Shigatse, Tibet – Amy Li could not know that her slightly rash decision to go to Tibet in search of work would lead her into prostitution.
But slowly the 19-year-old high school drop-out from central China realised there was very little other employment available for a young woman with no marketable skills.
“I regret skipping out of school, but there’s nothing I can do about that now,” said the fragile-looking native of Hunan province.
Mostly unacknowledged by Chinese authorities, prostitution has become a huge business employing thousands, if not tens of thousands, in Tibet.
The Himalayan territory is struggling to maintain its traditions in the face of massive migration from China.
Chinese troops invaded the Himalayan Buddhist country in 1950, a move which forced Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile a few years later. Tibet is now administered as an “autonomous region” of China.
The majority of prostitutes are women arriving from other parts of China, but ethnic Tibetans also account for a growing proportion, observers of Tibet say.
The influx has changed Tibet’s urban environment beyond recognition.
In Shigatse, the region’s second-largest city with a population of more than 80,000, the downtown appears to be one sprawling brothel district.
It is a condition that becomes evident at night when pink lights are illuminated every few metres to mark a location where sex is for sale.
Unaccompanied males are likely to be the object of attention from cheerful women sitting inside beauty salons and foot massage parlours that double as brothels. Other sex workers pass by on rickshaws.
Local officials, however, deny noticing any disturbances to public morality.
“There’s no prostitution in Shigatse,” said Panba Tsering, local vice director of the people’s congress, a type of municipal council.
“The shops you see are part of the service industry, and they make money by washing people’s feet or hair,” he said.
But sex workers suggest prostitution is so widespread in Shigatse that a growing number of them have been forced out by toughening competition.
“I’ve been trying to run this business for two years, but it’s hard to make a living,” said Cheng Li, 26, the owner of what is ostensibly a beauty parlour.
“There are too many in the business,” she said, explaining her plans to leave Tibet. She arrived in the region as a teenager with her father, an officer in the People’s Liberation Army.
Hard data on the extent of prostitution in Tibet are not available, and observers have to rely on rough figures. The London-based pro-Tibet advocacy group, the Free Tibet Campaign, estimates there are 1,000 brothels in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.
The number is impossible to verify but sex workers are in evidence even in the streets around the Jokhong temple, an area of great religious significance.
According to overseas pro-Tibet campaigners, the explosion in prostitution has come about partly because of growing tourism. Thousands of people visit the capital Lhasa every year hoping to see surviving examples of the region’s ancient art.
But the single most important factor is probably the large inflow of soldiers charged with protecting a border region of immense strategic importance to China, overseas Tibet activists said.
“Of course, there are lots of brothels near military areas and camps, as everywhere in the world,” said Kate Saunders, the Washington-based spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet.
The Tibetan government in exile says there are 300,000 Chinese soldiers stationed in the autonomous region. China’s government considers the number to be a state secret.
“We used to see a lot of military police patrolling the streets looking for soldiers who had left their base without permission,” said a beauty parlour manager in downtown Shigatse.
“Recently, it appears the rules have been relaxed, and we do see some military personnel frequenting establishment around here.”
As with prostitution, Chinese authorities have adopted a head-in-the-sand position on the associated issue of HIV/AIDS, claiming that the problem is so far negligible.
“We have already found some people who carry HIV/AIDS,” Wu Yingjie, vice chairman of Tibetan Autonomous Region, said recently.
“Although the figure is very small, we pay great attention. We inspect people when they enter Tibet, and take other measures.”
Most prostitutes in the region are ethnic Han Chinese. Pro-Tibet advocacy groups estimate that about 60 percent come from nearby Sichuan province, an exporter of labour to all parts of China.
However, a steadily increasing number of ethnic Tibetan women are now also reported to be entering the trade, said the Free Tibet Campaign and the Tibet Information Network, a London-based independent research service which specialises in Tibet.
“Observers unanimously link this change to the widening economic gap between urban and rural areas,” the Tibet Information Network reported.
In a society where modern media create a demand for consumer items, prostitution is “the only realistic quick route to a better standard of living,” according to the organisation.
“Thus in Tibet, prostitution is not just a symptom of poverty, but is triggered also by the growing prosperity of the few,” the organisation said in a statement.
Despite her lack of qualifications, Amy Li still hopes that after a few months working as a prostitute, she can make something more of her life.
“My parents still don’t know what I’m doing. I want to go back home and find a proper job.”
