T.A.C.T.I.C ORGANIZATION Travis Thompson
612 South EllaSandpoint,
Idaho U.S.A. 83864
Cultural Info
China's Mass Migration West
As the sun ascends over the Amdo plateau, a region in northern Tibet, the hammering sounds of Pulaskis echo across the landscape as they hit solid ground. Men grunt and wipe the sweat from their faces as they continue with their grueling and intensive labor. The railway tracks are being set and the Gormo-Nagchu-Lhasa Railway project is underway.
The year was 2001, and the Chinese government had been allocated 100 Billion Yuan ($12.1 Billion U.S.) by the World Bank for the massive railway project which would link Tibet to its eastern Chinese neighbor. The railway would span over 4,000 km and would be one of the most massive and labor-intensive projects undertaken in recent Chinese history. The railway, designed to enhance the exportation of raw materials and increase tourism, would have a long and lasting effect on the Tibetan environment and culture.
The project, which currently spans across Amdo, Tibet¡¯s precious landscape, opened up a mass transit system that has altered the grasslands, mountains, and waterways of all the regions it crosses indefinitely. "The project, however, extends damages on the fragile ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau, damaging wildlife and migration patterns, contaminating water bodies¡ and, inducing deflation and soil erosions as a result of escalating resource exploitation.¡± (China's Railway Project)
While China claims that the railway project will drive the local economy into a state of great affluence, there are other professionals who contradict the statement. China was not concerned with the Tibetan people or the economy when it undertook the railway project ¨C its sole purpose was in trying to develop its own national economy. For China to develop it needed to maintain unhindered control of its surplus-producing provinces and prevent regional parties from skimming their own surplus for independent reasons (Francine: 2004).
Although the project has increased tourism in the area, the amount of sustainability and affluence that it has brought to the region is minimal.
Taking a closer look at the railway system¡¯s construction, we understand China¡¯s true plans for the Tibetan people after their invasionThe massive influx of Chinese immigrants and the marginalization of the land
had a devastating impact on the vivacious Tibetan culture. A land once known for its highly passive and egalitarian way of life (a result of the 700th century Buddhist revolution) was home to a flourishing and thriving culture. ¡°Instead of fortresses they built temples, instead of swords, they used prayer wheels¡± (Tibet-the End of Time 2004). Tibet, in the midst of its government¡¯s change, also gave rise to the biggest monastic universities (Maitripa Institute 2005). Over 85% of Tibet¡¯s national funding went into the curriculum of monastic universities while only 10% of the population attended them. Today, this would be the equivalent of the U.S. taking out all of its military funding and putting it into the education budget (Thurman 2004).
After a few hundred years of isolationism and sovereignty, Tibet found itself struggling to defend its natural border from the world's largest communist regime: China. However, when the cultural lines were broken and the altar tainted, the Tibetan people proceeded to fight for their culture and environment and have persistently carried on the struggle for its socio-environmental stability.
On July 1, 2006, as the last tracks were connected, a swarm of people made their way to Lhasa. With a mix of 80% Chinese immigrants and 20% tourists inhabiting the area on a yearly basis, the Tibetans found their self-sustainable way of life disappearing in the western sunset. With suburbs being continuously constructed, industrial zones erected, tourist display cases created, bars and brothels made for sin seekers, and holy sites degraded to mere museums, this once holy city has now been subjugated to tourism and become a sinner's paradise. So, what does this mean for the Tibetan people as a whole?
As more and more jobs are created for the Chinese immigrants, the Tibetan populations, in the more populated cities, are being left with the low secular jobs and have even gone so far as to take up begging. Degraded to secondary citizens, Tibetans are forced into some of the lowest positions in society. Tibetans are now going through a process akin to those of other historical indigenous cultures, such as the Australian Aborigines and the Native Americans.
¡°The present Chinese policy, a combination of demographic and economic manipulation, and discrimination, aims to suppress the Tibetan issue by changing the very character and the identity of Tibet and its people¡± (Tibet at a Glance 1). As the Tibetan Government-In-Exile states in a National Report on Tibetan Women in September of 1995, Tibet lost its internal affairs, thousands of Monasteries were destroyed, monks and nuns were detained for passive protest and starvation ripped across the land like a plague. But, staying on the path of mass migration and the railway passage, we must look closer at the aspect of self-sustainability.
With Tibetans in the city barely able to live, the farmers living in the country are being stripped of their personal livestock and agriculture through heavy taxes. As the government imposes these heavy taxes on the Tibetan citizens, farmers have to present a vast majority of their yearly crops and livestock to the government.
The historical life of the free-spirited nomads, unreservedly roaming the Tibetan plateaus and high mountains allowing their livestock to graze, now being bound and confined to only one option: assimilating themselves into the Chinese way of life. One of Tibet¡¯s most dynamic cultures is now being forced to conform to a modern way of life that it is unused to. China's promise to help the Tibetan people is becoming more and more hindering to the Tibetan¡¯s old, traditional way of life.
Now, as the nomads are being forced into captivity, the Tibetan culture is slowly being brought to an end.?While the world misses the headlines highlighting this cultural genocide; it is up to secular organizations to take on the role of helping the Tibetans. Even though the mass Chinese migration was not in full swing until the railway was put into motion in 2006, the event of Chinese colonization has been encouraged since China took the country over in 1959. However, in the mid 1980's this cultural violation was brought to the world's attention with the help of the Tibetan Women's Association; one of the most renowned Tibetan Human Rights Advocates. Tibetan organizations are currently fighting to bring to the world¡¯s attention that Tibet was once recognized as an independent.
Tibet possessed all the attributes of an independent statehood recognized under international law: a defined territory, a population inhabiting that territory, a government, and the ability to enter into international relations¡± (National Report of Tibetan Women). Tibet held many high relations with foreign countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Britain, China, and India and even had limited relations with the U.S. during World War II confessing their neutrality in the war. According to Guangqiu Xu in his article, ¡°United States and the Tibet Issue¡± from 1997, an example of Tibet¡¯s recognized autonomy, occurred in 1942 after the U.S., in the middle of fighting a war with Japan, made an agreement with China to set up an air force base in China¡¯s territory. After Japan blocked off ¡°Burma Road,¡± one of the main shipping routes to China, the U.S. asked Tibet for access through its territory. Tibet, however, maintained its stance on neutrality and prohibited access. The U.S. was forced to respect Tibet. Not only was Tibet recognized by foreign countries, it was also a very stable domestic country that dealt with a national religion and human rights.
Now, however, Tibetans are treated with severe malice and disrespect by violating the right to practice religious freedoms and cultural traditions. For this reason, the country is rising in unison to protest against Chinese occupation and massive colonization.?Because of such democratic protests however, the Chinese will soon retaliate with force.
On September 27, 1987, 21 monks of Drepung Monastery led the first peaceful uprising of the new generation of Tibetans in Lhasa. Later on October 1, monks of Sera Monastery continued the protest by leading a massive public protest. During that uprising, the Tibetans replied to Chinese guns by hurling stones with bare hands. Protesting Tibetans massed in front of the Jowoe Utra front ground and the police station along the Bharkor Road.They overturned eight cars and several motorbikes near the police station. Vehicles and the police station were set on fire. Some Tibetans went near the gate of the Tibet Autonomous Region government headquarters and set fire to a car. In that turbulent incident, Nechung School student Karsel and a Sera monk were shot and killed by Chinese troops. Other Tibetans suffered injuries of varying seriousness.
When India received news of this, the Tibetan Youth Congress led a protest rally of over 500 Tibetans in New Delhi on October 3, 1987. After that, the Tibetan Women¡¯s Association, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Freedom Movement Committee (Rang btsan tshogs chung), and the Delhi Camp Leader gathered at the memorial for the mortal remains of India¡¯s apostle of Peace, Mahatma Gandhi, and took a solemn oath to continue to protest against the Chinese government until the Tibet issue came to a just resolution. Around that time, the Tibetan Women¡¯s Association presented petitions to the United Nations seeking justice for the Tibetan issue.
In order to secure speedy release of heroic Tibetan men and women arrested by the Chinese, press releases and fax dispatches were made to publicize their cases. Hunger strikes and protest rallies were undertaken and offerings to the pantheons of protector deities and prayer services were also organized. Every effort was made to address the situation in Tibet. With the public in exile trying its hardest to stand up against the Chinese, all they could do is sit back and watch their once beautiful country fall to pieces through more protests and violence.
When Tibet¡¯s capital Lhasa was rocked continuously by strong mass Tibetan protests for three days on March 5,1989, the Chinese launched a violent crackdown, resulting in serious deaths and injuries Many were arrested. The Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng issued an order of the State Council, imposing Martial Law in the city with effect from the midnight of March 7. In view of this development, the Tibetan Women¡¯s Association organized a demonstration in New Delhi of 300 Tibetan women, shouting their slogans of ¡°Release Tibetan Political Prisoners!¡± and ¡°Withdraw Martial Law at Once!¡±. The demonstrators marched on the Chinese embassy and staged a hunger-strike in front of it. Their efforts were thwarted however when they were taken into custody by the Indian police and put in jail.
Today, world organizations are still fighting the Chinese for Tibetan¡¯s rights. With the world being blinded by the most industrial country, China, using its massive veto power in the U.N., secular organizations like T.W.A. are still diligently trying to educate the mass global population through U.N. meetings and resolutions. Though there is no end in sight, these organizations are willing to fight for equality and the rights of the Tibetan people until a solution can be reached.
