Caught off-guard in Tibet

Nitin Gokhale

Senior Editor, Defence and Strategic Affairs

Wednesday, March,26 2008 ( Lhasa )

Tibet continues to be restless a fortnight after trouble first broke out on March 10--the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising. And China , hoping to smoothly conduct the Olympic Games in August, is on the edge. Although Beijing has gone on the offensive warning nations and individuals not to interfere in what it calls China 's internal affair, there's no doubt that for the first time since the Tiananmen Square trouble, the Communist regime is under pressure.

What is, however, surprising is that the Chinese ruling class was caught napping when trouble erupted in Lhasa . Even two years ago, when a yours truly toured western China and Lhasa on an officially-conducted tour by the Chinese, signs of a vast divide between the Tibetans and the majority Han Chinese were clearly visible .

In their visceral hatred for the Dalai Lama, the rulers have tried to obliterate his memories. In Lhasa , Tibet 's most famous icon was persona non grata. Officially, the Dalai Lama did not exist there. Ever since he was forced to flee Tibet in 1959, the Chinese government had done everything possible to wipe out his presence.

For instance, tourists flocking to the 13-storey Potala Palace , Tibet 's most recognisable landmark, learnt little about the man or his government in exile. The Potala Palace used to be Dalai Lama's former winter headquarters. It was in fact so popular that the curator had to put a daily ceiling of 2300 visitors, to ensure the largely clay and wood structure did not crumble under the weight of eager tourists. But none of the tourists got any information about the Tibetan spiritual guru at the palace.

During our interaction with the rulers of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, it was clear that they feared and loathed the Dalai Lama. I remember the then deputy chief administrator of Tibet insisting rather vehemently that there was no support for the Dalai Lama in Tibet .

"I would like to make two points, one is, that the Dalai Lama has no or very little popularity in Tibet . Secondly since his fleeing overseas, the Dalai Lama has not done anything for the well-being of the Tibetan people," Hao Peng, Deputy Chief Administrator, had said.

But out on the streets, it was very clear that ordinary Tibetans had neither forgotten nor given up on the Dalai Lama. At Lhasa 's famous Barkhor street , most vendors were eager to talk as soon as they realised the NDTV team was from India . One of them had walked up to us and had started speaking in Hindi. The dialogue, in Hindi and caputred by my colleague Thulashreedharan on camera, went something like this:

NDTV: How is it here for the Tibetans?

Karma, a vendor: The Chinese are terrible people. They run the big business. We are all marginalised. I will be in trouble if they see me talking to you.

NDTV: What about Tibet 's development? Doesn't it help the ordinary Tibetans?

Karma: No, all benefits are taken by the Chinese. We are nowhere.

The vendor took a great risk in talking to NDTV but his feelings mirrored those of very many Tibetans who spoke off camera.

Beijing has brought many changes to Lhasa's skyline - tall buildings, swanky shopping malls, wide streets - all the trappings of a modern city but at heart it then pined for and still yearns for its most famous son, the Dalai Lama.

Government funds and systematic efforts to swamp the distinct Tibetan culture has turned Lhasa into a typically medium sized modern Chinese city-- full of glass and chrome, catering to a new consumer class that has grown rich on the largesse of the billions Beijing has poured into Tibet for development.

Swanky shopping malls, wide streets, gleaming new SUVs - today's Lhasa has little resemblance to the Shangri la immortalised in countless travelogues. Discos, pubs, and flashing neon signs dominate the streets of Lhasa . Banks, petrol stations, big enterprises were all controlled by non-Tibetan Han Chinese who have migrated from mainland China in search of greater fortune.

Lhasa then seemed more a tourist centre than Tibet 's spiritual headquarters. At least half a million Han Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and westerners have been visiting Tibet every year for the past 10 years fuelling its economy. With the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, it has become easier for tourists to flock to Lhasa .

But this month's unrest and violence will force the Chinese authorities to control or altogether stop this flow of tourists. Till early this year, new hotels and restaurants were opening up in Lhasa almost every day, in anticipation of the coming tourist boom. Most new enterprises are owned by Chinese traders streaming into Tibet from other parts of China . That is where the Chinese perhaps made a big mistake. Except for a handful of party officials, local Tibetans had very little stake in this economic upturn; Tibetans got to do only low-end jobs.

One could see many poor Tibetans from rural areas thronging to monasteries like Jokhang for pilgrimage but very few of them looked like having any permanent job or livelihood. Even at Barkhor street , famous for hawking Tibetan knick-knacks, Chinese rock and pop albums clearly outnumbered Tibetan music.

Chinese officials, when questioned about these discrepancies had however dismissed these fears two years ago.

The then deputy chief administrator had told us: "We have taken many steps to preserve and protect Tibetan culture and religion. Monasteries are given state assistance, scriptures are protected through special efforts and there is enough freedom for the Tibetans to practice Buddhism. No one should think that opening up of Tibet is going to overwhelm Tibetan culture."

Despite what he had said, I had got an overwhelming feeling that marginalisation of Tibetans in their own capital was an inevitable reality. I had however failed to recognise that the resentment ran deep and wide. And that the locals would erupt in anger so quickly. But as last fortnight's events have shown, the largely peaceful and mostly spiritual Tibetans have had enough.