Transforming Tibet

There is no evidence of impoverished, marginalised and excluded Tibetans in Lhasa or in any other part of Tibet.

recently in LHASA

THE grand vista of the Tibetan plateau is on display through the glass windows of the Qinghai-Tibet train, an engineering marvel that cuts through 1,956 kilometres of the highest terrains of the world.

On its 24-hour journey across the roof of the world, the train traverses a shifting kaleidoscope of natural landscapes at altitudes that reach up to 5,708 metres (over 18,000 feet). The train transports its excited passenger cargo through bleak and windswept plateau terrain, past the snow-capped Kunlun mountains, through wildlife reserves such as the Kekexili (famous for the Tibetan antelope), and alongside still blue lakes such as Lake Cuona, which, at 4,650 m (15,255 ft), is one of the highest in the world. Completed in June 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet railway has boosted the socio-economic development of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

With five lines in operation at present, the railway has to date transported 5.56 million passengers and 4.05 million tonnes of cargo. It has boosted tourism and consumption, lowered prices and increased the purchasing power of people living in the TAR, and enabled travel amongst relatively closed groups such as the Tibetan herders. More than 75 per cent of the goods to the TAR are now transported by train, and freight transportation by road has come down by 80 per cent.

I was part of a delegation of Indian journalists invited by the Chinese government to visit Lhasa and a few other places in the TAR this July. Our entry into Lhasa by the Qinghai-Tibet railway was a fitting introduction to a region that has seen enormous change since its integration into China in 1951, and dramatic modernisation in almost every walk of life in the last decade.

Like almost everything else about Tibet, the Qinghai-Tibet railway line, too, is the subject of much controversy and criticism in a section of the international literature on Tibet. This literature has emanated largely from Dharamsala, where the 14th Dalai Lama the former theocratic ruler of Tibet who fled to India in 1959 has set up his government-in-exile. It also comes from an influential section of the Western media, and supporters of the Dalai Lama, ranging from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to Hollywood actors, from pacifists to neo-Buddhists. Much of it has been written by people who have not actually visited Tibet themselves. Its leitmotif is that Tibet, once an independent country under the benevolent rule of the Dalai Lamas, was forcibly brought under Chinese communist rule in 1951, and the brutal suppression of the social, economic and religious rights of the Tibetan people continues to this day. Most foreign visitors to Tibet internalise the biases of this viewpoint before they visit, entrenched as it is in most published histories, commentary, and even travel-writing on Tibet.

It is night when the train pulls into the Lhasa station a stately building so large that vehicles can park on the platform. The drive to our hotel could have been through any modern town in the world, but for the looming presence of the Potala Palace, this citys timeless sentinel.

Lhasa, an attractive modern city with a strong Tibetan flavour, is slowly putting the impact of the March 14 disturbances of this year behind it, although some scars still remain. This is yet another event that was reported differently in the two media that report on Tibet. The pro-Dalai media sought to portray it as a mass uprising for Tibetan independence led by monks. The Chinese media reported it as a sectional riot that targeted innocent people and was fuelled directly by the Dalai Lama. Chinese netizens, now a strong and vocal presence, exposed the fabrication and doctoring of photographs of the riots in the reportage by some sections of the Western media.

A freedom struggle the March 14 disturbances were not. The Lhasa residents we spoke to looked back at this phase with revulsion and dismay. Rioting monks lynched innocent citizens, burnt schools, homes, and business establishments in an orgy of violence. Eighteen persons (including three Tibetans) were killed by protesters, either burnt or knifed. The direct economic loss of the riot was 320 million yuan, according to government sources.

We heard shouting outside the gate at about 12 p.m. and then saw burning torches being thrown onto the roof of the school, said Deji Joka, principal of the No.2 Middle School in the heart of Lhasa, as she pointed to the burnt-out school building. There are 842 students in the school, of whom 80 per cent are Tibetan. This was one of many schools in Lhasa that were attacked by the mobsters.

