Epoch Times – The Distorted Image of Tibet (Part I)

Interview with a Han Chinese woman who discovered that the Tibetan people are different than the image propagated by the Communist Party.

Go directly to Part I
See also Parts II, III, and IV

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Tibet report – Chinese Government à la G.Orwells 1984

vLog with Tibetan Connection Radio reporter Lhakpa Kyizom about staged news events, violence, continued repression and a new Chinese Policy implemented to gain control of selecting the next Dalai Lama.

Chinese Policy: “Order Nr.5 is all the reincarnations of the high lamas are selected by the Tibetans (…) but now the Chinese they want to control that reincarnation through their Order Nr.5 and want to put their control over the reincarnation of the lamas. If his Holiness passes away they have the control of the next Dalai Lama.”

Go to the Digg story below to see the video.

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Forty five years

Forty five years ago I came in direct contact with Tibetan culture for the first time. Prior to that I had seen Tibetan caravans traveling through Tansen, Palpa, Nepal. I was well aware of the situation on the other side of the Himalayan mountains and I had even been in the audience when the Dalai Lama visited my school in Mussoorie, U.P. India soon after his escape from Tibet in 1959.

It was December, 1964. I was sixteen then. We had holidays in the winter because the school was in the mountains and I had been invited on a bird collecting expedition up the Kali Gandaki River. We hiked from Pokhara up over the Ghorepani pass to the Kali Gandaki and then up the river from Tatopani to Lete, Ghasa, and the amazing bend in the river at the foot of Dhaulagiri. (I’m sure I can claim to be one of the very first expatriates on what has come to be known as the “Annapurna Curcuit” and very definitely the first teenager.)

Trekking in Nepal, age 18

At this point I stood in the deepest gorge above sea level; the river runs at 6,000 feet above sea level while both Dhaulagiri to the west and Annapurna further to the east are above 26,000 feet. Another amazing thing about this bend in the river is the abrupt climate and ecological change from subtropic and temperate to desert alpine; from the lush southern slopes of the Himalayas that get drenched with monsoon rains to the arid trans-Himalayan plateau of Tibet. Culturally, of course, there is also a remarkable abrupt change – from Indian Subcontinental to Central Asian.

Now I’m sixty one. It’s been forty five years since I was on that expedition. Further up the Kali Gandaki River, just beyond Jomsom on our way up to Muktinath, the three of us – two Americans and a Briton – found ourselves surrounded by armed men on horseback. They demanded to know where we were going and what we were doing with guns. I wasn’t carrying one, but the other two had shotguns for bagging larger birds we would be sending off for the Chicago Natural History Museum’s collection of Himalayan birds. One of the men on horseback rode over and grabbed a shotgun and examined it. It was passed around and examined carefully. My collegue opened up one of the shotgun shells and showed the horseman the tiny birdshot inside. We were suddenly surrounded by horsemen howling with laughter when it was clear to them we were hunting and collecting birds. We showed them a few specimens.

In broken English and Nepali we managed to communicate with these rough riders. We discovered – and had already guessed – that they were Khampa warriors who were engaging and harassing the People’s Liberation Army across the border inside Chinese occupied Tibet. When they learned that two of us were Americans they did the thumbs up sign and said, “America, good!” They pointed to the sky and indicated supplies were dropped by American planes.

The conflict between Tibetans and Chinese Communism has been going on for over fifty years. The armed struggle by this tiny group of warriors stopped ten years later (by 1974). That is an interesting story all its own. Since then the Dalai Lama has tried to reach an understanding with the leaders of China about the occupation of Tibet. But this is a story that many people are well aware of especially since the world wide protests against Chinese suppression of Tibetan human rights during the Olympic Torch Relays earlier this year.

I have visited Western Sichuan, or Kham – where the Khampa warriors come from – but I have not been to Lhasa or any part of the TAR. Someday I would like to go there, someday when both Tibetans and Chinese recognize their interdependence and can live with mutual respect and affection for each other.

Lhasa Leaders Sacked

An article in the Guardian today reported that two of the top people in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) have been sacked – Wang Binyi, police chief and Qin Yizhi, deputy governor of the region. Qin made the world media last summer when the Olympic torch relay went through Lhasa for saying the Communist party would “smash the scheming of the Dalai clique”.

We can only wonder why these two were sacked. Hopefully, it is a sign that the Communist Party finally realizes they can’t tolerate bullies if they want to become full participants with the rest of the world. We can only wait and see how their successors behave.

