Tibet Consciousness – Tibet Under Occupation is No Man’s Land
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.
The loss of natural freedom in Occupied Tibet has alienated Tibetans from their own Land. Tibet is the natural home for Tibetans and they have a natural right to reclaim Tibet as their own.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
NOTES FROM NO MAN’S LAND
By Shevlin Sebastian
Published: 02nd January 2016 10:00 PM
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa | Albin Mathew
In 1994, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa went from Kathmandu to Nangchen in East Tibet, to meet her aunt Parchen, as well as her cousins. Her aunt had recently been freed after being imprisoned for 20 years. Her husband had been a part of the resistance movement against the Chinese. He was killed and Parchen was jailed, for being his wife.
And very often, they would do physical labour. One day, the authorities made the prisoners dig a part of a hillside. As Parchen was doing so, she saw several dogs running around. And she thought, ‘‘How lucky the dogs were.’’
“It was a moving moment for me,” says Tsering, the first female Tibetan poet writing in English. “Parchen did not feel bitter. She would laugh and sometimes cry when she recounted her experiences.”
Later, when Tsering went to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, she was taken aback by the presence of a large number of policemen and the near-total surveillance. “That feeling of always being watched is a terrifying experience,” she says.
In Lhasa, today, the Chinese outnumber the Tibetans. The younger Tibetans have no option, but to study at Chinese universities. “Unfortunately, they feel marginalised, because they are not treated as equals,” says Tsering, whose parents fled to India in 1959. “But such experiences have helped them to develop a sense of identity.”
Later, Tsering made three more trips to Tibet, the last being in 2009. Her sojourns laid the seeds for her well-received non-fiction book, A Home in Tibet (2013). “While growing up, I read books on Tibet, but they were by Westerners,” she says. “I wanted to read a book by a Tibetan who lived outside, but could also be on the inside. So I thought I would write such a book targeted towards young Tibetans in exile.”
Here is an extract which reflects the pain of exile: ‘‘The flowers in Tibet were always taller, more fragrant and vivid. My mother’s descriptions, imprecise but unchanging, from year to year, had led me to an inevitable acceptance that her past was unequalled by our present lives. She would tell me of the knee-deep fields of purple, red and white, that over time served to create an idea of her fatherland, as a riotous garden. ’’
Tsering had recently come to Kochi, at the invitation of the Kochi chapter of Friends of Tibet, to interact with literature students at the St. Albert’s and Union Christian colleges. She read a few of her poems, and gave them an idea of life in Tibet. “The students asked many questions, because it was so far outside their experience,” she says.
One experience which all of them did not have is to live without a country. “To be stateless is painful,” says Tsering. “Initially, when I wanted to travel to the US, I had to apply for an identity certificate.” This is not a passport, but is recognised internationally. However, an explanation has to be given to every immigration officer about it. In India, Tsering had a refugee card which is issued by the Central government.
But Tsering has no problems living in India. “I was treated very well,” she says. “In my school [Wynberg Allen school at Mussoorie], and college [Lady Shri Ram at Delhi], I have never experienced any discrimination. But the sense of not being at home is an inner feeling. This happens, regardless of where you live.”
Today, Tsering is a naturalised US citizen and lives in San Francisco. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. And her subject is Tibetan nationalism and identity. Tsering has published three books of poetry: Rules of the House, (a finalist for the 2003 Asian Literary Awards), My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, and In the Absent Everyday.
“In my poetry, I have always returned to the idea of place, memory and storytelling,” she says. “Stories help people, who are stateless, to experience a sense of place.”
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND – NOTES FROM TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA.TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – OCCUPIED TIBET – NO MAN’S LAND. CRY OF THE SAINTS. A CALL FOR HELP.
The Cold War in Asia – Lessons of Covert Action in Tibet
The Cold War in Asia. Lessons of Covert Action in Tibet.
The Cold War in Asia represents the security threat posed by the spread of Communism to mainland China. Because of my lifetime affiliation with the military organization called Special Frontier Force, I can review the covert action in Tibet to draw some lessons.
Whole Dude – Whole Secret: The CIA covert operations inside Tibet led to the creation of a military organization called Establishment Number. 22, or Special Frontier Force which was formed in 1962 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy
In my analysis, the US, India, and Tibet lack the intelligence capabilities to conduct a successful covert action in Tibet. In 1959, Tibet National Uprising failed for the CIA underestimated the enemy’s capabilities both in terms of intelligence and the use of military power to crush civilian uprising or rebellion. In 1962, the CIA again failed to know the enemy’s war preparation and the attack across the Himalayan Frontier came as a rude surprise.
Establishment No. 22 – Operation Eagle: This badge represents a military alliance/pact between India, Tibet, and the United States of America. Its first combat mission was in the Chittagong Hill Tracts which unfolded on 03 November 1971. It was named Operation Eagle. It accomplished its mission of securing peace in the region that is now knownas Republic of Bangladesh.
I directly ask the CIA to improve its intelligence capabilities to respond to the security challenge posed by the spread of Communism to mainland China. The United States fought wars in Korea and Vietnam without testing the enemy’s military capabilities. To fight against the enemy, the United States must recognize the face of the enemy. No covert action will succeed without knowing your enemy.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
TIBET AWARENESS – PROJECT CIRCUS. The quest for Freedom in Tibet. A military training Camp known as Camp Hale was established in Colorado under the supervision of CIA officers Roger E. McCarthy and John Reagan.Whole Dude – Whole Secret: The CIA Tibet Operation.Whole Dude – Whole Agency: Allen Welsh Dulles shaped the history of the Central Intelligence Agency. During World War II, he had served in the Office of Strategic Services(1942-1945), and when CIA formed in 1951, he served as Deputy Director under General Walter Bedell Smith. He was appointed the Director by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during January 1953.Whole Dude-Whole Master: November 29, 1961. President John F. Kennedy welcomes the 6th Director of CIA, John Alexander McCone.Richard McGarrah Helms(March 30, 1913 – October 22, 2002) was the chief architect of the legislation that created the Central Intelligence Agency during 1947. He had served in CIA in various positions and was its Director from June 1966 to February 1973. The 1962 India-China War was the consequence of a failed CIA mission inside Tibet.
Between 1950 and 1972, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in close cooperation with the Departments of State (DoS) and Defense (DoD), conducted a comprehensive covert action campaign in support of Tibetan resistance movements fighting against Communist Chinese occupation of their homeland. The campaign consisted of “political action, propaganda, paramilitary, and intelligence operations” intended to internally weaken and undermine the expansionist ambitions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).[i] Following the October 1950 invasion of Tibet by the PRC, the CIA’s Special Activities Division (SAD) inserted teams into Tibet to train, advise, and assist Tibetans who were already fighting the Communists.[ii]
A number of Tibetan resistance fighters were specially selected and exfiltrated to the Pacific island of Saipan and Camp Hale in Colorado to undergo training in demolitions, clandestine communication, and other critical skills.[iii] Operating out of neighboring Nepal and India, SAD-directed teams of Tibetan rebels waged a ceaseless campaign against the Chinese that tied down significant PRC troop strength, strengthened international opposition to Chinese atrocities against Tibetans, and prevented the PRC from effectively pursuing its regional ambitions in South Asia to further spread its communist ideology.[iv] The CIA continued to support the Tibetan resistance until 1972 when U.S. President Richard Nixon changed course and decided to normalize relations with the PRC.[v]
Though the CIA’s Tibetan covert action campaign never successfully ousted the Chinese Communists, the campaign was quite successful in accomplishing the U.S.’s limited objectives. Through its covert action campaign, the U.S. sought to internally weaken the PRC through sustained attrition and distraction in order to prevent the Chinese from spreading their brand of communism across South Asia – specifically India.[vi] The CIA’s covert action campaign succeeded in three ways: it depleted the PRC’s already limited resources, which further weakened the state; it undermined the PRC’s international standing and limited its regional influence, and it prevented the expansion of the PRC’s borders.[vii]
Specifically, the CIA’s covert action campaign forced the PRC to commit vast numbers of troops and resources to pacify Tibet, which delayed a number of other critical initiatives that the young communist state sought to pursue. In 1959, the CIA estimated that the PRC had over 60,000 soldiers deployed just to subjugate Tibet, a force that required 256 tons of supplies daily to sustain. [viii] The PRC, which had just successfully ended its own civil war in 1949, saw its military stretched incredibly thin by its Tibetan occupation. This strain likely undermined the ability of the Chinese government in Beijing to effectively consolidate full control over the expansive country, further encumbering efforts to pursue its strategic ambitions.
Adding to the PRC’s frustrations was the widespread international condemnation resulting from the increasingly brutal pacification campaign that China felt compelled to undertake to try and quell the Tibetan rebellion.[ix] Much of this international focus was (and still is) cultivated by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14thDalai Lama and the spiritual leader of the majority of Tibet’s Buddhists. During a particularly violent 1959 revolt, The Dalai Lama fled from Tibet with over 100,000 of his followers, escaping with the help of the CIA to India where he established a Tibetan “government in exile”.[x] This government has been a constant thorn in the PRC’s side, with the Dalai Lama and his disciples incessantly lobbying the international community for Tibetan rights and autonomy from China.[xi] The sustained focus on Chinese atrocities against the Tibetans significantly undermined the PRC’s regional standing and efforts to strengthen ties with neighbors.
Finally, the CIA’s covert action campaign was successful in its primary objective of preventing the spread of communism across South Asia. Mao Tsetung, the chairman of the PRC’s Communist Party, was convinced during an extended stay in the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1950 to undertake the leadership role in “liberating” Asia for the cause of global communism.[xii] However, the PRC’s inability to fully control Tibet, largely due to the CIA’s covert action campaign that sustained indigenous resistance, denied China the use of key terrain that might have enabled military action against India or even the Middle East.[xiii] The covert action campaign thus protected the U.S. or its allies from the need to fight a major land conflict in South Asia against the military forces of the PRC.
