Blog Post About Job Prospects for Tibetan Graduates

Blog Post by: Snow Lotus of High Mountain

I was very glad to receive a phone call from my good friend, but when our phone conversation ended, I had a heavy heart. My good friend has always been an optimistic girl, I have hardly heard her complaining about anything since I got to know her in the ninth grade (first year in senior high school).

But this time she sounds like a completely new person. I can tell from her tone that she was in low spirits, and it seems that she is under great pressure. “When I graduate, I can only be a teacher!” This is the first sentence she said to me during our conversation. I immediately asked, “Why will you, whose major is the management of railway transportation, be a teacher?” I was puzzled because I know that she has always wanted to work in the office of the transportation bureau so that she can use the knowledge about highways and railways she has studied for four years in college. “I can only choose two positions out of those which recruit candidates through civil service exam: middle and primary schools on the grass root level and cadres on township level. I have asked many people about the prospect of being a cadre on the township level, and I was told that after one became a cadre on a township level, one would be taken seriously and be respected for the first one or two years, but later one would be more or less the same as common people in the village, and female cadres would have to drink along with one’s superiors (leaders). I do not want to lead a life like that, therefore, I can only become a middle school teacher.”

I can tell from her tone that my good friend is helpless. For a little while, I did not know how to respond to her, and I did not know whether I should be sympathetic to her situation or to say a few words to comfort her. Then I asked again, “Won’t the Transportation Bureau recruit employees?” My friend replied, “ My mom has already asked about that, but she was told that the Transportation Bureau will not recruit on its own since it is a government office.” After she said that, I also exclaimed the current employment situation like she was doing, then I said some comforting and encouraging words to her. I told her that she should still prepare well for the exam since it seems to be the only choice for her. But, in fact, even if she passes the exam, she will not know where they would assign her to.

After I put down the phone, I felt pain and suffering I can not express, but I did not know to whom I should relate. I faintly felt flames of fury arose in my mind, but I did not who to blame or who to condemn. Though I found my dreaming job long time ago, I was in tears when I think of the real employment situation facing Tibetan college graduates including my friend, who are ambitious.

We, the college graduates, have the opportunity to receive good education, and many of us were even admitted into the famous Chinese universities where there are very few Tibetan students. Our parents have always been proud of us. In universities where there gather many gifted people, we put much more effort than other students to study one’s own major. At least we do not want to be ranked as students with lower or lowest scores in exams, and make Tibetans lose face.

In the end we are able to get a firm foothold in colleges after we have gone through a series of struggles. We realize the origin of the backwardness of our nationality, and understand that we need professionals in various fields to develop our hometown. We feel that we have the heavy load of developing our hometown on our shoulders, so we study even harder. I can never forget that my friend who major in transportation management looked wane and thin after she studied hard to pass over a dozen final exams at the end of the semester.

Nor can I forget that my friend who majored in journalism shot scenes in parks and streets with the expensive video camera she bought himself or interviewed visitors. But, in the end, both of them can only become teachers by passing civil service exam, and they have no opportunities to consider whether they can use their professional knowledge in their occupation. The ill fitting of one’s specialty with one’s occupation has always been the problem facing the Tibetan graduates, so now all people are insensitive to the issue. As long as one can find a job, one will not mind whether it allows one to use one’s professional knowledge or not.

Since the government has spent so much money to train Tibetan students who major in various fields, then why can’t it employ these Tibetan professionals or give them an opportunity to use their professional knowledge? Why does the government have so many Tibetan graduates work in jobs which have nothing to do with their professional training? Why does it allow the ambitious Tibetan youth to lose their ambitions at their jobs? Why does the government let so many Tibetan youth waste their talents at their jobs or let them to be in low spirits at their jobs?

It is reported that in Tibet there will be 8,600 college graduates seeking for employment: the number of this year’s college graduate is 8,000, and there are 600 graduates who were not assigned with any jobs. Among these graduates, except students who graduate not from teacher’s colleges or universities (including medical students), the rest are eligible to take civil service exam. 3,200 graduates will find jobs in government offices through the civil service exam, and more than half of them will do jobs which do not require them to use their professional knowledge. Still their fate is much better than the rest of them: the rest of them have to seek for employment on their own. Those who are successful will find jobs they like, but others who fail to find their dreaming jobs have to do whatever they can in order to make a living, no matter fro which university one graduated. In my opinion, rather than wasting the talent of professionals, it would be better if the government had not spent so much money to train the so-called successors who are knowledgeable and well educated to build up the new socialist Tibet.

8th May 2007

Comments
1. 4:25 pm, May 28, 2007, by Ran
Since the moment I knew that I am not a Han Chinese, my life had lost all the colors. I indistinctively saw the face of the devil and his actions, and this made me live in fear and was at loss what to do.

2. 7:21pm May 26, 2007, by Bai
Cheers for Pemala who posted the thread and other brothers and sisters who are going to take the exam tomorrow!! I am sure our hard-work will bring a better tomorrow for our homeland! May everybody successful!!!

3. 2:28pm May 26 , 2007, by Pemala
Tomorrow is the time to take the exam. Is it right that you wrote the article on that day? On that day we also talked to each other on the phone. We comforted each other, and encouraged each other to prepare for the exam well by reviewing what we had learned carefully. Besides this, what else can you do? I remember when we were in senior high school, we were dreaming that we would one day be admitted into this ideal university. After the entrance exam, all the black boys in our dorm were all admitted into a few best universities. On the campus we have all worked hard and had been planning an ideal future for ourselves. But what is the reality now? This makes me feel more and more lost and perplexed. I am trying to encourage myself, but I have not been able to find my confidence which had accompanied me so far. Here I would like to say a few words to my fellow junior students: do not think the best choice is to go back home and look for employment there. If you do not need to worry about your parents or you do not have to go back home for the sake of your parents, then you should believe in your own ability, and there are many opportunities for you to seize in Beijing and many other major cities. Now I really regret that I had lost many opportunities as I had determined to go home.

I did not have time to read all responses carefully, but I did scan them quickly. I noticed that someone commented that Tibetan students in Inland China are not doing well, etc. Here I would like to say that most of Tibetan students I know are all working hard. We have won glory for ourselves, Tibetan nationality and for our schools. We have always made great effort to study. We are not the most outstanding students on our universities, but we have done our best and to perform at our best. I think most of us will not regret about that. We should be proud of ourselves. Wish all of us be successful.

4. May 24, 2007, 10:58: I strongly agree with what Huihe Lilun posted above. If it is gold, it will shine eventually.

5. 12:54, May 20, 2007, by Huihe Lilun [Mixed theories]
Most of the so-called Tibetan elites are rather dispirited, and their attitude was to leave as soon as they receive their diplomas. They think they can find a good job when they go back to their hometown. But, to the contrary, as a Tibetan college graduate, the responsibility on your shoulder is enormous, and you can not avoid it. When GDP of Tibet is increasing continuously, it means that the hometown is developing. The hidden crisis is that professionals from Inland China had great impact on jobs for indigenous Tibetans. Now it is the era of market economy, so one has to rely on one’s abilities to do things. One can not live long if one solely relies on other’s charity. One need a variety of capabilities to survive, for instance, social resource is one of the most important factors. China’s economy at present has not hit a soft landing, to the contrary, it is refueled. It is estimated that China’s economy will rise even higher. Along with the completion of Qinghai-Tibet railway and other developing projects, Tibet will develop rapidly. At this new era what the homeland needs are professionals! Don’t waste time or money in universities or colleges. Study hard. If it is gold, it will always shine.

6. 12:40, May 20, 2007, By Huihe Lilun
When you are studying in colleges, can it be that you only read books without thinking? What the society needs are professionals, and Tibet needs more professionals. When the Chinese professionals come to Tibet, you should have realized the importance of this. You should.

