Tibetans (additional essay)

Name: Wong Kit Yee UID: 3035056876 China is a country with a lot of ethnic minority groups living with main group-Han. Tibet is one of the most controversial ethnic minority groups in China. Numerous conflicts, protests and rebellion occurred between Tibet and China in the past years. Tibet was located at the most backward region of China in terms of economic development and level of educational attainment. Tibet accounts for 12.5% of Chinas area, which is 1.2 million square km. It is the highest region on earth with an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft). TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) is the most sparsely populated region in China. There are only 2.26 people per square km and 2.6 million of total population. Tibet is populated by Tibetans who live at altitudes 3600m above sea level. Only 20% Tibetan reside in urban areas and 80% live in both rural and nomadic livestock breeding areas. These areas are concentrated in southern and eastern parts. Tibetans are dispersed across a region of 3.8 million square km that stretch beyond TAR and into the surrounding regions of Kham and Amdo in Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan. They possess complex religion tradition and sophisticated writing system. The origin of Tibetan is still under study. In 2010, one Chinese study of genomic variation suggests that the majority of the Tibetan gene pool may have diverged from the Han around 3,000 years ago. However, there are possibilities of much earlier human inhabitation of Tibet and these early residents may have contributed to the modern Tibetan gene pool. Within Tibetan mythology, the origins of Tibetans are said to be rooted in the marriage of the monkey Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo. Chinese government has different approach aimed at assimilation or pluralism for different ethnic groups. As for Tibet, the main approach is assimilation. They took action to achieve assimilation in educational, cultural, political and economic aspects. For economic aspect, the economy of Tibetan is controlled and affected by Chinese government to a certain extent. There are numerous reasons behind the assimilation policies in economy. The basic purpose is to achieve the balance of socioeconomic development between the East and West. Therefore they can narrow the income gap of Tibetans, TAR and other provinces. A well developed economic can pacify the Tibetan as they are able to live peacefully. In a well developed environment, they will not be so eager to fight for independence. At last they can transfer Tibet from a planned economy to a market economy. The first policy done is China Western Development in 1999. A lot of components are included in this policy including the development of infrastructure, foreign investment, reforestation, promotion of education and so on. This attempt effectively raised the GDP in all western regions. As several railways were built, the

accessibility for the West including Tibet was increased. The construction of QinghaiTibet Railway Line increased the number of migrants of Han Chinese. This will stimulate competition and bring in skills. Tourism in Tibet was developed in a fast rate. It also led to the export of natural resources in Tibet to mainland China. Lastly, preferential policy is launched in Tibet. In 2007, general transfer payments reached 6.054 billion yuan, transfer payments in minority areas reached 652 million yuan. Besides, there was tax refund and preferential tax rate which was 3% lower than in other parts of the country. For the employees working outside, there were subsidies for one-off travel expense and monthly living allowances provided for them for encouragement. Among all the economic assimilation policies, the most effective one is the tourism boom. People around the world have growing interest in Tibetan culture and Buddhism due to the increase in accessibility and openness. The number of visitors increased from 2.5 million to 10.6million per year and the percentage increase for 2012 is 54.5%. As for the GDP and GDP per capita, it is a four-fold increase from 2001 to 2012. All these data show that the economic strategies done by Chinese government were effective in boosting the economic development in Tibet. With better economic status, Tibetan can enjoy better living standard. They would feel contented and with reduced incentives in rebellion. However, not every policies were effective in assimilation, it may also bring some adverse effect in Tibet. First, because of the uneven distribution of money and resources, so it actually failed to narrow the income gap. The migrant Han entrepreneurs elbowed out Tibetan rivals. Large Han-owned companies dominate the main industries, from mining to construction to tourism. Also, migrant Han and Tibetans competed for job opportunities. Although there were large numbers of economic migrants to the cities include Tibetans from rural Tibet, the economy was still dominated by Han from other provinces. All these are the results of liberalized labor migration policies. The education level in Tibet was not as high as Mainland China. The employers prefer to hire Han Chinese rather than Tibetans due to their dearth of skills and lack of experience in working fixed hours. Lastly, tourism was actually polluting the culture as they failed to build to a mutual understanding relationship. The tourists counterfeit Tibetans and disturbed Tibetans daily lives.

For educational aspect, there are a lot of preferential policies made for Tibetan. The tuition fees for ethnic Tibetans from primary school through college are completely subsidized by the central government from 2002 due to Great Western Development. However, Tibetan Buddhism is not incorporated into curriculum. Tibetan schools will follow Chinese national curriculum developed in Beijing. As a result, Chinese language has replaced Tibetan as the official language in schools. Undoubtedly, there was support from Central Government, financial support for school construction from other provinces. Therefore there was major progress in access rates and impressive improvements in facilities and teacher qualifications over the past ten years. However, improvements in school facilities do not directly lead to improvements in quality instruction and meaningful