The CIA achieved a significant victory for the U.S. with a minimal commitment of American resources: total expenditures per year amounted to roughly $1.7 million dollars.[xiv] However, it is important to note that the CIA’s covert action campaign cost tens of thousands of Tibetans their lives, and the supported resistance encouraged violent oppression from the Chinese occupiers. Further, when relations between the U.S. and China normalized under President Nixon, many Tibetans and even a few CIA SAD officers saw the abrupt decision in 1972 to cease support of the Tibetan resistance as tantamount to betrayal.[xv] The Dalai Lama described this sentiment with some bitterness in a 1998 interview, saying that the CIA had aided his cause, “not because they cared about Tibetan independence, but as part of their worldwide efforts to destabilize all Communist governments.”[xvi] Despite such accusations of duplicity, the CIA achieved its stated objectives through this covert action campaign.
The CIA’s efforts in Tibet were successful because the objectives of the covert action campaign were reasonably limited and achievable with the resources available. While the Tibetans themselves may have nursed illusions of eventually driving all Chinese occupiers from their homeland, it is clear from the available records that the CIA and the political leadership in Washington were content to simply destabilize China and frustrate the Communists’ designs to spread their ideology throughout Asia.[xvii] Once the political winds changed and relations started to improve between the U.S. and China, the continuation of support to the Tibetan resistance was no longer in the best interests of the U.S. The U.S. successfully achieved its objectives through this covert action campaign because those objectives were achievable without escalating into a wider conflict.
Other successful covert actions, such as the SAD-spearheaded coups that toppled the governments of Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran in 1953[xviii] and Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954[xix] are thought by historians to have given the CIA and subsequent U.S presidents an overly optimistic opinion of the potential for covert action to achieve outsized objectives. This overconfidence likely led to the 1961 “Bay of Pigs” invasion in Cuba, which was a tremendous failure because its objectives were overly ambitious and unachievable given the limited resources that the U.S. committed.[xx] Rather than be greeted as liberators and reinforced by masses of Cubans dissidents flocking to their cause, the US-backed Cuban rebel forces were quickly overwhelmed. The most important lesson that covert action practitioners and policymakers who consider the use of covert action should take from the highly effective campaign in Tibet is that such campaigns must be reasonably limited in their objectives to maximize the chances of success.
The Cold War in Asia. Lessons from Covert Action in Tibet.
The Cold War in Asia – The US Strategy Putting Communist China ahead of Tibet totally Failed
Whole Strategy – “America First, Tibet on the Back Burner” Strategy totally FailedWhole Strategy – “America First, Tibet on the Back Burner” Strategy totally Failed
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
Whole Strategy – “America First, Tibet on the Back Burner” Strategy totally Failed
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
China condemns the US Cold War Mentality on National Security
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Chinese President Xi Jinping has enjoyed a cordial relationship with Donald Trump.
China has condemned the “Cold War mentality” of the White House after the publication of a new US national security policy. The document labels China and Russia as “rival powers” and lays out a number of potential threats they pose. The new strategy said Beijing and other governments were determined to challenge American power. But China’s foreign ministry criticized the strategy report, saying Washington should “abandon outdated notions.” Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “No country or report will succeed in distorting facts or deploying malicious slander. “We urge the US side to stop intentionally distorting China’s strategic intentions and to abandon outdated ideas of Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game.” Russia also responded to the new strategy by saying it “cannot accept” that it is treated as a threat.It also criticized what it said was the “imperialist character” of the document.
Trump’s pragmatic view of troubled world
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
In the new US national security strategy, China and Russia are said to “challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity”. “They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.”
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
The new national security strategy contains a range of claims about China, including: China and Russia “are developing advanced weapons and capabilities” that could threaten the US. Competitors such as China “steal US intellectual property valued at hundreds of billions of dollars” China and Russia are investing in the developing world “to expand influence and gain competitive advantages” over the US. In Europe, China is gaining a foothold “by expanding its unfair trade practices and investing in key industries.” China also “seeks to pull the [Central America] region into its orbit through state-led investments and loans.” Some of the claims have been made before, but the new document casts them as part of a battle for dominance.
Analysis: Friends or rivals?
The BBC’s Robin Brant in Shanghai First at his golf club in Florida, then at the Forbidden City in Beijing, President Trump has taken every opportunity to say how close a friendship he’s built with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. But now the official version is rivals – not friends. The classification sends a clear message about America’s changing stance towards a rising China, a China that’s made no secret of its plan to significantly expand its navy, assert more regional authority and expand its influence further abroad through a massive state-backed investment push. Economic rivalry is crucial to this dynamic. The Trump administration is investigating China for what it alleges is the dumping of artificially cheap aluminum products on US markets. It has threatened to do the same on steel exports. Ahead of the document’s publication, there were reports that the National Security Strategy would classify China as an economic “aggressor”, but that did not appear in the final version. Strategy documents are often released with little ceremony, but President Trump appeared at a special event to mark the release of the new strategy.In a speech about his new strategy, Mr. Trump said the US faced a new era of competition, and that China and Russia were the primary threats to US economic dominance.But, he said, the US must attempt to build a “great partnership with them”. Mr. Trump described “four pillars” to his new plan: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, demonstrating peace through strength and advancing American influence. The 68-page document, which White House officials began work on 11 months ago, suggests a return to Mr. Trump’s campaign promise of “America First.”
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
In his speech, Mr. Trump referred to his election victory, saying that in 2016 voters chose to “Make America Great Again.”Previous American leaders had “drifted” and “lost sight of America’s destiny” he said, standing before a backdrop of American flags. “Now less than one year later I am proud to report that the entire world has heard the news and has seen the signs,” he said. “America is coming back and America is coming back strong.” He also outlined his campaign promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico, as well as reform of the immigration visa system. The new policy stresses economic security but does not recognize climate change as a national security threat.His predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2015 declared climate change an “urgent and growing threat to our national security”.
The Cold War in Asia began with the spread of Communism to mainland China. It is no surprise if President Trump thinks of China as a ‘Security Threat’. However, American infatuation with Communist China is not over. Americans are not yet ready to come to grips with realities of world dominated by Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. “America First – Tibet on The Back Burner” Strategy has totally failed.
Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little, Too Late
TIBET CONSCIOUSNESS – TIBET CLIMATE ACTION. TIBET HOME FOR 46, 000 GLACIERS AND IS KNOWN AS THIRD POLE OF PLANET EARTH. DEMANDING FREEDOM, PEACE, AND JUSTICE FOR TIBET.
The problems of severe environmental degradation of Tibet and its melting glaciers cannot be resolved by 2015 Paris Climate Treaty. It is too little, too late. Tibet’s Climate in fact determines the destiny of billions of people. In my analysis, the problem of environmental degradation must be resolved by restoring the natural conditions that operate across the Tibetan Plateau and it includes the sense of natural freedom that shapes Tibetan existence.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force- Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
THE NEW YORK TIMES
An Accelerating Threat
TIBET GLACIERS RETREAT SIGNALS TROUBLE FOR ASIAN WATER SUPPLY
By EDWARD WONG DEC. 8, 2015
Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not resolve problem of melting glaciers of Tibet. IMAGE. THE MENGKE GLACIER.
The Mengke Glacier, one of Tibet’s largest, retreated an average of 54 feet a year from 2005 to 2014. From 1993 to 2005, it retreated 26 feet a year. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
MENGKE GLACIER, Over the years, Qin Xiang and his fellow scientists at a high and lonely research station in the Qilian Mountains of northwest Tibet have tracked the inexorable effects of rising temperatures on one of world’s most important water sources.
The thing most sensitive to climate change is a glacier, said Dr. Qin, 42, as he slowly tread across an icy field of the Mengke Glacier, one of Tibet’s largest. In the 1970s, people thought glaciers were permanent. They didn’t think that glaciers would recede. They thought this glacier would endure. But then the climate began changing, and temperatures climbed. Beneath Dr. Qin’s feet, the cracking ice signaled the second-by-second shifting of the glacier.
Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not fix problems of Glacier Melt in Tibet. Climate Change in Shibaocheng in Gansu Province, Tibet.
The extreme effects predicted of global climate change are already happening in Tibet. Glacier retreat here and across the so-called Third Pole, the glaciers of the Himalayas and related mountain ranges, threatens Asia’s water supply. Towns and villages along the arid Hexi Corridor, a passage on the historic Silk Road where camels still roam, have suffered floods and landslides caused by sudden summer rainstorms. Permafrost is disappearing from the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, jeopardizing the existence of plants and animals, the livelihoods of its people and even the integrity of infrastructure like China’s high-altitude railway to Lhasa, Tibet.
Zhao Tingyu, 66, in front of homes built by the government to resettle villagers whose homes were destroyed by severe flooding caused by heavy rains in the town of Shibaocheng in Gansu Province. Shibaocheng is at the foot of the Qilian range, which has been devastated by recent storms. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times
The fact that Chinese scientists are raising alarms about these changes is a key reason that the Chinese government has been engaging fully in climate change negotiations in recent years. Another is the deadly urban air pollution, caused mostly by industrial coal burning, that resulted in Beijing’s first RED ALERT over air quality on Monday.
China, which remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas, pledged last year to begin lowering carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, and in Paris this month, President Xi Jinping reiterated his resolve to help slow climate change. There are no vocal climate change deniers among top Chinese officials.
In November, China released a detailed scientific report on climate change that predicted disastrous consequences for its 1.4 billion people. Those included rising sea levels along the urbanized coast, floods from storms across China and the erosion of glaciers. More than 80 percent of the permafrost on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau could disappear by the next century, the report said. Temperatures in China are expected to rise by 1.3 to 5 degrees Celsius, or 2.3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century, and temperatures have risen faster in China in the last half-century than the global average.