Wedding Pictures in an Earthquake

Another friend of mine, John Chaffee, who is a professor of Chinese Studies sent the following series of pictures that were sent to him by a Taiwanese friend. The friend was taking pictures of a young couple at the White Deer Chapel in Pengzhau, Sichuan when the earthquake struck. The photographer was able to keep his wits and capture these very dramatic images.

The Great Earthquake of Sichuan, May 12 2008

It happened when we were taking wedding pictures.

We were taking pictures for a new couple in White Deer Chapel in Pengzhou, Sichuan. Suddenly there was an enormous quake, and the hundred-year old church was wiped out in a split moment.

It is May 12. We were there to take wedding pictures. The session began at two and after only a few pictures were taken, the catastrophe struck. When we saw big chunks of stone falling off the church and the earth was shaking, we realized there was an earthquake. Knowing that there was no place to hide, we lay on our stomach and used hands to protect heads. It is the end of the world, I thought. Not courage, but the seeming loss of hope that, while crawling on the ground, I managed to raise my camera to take these pictures.

It was chokingly dark. all I could hear was the sound of falling buildings.

As the shaking came to an end and the dust began to settle, we all stood up to see what had happened, despondently horrified.

In a split second, the church that only recently celebrated its 100th anniversary became a pile of rubble.

We helped each other to stand up; looking around we could not believe what we saw.

2:41 in the afternoon of May 12. The camera recorded the time. Inset is the church before it fell.

We thought the quake was only limited to this area and tried to call for help.

There was no way that we could secure help and then there were continued aftershocks.

We started to retreat from the rubble. On the way all we saw were despondent scenes; the neighboring villages were severely damaged.

We and the villagers immediately started self-rescuing actions. Fortunately all 33 people taking pictures in the chapel were not hurt.

The fire that evening was the only consolation for the terrified visitors. We thank the hospitality of the kind villagers. Since the roads were all damaged we had to leave the car behind and walked home.

The Power of Nature

Gao Li Qiang sent another eye witness account – but not his own. This time it was a friend of his who went into the mountains after the earthquake to see what had happened there. Gao writes the commentary for the following pictures:

The following below pictures were not taken by me - they show another face that we do not see on TV.

 

This woman pointed to where she just finished her work in the field. On her way home, she saw something she would never forget. It took only one second and the whole village was buried.

She said there is always a chance for people to escape if there was one landslide but this was too sudden, no time for people to do anything to save their lives.

A local villager said this small stream was deep. Now the pile of earth is quite level and the plants don’t look demolished, everything looks that normal. But this pile of earth was not here before. The local villager said that the mountain was like “bombing out” and this earth was thrown here. There was blare coming from inside the earth and then the mountain spurted out red magma several decameters high!

With the eruption a large crack opened and the village fell directly into it.

A young witness said there were several houses still there and people came from the houses running directly to the river. Unfortunately all of them fell into the crevasse. Very soon another toneless blare came out of the earth and the crevice closed.

The trail on this small hill is new.  The valley was over 100 meters deep.  Now the valley has been filled up with soil. A village has been buried under it.

This was a large flat field of wheat. Now it is covered by one pile of earth that was blasted off the side of that mountain several kilometers away.

Villagers who have been living here since birth cannot find where their houses were located because the land has changed so tremendously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite earthquake, Tibetan crackdown continues

Recently Hong Kong reporters were allowed into Lhasa. They reported armed police in the streets and continued heavy-handedness by the local communist party. 

An article in Reuters, Hong Kong warns that the situation is getting worse despite international pressure. The earthquake in Sichuan is diverting attention from the Tibetan problem. This is being used as a convenient moment to apply more pressure to force compliance. 

The earthquake and the Tibetan human rights protests are two huge challenges for the government. 

Voices of Reason from Inside China

Below is something from Joey Ayoub on Facebook. He’s included a document written by several well-know Chinese dissidents that I thought worth repeating. Please read the following document realizing that there are people inside China who don’t automatically believe the government’s propaganda. This document accentuates how effective the Chinese media is in controlling what most Chinese people believe and what it is telling the world.

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March 22, 2008

Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibetan Situation by Some Chinese Intellectuals

1. At present the one-sided propaganda of the official Chinese media is having the effect of stirring up inter-ethnic animosity and aggravating an already tense situation. This is extremely detrimental to the long-term goal of safeguarding national unity. We call for such propaganda to be stopped.

2. We support the Dalai Lama’s appeal for peace, and hope that the ethnic conflict can be dealt with according to the principles of goodwill, peace, and non-violence. We condemn any violent act against innocent people, strongly urge the Chinese government to stop the violent suppression, and appeal to the Tibetan people likewise not to engage in violent activities.