7. 16:45, May 19, 2007, by Tong Tong [pain pain]
[I want to] add a quotation mark after the word “outstanding”, which refers to the degree of sinicization and technical skills. We are originally more outstanding than you. Well, you do not need to inhale oxygen [to live in Tibet] since you are all garbage who do not have a reliable source of income in Inland china; Those of you who are just put on market from the assimilation concentration camp and the sinicization production line were assigned to work in the countryside because they think you can take the stinky sweat smell to change the customs and transform the social traditions, isn’t it right? Ha, ha; Moved Aizi: Do you really think the few intellectuals in the ethnic group, which has rich natural resources, unique cultural resources, vast territory and only several million people, should compete with Chinese female farmers to wash dishes for the sake of getting less than 500 yuan? Well, you are brilliant, you are really brilliant. I am completely convinced by you! In the work unit where I make my living they have mostly recruited descendants of Chinese farmers. We should all organized together to protest against this. If we do not protest in the name of the living right of an ethnic group, we can do so in the name of the autonomy law. I am not sure about this. I think the Autonomy law should have a preference treatment for employment for the ethnic group.

8. 19:00, May 18, 2007, by Sodrolma
I am really very glad to read an article like this!!! I am going to graduate in 2008.
But my situation is different from most of the college graduates: I want to be a teacher! I am going to transmit whatever I have learned to the next generation without any mistake. In my opinion, the quality of a nationality depends on two people: mother and the teacher.
However, every time when I go home, I feel sad, and I can not explain why. What did I see? [I saw] hypocrisy, deceiving, humbleness, vanity, theft, robbery, formalization…
Let’s talk about “two-way choices”, what many people see are only these four words (Ch. shuangxiang xuanze). Isn’t it funny to assign a computer major graduate to a school which has no computer at all? Why do we who have graduated from prominent universities have to go to work in remote countryside? It is not that we are not willing to go there, well, we just feel wronged.

9. May 18, 2007, 16:33, by Rap in Tibet
Among the thieves there are so many ridiculous systems and policies which are beyond reason. I am wondering what the present ruling class of Tibet have eaten! They have come up with all these topsy-turvy ideas. They are really talking nonsense. What they propose does not conform to reality at all. They did so only to put on a show for CP Central Committee…

10. May 17, 2007, 19:23, by Teng de shi zhu jidan [The one who feel the pain is the boiled egg]
The poet Jingwa (“Frog in the Well”) wrote a poem, which I think he wrote for van Gogh. Here I would like to cite two lines to present to you all: the devil is harvesting your crop, but you are living like a dog in the city.

11. May 16, 2007, 13:58:00 | By: Minya Princess (ch. Muya Gongzhu)

This is not a question of washing dishes, neither is it an issue of attitude! This is a test of the preliminary social effect of the assimilation policy which has been put into effect consciously and with concrete steps for many years. And this is the inevitable result of the large scale immigration policy, and it is also the realistic consequence of ruling Tibet with autocracy and close-door policy. This means that under the pre-condition that you are so sinicized that you are more outstanding than the Han Chinese, then you will obtain the job which were originally promised to you amidst discrimination and at the cost of sacrificing one’s national dignity and sacrificing one’s national culture. This means that you can not enjoy the right of employment priority stipulated in the national regional autonomy law as your father’s generation did, and you even do not have the equal opportunity for employment. Those who assign opportunities are all Han Chinese or those who sell out the national interests, and you have fewer opportunities than those “garbage immigrants” who are inhaling oxygen. Meanwhile, due to the high-degree close-door rule, all the resources are controlled by bureaucrats. It is completely a bureaucratic economy and a corrupted economy. There is no fair market environment or market opportunity, and foreign capitals are basically forbidden to enter the market. This system strictly control the number of various groups, organizations and organizations of legal corporate person, so where will they find employment? The situation in Tibet can not be compared to that of Inland China. Even when the robbers are moving things from your home, you said to them, “ I’m hungry. Please give me some food, then I will help you to move,”, yet it is impossible for you to do so. When the authorities develop many national secret resources, they will not employ Tibetans. Due to purposes that cannot be divulged to the public, the authorities will even require to have tour guides coming from inland China. In this way, Tibetans are isolated from other ethnic groups and foreigners. Certainly, they are just “monkeys” who know how to talk, and when they do not know how to talk well, they certainly need to be aided! Washing dishes is an employment opportunity, and I am afraid if all go to wash dishes, they will not be enough dishes needed to be washed.

12. May 16, 2007, 0:29, by the Son of the Snowland (Ch. Xueyu Zhizi)
Life has always been fair, and it all depends on your attitude toward life. There is no one whose life has always been successful without any difficulties, so it is impossible to find suitable jobs for oneself (some individual cases should be regarded as exceptions). Under the circumstances, one should positively face the problem, and should not be discouraged. As the saying goes, “If it is gold, it will shine no matter where it is! One’s attitude will determine everything! Wish all brothers and sisters have good attitude!

13. May 13, 2007, 24:00, by Let Nature Takes its Course (Ch. shunqi ziran)

It is not bad at all when you can find employment in government offices. Just keep in mind this similar issue: how many college graduates in Inland China can not find employment? Sometimes they can not even support themselves. Some of them will go hungry for a few days, and have to sleep under overpasses in the suburbs.

14. May 13, 2007, 19:35, by L.
We are all members of a wasted generation…

15. May 13, 2007, 13:01, By Tseten Tatse (Ch. Zedan Zhazhi)
Fight against it….fight against it… fight against it ……fight against it….

16. May 13, 2007, 11:13, By fuk
I cited the following remarks from chupek’s response posted on May 12, 2007, 22:10:
“I am wondering whether everybody find out about this: in Tibet there is no channel for people to have dialogue with the government. It will be fine even one can communicate with e-mails. There lack good communication between the government and people.”

The force us absolutely to obey them, and completely keep quiet until we are rotten and die.

17. May 12, 2007, 22:10, by chupek

I am wondering whether everybody find out about this: in Tibet there is no channel for people to have dialogue with the government. It will be fine even one can communicate with e-mails. There lack good communication between the government and people.

18. May 12, 2007, 22:08, by Chupek
Ah, it is a pity… It is difficult for one to obtain a human life again… it is pleasant to hear when one talks about “sacrifice, sacrifice”, but after today, I will become a person of tomorrow, and I am one step closer to death. The only fault is that we don’t have our own country.

19. May 12, 20:32, by Yvonne
Though the conflicts in Tibetan society are becoming more and more serious day by day, yet we will not be able to change the situation for a period of time. Hope Tibetan youth will not be too pessimistic. As long as we make concerted efforts, I think the government will eventually have to change its policy.

20. May 12, 2007, 18:48, by the Perplexed Person (Ch. Mimangren)
Well, my family also want me to be a teacher, but I am not willing to resign myself to such a fate. With no other choices, I secretly registered for exams for civil servants at the township level without telling my family. I majored in railway and highway management and maintenance, and I do not believe in Tibetan all the relevant positions have been filled. Why the working units related to transportation do not recruit employees for those positions, and for whom, on the earth, these positions are reserved? I think the so-called quota are reserved for the children of “old comrades” who have been working in these units for a long time!!!
This is really dirty!! It is really wicked!

21. May 12, 2007, 18:03, by the one who suffer a hard lot (Ch. Mingku-a)

I cite the following from a response posted on May 10, 2007, 18:20:
“I strongly feel the same way. Though I love my own nationality, if there is future life, I will never be reborn as a Tibetan, especially a Tibetan who is controlled by others.”
Just like you, if there is future life, I will not be reborn as Tibetan either. I want to be a white man in America. What a hard life! With the [Han Chinese] immigrants flooding into Tibet for the sake of taking college entrance exams there, a great number of the children of those Han Chinese cadres, who have come to aid Tibet, took the opportunity to be admitted into good universities and to study for good majors away [from Tibetans].
Then, after one studied one’s major, then there is no working unit one can use what one has learned in college. Even if there is working unit which has vacancy for the major one studied in college, one will probably be excluded by children of high officials whose majors have nothing to do with the position. When one takes exams to be a civil servant, one will still be discriminated base on one’s ethnic identity… Aren’t there any people who come to rescue us from such a hard life.

22. May 12, 2007, 10:27 , by pour out one’s heart (Ch. Qingsu xinsheng)
Everybody has poured out their heart and expressed their thoughts about this issue. As a college student who is going to graduate this year, at this moment I feel like an ant on a hot pot, and am very gloomy. I have changed my exam registration between civil servant on township level and primary and middle school teacher for four times. The reason is that everyday I have the “preview of registration” website on so that it will show me the latest information, and I found the number of people who register for civil servant exam has increased dramatically. So far I have seen 1,670 people registered, and this number greatly exceeded the available positions. Of course, we do not know how many others have not registered yet. I am not worried about the number itself, well, what I worry is how many among these people are just going through this procedure as a formality. In the dark Tibetan society it is absolutely impossible to avoid such things to happen. Therefore, I decided to register for exams for teachers. But, please think about it, everybody: we have studied for eleven years in Inland China, and I think that I have won credit for myself by successfully graduating from a famous university, but now I have to be a middle school or primary school teacher. Well, if we do not talk about other issues, I just feel wronged, sad and am not willing to resign myself to such a fate.