People across China are already feeling the impact. The most obvious devastation comes from flooding. The report said an increase in urban floods attributed to climate change has destroyed homes and infrastructure. From 2008 to 2010, 62 percent of Chinese cities had floods; 173 had three or more.
China is more prone to the adverse effects of climate change because China is vast, has diverse types of ecology and has relatively fragile natural conditions, Du Xiangwan, chairman of the National Expert Committee on Climate Change, wrote in the report’s introduction.
Last weekend, Chinese scientists released a separate report that said the surface area of glaciers on Mount Everest, which straddles the Tibet-Nepal border, have shrunk nearly 30 percent in the last 40 years.
Vanishing glaciers raise urgent concerns beyond Tibet and China.
By one estimate, the 46,000 glaciers of the Third Pole region help sustain 1.5 billion people in 10 countries its waters flowing to places as distant as the tropical Mekong Delta of Vietnam, the hills of eastern Myanmar and the southern plains of Bangladesh. Scattered across nearly two million square miles, these glaciers are receding at an ever-quickening pace, producing a rise in levels of rivers and lakes in the short term and threatening Asia’s water supply in the long run.
A paper published this year by The Journal of Glaciology said the retreat of Asian glaciers was emblematic of a historically unprecedented global glacier decline. I would say that climatologically, we are in unfamiliar territory, and the world’s ice cover is responding dramatically, said Lonnie G. Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University who helped found a project to study climate change on the Tibetan Plateau.
Across China, the surface area of glaciers has decreased more than 10 percent since the 1960s, according to the climate change report. The report linked the expected water scarcity to national security, noting that in the future, disputes between China and neighboring countries on regional environmental resources will keep growing.
The Qilian range, on the north end of the Tibetan Plateau, straddles three provinces and towers to 18,200 feet. Scientists here at the Mengke Glacier have been studying it from a permanent research station since 2007, one of about 10 major glacier research stations in Tibet. The glacier is six miles long and covers nearly eight square miles.
As it recedes more rapidly, floods here have become more frequent and more powerful. In July, the road to the research station flooded, with water rising more than six feet.
Zhao Shangxue, who manages logistics here, said that he had had to abandon his car and walk four hours to the station. The glacier has always melted in the summertime, but now it melts even more, he said.
A report by the research center said the retreat of the Mengke Glacier and two others in the Qilian range accelerated gradually in the 1990s, then tripled their speed in the 2000s. In the last decade, the glaciers have been disappearing at a faster rate than at any time since 1960.
From 2005 to 2014, the Mengke Glacier retreated an average of 54 feet a year, while from 1993 to 2005, it retreated 26 feet a year. As scientists like Mr. Qin study the glacier and the consequences of its retreat, towns and villages in the region are grappling with a worsening cycle of drought, sudden rainstorms and floods.
The town closest to the glacier, Shibaocheng, has been devastated by recent storms. Its 1,250 residents, mostly ethnic Mongolian, graze yaks, horses and sheep in high pastures below the glacier during the summer. In 2012, a sudden rainstorm set off flooding that destroyed about 200 homes. Nearly 14,000 animals were killed or lost.
Old people here say they hadn’t seen such a flood in 50 or 60 years, said Gu Wei, the deputy mayor. She said rain mixed with hail came down for three days.
Scientists have no easy way to determine the exact relationship between the rainfall and the changes in the nearby glacier, Dr. Qin said. The retreat of glaciers of course has an effect on the climate and on rain patterns, but we can’t measure it, he said.
Southeast of Mengke Glacier, 180 miles away along the Hexi Corridor, Sunan County at the foot of the Qilian Mountains has experienced some of the region’s worst flooding. It is home to ethnic Yugurs and has flooded a half-dozen times since 2006.
Five years ago, at least 11 people died in floods and landslides. In July, heavy rains led to similar disasters in 13 villages, destroying more than 150 homes and causing more than $6 million of damage, an official report said.
Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. 2015 Paris Climate Treaty cannot fix problems of Climate Change in Tibet. Floods in the Hexi Corridor.
Floods in the Hexi Corridor are related to torrential rains and precipitation from fronts, said Wang Ninglian, a glaciologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Its caused by climate change.
Kiki Zhao and Mia Li contributed research.
A version of this article appears in print on December 9, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Chinese Glacier’s Retreat Signals Trouble for Asian Water Supply.
Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late. Tibet Glacier Retreat, 2015 Paris Climate Treaty has no cure for this environmental degradation. Asian Water Supply under great threat.Tibet Consciousness – Climate Action – Too Little – Too Late.
The problems of severe environmental degradation of Tibet and its melting glaciers cannot be resolved by 2015 Paris Climate Treaty. It is too little, too late. Tibet’s Climate in fact determines the destiny of billions of people. In my analysis, the problem of environmental degradation must be resolved by restoring the natural conditions that operate across the Tibetan Plateau and it includes the sense of natural freedom that shapes Tibetan existence.
Reports indicate that Mighty Red China is hiding her male impotence problem. Red China has to admit that she is facing a serious health care issue and share information with scientific community to arrive at proper understanding of the connection between health and environment.
Reports indicate that Mighty Red China is hiding her male impotence problem.
Impotence is inability to engage in sexual intercourse and it may include inability to have an erection (male erectile dysfunction), and diminished libido, the sexual urge or instinct called sexual drive. There are several causes for male infertility and its associated problem called erectile dysfunction. Declines in male sexual performance are associated with problems of water pollution, air pollution, smoking, pesticides, chemotherapy, and radiation. Several chemicals have been identified as endocrine disruptors or hormone disrupting agents. Some chemicals with anti-androgenic properties inhibit normal male sexual functions. Testosterone is a male sex hormone responsible for male sexual characteristics. Apart from chemicals that block Testosterone, some chemical pollutants play a role by mimicking Estrogen or female sex hormones. Investing money on finding aphrodisiacs will not resolve this issue.
Red China has to admit that she is facing a serious health care issue and share information with scientific community to arrive at proper understanding of the connection between health and environment.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
THE ECONOMIST
Caterpillar fungus – The emperor’s mighty brother
Demand for an aphrodisiac has brought unprecedented wealth to rural Tibet—and trouble in its wake
Dec 19th 2015 | YUSHU, QINGHAI PROVINCE
By the middle of May, the snowline in Yushu prefecture has retreated to the peaks of its steep valleys. Nomads who have spent the winter at the bottom of them have begun to herd their yaks and goats to higher pastures, where the first shoots of green have replaced the scorching white of winter. The landscape is still bleak and forbidding. Wolves prowl. Lightning strikes terrorise those caught exposed on the bare slopes. Yushu is a vast area of mountains and alpine pasture, larger than Syria but with a population of fewer than 400,000 people (see map below). About 95% are Tibetans, who call the area Yulshul. For those living in the countryside—more than half of them—this is the busiest time of year. Elsewhere, in China’s densely populated interior, children get a short break to celebrate Labour Day on May 1st. But in Yushu, as in many other rural settlements across the Tibetan plateau (a sparsely inhabited region the size of western Europe), schoolchildren are given an additional four weeks’ holiday in May and June. They have to make up for it with a shorter summer holiday. And it is not for the sake of fun. Children are at the front line of the armies of Tibetans (almost every able-bodied rural resident in Yushu) who will spend a frenzied month scouring the hills for what they call yartsa gunbu. In Chinese its name is dongchong xiacao, literally “winter-insect-summer-grass”, for that is what it resembles.
In summer the airborne spores of a fungus known as cordyceps (or ophiocordyceps) sinensis invade the caterpillars of various species of ghost moth, a large pale insect that flits over the pastures at dusk. After grubs thus infected bury themselves in the soil to hibernate, they die; when winter comes they freeze. The warmth of spring activates the fungus, which grows to fill the caterpillar’s entire body, leaving only the outer skin. A spindly brown shoot of it emerges from the caterpillar’s head and pushes its way through the soil into daylight: just four or five centimetres—so tiny and often so widely separated from others that the keenest of eyes are needed to spot it.
This is Tibet’s annual gold rush. Yartsa gunbu is so highly valued as a medicine that it often sells for more than its weight in the metal. It has many purported benefits, ranging from preventing cancer to curing back pain. But what makes it so prized is its supposed ability to improve sex lives. It is often described as a “Himalayan Viagra”, good for treating erectile dysfunction and (in women as well) low libido.
The children’s good eyesight and short stature make them the best spotters of the fungus among blades of grass and stalks of ground-hugging cinquefoil shrubs that soon, as the weather warms, will dot the slopes with bright yellow flowers. It is not a job for those unused to the plateau’s thin air. Caterpillar fungus, as yartsa gunbu is usually called in English, is generally found at altitudes above 4,000 metres (13,100 feet). That is higher than Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) which borders on Yushu and occupies about half of the plateau.
Flat out on the plateau
As your (ill-acclimatised) correspondent found, ascending the steep slopes of Yaseeda ridge in Yushu’s Chindu county requires nimble limbs as well as the genetic advantage Tibetans enjoy at such elevations, where there is 40% less oxygen than at sea level. His agile guides were sporting enough to let him rest as his heart pounded in a desperate quest for atmospheric sustenance.
Throughout the month of May each year, hundreds of villagers search through the scraggy vegetation looking for the precious fungus. Mayong Gasong Qiuding, a local guide, crawls on his hands and knees. At the start of the season, he says, he would spot one fungus every 15 minutes or so. By the end, it would be one every couple of hours.
Digging them up requires painstaking effort. A small pick is used, with great care taken not to break the sprout from the caterpillar’s body. There is little demand for separated pieces; yartsa gunbu is dried and consumed whole. Aficionados gauge the quality of a caterpillar fungus based partly on the relative lengths of body and sprout—impossible if there is no way of being sure whether they were once attached.
