We went to Tibet with the idea of visiting Lhasa and to undertake a 5-day trek between Ganden and Samye monasteries. It was more or less to escape the ueber-modern landscape that is Hong Kong and spend some time in one of the last few truly “open” spaces in the world. It was also a chance to get a first person perspective on an issue that keeps resurfacing in the news, namely that of Tibet independence. The newspapers were full of conflicting reports so I was looking forward to seeing first hand how Tibet had managed under 50 years of Chinese rule.
I’d already heard the Chinese perspective and it was one heavily influenced by denigrating propaganda and extreme narrow-mindedness. An earnest Chinese national in my journalism course in Hong Kong, once stated that Tibetans were primitive to the point that they were unable to properly govern themselves and barbaric (they have ancient drums made from human skin in some of the monasteries). When asked if she’d ever been to Tibet, or even talked to a native Tibetan, her answer was an unaffected “no”. For a journalism student to unquestioningly accept a singular version of things was disheartening (particularly based on facts so transparently biased). The fact that the year was 2006, and she was 23 years old, made it all the more so.
So it was time to get the other side of the story, but after landing in Lhasa it quickly became clear that it wouldn’t be so easy. We soon found out that tourists spend most of their time in Lhasa in the “Tibetan Quarter”. It was the first capital city I have ever visited where the nationals themselves were swept into a “quarter”. It’s like visiting Paris and spending time in the “French quarter”. We were also a bit dismayed to find that our drivers, guides and hotel managers were all Han Chinese. Even in the Tibetan Quarter, many of the businesses were run by Han Chinese.
It was only four days later when we embarked on our trek that we were given a Tibetan guide (the Chinese evidently don’t trek). Outfitted with yak herders, yaks and a young Tibetan student as our guide, we were one day out of Ganden monastery (and I suppose literally out of earshot of any Chinese) that our guides started opening up and talking about what was going on in their country. It was an eye opening experience. Although the Chinese genuinely believe they are doing the Tibetans a favour by pouring money into the country, it became abundantly clear that the Tibetans didn’t want it. In addition to feeling marginalised in their own country, there is such a fundamental gulf in national psyches, that it’s unlikely that the two can ever be reconciled.
Our Tibetan guide told us a story of a yak herder relative who was approached by a Chinese businessman intent of helping him grow his yak herds into a profitable butcher business. The Tibetan, who like most of his countrymen, treat the animals as part of the family, to be slaughtered only when necessary and giving thanks for the nourishment provided, was baffled. He was horrified at the idea of turning the yaks into a soulless business simply to have “more”, when he felt he had “enough”. This clash between the industrial Chinese and the sustainable Tibetans seems to be commonplace, with the Chinese viewing the Tibetans as ignorant and ungrateful and the Tibetans viewing the Chinese as unethical and greedy.
It’s easy to feel sympathy with the Tibetans. To say that not all aspects of modernisation are beneficial is an understatement, and you only have to take a look at mainland China to hope that the Chinese don’t modernise Tibet to the same extent. But it’s not looking promising. For the first time in its long history, Lhasa has air pollution. One can’t help but feel that if the Tibetans could’ve just been left alone to carry on, they’d get along just fine without the rest of us.