3. The Chinese government claims that “there is sufficient evidence to prove this incident was organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated by the Dalai clique.” We hope that the government will show proof of this. In order to change the international community’s negative view and distrustful attitude, we also suggest that the government invite the United Nation¹s Commission on Human Rights to carry out an independent investigation of the evidence, the course of the incident, the number of casualties, etc.

4. In our opinion, such Cultural-Revolution-like language as “he Dalai Lama is a jackal in Buddhist monk¹s robes and an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast” used by the Chinese Communist Party leadership in the Tibet Autonomous Region is of no help in easing the situation, nor is it beneficial to the Chinese government¹s image. As the Chinese government is committed to integrating into the international community, we maintain that it should display a style of governing that conforms to the standards of modern civilization.

5. We note that on the very day when the violence erupted in Lhasa (March 14), the leaders of the Tibet Autonomous Region declared that “there is sufficient evidence to prove this incident was organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated by the Dalai clique.” This shows that the authorities in Tibet knew in advance that the riot would occur, yet did nothing effective to prevent the incident from happening or escalating. If there was a dereliction of duty, a serious investigation must be carried out to determine this and deal with it accordingly.

6. If in the end it cannot be proved that this was an organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated event but was instead a “popular revolt” triggered by events, then the authorities should pursue those responsible for inciting the popular revolt and concocting false information to deceive the Central Government and the people; they should also seriously reflect on what can be learned from this event so as to avoid taking the same course in the future.

7. We strongly demand that the authorities not subject every Tibetan to political investigation or revenge. The trials of those who have been arrested must be carried out according to judicial procedures that are open, just, and transparent so as to ensure that all parties are satisfied.

8. We urge the Chinese government to allow credible national and international media to go into Tibetan areas to conduct independent interviews and news reports. In our view, the current news blockade cannot gain credit with the Chinese people or the international community, and is harmful to the credibility of the Chinese government. If the government grasps the true situation, it need not fear challenges. Only by adopting an open attitude can we turn around the international community’s distrust of our government.

9. We appeal to the Chinese people and overseas Chinese to be calm and tolerant, and to reflect deeply on what is happening. Adopting a posture of aggressive nationalism will only invite antipathy from the international community and harm China’s international image.

10. The disturbances in Tibet in the 1980s were limited to Lhasa, whereas this time they have spread to many Tibetan areas. This deterioration indicates that there are serious mistakes in the work that has been done with regard to Tibet. The relevant government departments must conscientiously reflect upon this matter, examine their failures, and fundamentally change the failed nationality policies.

11. In order to prevent similar incidents from happening in future, the government must abide by the freedom of religious belief and the freedom of speech explicitly enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, thereby allowing the Tibetan people fully to express their grievances and hopes, and permitting citizens of all nationalities freely to criticize and make suggestions regarding the government¹s nationality policies.

12. We hold that we must eliminate animosity and bring about national reconciliation, not continue to increase divisions between nationalities. A country that wishes to avoid the partition of its territory must first avoid divisions among its nationalities. Therefore, we appeal to the leaders of our country to hold direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama. We hope that the Chinese and Tibetan people will do away with the misunderstandings between them, develop their interactions with each other, and achieve unity. Government departments as much as popular organizations and religious figures should make great efforts toward this goal.

Signatures:

Wang Lixiong (Beijing, Writer) Liu Xiaobo (Beijing, Freelance Writer) Zhang Zuhua (Beijing, scholar of constitutionalism) Sha Yexin (Shanghai, writer, Chinese Muslim) Yu Haocheng (Beijing, jurist) Ding Zilin (Beijing, professor) Jiang peikun (Beijing, professor) Yu Jie (Beijing, writer) Sun Wenguang (Shangdong, professor) Ran Yunfei (Sichuan, editor, Tujia nationality) Pu Zhiqiang (Beijing, lawyer) Teng Biao (Beijing, Layer and scholar) Liao Yiwu ()Sichuan, writer) Wang Qisheng (Beijing, scholar) Zhang Xianling (Beijing, engineer) Xu Jue (Beijing, research fellow) Li Jun (Gansu, photographer) Gao Yu (Beijing, journalist) Wang Debang (Beijing, freelance writer) Zhao Dagong (Shenzhen, freelance writer) Jiang Danwen (Shanghai, writer) Liu Yi (Gansu, painter) Xu Hui (Beijing, writer) Wang Tiancheng (Beijing, scholar) Wen kejian (Hangzhou, freelance) Li Hai (Beijing, freelance writer) Tian Yongde (Inner Mongolia, folk human rights activists) Zan Aizong (Hangzhou, journalist) Liu Yiming (Hubei, freelance writer)

__________________________

If China wants to join the international community, as it has declared by hosting the Olympics, the world – and the Chinese people – need to see some radical changes taking place immediately. Unfortunately this is unlikely; instead they are directing their people’s emotions toward ugly racist nationalism that mirrors Nazism during the 1930’s and 40’s.