Fungus-hunters often camp out on the hills. Mr Mayong says a diet of dried yak-meat and instant noodles (a product of China’s spreading culinary influence: balls of roast barley flour, known as tsampa, are the cultural norm) keeps him going from dawn to dusk. Plastic sheeting provides makeshift shelter from rain. Dried yak dung (no shortage of that on the slopes) and the withered stalks of cinquefoil provide fuel for cooking.
On top of the world
Later, at his house in Xiewu township, Mr Mayong points out a man high up on a slope above his house—barely a speck, surrounded by other specks that are the man’s yaks. “That is probably my brother,” he says. Searching for caterpillar fungus may be tough and sometimes dangerous. (“If a bear comes, the best thing to do is run,” he suggests.) But it is much more lucrative than tending yaks, which provide a subsistence living at best. Rural incomes in Tibet are among the lowest in China. Herders live hand to mouth, or at least they did until the 1990s when the price of yartsa gunbu began to soar. Since then an explosion of demand, almost entirely from non-Tibetan parts of China, has transformed the economy of large swathes of the Tibetan plateau. Daniel Winkler, a fungus expert who runs Mushroaming, a Seattle-based travel agency, and who has done extensive research on this, says caterpillar fungus has entwined the plateau’s economy with that of the rest of China in a way that few other products have—there is little else made in Tibetan areas that is in such high demand elsewhere.
It is all the more remarkable for having remained largely a Tibetan preserve: despite much effort, no one has yet succeeded in producing commercially viable quantities of good-quality yartsa gunbu in artificial conditions. This means colossal dividends for Tibetans. In the TAR the retail value of the more than 50 tonnes of yartsa gunbu harvested there in 2013 was around 7.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), equivalent to nearly half its earnings from tourism. Total annual production on and around the plateau, most in China but also in Nepal and Bhutan, is worth several times more.
It is omnipresent: at the airport in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, huge advertisements for the stuff fill the arrivals hall. The streets of tourist areas of towns and cities across the region are lined with shops selling it. A souvenir shop in Yushu sells freeze-dried yak meat; the price would seem ridiculous, were it not (perhaps) for the large characters on the box: “Fed on caterpillar fungus”. Over large areas of the Tibetan plateau, about 40% of rural residents’ annual cash incomes have been generated by the fungus in recent years. Tibetans’ income from farming (including fungus-gathering) has usually risen faster than the farming income of rural residents in other parts of China.
This windfall is the result of the rapid emergence of a middle class in other parts of China, and with it a big growth in spending power on health products—not least those that claim to help with erections. The Chinese often appear not to share Westerners’ embarrassment about such medicaments; a good sex life is seen as evidence of overall health. One high-class restaurant in Beijing specialises in animal penises, the eating of which is supposed to boost virility. Westerners visit for a titter, Chinese businessmen to impress their clients. (Yak penis, says the eatery’s website, is a “luxury gift for close friends”.) A book of “traditional, health-preserving” recipes on sale in one of Beijing’s biggest state-run bookshops includes the following remedy for impotence and premature ejaculation: “18 grams of caterpillar fungus; one fresh human placenta. Wash the caterpillar fungus and the placenta separately. Place in a saucepan, with water. Stew at high temperature until the placenta is cooked. (Drink the human placenta soup once a week for one or two weeks to see results.)”
Caterpillar fungus may even have been the salvation of Tibet’s pastoral way of life (or what remains of it after the forcible settlement of many nomads by the government). In the rest of China, less than half the population now works on farms. On the Tibetan plateau, which is home to around 6m people, the share raising animals or growing crops fell only slightly between 2000 and 2010, from 87% to 83%. Andreas Gruschke of the University of Leipzig says yartsa gunbu has provided some herders with enough extra income to make yak-rearing viable. It certainly helped in Yushu after an earthquake in 2010, which flattened much of the main town of Gyegu (or Yushu city) and killed more than 2,600 people. To aid the area’s battered economy, the government launched an annual “caterpillar-fungus culture festival”—a trade fair, in effect, attracting buyers from across the plateau (prices are often decided by a coded touch of hands under a cloth, to keep rivals in the dark).
But clouds hang over the industry, and are looking ever more ominous. Fakes, sometimes dangerous, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, threatening consumer confidence. Your correspondent bought two caterpillar fungi from a Tibetan in Gyegu’s main square for what seemed a bargain price of 50 yuan. Later he accidentally dropped them on the floor of his hotel room; they snapped, revealing that they were made of plaster moulded onto tiny sticks. To boost demand for the fungus, some merchants adulterate products made of it with Viagra, or Weige (Mighty Brother), as it is more suggestively named in Chinese. Wholesalers—most of them in Qinghai are Hui, a Muslim ethnic group—were surprisingly candid in expressing doubt about how much the fungus by itself could really help to boost libido.
Even more troublesome to those in the business is President Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption, which has been unusually fierce and protracted. This has curbed the once-common practice of bribing officials with expensive gifts, including caterpillar fungus. A glass jar containing 80-odd plump specimens neatly tied together still sells for 63,380 yuan—nearly $10,000—at a medicine shop in Beijing. But prices have fallen by as much as 20% in the past year, even as supply has remained level.
More worrying for the authorities, yartsa gunbu has fuelled unrest on a plateau already boiling with discontent over Chinese rule. Gyegu’s annual horse festival offers a clue to this. The three-day summer fair involves displays of horsemanship, singing and dancing—including, one year, by children dressed as caterpillar fungi (pictured, in 2007). It attracts thousands of Tibetans, many of whom camp on the surrounding grassland by a meandering river. The festival resumed in 2014 for the first time since the earthquake. At this year’s event your correspondent saw police deployed in large numbers, some equipped with fire-extinguishers. Two fire engines were parked by the main arena.
Everybody do the caterpillar fungus
Such precautions are common these days in areas where Tibetans gather, lest anyone attempt to set fire to themselves: a desperate form of protest against Chinese rule that has claimed at least 123 Tibetan lives since 2009. In the now lavishly rebuilt city of Gyegu, a 27-year-old Tibetan monk apparently tried to kill himself this way in the main square in early July, just a few days before the horse festival. Police extinguished the flames and hustled him away. Tibetans in exile say he died a few days later in hospital.
Fungus, a bogey man
Yartsu gunbu has, indirectly, heightened these tensions. It has contributed to a surge of visitors to the plateau in recent years, most of them members of China’s ethnic-Han majority. Uneasiness over this influx, and the fact that businesses catering to tourists are also dominated by Hans, were among the causes of an explosion of unrest across the plateau in March 2008, including anti-Han rioting in Lhasa that left several people dead.
Caterpillar fungus has also been a direct cause of violence among Tibetans, and between Tibetans and caterpillar-poaching Hans. In parts of the plateau, the annual rush for fungus is Klondike-like. In a report by the Communist Party committee of Nangqian county in Yushu, a village official says: “Caterpillar fungus has turned people bad. It has made them think only of money and caused them to lose their sense of family, friendship and humanity.” Complaints abound about Tibetans frittering away their caterpillar money on gambling and booze (there are few opportunities for Tibetans to find decent work in cities, where jobs usually go to Hans or Huis).
Mr Mayong, the guide, insists that in his experience, fellow villagers are courteous to each other in their collective scramble. That is not how it works between rival villages, however, or when caterpillar poachers invade a village’s territory. In 2013 two people were killed in another part of Qinghai when villagers shot at rivals. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, said fungus-fuelled fighting had caused “disgrace to the Tibetan people” and a “crisis” on the plateau.
During this year’s harvest season, security forces in some parts of the plateau warned that the task of “stability preservation” was “grim”. In Shangri-La, a Tibetan town in Yunnan province (so named in 2002 in order to attract more tourists), police told residents to give up any hidden guns as the season approached. In one county of the TAR, villagers were told they would be banned from harvesting caterpillar fungus for a year if they used any outsiders to help—an attempt, partly, to curb the kind of violence that has sometimes broken out between Tibetans and Han fungus-gatherers.
The environmental fallout has been considerable, too. For a time before the earthquake in Yushu, the horse festival (which includes yak races—a perilous sport for the riders) offered a clue to one aspect of this. It was in the elaborate traditional costumes that rural Tibetans like to wear on special occasions. Enriched by caterpillar fungus, some took to augmenting their garb with the skins of leopards and tigers smuggled from India through Nepal.
Local officials in Tibet were of little help in stopping this. According to Emily Yeh of the University of Colorado at Boulder, they wanted to encourage festivals as way of attracting tourists from the rest of China; exotically dressed Tibetans were seen as crowd-pullers. Counties in some parts of the Tibetan plateau “competed to show off their wealth and development status through the hyperbolic display of jewellery and pelts on the bodies of their Tibetan participants [at festivals], often so much that participants had trouble walking under their weight”, she said in a paper published in 2013. Popular singers began sporting pelt trims on their music DVDs. This surprising—and tragic—side-effect of demand for a purported aphrodisiac came to an equally unexpected end. In 2006, at a prayer ceremony in India attended by thousands of Tibetan pilgrims, the Dalai Lama called on Tibetans to cease wearing animal furs. The impact was immediate. From across Tibet reports emerged of Tibetans piling up their furs and burning them: given the garments’ huge value, an extraordinary display of devotion to the Dalai Lama.
Anxious Chinese officials tried to ban such bonfires and arrested the organisers. In some places they even ordered Tibetans to wear their furs at festivals. But the Dalai Lama’s injunction held firm. Despite a stepped-up campaign by the government to vilify the exiled Tibetan leader since the unrest in 2008, Tibetans appear largely to have heeded him. India’s tiger population fell from 3,642 in 2002 to a low of 1,411 in 2006. Since then it has climbed back up to 2,226. Your correspondent did not spot any furs looking like those of rare animals at this year’s festival in Yushu. In the privacy of Tibetans’ homes, the Dalai Lama’s popularity is evident. One yak-herder, in her tent on the 4,500-metre pastures of Lanweilaha Mountain, gets out her box of recently harvested caterpillar fungi. She keeps it under a portrait of the Dalai Lama (banned in some parts of the plateau) which has a strip of yellow cloth draped over it as a symbol of respect.
Another worrying environmental impact, which has yet to be stopped, is on the grassland itself. Mr Mayong says villagersreplace any turf they dig up with their small hand-hoes (as local regulations require them to). But some Tibetan villages employ outsiders who are often less fastidious. Estimates of the damage this causes vary wildly, from a few square kilometres of grassland damaged every year to more than 65 square kilometres in Qinghai province alone. This compounds problems caused by global warming, mining, the spread of rodents and, officials insist, overgrazing, though herders and environmentalists accuse the government of exaggerating to justify settling nomads in places where officials can better control them. Yushu is the source of three of Asia’s greatest rivers: the Yellow river, the Yangzi and the Mekong; the grasslands play a vital role by regulating the flow of water into them.
Yartsa gunbu is so highly prized as an aphrodisiac that it is worth more than its weight in gold
In the rest of China, such concerns appear to weigh little on the minds of yartsa gunbu’s wealthy buyers. State-controlled media do not like to dwell on anything that portrays life on the Tibetan plateau in a negative light. Environmental activism—particularly related to Tibet and other areas inhabited by restless minorities—is kept on a very short leash. The authorities worry that eco-campaigning might provide cover for separatists.
Neither is there much questioning of whether yartsa gunbu is all it is cracked up to be. The Communist Party is a staunch defender of traditional Chinese medicine (often called TCM), despite a lack of scientific evidence for some of its claims. At its margins, TCM blends into mysticism—a belief in a force, known as qi, that regulates the body in ways unrecognised by modern science. But the party sees itself as a defender of Chinese nationalism; TCM is seen by many nationalists as a vital ingredient of Chineseness.
It is odd, however, that the fungus has become quite the TCM star that it is today. There is no known mention of it in Chinese medicinal works before the 17th century—by the standards of TCM, that is relatively recent. By the 19th century, however, the fungus had become linked with status. The Colonies, a British newspaper, told its readers in 1876: “[I]t is reputed to possess strengthening and renovating qualities; but on account of its scarcity it is only used in the palace of the Emperor or by the highest mandarins.”
Early foreign observers were no less astonished by yartsa gunbu’scost. “A Handbook of the Larger British Fungi”, published by the British Museum in 1923, said in a footnote: “Black, old and rotten specimens are said to be worth four times their weight in silver.” The Communist takeover in 1949, however, was a huge blow to business. Wealthy Chinese, the main consumers, fled abroad; under a Western-led trade embargo, trade slumped.
The fungus revival began in 1993, at the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. A team of little-known Chinese runners took the gold medals in the women’s 1,500-metre, 3,000-metre and 10,000-metre races. Then, a month later, the same team won these races at China’s national games in Beijing, setting world records in all categories. One of them, Wang Junxia, shaved an astonishing 42 seconds off the previous best for 10,000 metres. Only a year earlier, she had been ranked a mere 56th in the world.
The “secret weapon” of the team’s success, said their coach, Ma Junren, was a combination of intense high-altitude training on the Tibetan plateau, turtle blood, ginseng and a tonic made of caterpillar fungus. Yartsa gunbu’s fans prefer to leave the story at that, downplaying evidence that emerged several years later that other athletes trained by Mr Ma had been taking banned substances, including testosterone (he denies giving them any). Mr Ma is now reported to be engaged in a new business, breeding Tibetan mastiffs.
Mr Ma’s plug for the fungus came at an opportune moment. Grassroots health care in the countryside had disintegrated in the 1980s with the break-up of the “people’s communes” that Mao Zedong had established. Now in the cities many state-owned enterprises were teetering on the brink of collapse, and with them the basic medical services they had once provided. Citizens were being forced to pay cash for treatment; serious diseases could easily plunge families into dire poverty. Demand for TCM remedies, with their reputed prophylactic properties, was beginning to soar. Caterpillar fungus appealed to the better off, but TCM offered many medicines that were cheaper than imported Western ones. TCM-related mystical practices such as qigong—involving breathing exercises and meditation—could supposedly ward off major illness for no cost.
That there was no clear evidence of yartsa gunbu’s properties made little difference. Between 1998 and the global financial crisis in 2008, calculates Mr Winkler, the price rose more than 17-fold to nearly 70,000 yuan per kilogram. In 2003 an outbreak of SARS, an often deadly respiratory disease, gave the fungus a further publicity boost: TCM doctors claimed it had helped some patients to recover more rapidly than they would have with Western medicine alone. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main mouthpiece, said that in the fight against SARS, TCM “once regarded as outdated or effective only against chronic diseases” had proven to be “one of the most powerful weapons”.
There are some sceptics, too. Last year an anti-TCM campaigner in Beijing offered a 50,000-yuan reward to any TCM doctor who could achieve a success rate of at least 80% in diagnosing pregnancy merely by checking a woman’s pulse (a critical diagnostic tool in TCM). His challenge aroused considerable media interest in China. There were a couple of well-publicised failed attempts, but nobody won the prize. Advocates, however, claimed a victory in October when a TCM doctor, Tu Youyou, was given a Nobel prize for the discovery of artemisinin, an anti-malaria drug. The prime minister, Li Keqiang, said the award demonstrated the “great contribution of traditional Chinese medicine to the cause of human health”.
Mercifully for the government’s budget, caterpillar fungus is not one of the medicines covered by state-funded health insurance. Your correspondent had only his own wallet when he went to the caterpillar-fungus department of a TCM clinic attached to an emporium in central Beijing run by one of China’s biggest retailers of TCM products, Tongrentang, a company founded in 1669.
Dr Li Zhenhua took the pulse of both wrists and looked in his patient’s mouth. He asked a few questions: “Do you feel thirsty?”, “How is your sex life?”. Then came a more animated discussion about what to prescribe (the only symptom proffered was poor sleep, though Dr Li said his examination revealed a lack of vigour in the kidneys). What quality of caterpillar fungus would the patient like? Would he like ginseng, too? The prescription thus negotiated involved three months of daily medication. At a cashier’s desk the bill was totted up. It came to more than $4,600—possibly the most expensive remedy for jet lag ever prescribed. Your correspondent muttered his excuses and left.
Caterpillar fungus – The emperor’s mighty brother. Demand for an aphrodisiac has brought unprecedented wealth to rural Tibet—and trouble in its wake. Reports indicate that Mighty Red China is hiding her male impotence problem. Red China has to admit that she is facing a serious health care issue and share information with scientific community to arrive at proper understanding of the connection between health and environment.
Tibet Awareness – Tibetan Resistance of Foreign Power
Tibet Awareness – Tibetan Resistance of Foreign Power
News reports indicate that Tibetans are resisting ban on displaying the Dalai Lama’s image. Tibetans are displaying Dalai Lama’s image giving expression to Tibet’s resistance of military occupation by Red China.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
UCANEWS.COM
Tibetans resist ban on displaying Dalai Lama’s image
China attempts to control image as spiritual leader enters his twilight
In this photo taken on Dec. 9, a group of Tibetans spin a prayer wheel under a portrait of the Dalai Lama at Kirti Monastery in Aba, a Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province. A ban on displaying the spiritual leader’s image has been met with resistance in the autonomous region. (Photo by AFP/Benjamin Haas)
ucanews.com reporter, Beijing.
February 24, 2016
Police and the Bureau for Religious Affairs issued a notice across the Tibetan county of Drango in January making a rare admission.
About 40 percent of the shops in this mountainous area of 50,000 people in western Sichuan province were selling pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. These were ordered removed by Feb. 2. Announcing the campaign was to eliminate “pornography and illegal publications” ahead of the Chinese New Year, the nationalist Global Times said hanging the Dalai Lama’s image “was the same as displaying Saddam Hussein’s image would be for Americans.” Ordinary Tibetans have fought cyclical campaigns banning the Dalai Lama’s image for decades since he went into exile in 1959. As his reincarnation moves ever closer — a source of dispute between the Dalai Lama and Beijing — propaganda and control of his image has only intensified. In open defiance of the recent ban, thousands of Tibetan Buddhists held a prayer ceremony in Drango to pray for the spiritual leader’s health while he was being treated in Minnesota on Jan. 25. A video circulated online showed people standing and kneeling, hands pressed together, in front of a giant image of the Dalai Lama in this remote corner of Sichuan province. “While this doesn’t breach the letter of the ban — which applied to the sale of his image — it clearly breaches the spirit, which local residents will have known,” said Alistair Currie, campaigns manager of the London-based Free Tibet. Later, police arrested two high-ranking monks from Chongri Monastery in Drango for organizing the event. Barely a month goes by without someone being arrested in the administrative region of Tibet and surrounding Tibetan areas in the neighboring western provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. In December, a video showed a young man walking through the streets of Ngaba county carrying a portrait of the Tibetan spiritual leader and its former flag. He was later arrested, reported Free Tibet. A month earlier, two monks were reportedly sentenced to four and three-and-a-half years in prison for separate, similar protests displaying the Dalai Lama’s image while calling for a free Tibet. A symbol of Tibetan aspirations for more autonomy than Beijing is willing to allow, the Dalai Lama’s image has taken on political as well as spiritual meanings. And signs are that Chinese security forces plan to expunge the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image from every corner of the Tibetan plateau, part of the end game to crush resistance as he moves toward the twilight of his life. Beijing clearly hopes that if it can seize control of the Dalai Lama’s image, it may eventually win hearts and minds — at least after Tibet’s spiritual leader dies. In June last year, China announced it had finished installing televisions in every one of Tibet’s nearly 1,800 Buddhist monasteries, a policy that took three-and-a-half years to implement. Many monks were required to ship television sets on horseback across high Himalayan passes. Far from providing Tibetan monks with entertainment, the move was designed to prevent televisions from displaying images of the Dalai Lama inside monasteries. “By listening to the radio and watching television, monks and nuns have a more intuitive understanding of the party and country’s policies, laws and regulations, ethnic policies and religious policies,” reported the state-run Tibet Daily. During the same period, authorities posted notices in monasteries warning of fines of 5,000 yuan (US$800) to those that did not get rid of old satellite television systems. Many were able to pick up Tibetan news from exiled broadcasters based outside of China including Radio Free Asia — funded by the U.S. government — which began its first satellite bulletin during the Tibetan New Year last February. “The Chinese government is trying really hard to try to stop Tibetans from getting any information from outside,” Tsering Tsomo, director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy based in Dharamsala, India, told ucanews.com during the campaign last year. Instead of displaying images of the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monasteries have recently been ordered to display images of Communist Party leaders and Chinese flags instead. Earlier this month, 70-year-old monk Trigyal died in detention after being accused of throwing Chinese flags into a river instead of installing them on a monastery in Driru County. He served two years of a 13-year prison sentence. “Making the Tibetan people choose between the Dalai Lama and the Communist Party when there is space and opportunity to coexist only leads to deepening the wound in the hearts of the Tibetan people,” said Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet based in Washington D.C. “China does not care about the Tibetan way of life.” On occasions authorities have proven unusually tolerant of the Dalai Lama’s image, however. In mid-2013, international media and campaign groups started reporting that authorities had started to allow veneration of the Dalai Lama in monasteries including in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, for the first time in 17 years — a move denied by authorities in Beijing. Then in July last year, his image was “generally well tolerated” as Tibetan’s marked the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday, Currie said. With so little information coming out of Tibet and a lack of transparency from authorities, it remains difficult to know why enforcement of a ban on the Tibetan spiritual leader’s image has been so erratic, he added. “Trying to prevent celebrations would simply cause more trouble for local authorities that it was worth,” said Currie. It’s a point that highlights the extent to which Beijing has tried to calibrate a policy that tries to diminish the influence of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader without inciting ordinary people into cyclical rioting that has been a feature of 70 years of rule by the Chinese Communist Party. This policy has been a total failure, said Golog Jigme, an exiled Tibetan monk who managed a long and arduous escape to India in May 2014. In mid-February, he appeared in Berlin and met with members of Germany’s parliament to warn of “appalling Chinese policies in Tibet.” The reason he decided to flee — thereby creating yet another propaganda disaster for Beijing — was straightforward: Chinese military raided his monastery in Qinghai province, smashing and burning images of the Dalai Lama, he said. “After each and every experience of these crackdowns there will be even bigger pictures of the Dalai Lama, even better frames and more beautiful portraits that we will hang on our walls,” he added. “Because this really strengthens our determination to show that, actually, we are not afraid.”
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Poverty in Tibet – A Petition to the Colonial Masters
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Hundreds sign petition for improvement of living condition in Tibet
Tuesday, 24 May 2016 19:07 Kalsang Sherab, Tibet Post International
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Dharamshala — Hundreds of Tibetans in Khanya Township (Ch: Kaniang), Drakgo County (Ch: Luhuo), just signed a petition to plead with the local government to investigate the severe living condition in the township of Kham region, eastern Tibet. The latest development indicates clearly that Tibetans who live in rural areas are still facing deepening poverty in the face of China’s so-called economic prosperity.
The collective petition also urges the government to solve local troubles as soon as possible, including deteriorate transportation, insufficiency of electricity, difficult water access, backward in public health and education, and forest destruction, etc.
According to local contact, the Chinese government has deliberately ceased poverty alleviation and construction projects in Khanya Township since 2008, which has left the township in extreme poverty ever since. Collapsed road in the raining season, and snow-sealed mountain passes in the winter had trapped villagers in the mountains for several times. Food and accommodation in the township was in serious shortage during these natural disasters, while the government remains unresponsive.
Besides this, due to the lack of water and electricity, inconvenient communication, and malfunctioning transportation, schoolteachers were unwilling to stay. The only school in the township becomes the ’empty house’, and children in the township were thus deprived of educational opportunities, sources told the Tibet Post International (TPI).
By contrast, the local government started to deforest without constraints, which facilitated water and soil loss as well as natural disasters. Regarding this, local Tibetans have reported to the relevant higher authorities for several times, but no response was given. They now hope to call for attention from institutions inside and outside of Tibet through media report.
Multiple pictures of the local situation, include the signed petition received by the RFA Mandarin service showed that the Chinese government propagates their achievement in economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood; but in fact, the difficult situation in Khanya Township is a valid evidence to debunk this claim. One local source pointed out six needs; Our Khanya Township has 400 households, and is 80 kilometers away from the Drakgo County. Due to the terrible road condition, collapse commonly happens along the way, and many car accidents thus occur; this is the first problem. Secondly, the government constructed a small power station, which is almost derelict nowadays. Thus the electricity for living and production in this township has also been paralyzed. The seriously damaged electricity pole and low quality electricity cables have resulted in multiple accidents. During these accidents, some people died and some other were permanently disabled, but no compensation was provided. Thirdly, the issue of water access is still not solved by the government, which has seriously impacted the health of both villagers and livestock. Fourth, the telephone facility was not well built by the government. Almost in half of the full year, the telephone cannot be connected, but villagers have been required to pay for the telephone fee for the full year. Fifth, the only school in the township is an empty shell, without teachers or students. This directly affects kids’ study and future. Sixth, the housing quality and public health in our township are largely lagged behind, and remain insecure. The so-called house-construction compensation, poverty alleviation subsidy, and health insurance allowance are not broadly implemented. Villagers are complaining a lot about this.
In order to solve the issues above, 400 households in Khanya Township appealed again to the relevant authorities of the government, but no response was given.
The informant reflected, ‘On December 23 last year, all of the villagers signed the letter appealing to the local government, calling for relevant officials to investigate whether CCP’s beneficiation policy has been implemented. However, no response has been given ever since. Thus, we recently submitted a collective petition to the County’s government, calling for the government taking steps to alleviate the severe situation at the moment.’ According to another local contact, this time, the collective case of appeal mainly mentions the problems of water and electricity, transportation, and deforestation, and so on.
The sources also revealed, ‘in our Khanya Township, trans-village roads, local power station, and mobile communication equipment are all jerry-built projects. For example, the tap water only works at summer, and it is almost gone in the winter. The quality of the road is poor, and once it rains or snows, even motorbike cannot go through. The electricity and communication facility is usually cut off for long intervals.
‘The facility is terrible, and even it breaks down, no people are sent to repair them. It caused accidents including, Jigme Wangchuk, a Khanya villager from Gyeda Village (Ch: Jizha, Luhuo county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China), was shocked to death by high-tension electricity cable; and Konchok Gyaltsen, another Khanya villager from Khanya Village, was disabled by mobile communication cables, and Metok Dolma, a Khanya villager from Lharo Village was crippled by deforestation; and so on. And those people who are killed or disabled did not receive any compensation from the government.’
The informant added, ‘the cow-stealing cases are becoming more and more serious in our township. It often happens, but the government has no response despite of our report. Deforestation is becoming more and more severe. Recently, the government cut down overtly amount of trees in our holy mountain, and reaped exorbitant profits. The whole mountain has been devastated, and forestry resource has severely damaged, which may result further water and soil loss, and frequent natural disasters.’
The informant told TPI that after submitting the signed statement again, the government has promised to take measurements. However, based upon past experience, in order to urge the Chinese government to improve the current situation of Khanya Township, Khanya villagers still wish for external attention and support.
Hundreds of Tibetans signed a petition to the Colonial Masters to secure improvement of their living conditions. Red China’s propaganda claiming economic development and improvement of quality of Tibetan lives is not supported by hard evidence. Poverty in Tibet is real. Modern Face of Trouble in Tibet. Ugly Face of Occupation has New Dimension.
Love Counteracts the Violation of Natural Freedom in Tibet
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. LOVE IS THE BASIS FOR BALANCE IN LIFE.
Natural Science such as Physics and Chemistry describe Four Fundamental Forces and Four Fundamental Interactions. These are, 1. The Strong Nuclear Force, 2. The Weak Nuclear Force, 3. Electromagnetism, and 4. Gravitation.
I describe ‘LOVE’ as Fifth Fundamental Force to account for existence of Life on planet Earth. Love acts as a Force of Compassion to sustain Life. Love also acts as a Force to counteract the violation of Natural Order, Natural Balance, Natural Equilibrium, and Natural Freedom.
People’s Republic of China or Red China is governed by political doctrine called Communism which provides rule or governance by a One-Party political structure which lays emphasis on the requirements of State rather than on Individual Liberties. Communist State plans and controls all aspects of economy apart from social, cultural, and religious aspects of all Individual State Subjects. Communist State sponsors Violence to establish tyranny or totalitarian regime. Communist Policy or Doctrine demands use of power or authority by Party and State to oppose Natural Rights and Natural Freedom entitled to citizens.
Red China, in pursuit of its State Policy of Expansionism, made an unprovoked attack on Tibet in 1950. Red China uses her Military Power or Force to threaten, to harm, to cause pain, to give misery, to bring misfortune, and to create trouble in the lives of Tibetans to force them live under State-sponsored Occupation, Oppression, Repression, Suppression, and Subjugation.
Natural History of Tibet reveals that Nature uplifted Tibet using massive force of Collision generated by Indian landmass northwards thrust into Asian Continent. This Natural Event created a Natural Condition that sustains Natural Freedom experienced by denizens of Tibet. Red China’s military occupation of Tibet fundamentally opposes Nature’s Plan for Tibet.
Red China violated Natural Order that shapes Tibetan Existence. In my analysis, Love acting as Fundamental Force will counteract Red China’s Violation by using Force/Power/Energy that has been shaping and conditioning planet Earth over billions of years of its existence.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
DOOM DOOMA DOOMSAYER
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. THE OFFENDER OR VIOLATOR WILL BE DISCIPLINED BY PHYSICAL FORCE.
Pink Hearts Can’t Conceal Repression in Tibet – Human Rights Watch
New Campaign Aimed at Increasing Loyalty to Party, China
To many people’s ears the phrase “Four Loves” probably invokes images of a pop music act or a self-help philosophy – not an authoritarian regime’s latest campaign for political loyalty. But the Chinese Communist Party is once again deploying gentle terms to conceal its suppression of human rights.
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET.
Tibet, a region known for systemic, state-sponsored human rights violations, is now awash with posters celebrating the “Four Emphases and Four Loves.” The campaign requires people to “Love the core by emphasizing the Party’s kindness/Love the motherland by emphasizing unity/Love your home by emphasizing what you can contribute/Love your life by emphasizing knowledge.”
Translation: don’t criticize policies or officials and do show gratitude and loyalty to “the core” – the CCP and its leader Xi Jinping. The only way to “love the motherland” is to oppose anything that threatens “unity,” which certainly includes substantive criticism of the Party or the state or any discussion of independence or increased autonomy. And to be a “good citizen” is to focus one’s efforts on what you can “contribute” – but implicitly it’s up to the Party to decide what can or cannot be contributed.
It’s also never too early to start indoctrinating people in this mindset: photos from primary schools in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, show children “speaking [their] hearts to Grandpa [President] Xi.” One is captioned, “The words of the heart spelled out in…small notes.”
Campaigns for Tibetans’ hearts and minds seem almost tragic against the backdrop of repression there. In recent years authorities have reshaped the region’s economy in a manner that suits the central government and effectively excludes Tibetans from decision-making – and in the case of some nomadic communities leaves them demonstrably worse off.
Authorities remain suspicious of Tibetans’ loyalties, and have also radically expanded the security and surveillance apparatus, and methodically inserted state control into all aspects of religious practice. Meanwhile, Tibetans – and many others across China – have virtually no ability to help develop, change, or object to the policies that profoundly affect their lives.
Propaganda – no matter how treacly, and no matter how many pink hearts deployed – is unlikely to generate the kind of loyalty or respect Chinese authorities seem to want from Tibetans. Respect for Tibetans’ human rights, on the other hand, might go a long way towards that goal.
LOVE COUNTERACTS THE VIOLATION OF NATURAL FREEDOM IN TIBET. BEIJING DOOMED.
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
The Future of Tibet – Can Red China Save herself from the consequences of Evil plans?
TIBET – THE PLATEAU, UNPACIFIED
Tibetans’ culture is changing, by their own will as well as by force
Sep 17th 2016 | YUSHU
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
An elderly woman with long, grey plaits, wearing a traditional Tibetan apron of wool in colorful stripes, has spent her day weaving thread outside her home near the southern end of Qinghai Lake, high on the Tibetan plateau. She is among hundreds of thousands of Tibetan nomads who have been forced by the government in recent years to settle in newly built villages. She now lives in one of them with her extended family and two goats. Every few months one of her sons, a red-robed monk, visits from his monastery, a place so cut off from the world that he has never heard of Donald Trump. Her grandson, a 23-year-old with slick hair and a turquoise rain jacket, is more clued in. He is training to be a motorcycle mechanic in a nearby town. Theirs is a disorienting world of social transformation, sometimes resented, sometimes welcome.
Chinese and foreigners alike have long been fascinated by Tibet, romanticizing its impoverished vastness as a haven of spirituality and tranquility. Its brand of Buddhism is alluring to many Chinese—even, it is rumored, to Peng Liyuan, the wife of China’s president, Xi Jinping. Many Tibetans, however, see their world differently. It has been shattered by China’s campaign to crush separatism and eradicate support for the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader who fled to India after an uprising in 1959. The economic transformation of the rest of China and its cities’ brash modernity are seductive, but frustratingly elusive.
The story of political repression in Tibet is a familiar one. The Dalai Lama accuses China’s government of “cultural genocide”, a fear echoed by a tour guide in Qinghai, one of five provinces across which most of the country’s 6m Tibetans are scattered (the others are Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR—see map). “We know what happened to the Jews,” he says. “We are fighting for our existence.” Less commonly told is the despair felt by many young Tibetans who feel shut out of China’s boom. They are victims of Tibet’s remote and forbidding topography as well as of racial prejudice and the party’s anti-separatist zeal. They often cannot migrate to coastal factories, and few factories will come to them. Even fluent Mandarin speakers rarely find jobs outside their region.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
Yet Tibetans are not cut off from the rapidly evolving culture of the rest of China, where more than 90% of the population is ethnic Han. Mayong Gasong Qiuding, a 26-year-old hotel worker in Yushu in southern Qinghai, listens to Mandarin, Tibetan and Western pop music in tandem. He can rattle off official slogans but can recite only short Tibetan prayers. His greatest wish, he says, is to go to the Maldives to see the sea. Tibetan women in Qinghai use skin-whitening products, following a widespread fashion among their Han counterparts; a teenager roller-skates anticlockwise around a Buddhist stupa, ignoring a cultural taboo. Young nomads frustrate their elders by forsaking locally-made black, yak-hair tents for cheaper, lighter canvas ones produced in far-off factories.
Han migration, encouraged by a splurge of spending on infrastructure, is hastening such change. Although Tibetans still make up 90% of the permanent population of the TAR, its capital Lhasa is now 22% Han, compared with 17% in 2000. Many Tibetans resent the influx. Yet they are far more likely to marry Han Chinese than are members of some of China’s other ethnic groups. Around 10% of Tibetan households have at least one member who is non-Tibetan, according to a census in 2010. That compares with 1% of households among Uighurs, another ethnic minority whose members often chafe at rule by a Han-dominated government.
Core features of Tibetan culture are in flux. Monasteries, which long ago played a central role in Tibetan society, are losing whatever influence China has allowed them to retain. In recent years, some have been shut or ordered to reduce their populations (monks and nuns have often been at the forefront of separatist unrest). In July buildings at Larung Gar in Sichuan, a sprawling center of Tibetan Buddhist learning, were destroyed and thousands of monks and nuns evicted. Three nuns have reportedly committed suicide since. Of the more than 140 Tibetans who have set fire to themselves since 2011 in protest against Chinese rule, many were spurred to do so by repressive measures at their own monastery or nunnery.
Cloistered life is threatened by social change, too. Families often used to send their second son to a monastery, a good source of schooling. Now all children receive nine years of free education. “The young think there are better things to do,” says a monk at Rongwo monastery in Tongren, a town in Qinghai, who spends his days “praying, teaching [and] cleaning”. New recruits often come from poorly educated rural families.
Mind your language
In the TAR (which is closed to foreign journalists most of the time), the Tibetan language is under particular threat. Even nursery schools often teach entirely in Mandarin. A generation is now graduating from universities there who barely speak Tibetan. Some people have been arrested for continuing to teach in the language. In April last year Gonpo Tenzin, a singer, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for his album, “No New Year for Tibet”, encouraging Tibetans to preserve their language and culture.
In some areas outside the TAR, however, the government is less hostile to Tibetan. Since the early 2000s, in much of Qinghai, the number of secondary schools that teach in Tibetan has risen, according to research there by Adrian Zenz of the European School of Culture and Theology at Korntal, Germany. The range of degrees taught in Tibetan has expanded too. Unlike elsewhere, someone who has studied mainly in Tibetan can still get a good job in Qinghai. A third of all government roles advertised there between 2011 and 2015 required the language. Despite this, many parents and students chose to be taught in Mandarin anyway, Mr. Zenz found. They thought it would improve job prospects.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
But work can be difficult to get, despite years of huge government aid that has helped to boost growth. Government subsidies for the TAR amounted to 111% of GDP in 2014 (see chart), according to Andrew Fischer of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Eleven airports serve Qinghai and the TAR—they will have three more by 2020. A 156-mile train line from Lhasa (population 560,000) to Shigatse (population 120,000), which was completed in 2014, cost 13.3 billion yuan ($2.16 billion). A second track to Lhasa is being laid from Sichuan, priced at 105 billion yuan.
Better infrastructure has fueled a tourism boom—domestic visitors to the TAR increased fivefold between 2007 and 2015—but most income flows to travel agents elsewhere. Tourists stay in Han-run hotels and largely eat in non-Tibetan restaurants (KFC opened its first Lhasa branch in March). Tibetan resentment at exclusion from tourism- and construction-related jobs was a big cause of rioting in Lhasa in 2008 that sparked plateau-wide protests. Other big money-spinners—hydropower and the extraction of minerals and timber—are controlled by state-owned firms that employ relatively few Tibetans. The Chinese name for Tibet, Xizang, means “western treasure house”. But Tibetans have little share in its spoils. The rehousing of nomads has helped provide some with building jobs, but has also brought suffering: those relocated sometimes find it harder to make a living from herding.
