(Note: this post was edited and expanded, owing to a good night’s sleep.)
I follow the goings on in China and Tibet with great interest. I was there two years ago, travelling around through the provinces of Guangxi and Sichuan, and in the Tibet Autonomous Region. I’ve also been to the Republic of China (Taiwan) twice. I am by no means well travelled in this region, but I have spent over a month there, and like to think I’ve picked up a few observations.
The trip was an unforgettable one.
Oddly enough, I’m also a big fan of the idea of the Olympics, if not its implementation. My earliest memory of the games is of visiting my father in Montreal during the ’76 Olympics, and of watching it non-stop on CBC while he was at work. I watched live as Greg Joy won silver in the high jump, Canada’s only medal that games. I also watched Elizabeth Manley grab her silver 12 years later here in Calgary.
I have stood, with goose bumps, in the field of Olympiastadion in Helsinki, which hosted the 1952 summer games.
The stadium was originally built for the 1940 Olympics, but it was Tokyo that was awarded the games for that year. The IOC took away the honour because of Japan’s agression in China, during the so-called Second Sino-Japanese war. They went instead to Helsinki.
The Second World War delayed those plans. The games eventually did come to Finland, and later, back to Japan as well. By 1964, things had changed in the land of the rising sun.
Now, if there isn’t enough irony between that story and the present situation (the Olympics, China, agression), then wait, there’s one more thing. Consider, in addition, that Japan had had imperialist designs on China for decades. The reason? Vast amounts of natural resources.
Maybe they knew something about China’s hinterland province as well.
(Here’s one more bit of irony for you: the first Dalai Lama was installed by a Chinese army.)
I don’t for a moment pretend that China’s actions towards Tibet (either the independent nation or the autonomous region, depending on your take of things) anywhere parallels the aggression towards China by Japan. I’m just suggesting that the irony is rather too rich to ignore.
Tibet is, at once, both a terrifyingly beautiful and depressingly infuriating land. Natural beauty abounds, and the ethnic Tibetans are super friendly. But a dirtier, more trash strewn country I have never seen. I almost hate to say this, but the only clean streets I saw were in newer the Chinese neighborhoods. Take a walk down the road towards the Sera Monestary, and the conditions get progressively worse. And around the monestary itself, human shit. Sometimes next to bushes, most often not.
Beautiful if you overlook the (sometimes) obvious.
The beauty of the countryside, and of the culture, is inescapable. It is the most exotic place I’ve ever been to. And there is no doubt whatever that Tibetan culture is separate and distinct from the Chinese.
Before leaving for any trip, I always choose a travel book. This time round I took the Dalai Lama’s autobiography, Freedom in Exile. It’s an interesting read. It describes the early life of the Dalai Lama, and of the events leading to his exile in 1959. It is, I believe, a truthful and honest account of those events.
But the book does not talk about many things, including how average Tibetans lived and survived prior to the most recent Chinese invasion. It does not talk about the extreme poverty and inequality of Tibetan life, nor of the fuedal system of land ownership. Nor of the serfs or slaves that supported the middle class. Indeed, the immodest, luxuriant lifestyle of the Dalai Lama himself.
A sin of omission, perhaps. But as I say, I believe his version of the events. I believe, for example, that there is a general contempt of anything Tibetan on the part of the Han Chinese majority. (Han are now the majority even in the Tibetan region, a product of two decades of intense migration. An effort to dilute, destroy even, Tibetan culture.)
For example, take a look at the photo, below.
This is the Barkhor, the path that surrounds the Johkang Temple in the middle of Lhasa. It is Tibetan Buddhism’s holiest, and it is customary for pilgrims to walk a circuit – the kora – around it. Tibetans, and anyone who wishes to respect Tibetan culture and tradition, walk the kora in a clockwise direction. I did that when I was there, many times, which is why my photo shows so many backs.
But look closely, and you will see some faces, and they are not ethnic Tibetan ones. They are Han Chinese, and the deliberately defy the tradition by walking in the opposite direction.
And here, for me, lies the crux of the argument as regards the current situation in Tibet. Forget that there is a much longer history of Chinese suzerainty over Tibet than there is of Tibetan sovereignty. Set aside the fact that during times of Tibetan self governance, the majority of the people lived as peasants in an archaic and desperately brutal feudal system. That there was no such thing as democracy.
Set aside all that we know about the history of Tibet. Not that it doesn’t matter, but because now is not then. Things have changed, and there is no doubt in my mind that a democratic ideal could be successfully introduced to Tibet. This is not, for example, the Muslim Middle East, in which democracy seems anathema to how things are done.
Consider one thing: the Chinese are out to destroy the essence of Tibet. Not the idea, for that is too valuable as a tourist asset. But the people are being ethnically diluted, relics and symbols are being removed or destroyed, and the culture is being systematically destroyed.
I saw it in the faces of the ethnic Han who purposely mocked the traditions of the land they have invaded.
What to do about it? I have some ideas.
In the meantime, this video montage was put together and uploaded last year on YouTube. In that year, it’s received over 12 000 views. Not much by YouTube standards, but I’m happy enough about it. Take a moment and read the comments. They are particularly revealing.
And for a great overview of Tibetan life prior to the Chinese invasion, Michael Parenti gives it in Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth