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Published: August 11th 2005
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Jokhang Temple
with one if its industrial-strength incense burners The first thing that I notice getting off the plane from Chengdu to Lhasa is that the air is cleaner, cooler and dryer here. The second thing is that, at 3600m above sea level, there is a lot less of it. I had better get used to it because this is the lowest elevation place that I will visit in Tibet.
A Bit of Ranting The third thing I noticed, as the airport bus arrived in Lhasa, is how much it resembles just another Chinese city. What happened to the famous Holy City and seat of Tibetan Buddhism, once closed to outsiders? Well it's still there, you just have to go to the Tibetan Quarter to find the Tibetans. But wait, this is Tibet! Imagine if the Quebecois came to be concentrated within a small Quebecois quarter of Montreal. In 1950, Lhasa was almost 100%!T(MISSING)ibetan. Today, Tibetans represent only about 25%!o(MISSING)f Lhasa's population, and the proportion is shrinking more quickly than ever.
How could this happen? China had had an eye on Tibet for a long time and had provided military protection to an independant Tibet for much of the period from 1720 until 1911. When Mao
Outside Tibetan Quarter
Lhasa is looking more and more like this Zedong's communists took power in 1949, there happened to be a leadership void in Tibet because both the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama (second highest authority) were only boys, so the country was being governed by ministers. Furthermore, Tibet had been pacifist since the 15th century with no significant army to defend itself. The Swiss have a saying that the only thing more dangerous than a sworn enemy, is a friend promising to protect you.
In 1950, Mao Zedong purportedly received a telegram from the 11-year old Panchen Lama expressing hope that Mao would succeed in unifying China. Mao interpreted this as an invitation to "liberate" Tibet and unify it with China. Defeating the tiny Tibetan army only took a few days. Under threat of annihilation and faced with unanswered pleas to the United Nations for help, the Tibetan government was forced to sign a 17-point agreement ceding sovereignty to China but retaining full cultural, religious and political autonomy. China would eventually not even live up to that. In 1959, the Chinese army threatened to bomb the Dalai Lama's palace, forcing him to flea to India where he continues to lead a government in exile.
Mao's Cultural
Barkhor Market
Ancient, vibrant, colourful, serene and mystical Revolution (see
China Postcard 0: Problogue) was disastrous for Tibet. About 98%!o(MISSING)f monasteries were destroyed along with countless ancient landmarks, relics and books. Buddhism became illegal. This would be a blow to any country but Tibet has one of the most religious cultures in the world and these were much more than monuments to the past. China has since acknowledged mistakes made in Tibet, relaxed restrictions on religious practice and rebuilt some of the monuments. But faced with continued separatist sentiment among Tibetans, China changed strategy and deployed the one resource that it has more than any other country: people. By encouraging ethnic Han Chinese (which make up 92%!o(MISSING)f China's 1.3 billion people) to migrate to Tibet, the separatist threat and much of Tibet's pesky culture are quickly being diluted away. Next year, when the railway to Tibet is completed, the flow of migrants may increase to a flood. Lhasa is already 20 times larger than it was in 1950 and construction is underway to further expand its area to accommodate the next wave of Chinese migrants.
To be less cynical, China has other good reasons to encourage migration. With its population growing by 7.5 million each year, relatively under-populated
Pilgrims in Barkhor Market
circumambulating Jokhang Temple, once again always in a clockwise direction as they say prayers or spin portable prayer wheels and under-developed regions like Tibet are inviting. Improved infrastructure and increased economic activity will also benefit at least some Tibetans. Whatever the reasons, the outlook for Tibet's culture and traditional way of life remain ominous. This is one of my main reasons for visiting Tibet now.
Tibetan Quarter Enough preaching for now; what about Lhasa's Tibetan district? It's like nothing I have experienced before: ancient, vibrant, colourful, serene and mystical. Centred around the 1500-year old Jokhang Temple, holiest site in Tibetan Buddhism, and surrounded by the crowded yet calm Barkhor market, this is the heart of Tibet's inseparable religion and culture. Leather-faced pilgrims spinning portable prayer wheels and scarlet-draped monks circumambulate (walk around and around) the temple, always in a clockwise direction, either silently or softy chanting. Ribbons of red, white, green, yellow and blue prayer flags flutter from every rooftop. Alternating wafts of pungent yak butter in the market and incense from industrial-strength burners surrounding the temple reinforce the mystical mood.
Jokhang Temple itself is interesting to visit but I felt uneasy inside the temple. The reason is that the temple is a very active religious site, the most important for Tibetans, but yet there are no
Pilgrims Make Offerings of Incense
to feed the huge incense burners around the temple reserved hours for them. They gently jostle for elbow room with the much more pushy Chinese tour groups and the odd westerner. I mostly just tried to keep out of the way. Until 1950 when electric lights were installed, the temple was lit exclusively by yak butter lamps, lamps that are still fuelled today by the pilgrims' daily offerings of a little butter.
1000 Rooms with a View I also visited the famous and opulent Potala Palace, the now-vacant 1400-year old home of the Dalai Lama. It seems inconceivable that such a poor country would invest in riches like the stupa of the 5th Dalai Lama, made of 3700 kg of gold and 10,000 pearls, while ordinary Tibetans strive to scratch out the meagerest of livings.
Slapstick Bhuddism The Sera Monastery, founded in 1419 just outside Lhasa, once housed 5000 monks but is restricted to 500 today. The highlight of my visit there was witnessing the monks' daily debating session. A key part of their training, monks gather in small groups in a courtyard to vigorously argue interpretations of Buddha's teaching as they laugh and waive their arms, slapping their hands to reinforce points, just as monks have
I was incensed
by the amount of smoke done there for 700 years.
It is a privilege to see an ancient culture and a gentle people like this while they still exist and are relatively untainted by tourism and modernization. It is also sad to think that this is likely to fade significantly in the years and decades ahead due to inevitable assimilation into Han Chinese culture. As Montreal-Tibetan Kalsang Dolma remarked in her documentary film "Ce qu'il reste de nous", Tibetans believe that they lost their country because they did not pray enough, but perhaps they lost their country because all they ever did was pray.
Watch for my next China/Tibet postcard in a few days including tales of my perilous adventure to Everest and back.
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Jaime
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WOW
It really looks awsome !! Can't wait to watch the videos.....