NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. See, e.g., Goldstein and Kapstein, Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet.
2. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
3. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture.
4. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
5. See Verdery, “Ethnicity, Nationalism, and State-Making,” 33–58.
6. Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures, 10; Barth, “Enduring and Emerging Issues,” 11–32; and Wagner, Invention of Culture.
7. See, e.g., Clifford, Predicament of Culture; Keesing, “Theories of Culture Revisited,” 301–12; Wallerstein, Unthinking Social Science; Abu-Lughod, “Writing against Culture,” 137–62; Ingold, “Art of Translation,” 210–32; and Wagner, Invention of Culture.
8. Keesing, “Theories of Culture Revisited,” 301–12.
9. Madsen, “Social Change.”
10. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture.
11. See, e.g., Korom, Constructing Tibetan Culture.
12. J. Norbu, “Dances with Yaks,” 21.
13. Tibet Information Network, News Update, 15 August 1997.
14. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
15. Shakya, “Tibet and the Occident,” 20–23.
16. During fieldwork, we also collected maps and place-name indexes as source material for a future systematic study of place-names. The material includes extensive lists of place-names in Chinese, Tibetan, and Roman characters and large-scale county maps. Since 1950, administrative divisions have been redrawn and existing place-names changed on a massive scale in minority areas. This makes the study of Tibetan place-names especially challenging.
17. For a discussion of ethnology in China, see Harrell, “Anthropology and Ethnology,” 3–6, and Lemoine, “Ethnologists in China,” 83–112. See also Harrell, “History of the History of the Yi,” 63–91, and “Nationalities Question,” 274–96.
18. Particularly influential works have been Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1883), and Morgan, Ancient Society (1877).
19. Clarke, “Research Design,” 217–40.
20. Figures that are almost but not completely the same may in fact be considered more accurate.
21. The exceptions are Tsonub (Haixi) and Ngaba (Aba) Prefectures.
22. In Sichuan, we paid a visit to office no. 3 of the Sichuan Province Religious Affairs Department, which is responsible for keeping records on Tibetan Buddhism in Sichuan.
23. Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan. Pu Wencheng is a researcher at the Qinghai Academy of Social Sciences, Department of Tibetology. During our visit to the Qinghai Academy of Social Sciences in Xining, July 1999, Pu was introduced as “Qinghai’s most famous Tibetologist.”
24. Ran, Zhongguo Zangchuan fojiao siyuan.
25. On Dechen, see Dolkar, Zongjiao zhi; on Golok, see Xie, Guoluo Zangzu shehui. Three sources give different information about the number of monasteries in Kandze: Kangding Minzu Shizhuan Bianxiezu, Dangdai Ganzi; Ganzi Zhou zhi; and Sichuan Sheng Minzu Shiwu Weiyuanhui, Zangchuan fojiao siyuan ziliao xuanbian.
26. Michael, Rule by Incarnation, 133.
27. The relationship between mother monasteries and branch (literally, “son”) monasteries is referred to as (T) ma bu.
28. For a critique of Chinese demographics, see Banister, China’s Changing Population; Dreyer, China’s Forty Millions; and Clarke, “Research Design.”
29. See, e.g., Gladney, “Question of Minority Identity,” 50–54.
30. See, e.g., Gladney, “Representing Nationality in China,” 92–123. Gladney notes that the idea of Han ren, or Han person, has existed for many centuries and identifies descendants of the Han dynasty. However, he contends that the notion of Han minzu or Han min (Han ethnic group) is an entirely modern phenomenon that arose with the shift from empire to nation and gained its greatest popularity under Sun Yat-sen’s Republican revolution in 1911.
31. Chinese historians connect the Han dynasty with the beginning of trade along the Silk Route and the formation of the Chinese state. Important aspects of this state formation were the standardization of written language, weights, measures, and currency, the establishment of a banking system, and the creation of a system of official exams for recruiting civil servants.
1 / THE SETTING
1. Harrell, “Introduction,” 3–36.
2. From a pamphlet published by the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies.
3. Information Office of the State Council, Tibet.
4. The two most important Tibetan sources on the geography of the Tibetan Plateau are deb ther rgya mtsho (Ocean annals), sometimes referred to as Chronicle of the Spread of Buddhism in the Domed Region, written by Lama Konchog Tsanpa Rabgye in 1865, and dzam gling chen po’i rgyas bshad snod bcud kun gsal me long zhes bya ba (The mirror that illuminates all inanimate and animate things and explains fully the great world), written by Lama Tsanpo in 1820.