learning. Educational development in Tibet remains behind the rest of the country. The improvement in part of the Tibet caused a widen gap between educated Chinese living in Tibet. The overall illiteracy rate in Tibet is 45% compared to 6.4% in Sichuan. The average schooling in Tibet in 2000 was 2.2 years only. This further led to low enrolment rates of Tibetans at TAR universities. The use of Mandarin caused marginalized status of Tibetan language. Central Government successfully increased the enrolment Higher enrolment rates and improved opportunities to attend school in the last 10 years. To a certain extent they achieved bilingual education. However there are much more ineffective assimilation policies in Tibet. Inland schools were dominated by urban children from cadre families instead of those from rural and nomadic regions. The attendance in Inland schools was low due to the parents backwardness and illiteracy in rural and nomadic Tibet. They perceived school education as cultural irrelevant. PRC spent only half the internationally recommended proportion of GDP on education. Lastly, for both cultural and political aspect, it is related mostly to the religion and Dalai Lama to a certain extent. For sure, Tibetans have their own unique and rich culture. Among all the culture, the most remarkable one is their religion. Over 65% of Tibetan are Buddhist. The origin of Tibetan Buddhism should trace back to the reign of King Trisong Detsen. The King invited famous Buddhist teachers to Tibet and Buddhism became the official religion of the Tibetan people. The turning point is the arrival of the great tantric mystic Padmasambhava in Tibet in 774 at the invitation of King. He is the one who merged tantric Buddhism with the local Bn religion to form what we now recognize as Tibetan Buddhism. From 1642 to 1959, the Dalai Lama was the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. Until the Chinese takeover in 1959, 14th Dalai Lama exiled to India. Even now, he still holds the central place in Tibetan culture. The distinctive belief in religion and Dalai Lama sharply differentiates Tibetan from Chinese. In order to prevent political instability, the Chinese government has established numerous measures to assimilate Tibetan into Han Chinese. The main aim for the policies is to diminish the importance of Dalai Lama. It is illegal to sell or possess images of Dalai Lama in many areas of Tibet . 14th Dalai Lama was prevented from journeying to Lhasa, the capital, until he was six. Government will use media as their mouthpiece. After 1959, China has taken over Tibet. Massive destruction of Tibets culture occurred. More than 6000 monasteries, temples and other cultural and historic buildings were destroyed. Those monasteries and temples were symbols of Tibetan Buddhism and held an irreplaceable position among Tibetan. The most invasive measure was destruction of monasteries. In 2013, Chinese authorities have begun demolishing the Buddhist sites of Lhasa, including the most important site named Tibet's holiest Jokhang Temple. Of the 6,259 monasteries in Tibet before the Chinese occupation, only eight remained in 1976.

China has shifted the policy in Tibet in order to suppress and restrict religious growth actively. The measures included halting unauthorized rebuilding of monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and setting limits on the number of monks and nuns in all monasteries. The number of monks and nuns has been limited to 46,000, down from 150,000 before the 1959 rebellion. Besides, they also enforce restrictions on youths joining monasteries, prohibiting Tibetan Party members from practicing religion, and strengthen the control of the government and Party over each monastery through Democratic Management Committees. Recently, there has been another project started in Lhasa. Chinese authorities began demolishing the ancient capital of Lhasa, including one of the most important Buddhist sites-Jokhang Temple. They would like to develop Lhasa into a tourist city similar to Lijiang. Some large-scale construction projects include construction of shopping mall and underground parking. Obviously, the modernization of Tibet will diminish the original culture and colour there. Tibet will easily be assimilated into other part of China and lose their own religious culture. In a more political approach, Chinese government developed centralized government in Tibet. It is led by a Chairman subordinate to Communist Party of China. In addition, the party secretary is non-Tibetan. They tried to separate religion and state as well as abolish the caste system. Nevertheless, the assimilation policies have aroused vigorous rebellion by the Tibetan. The action and policies of Chinese government were too invasive and strong. This caused resistance from the Tibetan. More than 100 Tibetans in Tibet have set themselves on fire in protest of the Chinese governments oppressive regime. With their spiritual leader Dalai Lama, the deep-rooted religious belief in Dalai Lama cannot be easily diminished. Other than religion, there are some other measures done for cultural assimilation. For agriculture, re-settlement policy is an effective measure. The traditional form of farming in Tibet was pastoral nomadism. However, Chinese government replaced it with intensive and modern practices. They fenced off pastures. Tibetan were forced to settle in urban areas. According to 2012 the UN Special Rapporteur for Food agreed with Free Tibet's findings, this resettlement policy is having a severely negative impact on Tibetan herders ability to maintain their traditional livelihoods and threatens to eradicate this form of cultural identity. It also risks damaging the sensitive environment of the Tibetan plateau. China has successfully changed the farming style of Tibetan to a certain extent. One million nomadic herders have been forcibly moved from their traditional grazing lands. Changing of farming style may not have direct impact on the change of culture in Tibet. It was indeed part of the modernization of Tibet. The conservative and traditional ways of farming are also considered culture of Tibet and need preservation. The reforming of farming systems caused a loss in Tibetan culture.

Secondly, the unpopular policies have huge impact on Tibetan culture as a whole. Chinese government offered incentives to the Han Chinese who migrate to Tibet. This caused large influx of Chinese into major towns of Tibet. Han immigrants, mostly doctors and teachers, work in Tibet for a number of years in exchange for money or a much improved chance at promotion. Han teachers combined with cultural suppression in Tibet make the youth very difficult to learn about their native culture outside home. 14th Dalai Lama called the policy a calculated and systematic strategy aimed at the destruction of their national and cultural identities in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech. The infiltration of Han people into Tibet is a natural way for the merging of Han and Tibet culture. It was a soft strategy done by the Chinese government. However, there are still some ineffective assimilation strategies. Tibetan women are forced to bear at least one Chinese child which aimed at cultural merge. However, many Tibetan men killed their wives because of this policy. The cruel consequence signified that the policy have sparked the most outrage from Tibetans. To conclude, religion is the central core value that links every Tibetan together and distinguishes them from Han Chinese. Therefore Chinese tried to assimilate the Tibetan by restricting the religious belief and dampen the impact of Dalai Lama on Tibet. The policies by the Central Government nearly all targeted on assimilation. The threat brought by Tibetan is huge that Central government tends to assimilate Tibetan. Therefore I think that China tried different strategies to Sinicize Tibetan, however the action did cause remarkable amount of rebellion by the Tibetan.