By Phurbu Thinley
Mining rage and tourist influx in Tibet continue to pose growing threat to the remote Himalayan region’s fragile ecological order and its unique and rich cultural heritage
Dharamsala, July 25: On the heels of China launching the strategic railway network lines into the ecologically fragile Tibetan region in June 2006, mining has become a stalwart industry in Tibet.
Latest statistics show that Tibet has 101 known minerals, including chromium, copper, gold, iron and boron.
A senior official from Tibet’s investment bureau said mining has become one of the pillar industries in Lhasa after the Golmud-Lhasa railway line opened in July 2006, according to a media report.
After the controversial railroad, connecting Tibet’s Amdo Province [Ch: Qinghai] with its capital Lhasa, became operational on July 1 last year, the delicate Himalayan region became more vulnerable to ecologically damaging mining and other human activities.
Last month, the authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan had to order an end to mining operations which ‘do not help the local population’ after hundreds of Tibetans blocked a road and staged a hunger strike over Chinese mining of a mountain that Tibetan Buddhists consider sacred.
Besides several Chinese mining companies, there are currently nine foreign mining companies, seven Canadian and two British, operating in Tibet.
In 2003, Australian miner Sino Gold Ltd. had to abandon exploration rights in a Tibetan region of Sichuan following a letter-writing campaign by Australia-based pro-Tibet activists.
Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities are said to be planning to levy a deposit on mining companies that wish to exploit mineral resources in Tibet. By this year’s end all mining companies operating in Tibet will have to pay a deposit, an amount that would not be refundable if their mining activities were to damage the local environment.
The railway to Tibet for the first time linked the remote Tibetan region with rest of China. Within a year after its inauguration, the railway alone has transported 1.5 million passengers into Tibet, nearly half of the total tourist arrivals in the region.
Encouraged by subsidised rail fares, migrant workers and tourists are said to be pouring in Tibet. Reports indicate that in the past year, more than 2 million Chinese have visited Lhasa alone. With this Tibetans are now officially a minority in Lhasa an independent report has pointed out.
The number is still set to surge dramatically. The regional tourism administration says Tibet will receive more than three million tourists this year.
Over 1.1 million tourists travelled to Tibet in the first six months of the year, up 86.3 per cent over the same period last year, the regional tourism bureau has said.
The controversy is not yet over. China is already increasing extensive network of railroads, highways and flight connectivity inside Tibet, making Tibet’s other remote areas more accessible.
Tibetans fear the extensive linking of Tibet with 1.3 billion people in mainland China and outside world could devastate the Himalayan region’s unique Buddhist culture. Their apprehension is further supplemented by strong environmental alarms raised by critics and environmental groups.
Analysts speculate that railroads are being more intensively connected to mining prospective areas, an effort to speed up exploitation of Tibet’s vast mineral resources.
China has spent 50 years keeping Tibet’s plight hidden from the outside world, but next year one of the world’s most remote and troubled lands will form the centre-point of the build-up to the Olympic Games when Chinese mountaineers carry the Olympic torch to the summit of Everest.
The theme of the torch relay, ironically, is “Journey of Harmony”, and the slogan is ‘Light the Passion, Share the Dream’ when the encroachment on the Tibet’s highest peak is understood by critics as a move by Chinese Communist regime to consolidate its hold on Tibet, an independent country with more than 2.5 million Sq. km territory until the Communist troops forcefully marched into Tibet in 1949.
