebody "helping" America "civilize" Africans & Native Americans--and I'll have none of it.
Worst case...well, let's not go there. I don't really want to have a dialog with you, thank you, I'll be coming in assuming you to be dishonest or misguided--not much room for constructive talk.
Google "Babila Lhasa" and you find this review:
http://www.kalamakua.org/music/Tibet.html
"Babila is the most popular disco/karaoke/nangma bar in Lhasa....the club is full every night from opening until the sun comes up."
"Babila...is simply the only club in Tibet that combines all the nightlife styles into one venue. Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (T.A.R.), is full of places to go after dark for musical entertainment. Most of the clubs in town are nangma bars, which offer variety shows that include performances by singers, comedians, dancers, and fashion models."
"I noticed that Tibetans as well as non-Tibetans not only attend the clubs, but they own the clubs. Most Tibetan entrepreneurs seem to open a nangma bar, although there are many nangmas owned by people of Han Chinese, Yi, Naxi, or Mongolian descent. The difference is mostly the material performed in the bar and the language in which the material is presented.
The Tibetan owners lean towards an entirely Tibetan language show with a selection of music and fashion taken from various regions of the T.A.R. This slightly limits the range of clientele to those that speak Tibetan fluently, therefore some of the other club owners choose to host a multi language show or one entirely in Mandarin Chinese."
Sound like the Tibetans prefer to go to the Tibetan language clubs. Did Lustgarden visit those?
Why is it that I can't shake the sneaking feeling we're all getting played on Tibet ... that there is a Neocon agenda in positioning against China and we're all merrily playing our parts without question?
Couldn't help but think of the progress west in America extinguishing the rights of native peoples. Must be progress, eh?
Too bad we are not spending more of our energy out in the streets protesting what we are doing in Iraq as we are protesting the issues in Tibet. The human rights of the people of Iraq have been violated in equal measure but as a whole we remain silent. Somebody please point out the difference.
Many of us have been protesting Iraq for years, with the only result being false imprisonment and harassment. As a result, many of us realize that our opinions mean nothing, and have no hope of changing the administration's stance, though we still protest. It's really quite telling when people realize that they may have a better chance influencing China's stance on Tibet than our own country leaders. Gotta love Democracy.
Excellent article, Abrahm. Keep up the great work!
There have been many anti war rallies and protest, here and around the world. They receive little or no attention in the MSM. That said, the sins--or the virtues--of one country do not excuse the behaviors of any other country. Women are treated as property and worse in most of the Middle East, Asia and India, and in Africa are ritually mutilated. Women as a group comprise more than one half of the world's population. Where are the protests for that?
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Posted April 9, 2008 | 06:30 PM (EST)