5. On the use of the terms “political Tibet” and “ethnographic Tibet,” see, for example, Richardson, Tibet and Its History.
6. The province of Qinghai was not established until 1928, by the Nationalist government.
7. Bushell, “Early History of Tibet,” 466, citing the State Historiographer’s Office official Chinese history of the Tang dynasty, Hanlin College of Literature.
8. W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 75.
9. Ibid., 138.
10. Teichman, Travels of a Consular Officer, 2.
11. This is the representation of events given in Chinese histories. Tibetan histories may not agree.
12. Clarke, “Movement of Population,” 225.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 227.
15. Rock, Amnye Machen Range.
16. W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 141.
17. Goldstein, Snow Lion and the Dragon, 26–28, and W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 168–81.
18. Lamb, McMahon Line, 275–76.
19. Located in present-day TAR.
20. W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 226.
21. In addition to the convention itself, Britain and Tibet signed and ratified a note (the Anglo-Tibetan Declaration of 3 July 1914) stating that “so long as China withholds signature to the aforesaid convention she will be debarred from the enjoyment of all privileges accruing therefrom.”
22. The main autonomous areas were identified during the 1950s, but many changes have been made, including renaming minzu designations and redrawing boundaries. Borders between several counties, prefectures, and even provinces are contested to this day.
23. Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 734.
24. Shakya, Dragon in the Land of Snows.
25. Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 717, citing FO371/84454, telegram dated 10 November 1950, from the Commonwealth Relations Office in London to the UK High Commissioner in India. The text reads as follows:
(a) We consider that Tibetan autonomy is sufficiently well established for her to be regarded as a state within the meaning of the United Nations Charter. . . . Assuming that India takes this attitude we should be prepared to do so too, though the implications are far reaching. (b) If this view of Tibet’s status is conceded and validity of her appeal is upheld in debate, it follows that Chinese action constitutes aggression against Tibet, and in the Security Council which would presumably follow two obvious possibilities would present themselves: (i) the Council might content itself with a condemnation of the Chinese action; (ii) it might call on China to withdraw her forces from Tibet and to restore the status quo. (c) We should hope that Security Council action would be restricted to (i) above. We should particularly wish to avoid action on lines of (ii) above, which would at best be likely to lead to a resolution which China would defy and which could only be enforced by armed action which neither we, nor we assume India or anyone else, e.g., the United States, would be prepared to take. In the result the United Nations would lose prestige.
26. The formal title of this agreement is “The Agreement of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet,” signed 23 May 1951.
27. The full text of the agreement is reproduced in Union Research Institute, Tibet: 1950–1967, 19–23.
28. Anderson, Imagined Communities.
29. Mongolia is an exception, having signed the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with Tibet at Urga, on 11 January 1913.
30. For instance, the Chinese government white paper New Progress in Human Rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region argues: “One of the fundamental commandments of Buddhism forbids the spreading of falsehoods. The Dalai Lama’s wanton fabrication of lies and his violation and trampling of this commandment serve only to expose him in all his true colors: He is waving the banner of religion to conduct activities aimed at splitting the motherland.” This view was reiterated by Legqoq, chairman of the TAR government in a response to statements made at a U.S. congressional hearing by Paula Dobriansky, the Tibet coordinator for the U.S. State Department. According to China Daily (11 March 2002), Legqoq maintained that “the Dalai did nothing to help Tibetans while he was in office and has never stopped his efforts to split the motherland since he fled Tibet in 1959.” Legqoq reportedly claimed, “The Dalai has neither abandoned his separatist activities nor given up his pro-independence stance. Instead, he has exploited the negotiation issue to serve his own purposes.”
31. Harrell, “Nationalities Question,” 276. The term Zhonghua minzu was used by writers as diverse as Chiang Kai-shek in his China’s Destiny (1947) and Communists who equated it with the Soviet Russian word natsiya.
