Saturday, Aug 31, 2002
A new class in Tibet
By C. Raja Mohan
LHASA AUG. 30. The Potala Palace, nestling against and capping the tallest hill in the Lhasa Valley, is a majestic symbol of the Tibetan culture and history. The imposing simplicity of its external design — the stark white palace encasing the deep red one — is complemented by the internal labyrinth of temples, courtyards, offices and the residence of the Dalai Lamas who ruled Tibet for centuries.
In Potala the empty quarters of the 14th Dalai Lama, who fled Chinese rule amidst a failed uprising in 1959, tell us one side of the Tibetan story — "of foreign occupation and national oppression".
Another powerful narrative, reigning Tibet today, is captured by the simple monument in the square opposite the Potala Palace. It is the column erected by the Chinese Government to mark the "peaceful liberation of Tibet". The clash of these two narratives has defined the "Tibet question" for more than four decades. For the exiled Dalai Lama and his followers, Chinese rule has not only meant a loss of independent political identity but also a near-genocide of Tibetan people and their unique culture.
For Beijing, Tibet has always been a part of China, and there can be no question of occupation, but only its integration with the motherland. Chinese Communists believe Tibet has been liberated from imperialist intervention and the feudal order of the Lamas and put on the path of progress and modernisation.
Both these perceptions are strongly held and are as far apart as heaven and earth — and the Potala Palace and the monument outside it. But the story of the relationship between Tibet and China might be more complex than the two narratives suggest.
It remains an unfinished business and awaits substantive talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.
*** Adding to the complexity of the relationship between Lhasa and Beijing is the emergence of a new class in Tibet that has risen from its new economic boom. Two decades of rapid economic growth have not yet wiped out poverty in Tibet. Begging is all pervasive in the Barkhor area of central Lhasa. But, there is no doubt that China's liberal economic policies are transforming the holy land.
After the uprising in 1959, China established a Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965. But the development of Tibet got caught up in the storm of the self-destructive Cultural Revolution unleashed by Mao Zedong. It is only with the arrival of Deng Xiaoping and his reforms that Tibet gets some breathing room.
Deng and his successors have taken special initiatives for the development of Tibet. The first phase of reforms in the 1980s were about making life easier for Tibetan farmers and herdsmen. The second phase was about mobilising resources from the central government and the rich provinces to build infrastructure and generate growth in Tibet. The third phase is focused on the service sector, in particular tourism, to boost the revenues of the local government. The last few years have seen an economic growth rate of about 12 per cent — far higher than the rest of China.
The social instability of the 1980s has given way to greater stability in recent years. Tibet's economic performance, Beijing hopes, will take it to the top among the remote Western provinces. *** Along with economic reforms and massive State subsidies, China has actively encouraged the rise of a new Tibetan middle class through preferential policies, the training of a large number of local cadres in Beijing, and their promotion in the ranks of the local government. It is this class that is likely to define the future of Tibet.
Which of the two narratives on Tibet will this class adopt? The Chinese Government expresses full confidence in its new Tibetan cadres of bureaucrats, party members and entrepreneurs. China hopes the new class in Lhasa will be the cutting edge of Tibetan modernisation. The leadership of the exiled Tibetan movement, however, believes the new class in Tibet could be purely a creature of its circumstance; they have no choice but to be co-opted. While their stomach might be with Beijing, the exiles will hope, the Tibetan hearts are with the Dalai Lama. *** One clue to how the new class in Tibet might behave is in at the night club at the Cheng Gyang Entertainment City a short walk from the Potala Palace. The motifs and decorations in the night club are all Tibetan. There is Indian film music for starters. Tibetan barley beer and other drinks flow. The crooners sing away in both Tibetan and Chinese. And there is Western-style dancing on the floor.
Members of the audience go repeatedly to the stage and garland the performers with the Tibetan "Kada". The Tibetan youth is going global. The Tibetans have neither lost their identity under the Han rule nor do they seem craving for a return of the old order.
No one really knows what kind of a Tibet this new class will shape. But their narrative could be very different from the two dominant ones on Tibet today.
Accommodating the new Tibetan middle class and its aspirations could be the real challenge for both Beijing and the Dalai Lama.
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