Tibet is remade by hand of Chinese government
Published: July 29, 2007
ZENGSHOL, Tibet: In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated 250,000 Tibetans – nearly one-tenth the population – from scattered rural hamlets to new “socialist villages,” ordering them to build housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.
The government calls the more than year-old project the “comfortable housing program.” Its stated aim is to present a more modern face for this ancient region controlled by China since 1950. The new housing is on main roads – sometimes a mile from previous homes – and will enable small farmers and herders to have access to schools and jobs, as well as health care and hygiene, the government says.
But the broader aim seems to be remaking Tibet – a region with its own culture, language and religious traditions – in order to have firmer political control over its population. It comes as China prepares for an influx of millions of tourists in the run-up to next year’s Summer Olympic Games.
A vital element in the strategy is replacement of the revered Dalai Lama, now 72, with a state-appointed successor when he dies. The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize for advocating resistance to the communist government.
Meanwhile, China has opened Tibet to greater numbers of ethnic Han Chinese and tightened control of religious activity. It is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into road-building and development projects, boosting the economy, maintaining a large military presence and keeping tabs on the citizenry through a vast security apparatus of cameras and informants on urban streets and in the monasteries.
Some Tibetans, including farmers interviewed in the village of Zengshol, say they’re happy to be in better quarters than their primitive, ancestral homes of mud brick. In other villages, Chinese escorts prevented a visiting reporter from speaking with residents.
Other than state media proclaiming that “beaming smiles” were “fixed on the faces of farmers and herders” as they built and moved into new housing in what it called the “socialist villages,” the Chinese news media have given almost no coverage to the forced relocation.
Foreign reporters, under tight strictures that largely prevent them from traveling to Tibet except on once-a-year trips under Foreign Ministry guidance, risk being removed from the region if they openly interview people. The first critical account of the remaking of the Tibetan landscape came from New York-based Human Rights Watch, which quoted Tibetans who fled, trekking across the Himalayan mountains into Nepal.
On several trips outside of Lhasa last month, a McClatchy reporter traversed 800 miles of roads and witnessed the forced transformation of the countryside. In the new settlements, cookie-cutter houses lined the roads at regular intervals, striking in their uniformity. The settlements varied in size but were mostly towns, larger than the abandoned villages. The red flag of China flew atop every house. In Zengshol, faces weren’t exactly beaming, but the farmers were reluctant to complain.
Some experts say the relocations have lifted up the impoverished peasantry and could bring prosperity. “It’s created a building boom,” said Melvyn Goldstein, a social anthropologist and expert on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “I think it’s phenomenally successful – more than I would’ve believed.”
Human Rights Watch’s witnesses told a different story. Peasants must take out loans of several thousand dollars to pay for the houses, which cost an average of $6,000, even though annual rural incomes hover at about $320 in this deeply impoverished region. Farmers who can’t repay their bank loans forfeit the right to occupy the homes.
“None of those interviewed reported being given the right to challenge or refuse participation in the campaign,” the advocacy group said.
Local officials frequently embezzle allocated funds, the group said, and some vacated land is being used for mining and other projects.
Probably the strongest criticism of the program concerns the way it came about – without consultation or consent. The campaign has come with no public debate, a throwback to past eras when rural people served as pawns on a development chessboard.
SINCE THE INVASION
Sino-Tibetan relations have been strained for years, but particularly since China’s annexation of the ancient country.
1950: Chinese forces cross into Tibet, destroying a small Tibetan force at Chamdo.
1951: China annexes Tibet, making it an autonomous region within China.
1954: Chinese begin destroying Buddhist monasteries and imposing communism. Tibetan resistance is born.
1959: Dalai Lama flees to India. Chinese dissolve the Tibetan local government and impose military rule.
1967-1976: China’s Cultural Revolution destroys Tibetan temples, monasteries, libraries and sacred monuments. Revolution ends with Mao Tse-Tung’s death in 1976.
1987-1989: China stifles pro-independence efforts, Dalai Lama wins Nobel Peace Prize.
2001: First formal contact between China and Dalai Lama since 1993.
2002: President George W. Bush signs Tibetan Policy Act, affirming U.S. support for Tibetan people.
2005: Completion of China-Tibet railroad through Himalayas.
TIBET
Tibet, home to the Earth’s highest mountains and the spiritual center of Buddhism, was invaded by communist Chinese forces in 1950 and annexed shortly thereafter. Data below reflect pre-invasion borders and population estimates within those borders.
Size: 2.5 million square kilometers
Population: 6 million native Tibetans;( now an estimated 7.5 million Chinese are said to be in Tibetan region)
Government: Communist
Government in exile: Parliamentary
Traditional in exile: Lhasa
Political/spiritual leader: 14th Dalai Lama, in exile in India
Highest peak: Mount Everest (29,028 feet)
SOURCES:International Campaign for Tibet; BBC; PBS; Official Website of Tibetan Gernment in Exile.