I believe many students have similar opinion. But now we have to resign to our fate, and this is the fate of talented intellectuals trained by the Tibetan government… these ‘children” are pathetic… the Tibetan government is lamentable…

23. By: Down with those old men
down with Ragdi, the stinking chairman and those old men who occupy the positions but do not do any work


24. By: Build up a new Tibetan Society
Dear Colleagues,

I am also in the same situation…
I think we should all unite together to overthrown this society.
We have plenty of students who are knowledgeable and clever.
Facing such social inequality, we have to have a large group of heroes who will give the government some pressure. Otherwise, it will not only harm us, but also many future generations.
We should unite together to build up a better society. What do you all think?
I am disgusted by the actions of the Tibetan government.
We are all victims of a slumbering Tibetan society, so we should awake the Tibetan society.

25. By Tsedrol:
I am really sad to read all these blog entries! Though I am not going to graduate this year, I will still face the problem of finding employment! I have studied for such a long time, then why do I have so much difficulty in my life and career? Only if I know earlier, there is no need to read so many books. I am really depressed.

26. I am indeed lost, and really do not know what to do. It is not bad if one has a goal to achieve, but now I do not even have that. The biggest enemy in our life is negative feelings.
In the past, I am very confident about my future, but now when facing with the reality, I really had to say “the reality is cruel and dark .

It is not that I do not want to work hard, but before I have the chance to work har, they have already blocked my way. How can they do that.

I lost my word when I talk about the education system in Tibet. How can they only establish a few working units, then others have to take exams to become teachers or cadres on the township level. Then what is the use for us to learn so much in college.

Recently I have the negative feeling, and I really do not know when I will fall apart.

27. I strongly feel the same way. Though I love my own nationality, if there is future life, I will never be reborn as a Tibetan, especially a Tibetan who is controlled by others.

28. By: Birth--- a Great Mistake
I am one of the pathetic graduates described by the above article…
We are the generation under experiment.
What we use is not out mother tongue either!
And many people have potential racial discrimination! We dare to be angry, but dare not to express it!
I really fear that the great Tibetan culture will … in several years…
It is a pity we can not do anything about it!
The leaders probably do not have time to visit this blog.

29. By: Can’t find the direction
We who were born in 1980s have met with “reforms’ in all our life.
Once because I had a dream, so I have studied hard for many years.
But now my heart is already broken when I am leaving the campus and stepping into the society.
what you wrote in your blog is so good. It is indeed the true situation. I am going to graduate this year, too. I am very depressed. I really do not know how our fate will be in future.
I am helpless…

30. Morals of the time is such… we are facing with such situation.
We who were born in 1980s have met with “reforms’ in all our life.
Once because I had a dream, so I have studied hard for many years.
But now my heart is already broken when I am leaving the campus and stepping into the society.
I have no opinion of this society any more. Hope you all good luck!

31. It is really annoying…
If you really want to work in a working unit which fits with your specialty, I think you should send your CV to the unit, then when you take the civil service exam, you should fill in the name of the unit. If on the form the positions in the unit are not listed, then you should call the unit (you are not putting ads., at this time the information number 114 is very useful). You can ask the personnel department of the unit why the positions in their unit are not listed in the form. They might give you an answer. In short, you have to grab whatever opportunity there might be, even just a straw, since the straw might be able to “save your life”! ha!

It is said that the working units which need to recruit professionals will go to the Organization department to request to assign professionals to them. The CV you sent to them might work at this time since they will check the scores for the civil exam according to the CV.

32. I am going to graduate this year, too. I stopped being optimistic about finding employment long time ago. Well, what can I say? When all the college graduates were guaranteed with assigned jobs, they assigned the jobs by confounding right and wrong. It truly wasted the talents of many professionals. Therefore, I have thought about starting my own business. But after all not a lot of people will think the way I do: most people still hope to find a job to use their professional knowledge. Hehe, they just do not do so. Though they claim that they have developed Tibet and trained professionals, in fact, what do these professionals have? In the end, they all either become teachers or do jobs which have nothing to do with their professional skills and knowledge. Indeed I am still a little bit depressed when I think about it. Sometimes I even think they do so on purpose? Maybe to abuse our nationality. Well, I can never explain it clearly…but in general, I feel the government’s ability of administration and decision-making is rather weak… those old men who are over 50 should vacate the positions for us! I really hate old man like Radi who occupy the positions but not doing their job. They benefited when Tibet was under the merged rule of religion and politics, and so do they under the Chinese communist rule. Then, whose side were they on in the end? You are already old, so you should vacate the positions for us young people. I despise those old men.

33. Before they made decisions about reform, why don’t they think about the larger surrounding environment? Isn’t it better if they increase jobs and establish new working units while they carry out reforms? It will mess things up if the Tibetan government blindly follows other’s footsteps. The case of the blog owner’s friend shows it is purely a waste of talents of professionals or a waste of professional knowledge.
If they intend to force to earn our own living, is the opportunity ripe now.

34. I really do not know whether the condition in Tibet is ripe for choosing one’s employment without being assigned with jobs. In fact, Tibet lags behind the advanced Inland Chinese regions, so one can not compare Tibet with the inland Chinese regions. If the government continues to implement the current policy, I believe in a few years there will be unemployed youth all over the remote regions in Tibet, but children of high officials and rich businessmen will still have a meteoric rise and gain promotions.

35. It is not the fault of any of you! You will know the reason once you start to enter into the society.

It is better without being assigned with jobs, in this way, it will force many Tibetan youth to start their own business.

In this way, it is better than being employed by government offices. Those who are employed by government offices have to be cautious: they can not say this, or do that. They are so afraid of losing their jobs. When there are more young people not employed by government offices, then there will be more people who dare to express their opinions and take actions.

36. My situation is more or less similar to that of the protagonist in the article. What you described there are our thoughts as well. When so many college graduates are sent to do jobs which have nothing to do with their professional training, then who, on the earth, will stay in cities? I do not believe all the working units in the city have no vacancies…

37. I appreciate the opinions of 'Moved AIDS' and 'angelia_813'. In fact, as long as you are capable, there will be appropriate jobs for you no matter where you go. The key is to see whether you are willing to let go of name and wealth… It does not matter if people gossip about you… the most important thing is that one should not loose confidence I oneself….

38. The situation of my best friend in college is more or less the same like what you described. At that time she was assigned to a rather remote region, and now she can not be transferred to cities. Last time during our conversation she mentioned that in Tibet there is a policy for taking exams for graduate study, and the requirement for Tibetan candidates seems to be lowered than that for the Chinese candidates. You can suggest to your friend that she can try to take the exam. It will always be useful if one has a higher degree. In my opinion, now all people are thronged to take civil service exams… they think employment in government offices is “iron bowl”, but they gave up many opportunities to look for “golden bowl”. I think they are a little hotheaded.

39. Comrades! If you really do not want to work on grass-roots units, then you have to have the desire to start new business. Well, open a tea house, or co-operate with others. It is a rather good idea to do so

Then when your business grows to be comparatively large-scale, it will be more interesting to recruit a few college graduates to have some fun.

In fact, it is very important to start business.

40. If I cannot find appropriate jobs in Lhasa, I will go to wash dishes. It is what is called to start from the bottom. Why do we have to go through the single-planked bridge to [be employed by government offices]

41. Pasang T Dorje
I really did not expect you will write such a long piece of your impressions, and publish on our blog!

I carefully read your thought posted above! I feel I am having a headache now. Next year around this time I will also face the problem of finding employment. Ah! I am having a headache…

Well, the leaders in our hometown are probably enjoying their banquets, and they can not spare any time to pay attention to us… Ah, I am sad…

42. Are these the “latent rules” facing Tibetan college graduates?... I think no matter which job one takes, even when one takes the most ill-fit job, as long as one does not loose one’s initial dream, there is a possibility that anything can happen in future. It is really difficult for female college graduates to work at grass-roots units… they have to drink along with their superiors and chat with them… Especially those pretty ones… well, they will suffer more…

43. I just finished reading your post. I do not know what to say now. Since I found a satisfactory working unit, I have not paid much attention to the employment situation this year. But I believe what you wrote in your post represents the thought of many college graduates this year. Hope the leaders will also learn about it!!!! Well, only if they pass by this blog.

