What's the matter with Tibet?
www.chinaview.cn 2008-04-25 03:13:39 Print
BEIJING, April 24 (xinhua) -- Canadian writer Lisa Carducci wrote
an article entitled "What's the matter with Tibet?" for China Daily, a
Beijing-based English newspaper, explaining why people outside China
usually have a prejudice against Tibet. Here is the full text of the
article, which was published on April 22:
It is one thing to be interested in Tibet, as most of my
acquaintances are. It is another to have totally prejudiced views,
which unfortunately is the case with most of them.
Only a handful are honest enough to hold their opinions until they
visit Tibet and see things with their own eyes. Some others hear only
what they want to hear and what doesn't disturb their "Tibetan
imagination".
Here is an example. A Canadian friend of mine, a university
professor, went to Tibet in May 1997. He later told me that his group
had been sent away from a Tibetan restaurant by the police and
directed to a Han establishment.
The reason, according to him, was racism, an attempt to "break"
the "Tibetan nation". His immediate analysis - before he understood a
word of what was going on - was obviously based on prejudice.
I was not there and didn't see what happened. But after discussing
the fact with Han and Tibetan people who knew better, we all concluded
that the real cause might have been one or more of the following: the
owner of the Tibetan restaurant had no permit; he had not paid his
taxes; the place was not hygienic enough for foreigners; the owner and
the policeman had a personal dispute; or the owner was trafficking
ancient tangka, a kind of Tibetan painting.
We also tend to assume that all Tibetans are the same and feel and
act the same way. Far from it. Those I met in Tibet or in Xiahe county
of Gansu province seem not interested in politics. They live happily
and quietly, and have no complaints about the central government as
long as their lives continue to prosper year after year.
At the village of Ta****ling in Nepal, instead, the Tibetan women I
chatted with for two hours at the market had different stories to
tell.
The major difference between them and the Tibetans living in China
is that the Tibetans in Nepal think that "the Hans invaded Tibet and
forced them to flee the country".
The woman who spoke better Chinese and served as an interpreter
for the group said: "When our country is free, we'll go back
immediately and get good jobs! Do you think this is a life, what we do
here? Commerce!"
I took pity on her because she seemed to have been completely
swayed by anti-China propaganda. I told her that all the Tibetans I
had met earlier knew very well what the central government of China
had done for them and appreciated it.
"I'm sorry to tell you," I said, "that you fool yourself if you
think that your Tibetan fellows inside the country think the same way
you do and sup****t your efforts for independence."
She stared at me, her eyes wide open. "Have you ever been to
Tibet?"
"Of course! If not, how could I speak like this?" She remained
silent a moment, then said: "Every year on March 10, the Tibetans of
the world march for independence. If you go to Tibet on that day,
you'll see the Chinese army killing so many people in the streets."
If there was any truth in her words, I thought, I must have been
trans****ted to another planet.
"We have seen photos, and videos," she continued. "Every year we
see them."
"Who took these photos?"
"Foreigners. From other places."
I calmed down, before asking: "Are you sure these photos and films
were taken recently? They may be from the 'cultural revolution' period
when Tibetans just as other Chinese suffered and were treated badly.
Or during the civil rebellion in 1959? Might you not have been
deceived? Maybe they show you the same pictures year after year? Maybe
the photos were altered?"
As a spokesperson of her group, she turned around, and said: "It's
possible, but we have no means of checking."
"Might these activist friends of the Dalai Lama," I continued, "be
the authors of the photocopied letters on the board at the village
entrance, issued by 'His Holiness Dalai Lama's office'? And the
inscription 'Chinese, leave', who do you think wrote it?"
I explained to them all the changes that had happened in Tibet and
talked about all the money invested by the central government into
reconstruction and development, the progress in education, the
religious freedom, the improvement of health, society, life, and they
were astonished. Apparently, no one had ever spoken to them like
this.
"Do you believe me?" I asked.
"I believe you because you are a foreigner," said the woman, "not
a member of the communist party. Are you?"
"You can trust me. I tell you only what I have seen. Tibet is a
beautiful and peaceful place where people sing while they work, where
people smile and enjoy life."
The younger ones among them were born in Nepal; others had fled
Tibet to go to Nepal in the 1950s and never returned to Tibet. They
have no pass****ts; of course they cannot enter China.
I then visited a temple where a young 17-year-old monk said that
his greatest aspiration was to see Tibet. He thought monks were
arrested, jailed or even killed in China, his thought based on the
fact that his friend went there and never returned.
"I'll tell you something, young man. Your friend may have been
arrested because he entered a country illegally. But if you never
heard from him after that, don't you think he might have accomplished
his great desire: to see Tibet. He may be living in a monastery
there!"
He bowed his head and said, "I wish I had such a chance!"
Finally, I realized that the Tibetans outside Tibet are the
victims not only of ignorance but of a well-organized campaign of
misinformation. And it struck me that it may be the same for the Dalai
Lama.
The Dalai Lama, who left the country when he was still very young
and under the influence of a group, and never saw Tibet with his own
eyes later in life to be able to judge things for himself, is also a
poor victim - much like the woman at the village market.
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