Global Debates

  Kirsty Hughes 

This week China opened its new railway link that takes trains all the way from Beijing to Lhasa in
Tibet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1809839,00.html  ).  It is an ominous development for those who hope that one day Tibet will enjoy independence or even genuine autonomy.  <

Spending some time in Dharamsala, India a year ago, I heard many stories from recent refugees from
Tibet.  One young Tibetan waiter explained how he escaped Tibet, walking for 28 days over the snowy mountains of the Himalayas, with no food for the last 3 days, reaching safety  in Nepal, and then on to a life in exile in the small Indian hill town of Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile.  Around 2500 refugees a year are still arriving in India from Tibet, most of them on the arduous dangerous trek over the Himalayas.

The refugees come to escape religious and cultural oppression in Tibet, and to get a genuine free  education, for themselves or their children. And they come to see the Dalai Lama at least once before they die. As refugees, they are part of the struggle for Tibetan autonomy and to keep Tibetan culture and religion blossoming in exile.

With the charismatic leadership of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans have risen to this challenge over the decades since the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile in 1959.  But, with the passing years, there’s a risk that the high profile of the Tibetan cause and hopes of success may start to fade.

This risk is not immediately obvious given the organisation, and tenacity, of the Tibetan community in exile. First the escaping refugees are safely registered with the UNHCR at the Tibetan-run reception centre in
Kathmandu – a crucial step, 3 years ago the Nepali government sent 18 refugees back to China in the face of an international outcry. Nepal now refuses to accept refugees other than in transit – even the new government in Nepal, which so dramatically established democracy and deposed its king this April to worldwide cheers, is so far refusing to re-open the office of the Dalai Lam’s representative in
Kathmandu, nervous presumably of its large Chinese neighbour (http://kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=78624 ).

Once the refugees are registered a whole process swings into action. Entry permits to India are obtained (then the refugees are taken by bus via Delhi to Dharamsala’s refugee centre. There they stay in cramped dormitories – up to 70 or more in a room, beds pushed  together or mattresses on the floor. Here they receive health care and, if needed, counselling for trauma: I talk briefly to one man in his 30s imprisoned by the Chinese for 6 years, and tortured, for displaying the Tibetan flag. Language and education classes are provided – the children’s paintings on the walls sometimes graphic testimony to the violence or oppression they’ve witnessed.  

But the refugees are waiting in particular to fulfil one key goal – an audience with the Dalai Lama. That achieved,  they are dispersed  – children to the network of Tibetan schools and orphanages, young adults to an education centre for 4 or 5 years to learn English, Hindi, work skills, and Tibetan language history, culture and religion. Older adults are assisted to find work and there are old people’s homes too. Exiled monks and nuns, often former political prisoners, can move to a range of monasteries and nunneries across
India.  Culture is further promoted in the small centre of Norbulingka (named after the Dalai Lama’s summer palace in Lhasa), 8 kms from Dharamsala – a peaceful oasis including temples and workshops where old Tibetan masters pass on their skills to young apprentices in metal-sculpting, woodcarving, Thanka painting and more.

The unrecognised Tibetan government-in-exile which monitors all this is not recognised internationally. But as Sonam Dagpo from the administration’s international secretariat says “it is recognised by the Tibetan people, we are the free spokesmen for six million people”.  Its various departments and  the Tibetan assembly, elected by the exile community, cluster round a small central square in Dharamsala with a stupa in the middle.

It’s one of the most impressive community in exile set-ups in the world – numbering perhaps 140,000 in total of which around 80,000 are in India. But time is passing. The Dalai Lama celebrated his 71st birthday on July 6th this year, and at some point a new leader will be needed. Many of the original refugees have died in exile, others born abroad have never seen their homeland.  And over time the deliberate policy of not taking Indian citizenship may become increasingly burdensome for young exiled Tibetans. Remaining stateless causes its own problems in daily life from ownership of property and businesses to lack of a say in the society in which you live.

While back in Tibet itself, generations are growing up under a Chinese-controlled education system, and with an economic development of Tibet, including negative environmental impacts, over which they have little control. B. Tsering Yeshi of the Tibet Women’s Association in Dharamsala worries at “a generation that doesn’t even know about Tibetan history culture or about being Tibetan”. But Sherab Chophel of the Tibetan Youth Congress argues: “People know they are Tibetan and that China took the country, there is still a consciousness”.  

Religion in Tibet remains carefully controlled. While some of  Lhasa’s monasteries are being restored and repainted – Drepung and Sera full of colour, and debating monks – many decaying buildings remain, a testament to past excesses.  As one exile in Nepal puts it: “the restoration is superficial and for the tourists, many controls remain”. Any political demonstrations for independence or even autonomy are ruthlessly suppressed. And the monasteries are still strictly controlled – what they teach, the numbers of monks. In Ganden monastery, in wild bare mountains an hour out of Lhasa through a stunning river valley, there’s a police station in the grounds.

Many Tibetan monks and nuns, often leaders of the independence and cultural struggle, have suffered ill-treatment, torture and imprisonment, even the death penalty, for independence demonstrations, such as flying the Tibetan flag.

Perhaps the most serious problem is that Tibetans are becoming a minority in Tibet. Lhasa already has several hundred thousand Chinese inhabitants, and the new railway will make it easy for many more settlers to follow.

Tibetans in exile see all this but are in no mood to give up. But they do disagree among themselves on the strategy to adopt. Most have supported the Dalai Lama’s shift to a strategy of demanding autonomy not independence, but the highly influential Tibetan Youth Congress – the largest Tibetan exile organisation – still backs the independence route. As Chophel puts it:” We think the government stance should change to [a demand for] complete independence.” 

There are disagreements too over future prospects. For instance, closer India-China relations could be positive or negative.India might help to make Tibet’s case, or may be fearful of damaging a crucial political and economic relationship. The new border crossing opened this week between India and China through
India’s Sikkim province into Tibet will alarm some (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5150682.stm).  Some hope that – albeit distant – prospects of democracy in China will help, others think democratic China will be no more inclined to allow Tibetan autonomy.

Nor is the West doing much. China’s growing global economic and political engagement in the last decade offered the international community a real chance to increase its pressure over Tibet. But economics has mostly come before politics, with the EU moving towards lifting its arms embargo on China, and the
US’s credibility on human rights issues in tatters after Iraq.

The situation in Tibet with new generations increasingly distanced from their own culture, surrounded by a majority of Han Chinese settlers, looks grim. The question is how long the exile community can keep Tibetan culture alive in the hope one day of taking it home. Tibetans are persistent with a hope and optimism that comes from their own culture and religion. But for now the path to a positive solution is far from clear.