44. [it is nobody’s fault, it is ] the system and policy

Translated from Chinese
View the original here

"Special Tibetan Play by Tibetans in Beijing"

I got so excited when my friend texted me and asked me to go and see a Tibetan drama in the China Ping Ju Grand Theatre. She told me the play would be performed by quite a few famous Tibetan players from Lhasa Drama Troupe such as Dorjie, Nyma, Rersel Labala and so on. My friend got five tickets for the special play through her personal relationships. Although I was not sure about the theme of the drama and the theatre was very far away from my college, I decided to go there without hesitation, for it was the first time for me to have the opportunity to see a Tibetan play by many of my favourite Tibetan actors in Beijing. I thought this kind of drama would occur only once in a thousand years in Beijing.


So I went there with four of my Tibetan friends. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the theatre. We had to take a very complicated and energy-consuming route, first by bus, then subway then taxi. When, we arrived at the showplace we were a little bit late. On arriving there, we were welcomed by friendly Tibetan ushers with white khatas and a programme of the play. We felt honoured and happy to receive this familiar way of welcoming. The play had already started and we quietly rushed into the theatre.

As soon as I had taken my seat, I was very happy to see so many familiar faces of Tibetan actors onstage. Weirdly, though, they were all speaking fluent Chinese. I never thought that some famous older actors like Nyma la and Rersel Labala could speak such perfect Chinese as from my childhood I had been seeing numerous classic performances of theirs only in Tibetan I wondered what the play was about and began to read the programme with the light from my mobile phone. Reading the introduction of the play, I was shocked and upset to find out that the play was named Traversing the Summit and is about the Qinghai -Lhasa railway. So without seeing the details of the play, I could already guess what kind of dialogues would come up and the theme of the play. As the play went on, it turned out that I had guessed right. The theme that the play was trying to convey was as usual a one-side story. From the play, the audience was supposed to know how much the Chinese railway workers had suffered during the construction of the Qinghai – Lhasa railway; how they had overcome so many unimaginable challenges; how and what the railway workers had done to protect the weak ecology of the Qinghai –Lhasa plateau. There was an episode that was dedicated to Tibetan antelopes. The railway workers stopped their work in order to give way to the immigrating antelopes. The workers began to dance (I am not sure what kind of dance it was but the dancer imitated the action of Tibetan antelopes) in the end all of the dancers were calling the “Zang lingyang”( Tibetan antelope). I guess this episode was intended to be very heart-warming showing the workers’ overwhelming love towards antelopes. However, the exaggerated confession of love made me very uncomfortable; the workers’ love toward Tibetan antelope was too strong and unclad to believe.

Another thing that made me uncomfortable was that most of the characters in the play are Chinese but all of them were played by Tibetan actors and actresses. All the Chinese was so perfect that they sounded exactly like native Chinese. It was weird as well as sad to find on the programme all the names of the players are typical Tibetan names, while on the stage the Tibetans look exactly like Chinese people speaking fluent Chinese including some Chinese dialects. I am sure a lot of Tibetan people consider this phenomenon as a significant improvement of Tibetan people’s education. But from my point of view, this phenomenon is more likely to be an obvious assimilation of Tibetan culture.

I’d rather wish all the actors and actresses were Chinese instead of Tibetans. At least then I would be happy to listen to standard mandarin. However, it is already a fact that most of the actors are Tibetans. So it is pointless for me to complain about this play. I am sure for most of the actors to speak Chinese was not their will. I just hope that the actors will pay attention to their mother tongue and give more performances in Tibetan for Tibetan people.

This article was written anonymously in English by a Tibetan student in Beijing in April 2007.


(天路/Tian Lu or Road to Heaven sung by Han Hong, a song in Chinese
about the railway to Tibet)

"Time Measurement and My Childhood" by Dolma

It is said, and also acknowledged by most Tibetans, that Tibetans usually don’t have a strong sense of time or rather punctuality. Therefore, it is very common or normal for Tibetans to be late by half an hour or more for an appointment. This kind of bad habit among Tibetans bothers me constantly and often makes me think further upon it. Thinking about it, I realize that this concept is rooted in the way Tibetans have measured time in history. In the meantime, those happy days of my childhood come back to me.

Today in almost every Tibetan family, except in some very remote areas, there are clocks to measure time. However, in the past, Tibetans roughly told the time from lots of things from nature instead of such a kind of apparatus. Obviously, through these ways they can roughly tell the time. These primitive ways of measuring time made it impossible to tell the exact time in terms of minutes and seconds. In Tibet, the most commonly used way is the cock cooing in the morning, the rising and falling of some special stars such as the phosphor and Gama Besang and the position of the sun in the daytime.

Being born and brought up in the countryside, I was fortunate to experience and observe such kinds of special cultural phenomenon. As I remember, in the morning we depended upon the cock coo to measure the time. When the adults decided to go for morning-work together, they would fix the time at “the first cock coo”, “the second cock coo”, or “the third cock coo” but never came up with the exact time as few families had a clock.. At that time, I couldn’t help worrying that whether the cocks in every family could coo at the same time and asked my mother about it. “Sure, the cocks had the instinct to tell the exact time and would coo almost at the same time”, she responded.

Apart from the cock coo, in the morning we measured time by phosphor, Tor Rerng Gerchin in Tibetan, which appears in the east of the sky at dawn. I clearly remember that when I was in primary school every morning my mother would wake me up and ask me to go for checking if the Tor Rerng Gerchin had showed up in the east sky. I loved that part of job as this was a very good opportunity for me to gain mother’s favor towards me. I loved to hear mother telling others, “Chung La is a good child and is not idle at all . She will get up immediately as soon as I wake her up in the morning.” Then, if Tor Rerng Gerchin was there, I should wake up my elder sister, Tashi Bedan, who was always the first one in my family to get up. She would then do a series of housework such as fetch water from the river, clear the ashes from the homemade earthen hearth, boil water, brew tea and then make butter tea and so on. Sometimes I had to get up twice or even three times for the star hadn’t shown up in the sky. But I did my job without any complaint.

In the daytime, we told the time from the position of the sun in the sky. Merely a child, I went to gaze at our flocks and herds in the grassland with adults like my mother and grandfather. Sometimes I went willingly and sometimes I had to due to the lack of labor in the family. Grandfather, as the most acknowledgeable man in my eyes at that time, told me when we should leave for grazing, when we should make our dinner when we should give water to the cows and sheep or when we should collect them and go home by estimating the different positions of the sun during the day. Fortunately, due to the non-polluted atmosphere of Tibet, cloudy weather is rare in Tibet or even if it’s cloudy we can still see the sun.

Gama Pasang was another star to play the role of time measurement. This star often falls when other stars begin to sparkle in the sky one by one around the dusk time. My playmates and I would play games regardless of the approaching blackness. So usually the mothers would come to ask the children to go home, saying “we have to go home now, it’s been a long time since Gama Pasang fell...”

How time flies! And I am no longer the happy little girl who was gazing at the grassland with her grandfather who passed away two years ago. Nowadays, although there are many clocks of different designs in my family. I miss the old time measurement; I miss the Tor Rerng Gerchin and Gama Basang whose existence I almost forgot about after leaving my home village over a decade ago; I miss those days which were careless and close to nature; I miss those days with my grandfather in the vast grassland or farmer fields. How I wish I could go back to those happy times.

This article was written in English by a Tibetan student in Beijing in March 2007.

"Raping Tibetan Music is Prohibited" by Tashi Dondan

When the singer who sang the Golden Mountain of Beijing attended the “Forum of Tibetan Music” in Chengdu, she tactfully criticized the phenomenon that some ethnic music have overly relied on “packaging” and have followed the path of popular music.