32. Ibid., 276–77; the term minzu in this sense is equated with the Soviet Russian term natsionalnost.
33. On the Chinese civilizing project, see Harrell, “Introduction,” 3–36.
34. See Lemoine, “Ethnologists in China,” 83–112. Translations of Edvard Westermarck’s The History of Human Marriage and Emile Durkheim’s Règles de la méthode sociologique (Rules of sociological method) first appeared in Chinese as newspaper serials. Evolutionism was introduced to the youthful Chinese intelligentsia by Ts’ai Yuan P’ei, who studied philosophy, literature, and anthropology at the University of Leipzig during 1908–11. On a second stay in Europe during 1924–26, he represented China in Stockholm at the International Ethnology Congress on Pre-Columbian America and the Amerindians and studied ethnology at the University of Hamburg. After his return to China, he published an article titled “On Ethnology” in the review Yiban zazhi, in which the word “ethnology” was translated for the first time as minzuxue. Interestingly, the article stressed the value of reading Chinese historical documents from an ethnological point of view but denounced the “class-conscious” nature of Western ethnology, seen as a “colonialist’s examination of subjugated peoples,” 89.
35. For a discussion of how Morganian evolutionism resonates with Confucian moralism in viewing people at the “backward” end of the evolutionary scale as primitive and exotic, see McKhann, “The Naxi,” 39–62.
36. Ibid., 39. Mao Zedong himself did two studies, one of peasant movements in Hunan (1927) and another titled “Glimpses of Hsing-Kuo” (1930), both inspired by Marxist sociology.
37. This process has been described in Harrell, “Nationalities Question,” 274–96; Fei Xiaotong, Towards a People’s Anthropology; Gladney, Muslim Chinese; and Heberer, China and Its National Minorities, 30–33. See also, on the Utsat, Pang, “Being Hui, Huan-nang, and Utsat,” 190–91; on the Yi, Harrell, “History of the History of the Yi,” 66; and on the Ge, Cheung, “Representation and Negotiation of Ge Identities,” 240–44.
38. This massive research effort led to the publication of a large series of white papers (Ch: baipishu; literally, white-covered books).
39. Over the past fifteen to twenty years, a number of research institutes specializing in Tibetan studies have been established, and several universities and minzu institutes currently have Tibetan departments. Research institutes without students include branches of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan, and a national research institute for Tibetan Studies, the China Tibetology Research Centre, is located in Beijing and staffed primarily by Tibetan scholars.
40. Tibetology in China has been dominated by the study of classical Tibetan texts, the history of Tibet before and after 1949, and Tibetan language and literature. There are two main periodicals on Tibet research: Tibetan Studies, published by the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences in Lhasa, and China Tibetology, from Beijing. Both are published in Chinese and Tibetan editions, while China Tibetology has an English edition as well. There are also Chinese-language periodicals on “Tibetan Buddhism” (Xizang fojiao), “Tibetan education” (Xizang jiaoyu), “Tibetan literature and arts” (Xizang wenyi), and “Tibetan culture” (Xueyu wenhua). Research on Tibet conducted in the 1950s–70s was edited and compiled in the ten-volume Chinese-language Xizang shehui lishi diaocha ziliao congkan (Series of survey data on Tibetan social history). There is also a Chinese series about foreign scholars on Tibet, which has so far published at least fifteen volumes. Most of the research is Chinese language only.
41. See, for example, Gladney, “Question of Minority Identity,” 50–54, commenting on the revival of Manchu identity.
42. Although identification work was discontinued with the onset of the Cultural Revolution, many of these grievances reemerged when the work resumed in the late 1970s. A number of groups have since applied for recognition as separate minzu. However, it seems unlikely at the present time that any new groups will be approved, since only one additional minzu has been recognized, the Jinuo, in 1979.
43. See Wellens, “What’s in a Name?” 17–34, and Harrell, “Nationalities Question,” 274–96.
44. Wellens, “What’s in a Name?” citing Dai, Zang-Mian yuzu yuyan yanjiu, 422–33.
45. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 415–21.
46. Information Office of the State Council, National Minorities Policy.
47. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu, 3.
48. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 282–83. It is unclear how many actually use the script, since the same source reports that only 7 percent of Tu people “knew their own language” in the mid-1980s, 818. This would amount to approximately 13,000 Tu in Qinghai.