In most other parts of China, villages have been rapidly emptying as people flock to work in cities. In the country as a whole, the agricultural population dropped from 65% to 48% as a share of the total between 2000 and 2010. On the plateau it fell only slightly, from 87% to 83%. It is hard for Tibetans to migrate to places where there are more opportunities. Police and employers treat them as potential troublemakers. In 2010 only about 1% of Tibetans had settled outside the plateau, says Ma Rong of Peking University. They cannot move abroad either. In 2012 Tibetans in the TAR had to surrender their passports (to prevent them joining the Dalai Lama); in parts of Qinghai officials went house-to-house confiscating them.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
For university graduates, the prospects are somewhat better. There are few prospects for secure work in private firms on the plateau. But to help them, the government has been on a hiring spree since 2011. Almost all educated Tibetans now work for the state. A government job is a pretty good one: salaries have been rising fast. Few Tibetans see such work as traitorous to their cause or culture. But the government may not be able to keep providing enough jobs for graduates, especially if a slowdown in China’s economy, which is crimping demand for commodities, has a knock-on effect on the plateau.
Many of the problems faced by Tibetans are common in traditional pastoral cultures as they modernize. But those of Tibetans are compounded by repression. They are only likely to increase when the Dalai Lama, now 81, dies. The central government will try to rig the selection of his successor, and no doubt persecute Tibetans who publicly object.
In private, officials say they are playing a waiting game: they expect the “Tibetan problem” to be more easily solved when he is gone. They are deluding themselves. They ignore his impact as a voice of moderation: he does not demand outright independence and he condemns violence. Tibetan culture may be under duress, but adoration of the Dalai Lama shows no sign of diminishing. Poverty, alienation and the loss of a beloved figurehead may prove an incendiary cocktail.
Doom Dooma Doomsayer understands the problems faced by Tibetans; the Great Trouble in Tibet following Tibet’s military conquest. I am not a monk, a priest, or a member of clergy. I am not a prophet. However, my rational analysis of events leads me to announce Beijing’s Doom. Without recourse to any kind of human intervention, Red China faces Eviction From Occupied Tibet.
DEATH AND MISERY IN OCCUPIED TIBET. EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF TIBETAN WOMAN NEAR CHALONG TOWNSHIP. What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet: Tsering Tso’s grandmother, Lhadhey, 83, and mother Adhey, 49, pose for a photograph in Jiqie No. 2 Village on the grasslands outside Chalong township in China’s western Sichuan province. (Xu Yangjingjing/The Washington Post)
A woman’s gruesome death by hanging portrays the reality of Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet. What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA Special Frontier Force-Establishment 22-Vikas Regiment
Tibet Awareness – History of Tibet’s Unrest. Map of Peaceful Protests 2008. Most of the self-immolations and the worst cases of historical repression are in the same spots in the Tibetan provinces near China.
A woman’s gruesome hanging shocked Tibet — but police have silenced all questions
By SIMON DENYER August 26, 2016
Death and Misery in Occupied Tibet: Tsering Tso’s grandmother, Lhadhey, 83, and mother Adhey, 49, pose for a photograph in Jiqie No. 2 Village on the grasslands outside Chalong township in China’s western Sichuan province. (Xu Yangjingjing/The Washington Post)
JIQIE NO. 2 VILLAGE, Raghya, Tibet — She was 27, a kind, hard-working woman who supported her family by herding yaks and harvesting caterpillar fungus, a prized health cure, on the high grasslands of Tibet. Last October, Tsering Tso was found hanged from a bridge in a small town near her home.
Her family and local villagers gathered outside the police station in Chalong township to demand answers: She had last been seen in the company of a local Buddhist priest and two policemen.
The authorities insisted it was suicide. Family and friends suspected foul play and demanded an investigation. That night and the following morning, an angry crowd stormed the gates of the police station, smashing windows, according to local police.
The authorities’ response was brutal, revealing much about the crackdown taking place in Tibetan parts of China and showing how unrest and unhappiness is increasingly viewed as dangerously subversive.
On Oct. 10, five days after Tsering Tso’s body was found, hundreds of armed soldiers arrived in the town and descended on her funeral ceremony in the remote hamlet known as Jiqie No. 2 Village in Chinese and Raghya in Tibetan, in China’s western Sichuan province.
Witnesses said that more than 40 people were tied up, beaten with metal clubs, piled into a truck “like corpses” and placed in detention.
So much blood was shed that “stray dogs could not finish lapping it up,” according to a remarkable and rare open letter sent by the community to President Xi Jinping asking for justice. Most of those detained were gradually released in the weeks and months that followed, and although no one died, many went straight to the hospital.
But on May 20, five relatives and family friends were sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Acquaintances say they were jailed for refusing to sign a statement absolving the police of blame for Tsering Tso’s death.
In a statement issued on its social-media account, the Garze county Public Security Bureau contested that version of events. It said some of the protesters had carried knives, iron pipes or stones and had caused nearly $10,000 worth of damage. The bureau ran photographs of several men climbing over a gate, but only two broken windows were shown. The jailed men, the statement said, had either carried weapons or organized the protest and had been found guilty of “assembling a crowd to attack state organs.”
But relatives who spoke to The Washington Post outside the family’s tent on the remote grasslands said they were not convinced that any investigation had been carried out.
No one denied that a few stones had been thrown during the protest, hitting a police car and office building. But they said that as a result, their entire community had been accused of “splittism” — a serious crime implying support for the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious leader, or for Tibet’s independence from China.
Internet connections have been cut off in Chalong township since the incident, and relatives of Tsering Tso have been threatened with further punishment if they talk to outsiders. The village — a scattering of tents and yaks in a scenic, sweeping grassland valley — has been told it will not get government subsidies for roads or houses for three years because of its “bad character.”
The family insisted that its demands were not political or ethnic in nature: The priest and policemen last seen with Tsering Tso were local Tibetans, and the family said it had no beef with the central government.
All the family wants, it said, is a proper investigation, justice for Tsering Tso and freedom for the five men in jail.
“My daughter was healthy and happy. She wouldn’t commit suicide,” her 49-year-old mother Adhey said, fighting back tears as she sat on the grass with her 83-year-old mother and two young sons. “My beloved daughter was murdered without any justice being given by the government. Instead, they simply arrested more innocent people and sent them to jail.”
What happened on the grasslands near Chalong in Garze prefecture fits a disturbing pattern. More than six decades after Chinese troops first moved into Tibet, dissent continues to roil the plateau and, if anything, is being suppressed ever more savagely.
Control and surveillance have been dramatically tightened since riots and demonstrations broke out in Tibet in 2008, and then expanded further under Xi, with tens of thousands of party cadres sent to monitor villages and monasteries, according to a January report by the International Campaign for Tibet.
In a May report, Human Rights Watch catalogued nearly 500 arrests across Tibetan parts of China between 2013 and 2015. It concluded that dissent had spread from urban to rural areas. Whereas the vast majority of arrests in the 1980s and 1990s had been of monks and nuns, most of those detained more recently were ordinary people.
Many “had merely exercised their rights to expression and assembly without advocating separatism” — criticizing local officials, for example, or opposing a mining development, the report said.
Yet even relatively mild protests about poor governance are increasingly seen through a political lens and labeled as “criminal acts,” rights groups say. Punishment can be severe. The incident in Chalong “reflects the unrest and instability in Tibetan society,” said Golog Jigme, a filmmaker and former political prisoner who now lives in exile in Switzerland. “It’s not outsiders or the Dalai Lama stirring things up, it’s social issues.”
On the evening of Oct. 4, 2015, Tsering Tso had received a phone call from her boyfriend, a lama at the Gertse Dralak monastery in Chalong. He said he was ill and wanted to see her. Her father gave her a lift, only to find the lama drinking with two policemen. He left her there. The following morning, Tsering Tso’s body was found hanging from a small bridge in the town. Although police say an autopsy listed the cause of death as suicide, residents are deeply skeptical. Some reported seeing bruises on her body and said that a doctor’s report had noted a wound on her head as well as a broken neck. They also said her clothes looked as though they had been put on after her death. The lama, who had a reputation as a womanizer, has since disappeared.
In its statement, the Public Security Bureau said the two policemen were on duty at the time of her death and could not have been involved. But villagers insist that the two men were seen drinking with the lama that night and suspect a coverup. Instead of investigating, they say, the police just called in the army.
As they rounded up suspects, security forces raided and ransacked relatives’ homes, “smashing everything and stabbing knives into sacks of rice and butter,” one relative said. “We’ve only seen that kind of brutality before in TV dramas about Japanese invaders.”
The raiders confiscated photos of Tsering Tso — even checking mobile phones. A family member showed scars on his head from a beating that he said left his body drenched in blood. Released weeks later, he was warned by officials not to talk to anyone, but he refuses to be silenced.
He said another relative walks with a limp after being beaten on his legs; a third, a Buddhist monk, was beaten so badly on the head that he bled from one ear and today cannot walk at all. Family members who work for the government lost their jobs.
The police statement merely said that 44 people had been subpoenaed.
Many Tibetans are too scared to speak out publicly against injustice, but the communities around Chalong appear to have gathered to write a remarkable open letter about the incident. The letter, first obtained by Golog Jigme, claims to have been written in the name of 700 residents across 13 communities in the area.
“These days the Chinese Communists are claiming and announcing how they are building a perfect Tibet and how free and happy Tibetans are in China, but now we have no option but to show the world an actual example of the real suffering endured by the people of the three regions of Tibet under Chinese oppression,” the letter begins.
Local officials, the letter continued, had “conspired to use force to bully the common people,” ending with an appeal to President Xi to “investigate and rectify.”
The International Campaign for Tibet said the incident reveals the extent of the impunity of officials and police in Tibet, and the fact that it took so long to reach the outside world shows how tightly information flows are restricted. The organization Free Tibet said it “clearly exemplifies not just the brutality of life under the Chinese occupation but also how arbitrary and illogical it can be.”
Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.
Simon Denyer is The Post’s bureau chief in China. He served previously as bureau chief in India and as a Reuters bureau chief in Washington, India and Pakistan.
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Flat out on the plateau
Everybody do the caterpillar fungus
Whole Dude - Whole Concept 