It is true that we need to emphasize the importance of the national element. I really hope that the one who made the above comment is Yadong or somebody else, but not her. I always hope that people will examine themselves first before they criticize others. It is indeed laughable if the “pot calling the kettle black (literally “ the one who fled fifty paces laughed at the other person who fled a hundred paces and called him coward), but it will make people angry when “the one who fled one hundred paces laugh at the other person who ran away for fifty paces”. Up to now I still do not understand how much national element there contains in the songs sang by her, and I even doubt whether her songs can be called music. I would rather hum the popular songs in our mother tongue than listening to those songs which bootlick others.

It is perhaps because I do not feel the happiness of those “liberated serfs”, after all I was born in the so-called era of happiness. My father once said to me, “you will be a person who will know how to fight for your freedom.” I think even if I was born in an “unhappy” era, I would still be able to strive for the freedom for myself and for people I love.

I fully understand it is rather “malicious” for me to put forward such a hypothesis about the past, but it coincidentally caters to the world view of some non-sense experts who do not respect history. Such songs as “the Mystical Heavenly Path” and “Oh, the Beautiful Qinghai-Tibet Railway” sang in the Tibetan New Year Party” sponsored by Tibet TV Station in 2006 made me disappointed at Rongdrong Ergya, and I do not exude tenderness and ‘love” for Han Hong any more. I believe that is not [real] music, and the music itself is not like this. Though it is beautiful to sing praises of the happiness, it will definite cause people to doubt the nature of the music if such songs enrage the audience so much that they will even shout abuse or get into a free-for-all.
I am risking my life to take the liberty to say the following word --- I would rather see Tibetan songs being completely sinicized and even its lyrics are in Chinese than listening to political songs of yours. “People should not be so shameless!”

2. It is not possible to bring about the transformation of Tibetan music into ethnic music simply through criticizing it. Nevertheless, in all fairness, “commenting on it” also has some impact. It is just like those people who urgently appeal to “preserve Tibetan culture, even though they have not done any significant things to preserve Tibetan culture in real life, yet their comments have also had some impact on people who take real actions. Lu Xun once said, “ There was originally no path in the world, it becomes a road after people have treaded on it. As the popular saying goes “Rome is not built in one day”, I think it takes time to preserve Tibetan culture and to transform Tibetan music into ethnic music. We need people to step forward and discuss such issues, but we need more people to actually work to improve the situation.

For example, when the “Vajara” band and the “Nine-Eyed Stone Zig” band sang some classic folk songs, these songs become eternal again, and it enables more people to remember the lyrics. Another example is the beautiful folk song known as Aku Palma in Amdo. I have four versions of the same song: the Guitar, pure dranyan (lute), rocking roll and Indian styles. Once an older brother sang for me Aku Pelma without accompanying in music, and I recorded the song with a tape recorder. Whenever I have a free moment, I will listen to it. Without accompanying music, it has some noises as well, but it is very beautiful. Many times I imagine that I was born on the grassland of the Snow-land for my previous life as well. The grassland near the lake of Korkornor, where there are black tents and white lambs beautiful as clusters of stars, has supported my ancestors, my family and me. Here we praise though songs the beautiful grasslands, lakes, mountains and brave eagles. But those who sing praises of the railway will never understand such happiness.

I believe as long as there is still one person who is producing Tibetan music, I am sure he will influence a large number of people to follow his footsteps. The reason is rather simple: as long as you plant a seed in another person’s heart, one day it will definitely take root and sprout.

3. A philosophical view considered to be the truth holds that every person has its own world. I think I do not have the ability to have all Tibetans to be fond of Tibetan music, after all, each follows his own bent. Even if I have such ability, I will not demand those who are fond of popular music to produce ethnic music. If I do so, am I not the same as those hooligan politicians?

A friend wanted to translate the song “Life” by the rock band “Vajara” into Chinese, but the result of his translation is rather plain: some couples get along very well with each other some children have great suffering…” It is apparent that the style and subtleness of the song was lost in the process of translation. Each culture has its own unique feature and flavor, indeed it is not a good idea to “rape” each other.

Tibetan music is powerful. I hope that those beautiful folk songs can be preserved, and also hope that the mainstream of Tibetan music are the ones with our unique ethnic features.

Many Tibetan singers have fallen into an indescribable vicious cycle. I can not define the style of their music, but it is definitely not Tibetan music.

Hope some people who produce music can hear my voice.

Wish Tibetan music would become more beautiful.





Comments
(1) 2008-1-27 18:33:00 | By: the Angry Tsampa

What you said is really classical. I strongly support you!!! What they raped is far more than our music.

(2) 2008-1-25 14:36:00 | By: by Tashi
We, the new generation of Tibet, are proud of the Vajara band. Only they are willing to express our innermost thoughts, and they have generated sympathetic responses from us. We will always support them, and similarly we will do our best as well.

(3) 2008-1-21 14:50:00 | By: visitor LPGs38

As the popular saying goes, human is like iron, but food is like steel.
This world is so cruel! If one has enough money, who would be willing to be an escort girl? I want to puke when I see those men. But what else can I do? I do not want to die of hungry. Are you going to give me money?
(4) 2008-1-15 18:13:00 | By: zhaxiluozhu (Tashi Lodro)

I really like the Vajara band. They are doing their best to create their own songs, but there are not many people who appreciate them.

(5) 2008-1-6 15:46:00, By: zuqiuwoaini (football, I love you)
Just like the sisters (Aja), they only know how to sing the old songs again, and they are not creative, but still they are so famous.

(6) 2008-1-4 17:17:00 | By: Tsedron
I strongly support it.

(7) 2008-1-2 22:10:00 | By: Gonpo Tashi

I support you, the owner of the blog.

(8) 2007-12-31 12:47:00 | By: tibetst
What you said is great. These are all problems. We need somebody like the owner of the blog to point out the problems to us. This is a happy event, and we should support it. At this time we can not say “I do not know what you have done for your nationality?”, what we need to do is to respect other’s effort. I do not know whether the one who says that “do you feel like you are living in a world of freedom in New York” has ever done anything for his nationality. But aren’t those who have brought up these issues doing something for our nationality? Can it be that one has to do something for his own nationality before he point out the problems and mistakes?

(9) 2007-12-30 8:47:00 | By: Repa
http://tseringdhondrup.tibetcul.com/182.html
Dear owner of the blog, Please make your invaluable suggestions for our column “Think about Tibet in One Hundred Years Later”

(10) 2007-12-30 8:26:00 | By: Repa

The blog owner’s opinion is right. As a singer, the most important thing is to have his or her own ideas, and Tseten Drolma lacks this. I am not blaming her for lacking her own thought. It is probably that a certain historical period has produced a generation of people like her. Well, she did not know about it during the “Cultural revolution”, but she should realize her error and repent now. I hope that is the case. As a poet, a writer, a musician and a singer, the key is to have his or her own thought, otherwise, he or she will either be cursed by posterity or his or her name will be remembered for generations after generations. It is a pity that these has such a beautiful voice, and it is really a pity and it is a waste of talent for her to sing those garbage songs.


(11) 2007-12-28 14:03:00 | By: The love in the Grassland
“If one wants to save others, please save oneself first!” Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! Please take care!

(12) 2007-3-27 19:36:00 | By: Wanzi (Pill)
I strongly support it.

(13) 2007-3-22 13:53:00 | By: Xueyi (Snow Ant)
I suspect that Hanhong does not even speak Tibetan, otherwise, why hasn’t she sung Tibetan songs?

(13) 2007-3-22 13:46:00 | By: Lala

I strongly support it.

(14) 2007-3-21 18:01:00 | By: lantian (blue sky )

It is really understandable that you worry about Tibetan music. Many times we also have similar thought about it. But your way to express it is a little bit too extreme. Indeed there are many problems for Tibetan music, and one of the problem is what course to take. However, to be honest, those singers you criticized are not the arch-criminals as you portrayed. They are singers produced at a certain historical period, and under the circumstances, some made their choices which are meaningful, but sometimes they had no choice.
If we truly compare what they did is right or wrong, to be honest, they did things right more than they did it wrong. I think we should at least show them the respect they deserve. Furthermore, we should not associate the carnal questions of right and wrong of the nationality with the specific jobs of these singers. In my opinion, the real reason is not them, it is the circumstance of a certain era and the fate determined by this environment. The improvement and progress of the fate, in fact, is related to every one of us. As far as art is concerned, it is not just the singers, the more important reason is the professional groups which produce music.