49. Dwyer, “Texture of Tongues.”
50. For example, in Tawu (Daofu) County, Kandze TAP, teachers told us that local dialects differed to the extent that pupils and teachers could hardly communicate in Tibetan.
51. In Dartsedo (Kangding), four such dialects were described: Ergong, Yutong, Minya, and Quyu.
52. See Upton, “Notes towards a Native Tibetan Ethnology,” 3–26.
53. Muge Samten, “On the Question of the ’Dwags Po’ Nationality,” cited in Upton, “Notes towards a Native Tibetan Ethnology,” 3–26. Muli is now designated a Tibetan Autonomous County within Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province.
54. Upton, “Notes towards a Native Tibetan Ethnology,” 3–26.
55. D. Norbu, “‘Otherness’ and the Modern Tibetan Identity,” 10.
56. Ekvall, Religious Observances in Tibet, 95, describes “religion system one” (T: chos lugs gcig) as the true and final criterion for a Tibetan in determining his real fellows. Corlin, Nation in Your Mind, 150–53, distinguishes between the concepts of bod as the area of the Tibetan way of life (the people of bod being the maximal endogamous category) and chos as the cultural instrument that provides the symbols of collective identification.
57. E.g., Harrell, “Introduction,” 1–18, and Gladney, “Question of Minority Identity,” 50–54.
58. However accurate these descriptions may be, it is important to remember that individuals still risk becoming victims of prejudice and discrimination after being classified as minorities.
59. See, e.g., Harrell, Cultural Encounters, and Brown, Negotiating Ethnicities.
60. Although a complete, direct registration census of the TAR was not undertaken until the year 1990, direct registration censuses of Tibetan areas outside the TAR were conducted in 1964 and 1980.
61. Harrell, “Introduction,” 3–36.
2 / RELIGIOUS SITES AND THE PRACTICE OF RELIGION
1. Tibet Information Network, News Update, 15 August 1997.
2. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture, 16–25.
3. Statement made by Samdhong Lobsang Tenzin, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, in his inauguration speech on 5 September 2001. Issued by the Department of Information and International Relations of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
4. According to W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 339, the Red Army resorted to force to get supplies during the Long March in eastern Kham, capturing livestock and taking grain supplies from monasteries.
5. Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 683.
6. Ibid., 643–44, copied and translated from the original document in Tibetan.
7. For a description of the implementation of the Democratic Reforms campaign in Kham and Amdo, see W. Smith, “Nationalities Policy of the Chinese Communist Party,” 51–75.
8. Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan, 4, 504.
9. J. Norbu, Warriors of Tibet, 132, 133.
10. Ibid., 134–35.
11. See, e.g., Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan, 4.
12. Ibid., 4, 504.
13. Choedon, Life in the Red Flag People’s Commune, 64.
14. Lopez, “Monastery As a Medium,” 61–64.
15. Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan, 4, 504.
16. Ibid., 4.
17. See, e.g., Makley, Embodying the Sacred.
18. Interview at the county religious affairs department, July 1999.
19. The government also expanded facilities for publishing books in Tibetan and increased the number of hours devoted to Tibetan-language radio broadcasts. It introduced a new policy, known as Four Basic Freedoms, which covered the freedom to practice religion, to trade, to lend money at interest, and to keep servants.
20. Minority Rights Group, Tibetans, 10.
21. Complete references for the figures are provided in appendix 3.
22. Whereas the figures for Yunnan, Gansu, and Sichuan are for Tibetan-designated areas only, the figures for Qinghai are for the entire province.
23. Due to the lack of reliable pre-1958 population figures, we did not compare the monastic population in proportion to the total population in the two periods.
24. Since the Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs lists monasteries and monks outside the TAR according to the traditional Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham, it is difficult to make direct comparisons with lists that use the contemporary administrative divisions in Chinese sources.
25. Ruo’ergai Xian Renmin Zhengfu Zongjiao Shiwuju.
26. We were told that all reports on these details went to the “prefecture archives” (Ch: dang’an guan) in 1990 and therefore are no longer available at the department.
27. China Exploration and Research Society, Buddhist Monasteries. This publication describes the current condition of eighteen monasteries in Kandze TAP.
