›› Lectures et opinions
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Black claims and grey reality
SFT insists that the ultimate Chinese aim is to remove the nomads from the pasture. They claim that climate change is the reason why the Tibetan plateau is depleted, that overgrazing is a pretext to park the nomads and let the pasture regenerate. The truth is much more complex ; there are too many animals, herding is the nomad’s only skill so they increase the numbers to boost their earnings. Cash has become a hot commodity that buys motorcycles, televisions and now, cars.
There were fewer animals in the past, and fewer needs, though local wars over grazing rights were a constant occurrence. It is dangerous for the nomads to advocate that overgrazing exists ; it gives a reason to be for the strange experiments that got some of them parked into towns. They have no other form of income, no modern skill to use their natural assets, basically, no other choice.
SFT uses the photos of the new towns and nomad housing to press their charge of resettlement. These forms of housing exist all over the plateau, a trend that began in the 70’s at the time of the communes and called ‘winter settlements’. At that time, they were built of wood and stone, and offered winter shelter.
The present scheme, begun en masse around 2000, is still called « winter villages » and in most places, the houses are distributed on a lucky draw basis, free or subsidized. In some areas, the contractors and local officials took big cuts and, in others, the nomads were penalized for not moving in. The settlements are in the village’s administrative center, along with the school, the monastery and the CCP office. They are meant to offer a home for the winter months and a place where older people can stay with children attending the local school, while the rest of the family is out in pasture.
I could site many other cases involving differing reports on education or the use of Tibetan language, but the aim of this paper is not to catalog the differences and misinterpretations propagated by Tibet Support groups. The aim is to evaluate the constructive aspect of such a strategy and the effect that such strategies hold, in Tibet especially.
The Opening of China, Tibet loosens
China is a country that has lived under dictatorship for the last sixty years. People had grown used to difficult conditions, and even after the open door policy, have learned to circumvent the system to get that whey want. They are patient and complain little. They accept abuse though increasingly they are getting to know that there are ways around that too.
They know how to wait, and most Chinese live normal lives. Things may be unfair but thinking they are doesn’t make them go away. Outsmarting the system is better ; it gets you what you want without the risk. The loosening effect had been slower in remote areas, especially Tibet and the Western provinces that are the home of several million Tibetans. In spite of that, between 2003 and 2008, the system had progressively eased to allow more and more movement ; private schooling, and increasing number of NGO’s that provided help in training and education, passports being issued and for those who could afford it, opportunities to travel and study abroad.
Local officials eager to participate in developments that could earn them a promotion welcomed new ideas. Tourist was on the rise, and with it, jobs for many young Tibetans who had learned English abroad. This brought in new people, new exchanges and ideas. In 2006, several tens of thousands of pilgrims from Tibet crossed the border to attend the Kalachakra Initiation in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. Special buses that drove right through the border in Dam were arranged to accommodate the flow between Katmandu and Lhasa. In 2004, there was even talk of issuing permits to all the Tibetans in exile who wished to visit their families and of cancelling special permits to Lhasa altogether.
2008 : the Hardening of Tibet
Then came the riots in 2008 and everything clamped down ; NGO’s were evicted, schools shut down, English programs halted and the students disbanded, areas closed to tourists months at a time, passports no longer renewed, singers arrested. Most people accepted quietly ; they had seen worse and cynicism mixed with hopelessness settled in.
Many tour guides went out of business and went for other occupations. In 2012, about 20,000 pilgrims crossed the border to attend the Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya. On their return, a great number were arrested and placed in hotels (that they had to pay for) to receive « special reeducation » for ten days to a month.
Others, from Kham and Amdo, were ordered to return to their homes without stopping in Lhasa. Since the self immolation of two Tibetans from Qinghai last year, all Tibetan from outside the TAR need permits to go there. While the activists claim that they will get rid of the Chinese by making their life impossible, people in Tibet watch as the little freedoms they had waited so longer for being taken away.
Life goes on, it just gets a little more hopeless and depressing. The only hope they have to cling onto is that the world is watching, that people outside of Tibet care, that the activists, whom they believe to have powers well beyond the reality will set things right.
Tibetans caught on quickly that rioting would only bring more repression. They chose non-violent demonstrations and self-immolation to express their dissatisfaction with the increasingly tense situation. When one person self immolates, others feel encouraged to follow, especially if this was a prominent and respected person.
The activist groups watch eagerly, documenting each one, praising the immolators as heroes, a proof to the world that Tibet is being oppressed beyond tolerance, justifying their campaign. They have little idea of the mood in Tibet and how a place feels when self-immolation happens.
People know immediately ; there are sad whispers and sighs, worry that one will lead to another, wondering when the next clamp down will occur. There is also solidarity, Losar is more quiet, shunning singing and dancing, the only things that lightened up the hard life of the farmer of nomad.
A strange rumor began to circulate around November last year, when the numbers got close to 100, a belief that if the numbers can reach the magic number of 200, something out there will happen to answer their prayers ; the Dalai Lama will come back, freedom denied will be restored, Tibet will be free, the wishes expressed in the last words spoken by the self immolator’s will be granted.
In a move to find the perpetrators, the authorities, who claim that the self-immolations are orchestrated by the “Dalai Clique” harass innocent people from India or Nepal visiting their families in a show of finding culprits. It is difficult to say that self -immolation is « non violent ». Rather, it is directing violence on oneself instead of on the outside, to make one last point. Besides creating despair and increasing unease with the authorities that don’t know what to think or how to react, they are much talked about and little understood. They also offer no solution, only feeds the fire of the activists who themselves, in spite of the their claims do little besides much noise.