The reply of the blog owner:
I want to let you know that many times I blame myself for not doing enough, not doing a lot or not doing well enough. Why do I do that? It is all because I am a Tibetan. Tibetan regions are in such dejected states, and I believe this has something to do with me and with all Tibetans. We can term it as responsibility or the historical commitment. We must should our responsibilities.
Then when we talk about Tibetan music, who should I find to be the scapegoat? Is it possible that singers are not the ones whoa re responsible for it? Whatever the groups behind the singers want them to sing, they will sing it. This is precisely the problem. Facing the choice between their job prospect and the dignity of the nationality, they chose their job prospect! Everybody ahs his own thought, and nobody is so stupid, therefore, their current music is their choice. No matter whether they made the choice as they were helpless and had no other choice, the reality is this.

Thank you for your suggestions which have enabled me to see the other side of the issue.

Thanks!

22 December, 2006

Translated from Chinese
View the original here

"On recent paintings of Tsering Nyendak" by Woeser

Nyendak is a Lhasawa. From a distance, I saw him walking closer. His youthfulness and disability hit a tender spot in my heart.

It used to be very easy to recognize that those who appear in Nyendak’s paintings are Tibetans. Lately, it is no longer the case. You can feel that he has done so intentionally—intentionally not letting his viewers be able to quickly decide on the identity of his sitters. Instead, he has been focusing on the theme of falling women.* He paints them slowly falling from the sky, smiling, looking relaxed and comfortable—including the one who is at the same time blowing up a balloon. (Too bright the balloon looks!) Disappearing from his canvases are those immediately recognizable symbols of Tibet: Tibetan dress, Tibetan hairstyles, Tibetan ornaments, and even the custom among common Tibetans of sticking their tongues out to greet each other. (Nyendak would like to make sure that you notice he is poking fun at the custom.) Yet, Nyendak recently seems to have decided to erase these Tibetan signs. He doesn’t need them since he himself is in Tibet and so Tibetan. Nevertheless, there is still something in this new batch of the artist’s work that speaks to my heart; they remind me of the way I used to feel about my own soul broken into pieces, drifting, and flying….

It is interesting to observe that, although Nyendak now seemingly prefers to keep the identity of his paintings outwardly ambiguous, in my eyes, they still make him the artist voicing what is going on in contemporary Tibet. With or without putting Tibetan garb for the figures in his painting, they always unmistakably resemble the real people from Amdo, U-Tsang, or Kham. They kept me lingering around in front of his paintings. Also, I should add that what Nyendak conveys is, I think, more than just a likeness on the surface. Having myself as an example, my upbringing, my way of dressing myself, the way I speak Chinese….they all help me be often mistaken as a Chinese. Yet, am I? Am I a Chinese? Yes, you are right; I am of course not. I am just like you; we are Tibetans hiding our sole identity deep inside our hearts. To say so does not mean I am nationalistic; I only want to be reassured of my own identity. That’s all.

Nyendak hangs his paintings at a street corner along Bakhor and quietly settles himself in one of the courtyards in Tsemoenling….. As for me, I was so eager to see his paintings, perhaps only because I found myself sharing the confusion of those who appear in his paintings. Even just at this moment when I am writing, I find something new: Yes, I see in his figures something about absence, about failure, which is mine and ours. Of course, Nyendak knows how to give light touches to his work and likes to “unintentionally” capture the details of everyday lives. For instance, he reveals that under the chuba of the Khamba woman riding on the bike are her red sport pants and a pair of tennis shoes! I admit that I am very enchanted by these kinds of details, although they seem to only appear in the earlier works of the artist. Now, what remains is only a hint of the Tibetan landscape that he paints from the perspective of the women who are falling from the sky slowly and look carefree. What can be better compared with the views that they are seeing? It is perhaps just like what you can see by pressing your nose to the small windows on an airplane steadily passing through the sky above the Amdo-Tibet plateau; you look down, find the endless mountain ranges, and glimpse tiny Tibetan houses that are scattered over or tucked away from the landscape.

When others cannot live without appropriating Tibetan symbols or Tibetanizing the scenes and human figures they create—as a Han artist who resided in Tibet for many years has recently done through his performance art of smearing the internet sign “@” all over mani stones and prayer flags—Naydrak, the painter, is deleting and subtracting, as though he is at home, in the midst of family members, feeling no need for any artificial gesture or heavy make-up.



*Translator’s note: “Falling” here is to be taken both literally and in a moral sense.
Translated from the original Chinese by Susan Chen

"The Iron Dragon has Come" by Woeser

Behind the gala celebrations in Lhasa over the inauguration of the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway lies a deeper sadness and frustration.

The “iron horse" and "iron bird" that appeared in Tibetan prophesy over a thousand years ago manifested themselves in the twentieth century as the automobile and the airplane. The prophesy is optimistic, describing the iron creatures as the means by which Tibetan people are scattered around the world like ants, spreading the message of Buddhism to the “land of the red people.” But how about the train? What does it resemble more than a writhing dragon? And what does that portend?

An exiled Tibetan scholar entitled his work on contemporary Tibetan history The Dragon in the Land of Snows [1]. It is well known that the dragon is the symbol of China and the Land of Snows is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A "dragon" of flesh and blood is nothing unusual, but if the "dragon" is transformed into iron and steel, the consequences are profound.

The Tibetan language has two words for "train." One is rili, which the Tibetans borrow from Urdu, and the other is meiguoer, a loose translation of the Chinese word for train, which is far less popular. Both of these coinages are fairly recent, within the past few decades, and they were seldom heard until five years ago, when they began to resound like thunder. At last, just several days before the train made its formal entrance into Lhasa, the Tibetan Language Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region made the decision that the train from then on would be called meiguoer, not rili. (Does this mean news of the Iron Dragon of China cannot be disseminated in Tibet through an Indian dialect?)

A poem written in 1995
I feel I must write something. There were already so many "people outside the Land of Snows" (from the song “Yearning for the Magic Eagle”) feeling excited and agitated by nationalism. Some Tibetan-looking officials, experts and representatives of the people abased themselves in tearful welcome of the iron dragon that would run 1,956 kilometers along a "magic sky road" (from the song “Sky Road”) into the Lhasa terminal. Meanwhile, the hearts of the majority of Tibetan people were smothered by the Chinese red star flags, streamers and colorful balloons that shrouded the city of Lhasa. Of course, their voices had been stifled early on.

What a gala scene! Inland China sees few of these red tide displays nowadays, and journalists from Central China Television and Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television were moved to exclaim, "How patriotic Tibetan people are!" Ah, yes; watching the live broadcasting in Beijing, I wanted to say just one sentence: “Anyone who doesn’t look patriotic will be fined, don’t you get it?” In all of China, perhaps only the Tibet Autonomous Region has enacted such a policy.

A person from inland China was puzzled at this, and said, "We don’t understand it. Can you explain it?" A Tibetan from Lhasa patiently answered this question on my behalf: “Every family is required to fly the red star flag during the Spring Festival – the biggest Chinese festival – and it’s the same at all the other major holidays, including the Tibetan New Year, Labor Day on May 1 and National Day on October 1. It’s like that in Pakuo Street in downtown Lhasa; all the residential committees require it. If it were voluntary, that would be fine. But you’re forced to do it, and those who refuse to comply are fined or, worse yet, labeled ‘separatists.’ It’s hard to describe the mood under this kind of coercion....”

I feel I must write something. I recalled a poem I wrote many years ago, in the winter of 1995. At that time, I was working as an editor in the Writers’ Association of the Tibet Autonomous Region. One afternoon our office received a file from the Chinese Communist Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region announcing that the atheist Party had appointed a boy as the 11th Panchen Lama, the reincarnated soul of the 10th Panchen Lama. The boy approved by the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, as the 11th Panchen Lama had been disdainfully rejected by the Party. Sitting within that system, I felt frozen both physically and mentally. Overwhelmed with indignation at the lies I had heard and read, I wrote:

Listen, the grand lie wraps the sky;
Only two birds remain in the woods,
Saying, “Tibet, Tibet, you are fortunate”....

