Tibetans have compiled a long list of grievances since 1951 when the Chinese Communists invaded their Himalayan-area homeland. Those grievances are the backdrop for the violence that has come bursting to the surface the past week in protests across China and the world.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who fled into exile in 1959, repeatedly has accused the Chinese of “cultural genocide,” suppressing language, faith and customs, while simultaneously flooding traditional Tibetan territory with ethnic Chinese.
Less than half of what Tibetans consider their historic homeland lies within the bounds of what is now called Tibet in western China. The rest of their lands are within China’s Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, where Tibetans are a minority and treated as second-class citizens.
“It is not a genocide like World War II, but there is just no attempt to preserve our culture,” said a 29-year-old student living in Beijing, who asked that her name not be used for fear she could lose her residency permit.
The Chinese Communist Party claims to have invested billions trying to lift a feudal society into the 21st century. The most ambitious component of that was a $4 billion railroad extension that opened in 2006, linking the isolated Tibetan capital of Lhasa to the rest of the country.
But Tibetans say that the Qinghai-to-Lhasa rail line, billed as the highest in the world and the first to link the remote Himalayan region to the rest of China, had only served to bring more Chinese entrepreneurs, migrant workers and tourists into their lands, further diluting their culture.
The vast majority of the 4 million tourists who visited Tibet last year were Chinese, who nowadays are using their new-found wealth to discover what they see as China’s exotic “wild west.”
The hotels, travel agencies and restaurants they patronize are Chinese. Even many of the souvenir stalls selling traditional crafts in front of the main Jokhang Temple are owned by Chinese.
“All the jobs are held by Chinese. The businesses on the main square in front of the most sacred Tibetan temple are Chinese. You can imagine the resentment that generates and how it can manifest itself,” said Donald Lopez, Jr., professor of Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan.
While exact figures are hard to come by, Lhasa’s urban population of about 270,000 is already between 70 percent and 80 percent Chinese, said Kate Saunders, communications director for the London-based International Campaign for Tibet. She added that at least 100,000 migrant workers come from nearby Sichuan province alone.
“The Sichuan dialect is now the most commonly heard in Lhasa, and there is a saying Lhasa is the back yard of Chengdu,” Saunders said, referring to the provincial capital of Sichuan.
“Although we have seen years of investment in Tibet, the vast majority of Tibetans are severely disadvantaged both socially and economically by inadequate education and healthcare so that they cannot compete with the growing number of Chinese migrants coming in,” Saunders said.
Tibet in the past was basically a theocracy with Buddhist monks not merely the spiritual leaders but the politicians, landlords, and bankers. When the Communists arrived in the 1950s and confiscated the monasteries’ lands, they “threw Tibet into an economic chaos from which it still hasn’t recovered,” said Lopez.
The Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1973 saw wide-scale destruction of the monasteries by the Red Guards and harassment of the monks. Under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, the monasteries were rebuilt and religious practice restored, but under tight supervision.
Chinese president Hu Jintao was named for a stint as Communist Party secretary for Tibet in 1988 and rolled back many of Deng’s reforms. His protege, current party boss Zhang Qingli, is also said to have tightened regulations on the monks.
To this day, monks are forced to undergo what is called “patriotic education,” sitting through lectures by Communist Party cadres about China’s virtues and the dangers of religion. Most offensive to the monks, they hear tirades against the Dalai Lama and are forced to denounce him.
The Dalai Lama, 72, is revered as a god king by Tibetans and insults toward him elicit a visceral response — not unlike the violent response of some Muslims to perceived slights against Mohammed. In October, when the Nobel laureate received a gold medal from the U.S. Congress, Tibetan monks who tried to stage a celebration with fireworks were arrested.
Any Tibetan who wants to hold a civil service job must be careful not to be seen in processions or public religious celebrations, even during the holiday.
“They say we can have religion. But if you practice religion you won’t have a job,” said a 34-year-old Tibetan restaurant worker from Gansu province, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Probably the biggest complaint of the Tibetans is the continued absence of the Dalai Lama. People fear that if he dies in exile, they would be left without spiritual or political leadership. In 1995, a 6-year-old boy considered a possible successor was detained by the Chinese and his whereabouts are unknown.
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