Source: Xinhua

04-21-2008 16:15

By Shobori Ganguli, The Pioneer India

China's Tibet today, amid widespread modernization, is certainly no romantic Shangri La. What it is, is a gripping documentary of an Asian country's unrelenting effort to get up and be counted among the league of developed nations.

Readers of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn would recall how the eponymous protagonist militates against attempts to "civilize" him because he finds an inherent contradiction between the ways of the world and his existential freedom. That's a sentiment many a Tibetan nurtures in China today, as the Communist Party goes around painting a fresh new scenery of social and economic development across Tibet. Amid widespread modernization, China's Tibet is certainly no romantic Shangri La. Today, this region is a gripping documentary of an Asian country's unrelenting effort to get up and be counted among the league of developed nations. Having long paid attention to its more prosperous parts, China is now reaching out to its less developed regions that are peopled with minority communities like Muslims and Tibetans, aware that development cannot preclude one-eighth of the country's total land area.

Naturally, there are apprehensions that the beast of modernity will consume Tibet's tradition and culture. While not completely unfounded, these fears, however, are often amplified to paranoiac proportions. It is certainly strange to come across herders minding cattle on Honda motorbikes instead of horses, to visit "nomads" residing in pretty little villas equipped with water and electricity, or to chat up a nomad whose kids are in boarding school and who himself moves around the grasslands with a cellphone. But then, as a strong votary of development, one personally has no argument with fewer gypsy tents on the grasslands or more herders with mean machines as long as the locals are able to duly partake of the fruit of China's rapid infrastructure development and open market economy.

Courtesy the Chinese Information Office, one had the unique opportunity recently to sample this new Tibetan way of life, both within Tibet as also outside in certain small and remote counties of the Gannan Tibetan Prefecture in western China's Gansu province, a part of China that barely sees any foreigners come by. Gannan, one of 10 autonomous Tibetan prefectures in China, gave us a comprehensive introduction to quintessential Tibetan lifestyle outside Tibet, complete with heady qingke (barley beer) "gateway welcomes" at county outskirts. Along the way, we visited a 100 percent nomadic county called Maqu, watched a festive ritual at the ancient Labrang monastery in Xiahe county, enjoyed an evening of classical Tibetan dance, and feasted at a traditional Tibetan banquet in the capital Hezou.

Aware of the charge of disturbing and decimating Tibetan culture, our hosts went out of their way to project how Tibetan tradition and culture remain inviolate in China. We were told that in 1996 use of Tibetan language with clear guidelines and regulations was formalized for the prefecture. Officials also pointed to the existence of 121 Buddhist monasteries in Gannan as a measure of the state's religious tolerance.

In Lhasa, while local officials were predictably tight-lipped about Tibet's history of mass exodus led by the Dalai Lama back in 1959, they were extremely vocal about how Tibetan "culture" and "tradition" have been preserved in the many monasteries dotting the Tibetan plateau, in the colorful local streets selling Tibetan fare and food outlets that proudly beckon visitors to local Tibetan cuisine. As part of the state's commitment to protection of Tibetan culture, research on Tibetology has been stepped up. Tibetan opera, folklore and arts and crafts, are being widely showcased for travelers. The language too is being accorded its due through Tibetan newspapers, radio and television.

Politics, of course, finds no place in this development discourse. Asked whether history has been forgotten and if the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) regime is willing to welcome back Tibetan exiles from India, Mr Hao Peng, Deputy Chairman of TAR, minced no words: "Chinese people haven't forgotten that part of history (1959). We have a policy towards Tibetan compatriots overseas. As long as they hold a patriotic attitude towards their homeland, they are welcome back. Even those who've undermined national unity, if they vouch for patriotism are welcome back." And does that include the Dalai Lama? "He is a political exile engaged in separatist activity in the name of religion. His separatist activities have never ceased. He, therefore, lacks the basic foundation to come back," Mr Hao said, settling the matter once and for all.