Not a single day passes where we are not reminded of our good fortune. It is said that since 1950, or to be more accurate, since 1959 [2], the Tibetan people have led a happy existence. But this "happiness" does not come from heaven or earth, nor was it bestowed by the "three exploiting groups" of Old Tibet, but rather has been given, and can only be given, by the Party. So even during the Cultural Revolution, when 6,000-odd Tibetan temples were smashed to smithereens, there were two singers in Tibetan attire with the Chinese last names of Zhang and Geng, who sang loudly through Tibetan lips: "Thank him (Chairman Mao) for bringing us happiness!" And so today people are punished for failing to hang a red star flag outside their homes, and red streamers garnish the streets of Lhasa, proclaiming, "The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the road to happiness for all the nationalities in Tibet!" The leaders of Tibet have become so adroit and meticulous in their cosmetic efforts that even restroom attendants were issued with short-term salary cards for the railway’s grand opening, so visiting reporters wouldn’t see that people are normally charged for using the restroom.

The frog and the Nyenchhen Tanglha Mountain
What do the silenced Tibetan people say about the uninvited iron dragon, another "happiness" imposed upon them?

In 2004, construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway passed the Tanglha Mountain and the northern Tibetan prairie and moved toward Lhasa. A new folk tale spread quietly through Lhasa, which had the strong flavor of Tibetan folk literature, and passed from lip to ear, it acquired a magical aura. According to the story, at Damxung [3], a place very near Lhasa, railway workers dug up a frog from the earth. The badly injured frog was huge, and it became even larger with each telling. In the earliest version, it was hauled off on a wooden cart; later it was said to require a truck. In the tea houses and households of Lhasa, people related the frog tale in a low voice, accompanied by anxious sighs.

Why should digging up a frog make people so worried? People outside Tibet have difficulty discerning the deeper meaning. In the ancient tradition of Tibet’s Bön religion [4], the metaphor of the frog is profound. Like many other animals that live in the water, the earth, the rocks and the woods, like the snake and the fish, the frog is regarded as a spirit that brings both good fortune and bad. These creatures are collectively known in the Tibetan language as lu, which coincidentally is loosely translated into Chinese as "dragon." Because the lu are imbued with extraordinary magic, the Bön tradition includes many classics and rituals exclusively devoted to them. Eventually, after Buddhism was introduced into Tibet, and especially after Padmasambhava [5], the master of Esoteric Buddhism known for vanquishing monsters, entered Tibet, all kinds of lu were finally vanquished and converted to Buddhism, and became guardian spirits. Since then, the lu have held a very important position in the Tibetan pantheon.

As an embodiment of the lu, the frog has a function in Tibetan culture that transcends its animal nature. For that reason, when the train came and the lu that originally lived in the soil was battered black and blue and transported to an unknown place, the implication was that when the iron dragon arrived, Tibet's own "dragon" was unable to defend itself and was severely injured. This contemporary Tibetan folk tale, the author of which will never be known, is amazingly subtle in its expression of the frustrated and defeated mood of the Tibetan people.

The time moves forward to 2006. The iron dragon had in fact already arrived in the form of crude freight trains with none of the fanfare later stirred up by the grand opening. But an accident happened during the Spring Festival: a freight train suddenly derailed on the bridge built high over the Damxung prairie. It was said that people were injured, but the jittery authorities blocked off the site and imposed a news blackout. Another new folk tale spread quietly through Lhasa, again bearing a strong flavor of Tibetan folk literature, and taking on a magical aura as it passed from lip to ear.

In the recounting of an old man in Lhasa, the reason that the normally smooth-running train got into an accident was that it passed Nyenchhen Tanglha Mountain. How could a mountain cause an accident? This is also associated with the traditional culture of Tibet. According to Tibetan folk religion, the Nyenchhen Tanglha Mountain is one of many mountain gods, called Zanri in Tibetan, that guard Tibet’s northern Qiangtang Grassland. The mountains have magical powers to summon wind, rain, snow and hail, and to determine the increase and decline of living creatures, and the fortunes of human beings. The mountain gods are regarded as more easily angered than the other gods, so everyone must pass the mountain with the appropriate respect and awe, and should especially avoid raising a disturbance, which could bring disaster. The old man whispered mysteriously to me, "The mountain god was angered, so the normally smooth-running rili was overturned."

In this way, the Tibetan people used their own wounded culture to console their frustrated hearts.

An American’s omitted words
The grand triumph of the Qinghai-Tibet railway apparently required more than the high praises of Chinese themselves, and a quote from an American, discovered with much effort, became an authoritative testimony republished throughout the Chinese media. It was said that Paul Theroux, some fellow who loves to travel around by train, wrote these words while riding a train through China: "The Kunlun Range is a guarantee that the railway will never get to Lhasa." [6]

A poster on an Internet blog pointed out that almost all the reports about the completion and the opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway quoted Theroux’s sentence, but that the next sentence in the quote was omitted by most of the media: "That is probably a good thing. I thought I liked railways until I saw Tibet, and then I realized that I like wilderness much more.” [7] It’s obvious that what Theroux means is that it “might be a good thing" if Tibet were never accessible by train.

Now everyone talks about going to Tibet. Stirred up by media hype, ordinary Chinese people have suddenly developed a keen interest in Tibet. In the past, the long distance and the expense of the trip discouraged many prospective visitors. Now people can barely contain their excitement at the mere 48 hours and 300 to 1,200 yuan required for the journey between Beijing and Lhasa. A Han Chinese friend who once filmed a documentary in Tibet said that even Beijing’s unlicensed taxi drivers were clamoring for a chance to go to Tibet.

The celebrations of inlanders and the tears of an old Tibetan woman
After the Qinghai-Tibet railway had been operating for half a month, the broadcast media announced that 50,000 people had arrived in Lhasa. In Beijing, such a number would be undetectable, but the population of Lhasa, according to the fifth national census held in 2000, was 474,500, only about 3.6 percent that of Beijing. In other words, 50,000 people arriving in Lhasa in half a month was the equivalent of 1.4 million people arriving in Beijing. Of course, it’s possible that 1.4 million people is not that many for Beijing; in one year during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong inspected a million Red Guards at Tiananmen Square, and that doesn’t seem to have resulted in the city’s destruction. But the situation of Lhasa is different. The population of 470,000 includes the surrounding seven counties, with only 140,000 people living in the city itself. Surely 50,000 people descending on a city of 140,000 is bound to cause a tremendous disturbance, and even the official media admitted that Lhasa was “overwhelmed”.

The grandmother of a Tibetan friend, an elderly and pious lady, always made a point of going to the Jokhang Temple [8] to worship on each Buddhist festival, in spite of her age and infirmity. According to custom, the faithful worshipped at the Jokhang Temple in the morning and at dusk, and tourists could visit during the afternoon. But once the passenger railway began operating, the temple had to give access to a constant stream of tourists from morning till night, forcing tourists and pilgrims to crowd together. In addition, many tourists refused to wait their turn, and failed to maintain a respectful silence, greatly disturbing those who came to seek spiritual consolation. The old Tibetan lady, stumbling with every step, could only hold up her flickering oil lamp and tearfully cry out in Tibetan, "I cannot escape the Chinese throng!" After returning home and contemplating more such experiences, the old woman wept at the realization that she might never again be able to worship Buddha at Jokhang Temple.

The 50,000 Chinese visitors were referred to by Lhasa residents as zizi, the Tibetan word for mice. Lhasa will continue to see many such zizi. The tourist industry predicted this year that 2.5 million people will flock to Tibet. A deputy mayor of Lhasa with the Chinese surname of Xu said that the increase in the tourists would not harm Tibet’s environment or culture, at the same time that he mentioned that the Potala Palace had cut down its visiting hours while accommodating double the number of visitors [9]. He seemed to suggest that once visiting hours were reduced by two hours, it would not be a problem for 2,300 people to walk up and down the palace stairs every day. Such words defy logic! After suffering bombardments by the People's Liberation Army in 1959 and the digging of air-raid shelters at the base of the hill during the "Digging Shelters and Storing Grain" campaign of the Cultural Revolution, the historical Potala Palace suffered serious structural damage that has been only partially corrected through subsequent repairs. With so many tourists climbing the stairs on a daily basis, there is a real danger of collapse. Already, in the summer of 2001, the authorities were forced to acknowledge that the flow of visitors was unsustainable when one of the palace’s walls collapsed [10].

