This summer I went to Tibet for 4 weeks to see for myself what the situation is like. Having been campaigning for a free Tibet for 5 years, I was expecting to see a strong Chinese presence in Tibet. My main surprise was the rate at which Tibet's infrastructure is expanding, probably the result of China's 'Western Development Strategy". It was my experience that the further an area was from a Chinese administrative centre, and the more inacessible it was, the better the Tibetan way of life has been preserved. Therefore, the startling rate at which China is building transport links throughout the Tibetan plateau must be a grave concern for Tibet campaigners, since it threatens the isolated regions of Tibet where the Tibetan culture is still strong.
Below are a few examples of the overt Chinese presence in Tibet. The first is an image taken at the Shigatse horse festival in July. It was encouraging to see so many (thousands) of Tibetans gathered together, with virtually no Chinese present. They were trading wares and seemed to be enjoying themselves as far as possible at a performance of Lhamo (Tibetan opera), despite having to peer through the many PLA officers on stage in front of the performers. The Chinese find large gatherings of Tibetans a potential threat, and had probably positioned the army on stage to pre-empt any political messaging. The second is an image of the huge monument planted in the square in front of the Potala Palace. There is nothing Tibetan about the style of this Chinese monument, and the area has been cleared of its former Tibetan houses. The third shows one of the many new residential areas being built around Tibet's fast-expanding capital, Lhasa. Many of these houses were inhabited by Tibetans (you could tell by the prayer flags outside), but Chinese flags were displayed prominantly at the same position on each house. It seemed obvious to me that this was not a voluntary display, but that residents had been provided with the flags and told to display them.
I arrived in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in mid July, after travelling through parts of Amdo. My visit to the TAR coincided with the opening of the railway, it opened on July 1st, so I was able to see some of its early effects. A traveller could immediately see the scale of the influx of people into Lhasa, it was virtually impossible to find a place to stay, and despite the many new hotels, Lhasa was unprepared for the extra thousands of visitors per day it was taking on. July being high tourist season, it seemed that the trains coming in to Lhasa were mainly filled with innumerable Chinese tourists, which bring their own problems. In low season, however, the same number of places may be filled with thousands of new Chinese immigrants to Tibet daily. China aims to "even' its spread of population, which means transferring huge numbers of people to the sparsely populated Western regions. This will mean that China's control and claim to Tibet will strengthen as it attempts to settle its own people there.
Below are several images of the new railway system. I must admit that I thought the station was architecturally quite sympathetically done, and some effort seemed to have been made to maintain crossing points and migration routes along the railway line itself, with underpasses every 50-100m. This might be lip-service paid by the Chinese government to international concern about the impact of the railway, but it only masks the real destructive influence the railway will eventually have.
Roads in Tibet are being built at an astounding rate, and this was a pattern I saw in all areas I visited in both Amdo and the TAR. The roads are in their final stages of development, so that it was still difficult for us to travel to Gyantse and on to Everest base camp, but all along the route we saw a smooth new expressway being built. This is a very serious concern. Of the areas I saw, Lhasa, Shigatse and Kumbum monastery were the most changed by Chinese influence. I believe this might be down to Kumbum's proximity to the Chinese city of Xining and it's value as a tourist site, Lhasa being the capital of Tibet would not have escaped Chinese 'development', and Shigatse I felt may have been changed not just because of it's size, but because of the fast highway connecting it with Lhasa. Gyantse, by contrast, although closer to Lhasa, was not so Chinese, perhaps because of it's poor road connections. Below are some images of the new roads in Tibet, and another example of disruption of local environment and community, the building of dams.
I did see some encouraging sights during my travels also. Because of my campaigning background, I was expecting the worst. But some of what I found in Tibet gave me hope, and it was great to see that despite adversity, Tibetans in Tibet are preserving their culture sucessfully. This encouraged me to continue campaigning, because although the Tibetan way of life is under threat, it's not too late. Below are some pictures of the better sights I saw in Tibet. Labrang monastery is in an isolated area, has substantially recovered from the Cultural Revolution (although there are still only a quarter of its former 4000 monks!), is largely restored, and is relatively undisturbed by tourism. It again resembles a monastic city. In Lhasa, Tibetans of all ages continue to make pilgrimages and perform their daily koras around the Jokhang, Tibet's holiest temple. In Langmusi in Amdo Tibetan life is relatively undisturbed. By some accounts I have heard, some areas of Amdo have some autonomy, which cannot be said of the TAR, despite it's name.
Post script - Please note that these are my opinions and do not necessarily reflect opinions held by the rest of the SFT UK board. Also, I have concentrated on environmental and development issues rather than writing about individuals' situations in particular instances to avoid causing them trouble.
Good day today