Tibet’s yearning for autonomy creates problem for China

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 20

Tibet’s yearning for autonomy creates problem for China

Ken Coates, who recently returned from China, on unrest in an ancient Himalayan region

THE PASSIONS unleashed ajmong Tibetans on the ‘doof of the world" will not be quenched by Chinese force.

Ironically, the discontent in the. “Tibet Autonomous Region,” as the Chinese call it. is partly the. outcome of the more liberal policies of o the Deng Xiaoping Government.

In the Maoist era, particularly in the dark days of the Cultural Revolution, Tibet was not only run like a subject colony, but it was the target of vicious persecution and destruction.

After the Chinese military invaded in 1950 and then violently suppressed a rebellion in 1959, there was the “destroy the four olds” campaign. This was against old ideas, culture, customs and habits. In it nearly all of Tibet's 2500 sacred temples were wrecked by rampaging Red Guards. i

Many of the 200,000 monks were either executed or set to work in labour camps. The 500,000 Chinese soldiers were unwelcome to many Tibetans, as was the influx of civilians. Attempts were made to settle on the land Tibetans who had roamed the highlands as herdsmen for centuries, and nuclear bases were sited in the region, which is rich in minerals.

But after Mr Deng took over, China began to admit the errors of its ways. It regretted farming mistakes and large-scale destruction of monasteries and temples. Moves, were made to correct the exclusion of Tibetans from key posts held by Han (Chinese ethmic majority) people. ! Some remaining temples and monasteries were restored. Religious worship was allowed and in the temples the rancid-sweet smell of burning yak butter min-

;gled with medieval mustiness. I This practice was considered. I wasteful in the pre-Deng era. The central -Government's; Bureau of Religious Affairs, how-; ! ever, still carefully controls the' i number and selection of priests ! allowed into the priesthood. ! China pumped SUS2 billion ) into the Tibetan economy after i 1950, according to the official I “China Daily.”

j All this helped the local econ- ! omy somewhat, and enabled i China to cash in on a lucrative ! tourist trade, but it also stimu- ! lated the Tibetans’ strong sense of cultural identity. Enormous damage was done to this sense of identity by the horrendous ) depredations of the Cultural , Revolution jin the late 19605. ! I In spite of the improvements since then, last year Mr Hu Yaobang, a key man in the Beijing hierarchy held respons- ! ible for a clearer vision on Tibet, was sacked. <

Many of the large exiled Tibetan community living outside Tibet. have gone to and flourished at ! foreign universities. These people are the most alienated by suppression of the Tibetan identity. They are reported to constitute the dedicated core of activist urgings for independence. ; Even Cai Rang, the first Tibetan to gain a degree of Master of! Business Administration 1 in the United States, after education jin China, wrote to the “China Daily,” lamenting the lack of trained Tibetan specialists., Cai Rang rejected the Dalai

Lama’s allegations of violation of human rights in Tibet and independence, but urged that reforms be speeded up. ! ). “We have almost no qualified scientists,! economists, engineers, managers and other specialists,” he wrote.

This raises the question as to whether the Chinese moved too little too late. There is a new generation emerging from the oppressive theocracy that was Tibet for centuries.

It was true in old Tibet that serf-owners were free to punish, torture or kill their serfs. All manner of medieval horrors were used, such as fetters, thumb-screws, wooden pillories, hooks to gouge out eyes, knives to split noses and hamstrings and rip out hearts. Serfs suffered from the unpaid goods and service system (Ulag) extorted by wealthy owners. Now the complaints centre on unequal development compared with the rest of China. It was reported in the official Chinese press that out of every 10,000 Tibetans, only 753 are jin school, compared with the national average of 1777.

More central Government money has been pledged, and promises made on more places for Tibetan children at schools elsewhere in ; China. This does not fully square with the aspirations of Tibetans seeking cultural identity who want more schools in Tibet with teaching in the. Tibetan language.

International attention j is directed at Tibet by the Dalai

Lama and his well organised lobby of followers. The Dalai Lama, who wears the red and yellow robes of a Tibetan monk, fled to India in 1959 after 150,000 Chinese troops moved against the rebel locals. Some 87,000 Tibetans died in the uprising.

The official Chinese line is that Tibet has been part of China for 700 years. They say it came under the central Government in the thirteenth century, and they are fond of telling of the Chinese princess who married a Tibetan king in 641. But the Dalai Lama claims the Chinese are going too far in I Tibet. He says they are colonising the Tibetan highlands and he sees a danger that Tibetans could become a minority, swamped by masses of Chinese settlers. In a recent interview he said this was serious for Tibetans, their culture and ancestral heritage. He termed it “a final solution to the Tibetan problem.” The Dalai Lama has proposed •a five-point peaceful settlement plan:

A zone of peace; discontinuation of China’s population transfer; respect for rights and democratic liberties for Tibetans; no more manufacture of nuclear weapons and storing of radioactive wastes in Tibet; negotiations on future status and on Tibetan-Chinese relations.

China has consistently rejected charges of political prisoners being held in Tibet, saying China only has criminals and a crime rate of only 0.53 per thousand,

perhaps the lowest in the world. On the alleged colonisation issue, China has stated the number of Han people in' Tibet is only about 76,000. j

Tibetans are said to enjoy special! freedoms fpr minorities, such as regional autonomy, use of their own language, their own newspapers and school textbooks, and freedom of religious belief and customs.

Complicating the whole issue is the fact that the Dalai Lama is a political as well ,as spiritual leader to most Tibetans. The Chinese would like him back, but safely in Beijing, rather than ensconced in his formidable fortress palace, the Potala, lin Lhasa. j

So long as Tibet's place in the Chinese scheme of things 'remains unsettled and the Dalai Lama is free to speak out; it seems protests ! will continue’ to erupt;