Shrill voices of unreason calling for a boycott of all French products outside of many Carrefour grocery stores – which the government says “supports the Dalai Lama” – are an emotional response to what the government is printing in the national media. This is the result of the story of the man in Paris grabbing the torch from the Chinese woman in a wheelchair. The story has been used to jerk tears and inflame nationalist passion. Now that the government sees that this isn’t good for international relations, they are trying to tell the people to be “calm” and “rational” while patriotic zeal should “concentrate on development”. (The Guardian, Monday April 21 2008)

The government must be following the principle that the end justifies the means – the end being economic growth and the “development” of China as the world’s next superpower. The means, unfortunately, continues to trample the rights of the people.

This is a long, long way from the high ideals of communism!

Olympic torch fiasco

The Chinese people have put so much nationalistic pride into the Olympics and the Torch Relay. And now that protests have marred the glorious moment, they are turning their hurt pride and anger against the rest of the world. The Chinese government, taking this as an excuse, will crackdown harder than ever before on dissidents, Tibetan protesters and “criminal elements” out to “split” China.

Read this article by my colleague Kent Ewing in Asia Times for a full account of recent events: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JD16Ad01.html

On another note, the Chinese were unaware when they embraced the Olympic torch idea that this “ancient, sacred tradition”, was invented by Leni Riefenstadl, Hitler’s filmmaker for the 1936 Olympics! It served Hitler well, and now the Chinese are breaking distance and number of cities visited records! They even plan to take it to the top of Mt Everest. Slate magazine said this about it:

“It seems Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s filmmaker, invented the torch relay for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and then deployed it with “terrifying mastery,” according to Die Welt, in her film Olympia.

What a disappointment this must all be for the China Daily, the English-language organ of the Chinese Communist Party, which last month bragged that the 2008 torch relay “will traverse the longest distance, cover the greatest area and include the largest number of people” since this ancient Greek custom was invented by the Nazis in 1936. After the chaos in Paris, the same newspaper was reduced to spluttering at the French press, the French people, and French culture itself: “Pride and prejudice,” the newspaper intoned, have “cast a shadow on this ancient civilization.”

“How utterly predictable. Even without the recent riots in Tibet, anything as ludicrous as a 130-day, 85,000-mile torch relay was going to attract a healthy dose of negative attention. Why does the thing have to go to so many cities, after all? Why does it need to go through Tibet? Why is it surrounded by track-suited thugs? Why does it travel in a customized jumbo jet? Wasn’t this supposed to be a relay? And what is the symbolic significance of a battery-operated chemical flame, anyway? What does it have to do with athletes or world peace? Any ceremony of such profound inauthenticity—the Chinese are calling it the “journey of harmony”—deserves to be disharmoniously disrupted as often as possible.” http://www.slate.com/id/2188974/

The Folly of Force

Its not working. Never has, never will.

No amount of preaching and moralizing will force things to happen. Nor will the use of force when your preaching and “you shouldings” or even “let’s all” (Confucianism/communism) fails.

People, especially the rugged, open-air Tibetan nomads, don’t respond to the group-mind of the hypnotized.

Societies like the Chinese have functioned for centuries because of the power of its ability to socialize its members. By successfully promoting the idea that each individual is a separate creature with outwardly focused needs and functions, it makes the individual incapable of seeing that life is more than struggling for material needs and social rules. In this kind of society people do as they are told and force is sanctioned if people don’t. (Read Franz Kafta’s The Great Wall of China and for good measure, how about Alan Watts’ The Book – On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are)

This kind of mental outlook is incapable of understanding the worldview of people who are still connected to the spiritual side of life; who are better balanced between their left-brain and right-brain; who see through the hallucination of separation (the divide and conquer mentality); who cultivate compassion as the highest value.

No wonder, then, that Chinese leadership – and the propagandized public – is having such a hard time comprehending what the Dalai Lama and hundreds of thousands of monks, nuns and ordinary people in Tibet really want. Fifty years of preaching and force have not changed the nature of the people who live surrounded by a landscape that inspires the soul to be in awe of the grandeur of life.

For more background of the Chinese view of Tibet read Asia Times Online: Tibet a defining issue for China
by Francesco Sisci in Beijing.