The March 14 riots are seen by the Chinese government as being of a piece with plans to disrupt the Beijing Olympics made by the Dalai Lamas government-in-exile. The Olympic torch relay was physically attacked by pro-Dalai protesters in more than one Western capital. Tibetan officials claimed that they had proof of the direct involvement of the Dalai Lama clique in the Lhasa riots and would make this public at an appropriate time.

A report brought out this year by the Dalai Lamas Dharamsala-based government-in-exile, entitled Environment and Development in Tibet: A crucial Issue, offers perhaps the most detailed recent critique from the pro-Dalai group of Chinas Tibet policy. Its credibility, however, is seriously compromised because the authors have not visited their research area and have excluded official sources unless they suit their purpose.

China claims that Tibet is experiencing growth and prosperity, but the reality is that, under the Chinese rule, Tibetans are impoverished, marginalised and excluded; the sensitive and globally important ecology of Tibet is deteriorating; and many plant and animal species face extinction, the report summarises. Although this particular report does not deal with it, the allegation that religious freedom has been trampled upon in Tibet by the communist state, and that cultural property has been wantonly destroyed, is very much a part of the pro-Dalai propaganda offensive.

Hard as a visitor may look, there is no evidence of impoverished, marginalised and excluded Tibetans in Lhasa or in any other part of Tibet. Indeed, the generally high levels of health, well-being and productive employment are a striking feature of observable social life, and one that is captured by official statistics. The Tibetan economy has grown at 12 per cent over the last seven years, and the per capita income was 12,000 yuan in 2007, double the 2002 figure, according to government sources.

The allegation of ethnic marginalisation of Tibetans through a state-sponsored policy of Han settlement is yet another myth propagated by supporters of the Dalai Lama. The total population of the TAR is 2.8 million, according to official figures, of which 92 per cent is Tibetan, 2 per cent consists of other ethnic groups, and 6 per cent is Han Chinese.

Gapa village, 10 km from Lhasa, is a good example of the reasonably high standards of rural life. It is neither a very prosperous nor a backward village and the average landholding of its 60 households is 3.8 mu (1 mu = 0.0667 hectare). Before 1984, the village was part of a people commune, said Sonam Gyatsen, the head of the village, as he entertained us in his house. But now, after that, everyone got land in our village depending on the family number. His parents were serfs and he was only nine in 1951 when Tibet was formally integrated into China.

I did not even have a coat to wear, he recalled. Zuoga, head of a 13-member household, says her family earns 20,000 yuan a year from her crop, rent, government subsidies and collective work on village projects, which she says makes her household a middling prosperous one.

Health care and school education are free. Therefore, while there is a difference in living standards between urban and rural areas, there is no impoverishment or marginalisation in villages. A range of special preferential policies and measures for social and economic development apply to Tibet. Under the Constitution and the Law on Regional and Ethnic Autonomy, the TAR has the power and flexibility in adopting special policies to speed up economic and cultural development. This extends from the relaxation of the one-child rule Tibetans can have as many children as they want, except for Tibetan officials who must stop with two to a preferential taxation policy for Tibetans. Farmers and herders are exempt from taxes and administrative charges, they receive free medical care, and their children get free residential schooling.

Dr. Losang Yundeng, Director of the Peoples County Hospital in Linzhi prefecture, is a product of the modern education system introduced in 1951 in Tibet. Born to very poor parents in Chamdo prefecture, he studied in the primary school that had opened in his village, from where he was sent by the village to train as a barefoot doctor. The bright young boy later trained as a surgeon; the training included a stint at the Norman Bethune Medical Academy. My family got land and a house after the Democratic Reform. We were made to feel like human beings for the first time, he said. There have been great achievements since the open door policy in 1978 in health care, he said. His 210-bed hospital treated about 1,10,000 patients and performed some 1,500 surgical procedures a year, he said.

In economic development, education, ecological protection, and cultural and religious freedoms, the reality in Tibet presents a picture quite the opposite of that conveyed in the 2008 Dharamsala report.