Many effects of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, such as the marginalization of Tibetans and the plundering of resources, are not yet apparent. Even so, the constant flow of tourists is already a heavy burden in the daily life of Lhasa residents, who refer to the influx as the “yellow peril.” Someone sighed on the Internet, "For 311 yuan, the Sky Road brings you to tour Lhasa. Only 311 yuan is required to speed our destruction; that is too cheap. May the gods and spirits bless this holy land!" But today our gods and spirits are seriously injured; how can they bless our homeland?

Not long ago, a big charity benefit was held in Tibet. A group of people representing the media, corporations and sponsors went to the periphery of Mount Everest to clean up garbage and donate educational materials and daily necessities to nearby schools and villages. On the surface it looked like a noble activity to "assist Tibet," but it was eventually revealed to be a "commercial show" using Tibet to make money. One particularly heartbreaking detail was reported in the media: "The host gave a piece of chocolate to each child in a primary school, then had the pupils wave their candy in the air for five minutes while they were photographed. The show was really overdone; how must the children have felt?" [11]

Reading this detail, I remembered a Chinese movie called The Devils are Here, which was shown several years ago. It includes a scene in which a group of Japanese soldiers ride on large horses past a village, accompanied by the music of a military band, and a group of naïve Chinese children sit on a dirt wall at the entrance to the village, watching the scene with smiles on their faces. The commander of the Japanese soldiers bends down and kindly hands a piece of candy to each child, and the children cheer and scamper with joy, holding the candy in their hands. A piece of candy satisfies the generosity of the donor and the material cravings of the receiver.
Of course, I don’t to suggest anything in particular by referring to this movie – the use of candy in both cases is merely coincidental. But I wonder how many such coincidental offerings of candy Tibet will experience in the future.

Enjoying full benefits requires autonomy
In his comments on Kipling's novels, Edward Said holds that Kipling describes the people of India as creatures clearly needing the tutelage of the British. He says this tutelage is achieved by surrounding and then assimilating India in a narrative in which India, without Britain, would falter and perish through its own corruption [12]. This utilitarian view prevails in the attitude of Chinese toward Tibet. It seems that Tibetan people are also creatures requiring tutelage, wretchedly waiting to be liberated and fed. More lamentably, Tibetan people have been transformed into abnormal life forms, like the vegetables and flowers seen in vinyl hothouses all over Tibet these days. Once they leave the sanctuary of the hothouse, they will die, unaccustomed as they are to the outside world. Now, while still living in their own land, Tibetan people are smothering in the atmosphere created by outsiders, and are failing to acclimate to their own land. Since their land has become that of others, there’s nothing they can do about it.

And so the big, inappropriate squares are built one after another, and skyscrapers of ceramic tile and blue glass rise one after another, and streets named for Chinese cities like Guangzhou and Suzhou appear one after another. Clusters of bordellos and flocks of prostitutes lure customers from the street in broad daylight. Even traditional food taboos are ignored at restaurants serving live fish and shrimp and donkey meat. In his Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said describes imperialism as a mode of “geographic violence" that manifests itself in immediately changing local living spaces, lifestyles and political systems wherever it goes.

Officials, and the official media that are their mouthpieces, take on the tones of saviors and spokespeople of the Tibetan people when they say, “We hope the Tibetan people can also enjoy the right to modernization; tradition and modernization are equally indispensable.” This sounds quite reasonable, but let’s not forget that rights require power. How can tradition exist without power? And what is considered modernization? Do the Tibetan people need to enjoy the kind of modernization described above? Isn't it essentially a sugar-coated violence? Scholars in the hire of the dictatorship constantly describe claims that the railway will harm the natural environment and traditional culture as a false proposition. But reality has shown that the so-called modernization in Tibet is an equally false modernization. Regrettably, violence of various degrees – hard, soft and in-between – prevails in the vast land of Tibet, and all if it holds the banner of development, and in the name of modernization works its impact on the senses and hearts of the people. Is this the happiness bestowed on the Tibetan people?

The train has come. The iron dragon has come. Rili-Meiguoer has come. But the real problem for Tibet is not the railway. If Tibet enjoyed real autonomy, it would be fine for the railway – or any number of railways – to run to each and every village. But without real autonomy, we can only let other people decide our fortune as they see fit, and allow an increasing chaos that inevitably results in our yielding to those in power. At the same time, the conscience of many people also yields to those in power, with an ultimately unfortunate result. As Said wrote, imperialism presents its victims with the choice to surrender or perish. Yes, there is no other choice. For the people of Tibet, who do not have autonomy, whether they choose to surrender or to perish, the road they travel will not be the “magic sky road" or what Lhasa residents jokingly refer to as "the road to lunacy," but a one-way road to destruction.

Translated by Wei Liu. The original Chinese article was published in the August 2006 issue of Hong Kong’s Open Magazine (Kaifang).

Notes:
1 Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of Snows – A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, Pimlico, 1999.

2 China took military control of Tibet in 1959, and the Dalai Lama was forced into exile in India.

3 Also known in Chinese as Dangxiong.

4 For more on the Bön religion, see “The Bonpo’s Tradition” on the Website of the Government of Tibet in Exile.

5 Chinese pinyin: Lian Huasheng.

6 Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster, Putnam, 1988.

7 The blog posting can be accessed at http://bowenqiangji.wordpress.com/. For a Chinese media report using only the first part of the quote, see People’s Daily Online, “First train enters ‘insurmountable’ Kunlun Mountains,” July 2, 2006.

8 Known in Mandarin as the Dazhou Temple, one of the most sacred shrines in Tibet.

9 Xu Chengcang, quoted in “Lasa fusizhang: youke zengjia bu hui pohuai Sizang shengtai wenhua [Lhasa vice-mayor: the increase in tourists will not damage Tibet’s environment or culture],” Chinareviewnews.com, July 2, 2006.

10 See Oliver August, “Tibet Palace Damaged in Quest for Tourists,” The Times, August 18, 2001, posted on the Website of Tibet Environmental Watch.

11 Quoted from Xinhua Net, “Baozi biancheng daohuosuo: Sizang yici gongyi huodong beihou de ‘shangye xiu’” [Bread becomes ammunition: The ‘commercial show’ behind the Tibet charity benefit],” June 19, 2006. The news article includes a photo of the children holding up their candy.

12 Probably from Culture and Imperialism, but Said also wrote the introduction to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Kipling’s India-based novel Kim.

"Temporary September" by Woeser

It’s the season to enjoy good fruit
I meant to change into work clothes
Planning, at the instant the moon reached fulness
In some garden encircled by deep-hued vegetation
Right in the middle, you don’t see many such, so calm
The one that’s meant for me,
Hanging so high, on which branch?
An embarrassment of riches; which should I want most?

I’m a moody gal
No longer young, no longer fresh
But still get high on emotion
No shortage of illusions
This time the delusion’s so real
I want it bad, I’ll supply whatever’s missing
Recklessly singing along that road
That microbe in the air
The brilliant writer I adore is sick, he’s dying

The woven basket in my hand, even if filled with pure water
Still could not cradle this last seed of love
Better to pick up my little hoe
But the healing herb, now extinct,
How can it shoot up again?
The fruit, still waiting, rejects the base scoundrels
Here all’s wrapped in miasma
Ah! But it’s only the imaginary garden
Once September’s past, will all be well?

Translated from Chinese by A.E.Clark and published originally by China Rights Forum Magazine, 2006.

"Lhasa Nights" by Woeser

O Lhasa, dreamlike nights!
A certain lotus may have never bloomed,
Sometimes a wineglass shatters at a tap;
Yet there are people,just a few—who blessed
Them with such spirit?—to whom this roaming feast
Seems Paradise for banishment self-chosen.
And if (invisibly) they weep,it’s only
For a kinsman whom they couldn’t keep.

O Lhasa, nights of woe!
A certain bluebird may have never chirped,
And sometimes garments get begrimed with dust;
Yet there are people,just a few—who spread
This plague?—who see bright fleeting Time as but
A pool wherein the posturing ego sinks.
Illusions countless,ever so seductive,
Can’t lure a reincarnate kinsman back.

O Lhasa, nights like nowhere else!
A love there is that never came to pass,
And certain bloodlines gradually mixed;
Yet there’s a man,perhaps just one—what kind
Of lightning bolt?—who makes a stifling fate
Serve as the hinge of reconciliation.
Upon the endless wheel of birth and death
I wish you would forever be my kin!

Translated from Chinese by A.E.Clark and published originally by China Rights Forum Magazine, 2006.