Forgotten People of Tibet

By: Bikal Dhungel 

Tibet has been an independent country in history, except for some time as a part of China. It has one of the world’s oldest cultures. Tibetan culture is unfortunately vanishing due to the current political turmoil. 

With the invasion of Tibet from the Peoples Republic of China in 1950, there has been political instability in the Himalayan region. China controlled the region which resulted the rebellion, killing tens of thousands of Tibetans and the 14^th Dalai Lama fled to exile. According to Central Tibetan Administration, approximately  1.2 million people died of voilence, starvation and many different reasons what the Chinese authorities deny. During the peroid between 1959 and 1979 the population of Tibet was reduced by one million but during the same period the Chinese population almost doubled. It gives a clear fact about how many Tibetan deaths were there.Thousands of other untold stories might be hidden inside the stones all over Tibet which the world will never know. 

Even in the start of 21^st century, the behaviour of China is same as it was in the fifties. According to the NGO ‘Save Tibet’ website, the tibetans are denied most fundamental human rights including freedom of speech, expression, freedom of movement and the right to self determination. United Nations Development Programm (UNDP) ranks Tibet lowest in human development index among the provinces of China. Whole economy is based on tourism and the subsidies by the central government. Optimists believe that the Railway link between Qinghai and Lhasa would help the economy to grow but the initial motive behind this project was to ease the Han Chinese migration to Tibet. Han chinese are the largest ethnic group in China. In a nation of  over one billion people, if only ten million of them migrate to Tibet, the tibetans will be a minority group in their own country and the local culture will be extinguished. This process is on the way and it is obvious that the Han Chinese will bring their culture with them. Chinese authorities also claim that the railway system will bring more economic advantages and promote tourism but either it would be helpful for fragile Tibetan ecology, its not clear yet. The opponents of this railway link claim that this system will only help the Han Chinese already living in Tibet. His holiness the Dalai Lama told ‘wait and see’ to his people but precaution is obviously better than cure. Tibetans have to do something before its too late. In their context, once the Chinese control Tibet with absolute majority, its impossible to gain the power back again. Tibet could not be won by revolution, neither peacefully. The Dalai Lama’s philosophy ‘getting Tibet’s autonomy back being the part of China without voilence’ seems crap. China is just waiting for his  death and do not even really response on what he says. The future Dalai Lama would not probably win the world’s sympathy like the current Tenzin Gyatso. So, it might be more difficult to pull the world’s attention towards the himalayan culture. By that time, the Chinese will even gain more control over Tibet and may build transportation facilities to bring more people there. 

There should be no opposition if Chinese people wants to migrate to Tibet but the tibetan language and culture should be preserved. Their language should not be replaced by Chinese in the schools. Old Buddhist monastries should not be destroyed in order to wipe-off Buddhism from Tibet.

 Foreign Journalists are also banned from entering Tibet occasionally because the Chinese government fear that they will spread the anti-chinese sentiments throughout the world. Journalists are also obliged to have one police officer to accompany them and show their reports and journals to the authorities which in the western world seems impossible.

Finally , before the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, Tibetans and Free Tibet activists  got an opportunity to inform the world about the situation inside the country. Protests starting from the Olympic Torch in Greece through London, Paris, San Fransisco and many different cities , the activists were successful in informing the world about the real torture the innocent Tibetans are facing. Tibetans in exile also tried to hinder Olympic Torch relay chanting ‘stop killing in Tibet’ or ‘Free Tibet’.  The disturbances in Paris and the french support for Free Tibet even resulted in the boycott of French goods in China. Later, last year the chinese authorities invited Dalai Lama’s representative for dialog but it was not fruitful and was just next to nothing. Free world believes that the Chinese did this just to close their mouth for some time and on purpose, failed to agree in anything demanded by the Dalai Lama.  Many other attempts for Dialog has been created after that but all of them ended without conclusion. Tibetan exiles are often frustrated with China and claims the unwillingness of chinese to talk in this matter. They are willing to take violent actions against the chinese rule which the Dalai Lama strongly oppose. 

Similarly, in the neighbouring country Nepal, the exiles are often coming to the streets  to protest against the torture and killings of their brothers and sisters back home. In the nepalese capital kathmandu, government even banned anti-Chinese protests because Nepal is highly dependent on China and receives high amount of financial supports from China every year. So, in turn, it does what the Chinese embassy says. Hindus and Buddhists always had a warm relationships, they live under one roof in highly cooperative way but in this matter  with China and Tibet, they can do almost nothing except watching their tibetan friends suffer. Some young tibetans are already frustrated with the non-violence idea of Dalai Lama and they believe, there is no other option than to choose violence to get their homes back. 

Rest of the world also don’t know how to go forward in order to gain tibetan autonomy. There are dozens of Tibet initiatives working actively to support the Buddhist tradition, including Munich based ‘Tibet initiative München e.v’. 

Still, there are many countries that  have no desire to pressure China in this issue. They believe, China is one of the economic powerhouse in the world and pressuring China would harm the business relationship. But we should never forget that our strongest economic well-being has its base in democracy and freedom. The world has globalised and we have to think global. The death of a child in Malawi is not less valuable than the death of a child in France. In democracy, we all have to share, share the pain of our fellow humans nomatter where on earth they live. In the other hand, we should be able to stand up against those who violates our system of mankind using torture  to make others suffer. So, prior to economic relations with the west, china should keep its promise to promote freedom and democracy, specially in Tibet. Only a strong faith in democracy and freedom would lead eventually to economic success of a nation.