Take the issue of religion and freedom of religious practice. That Tibetan society is deeply religious is apparent, as is the freedom people have to practise Buddhism openly. Lines of devotees prostrate on the pavement at the bottom of the hill on which the grand Potala Palace rises, in preparation for their climb to the venerated place of worship. Devotees throng the Sera monastery, one of the six major monasteries of the Gelupa sect built in the early 15th century. Prayer flags festoon the hillsides around Lhasa. The prayer wheel is a common religious artefact that Tibetans, particularly the older generation, rotate in their hands even as they go about their daily routine.

The pro-Dalai group claims that religious worship has been suppressed, monks have been persecuted and religious venues neglected by the government. In reality, there is a perceptibly non-threatening environment for worship. It is true, and the Chinese government acknowledges it, that the period of the Cultural Revolution saw extensive and incalculable destruction of religious and cultural wealth, but that phase is over, and today freedom of religious worship is protected by law. There are 1,700 religious venues and 46,000 monks in the TAR. These venues, which include ancient monasteries, are a treasured heritage and their maintenance is funded by the government.

According to official figures, in 2001 as much as 330 million yuan was spent on the Potala Palace and Norbu Lingka and Sagya Monasteries. In the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) the central government will invest 570 million yuan to repair the Tashilhumpo, Jokhang and Samye Monasteries and 22 other key cultural relics.

The depth of religious penetration does not, however, imply support for the political goals of the Dalai Lama. Indeed, there is scant support for the Dalai Lama among the senior monks and religious heads of the important monasteries in Tibet. Before 1959, Buddhists supported the Dalai Lama, Losang Champa, a Great Living Buddha and Vice Chairman of the Tibetan Branch of the Chinese Buddhism Association, told visiting journalists. However, after he fled the situation has changed. He has engaged in political activities. Nembula, a senior monk of the Sera Monastery, put the issue of support to the Dalai Lama in perspective: The principle of religious freedom is good, and to believe in someone is ones personal choice, part of ones inner world. But politically, we must safeguard the interests of the country.

As contentious an issue as religion is that of Tibets environment. The 2008 Dharamsala report alleges indiscriminate exploitation of the region by a grasping central government. It alleges the rapid extinction of many of Tibets rare plant and animal species, and the destruction of its fragile ecosystem through short-sighted development policies.

The government of the TAR has taken demonstrable measures to safeguard the environment. At the macro level, the government spent more than 120 million yuan in protecting wetlands and grassland in the 10th Five Year Plan (2001-2005). The prefecture of Linzhi is a repository of ecological wealth in the TAR. It has 46 per cent of the total forest area of the TAR, and according to Duo Ji Ciren, Vice-Commissioner of the Administrative office of Linzhi prefecture, it has made the historical transition from poverty to a prosperous prefecture. While tourism is a major resource earner, the safeguarding of its ecology is critical to this, Ciren emphasised. Our slogan is to build Linzhi as the largest district in western China with the best preserved ecology, he said.

The Environmental Museum in Linzhi, the only museum of its kind in the TAR, has been set up to build awareness of the ecological wealth of the region. Samples and models of nearly 4,000 kinds of plants unique to the area, and 95 species of protected wild animals (30 under first grade protection) are arranged in a spectacular recreation of the regions flora and fauna.

The progress of Tibet has many worrying aspects to it, which are readily acknowledged in the official literature and by officials in the TAR. A late starter in economic development, the TAR still remains the most backward of Chinas provinces, a fact that the 2005 National Human Development Report for China highlights, and official reports note with concern. Tibet remains one of Chinas most underdeveloped regions due to its harsh natural conditions and weak economy, an official handbook on Tibet notes. It has relied heavily on investment. The region planned 180 projects with a total investment of 77 billion yuan in 2007. About 93 per cent of the investment came from the Chinese central government.

For the Chinese government, the politics and development of Tibet, an autonomous region covering almost one-eighth of the countrys area, has been a complex issue with a troubling international dimension. An interesting development in recent years is the growing information flow on Tibet now available on the Net from official, unofficial and news sources within Tibet. This offers a credible and informed alternative to the assertions and assumptions of the pro-Dalai press. Along with greater transparency that will result from the opening of the region, the terms of the debate over the Tibet question will surely become more balanced and fair.