28. Ibid., 17. The original amount was ¥50,000 (US$6,345), and ¥210,000 (US$26,650) was later allocated to build a Buddhist college, which was moved to Kandze County. The monastery was allowed to keep the surplus.
29. Ibid., 38.
30. Ibid., 47.
31. The monks we interviewed about this emphasized that payment for services was estimated according to the family’s income.
32. Interview, July 1999.
33. During the Sixth Month Festival in Thriga, we even saw Tibetans burning spirit money for the yul lha, evidently borrowing a custom that is usually considered Han.
34. The name of the mountain god in Tibetan is gzhi bdag nag rdog.
35. Guanyin is the Chinese name for the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Skt: Avalokitesvara; T: Chenrezig). This bodhisattva is very popular in China.
36. This information was provided by the keeper of the temple, who also explained that Saban was a teacher from Sakya Monastery in Tibet during the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) and was known as the teacher of Kublai Khan. According to the legend, he was the first person to come to this site, bringing a bag of pearls from which he made the first image of the Buddha.
37. The dead body is destroyed, ritually served to the vultures, conveying the idea that the spirit moves on to a new incarnation and the body has no better use than to be shared with other living beings.
38. The only requirements are obtaining a tourist visa and making arrangements through a local tourist agency.
39. Some sources transcribe the term as glu rol, with glu translated as “music.”
40. For a detailed description of the Lurol Festival in Rebkong, see Epstein and Peng, “Ritual, Ethnicity, and Generational Identity,” 120–38.
41. Interestingly, the local Tibetan who made this comment explained the Tibetan klu (spirits of the underworld who often inhabit springs and waters) by referring to the Chinese long (dragon).
42. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 284.
43. “Tibetan Buddhist Scriptures Said Well Preserved,” Xinhua News Agency, 29 August 1996, transcribed by FBIS.
44. We were told that the printing academy had the Kangyur, consisting of 36,000 woodblocks, and the Tengyur, consisting of 67,000 woodblocks. The price of producing a new woodblock was said to be ¥120 (US$14.50). A recent publication about Derge Sutra Printing Academy is J. Yang, Dege Yinjingyuan. The book is richly illustrated with high-quality color photos and is published as a trilingual edition in Tibetan, Chinese, and English.
45. Though the complete Kangyur and Tengyur appeared to be available in most Gelugpa monasteries, the situation may be different in monasteries of other traditions. For instance, in a Drigung Kagyupa monastery in Dechen TAP, we were told that the monks used texts specific to the Drigung Kagyupa tradition for recitation but did not have the Tengyur and had only parts of the Kangyur in their monastery.
46. Derge dialect was also said to be the standard Tibetan dialect taught in primary and middle schools in Kandze TAP.
47. He was educated at the Religious Art Department of Malho Art Institute (Ch: Huangnan Yishu Xuexiao, Zongjiao Yishuxi) in Rebkong. His training lasted five years, and he was eighteen years old when he began his studies.
48. Lopez, “Monastery As a Medium,” 61–64. See also Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 21.
49. (T) dpe cha ba. On the definition of this term, see Goldstein, “Revival of Monastic Life,” 21.
50. Lopez, “The Monastery As a Medium,” 61–64.
51. Goldstein, History of Modern Tibet, 24.
52. International Campaign for Tibet, Forbidden Freedoms, 45.
53. (T) dga’ ldan srong btsan gling.
54. According to Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan, it had more than 1,500 monks and 30 tulkus before 1958.
55. According to our sources, 6 of the tulkus were recognized after 1991, when new tulkus were again recognized after the Cultural Revolution.
56. (T) thos bsam rnam par rgyal ba’i gling.
57. (T) gsang sngags dar rgyas gling.
58. (T) ae lba chos ’khor gling.
59. Nakane, Labrang.
60. Li An-che noted that there were 150 monks in the Lower College of Theology (T: rgyud smad pa grwa tshan), while our sources stated that there were now about 100 monks. According to Li An-che, there were another 100 monks in the College of Medicine (T: sman pa grwa tshan), against 100–200 monks at present. Li An-che gave a figure of 120 monks in the College of the Happy Thunderbolt (T: kye rdorje grwa tshan), while the current figure was said to be approximately 100. Li An-che finally noted that there were 100 monks in the College of the Wheel of Time (T: dus hkhor grwa tshan) but provided no information on the Upper College of Theology (T: rgyud stod pa grwa tshan). Our sources stated that the latter had about 100 monks but did not specify figures for the former.
61. The five subjects on the curriculum were tsad mar nam’grel, par pyin, dbu ma, mdzod, and ’dul ba.
62. Xie, Guoluo Zangzu Shehui, 155–57.
63. This includes two monasteries in the United States (Atlanta and New York) and two in Taiwan.
64. Previously, self-study was not practiced in Tibetan monasteries.
65. In addition, new institutions without sectarian affiliations have been set up to teach Buddhism, such as the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, the Norbulingka Institute, and the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath.
66. Ström, “Between Tibet and the West.” See also Ström, Continuity, Adaptation, and Innovation, 269–70, 370, on the situation in Sera Monastery, Karnataka, and Sakya College, Dehra Dun.
67. Ström, Continuity, Adaptation, and Innovation, 270, 370, 373 (citing interviews with monks at Sera Monastery, Karnataka, and Sakya College, Dehra Dun).
68. Ibid., 373 (citing interviews with monks at Sakya College, Dehra Dun).
69. International Campaign for Tibet, Forbidden Freedoms, 44.
70. Ström, Continuity, Adaptation, and Innovation, 341–42 (citing interviews at Namdrölling Monastery).
71. Six of these tulkus were appointed to the county People’s Congress, two to the prefecture People’s Congress, one to the province People’s Congress, seven to the county Political Consultative Committee, and one to the prefecture Political Consultative Committee.
72. International Campaign for Tibet, A Season to Purge, 52, citing Xizang Ribao Lhasa (in Chinese), 1 November 1995.
73. Daily Telegraph, 12 November 1999, Panchen Lama “unharmed.”
74. Aba Zhou nianjian 1991–1996, 359. This source refers to regulations no. 6 and no. 39 of 1991 issued by the State Council.
75. Ibid.
76. Pu, Ganqing Zangchuan fojiao siyuan, 4.
77. (T) krung go bod brgyud mtho rim nang bstan slob gling.
78. Tulkus who have not received government approval.
79. The document is reprinted in MacInnis, Religion in China Today, 8–26.
80. Only Chinese place-names were provided.
81. See Karmay, “Mountain Cults and National Identity,” 112–20, and D. Norbu, “‘Otherness’ and the Modern Tibetan Identity,” 10–11.
82. See Barnett, “Symbols and Protest,” 238–58; Havnevik, “Role of Nuns,” 259–66; and Schwartz, Circle of Protest and “Anti-Splittist Campaign,” 207–37.
83. Schwartz, “Anti-Splittist Campaign,” 207–37, and Human Rights Watch/Tibet Information Network, Cutting Off the Serpent’s Head.
84. For information about the campaign’s implementation in Drepung Monastery near Lhasa, see Goldstein, “Revival of Monastic Life,” 15–52. In addition, Tibet Information Network published A Sea of Bitterness, a report on the implementation of the campaign in Qinghai, based on interviews with Tibetan refugees in India.
85. As reported by Dr. Charlene Makley, who conducted fieldwork in Labrang during 1995–96, in an open letter to the editors of World Tibet Network News (5 March 2000) after the death of Gungthang Rinpoche on 29 February 2000.
86. See the testimony of Agya Rinpoche at the hearing on religious freedom in China, organized by the Commission on International Religious Freedom and held in Los Angeles on 16 March 2000. Reprinted at http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2000/3/17.
87. This was formerly one of the main Sakyapa monasteries in the Kham area. Sichuan Sheng Minzu Shiwu Weiyuanhui, Zangchuan fojiao siyuan ziliao xuanbian, 51.
88. The Chinese term fengshui relates to geomancy, or the idea that spiritual forces in the ground may influence a building in a positive or a negative way. In Tibetan, this is called sa dpyad. It traditionally has been important to identify the negative or positive forces in the ground before a new house is built, in order to avoid future problems.
89. Ruo’ergai Xian Renmin Zhengfu Zongjiao Shiwuju, Ruo’ergai Xian zongjiao gongzuo gaikuan.
90. In large monasteries, this team should have eleven members, medium-size monasteries have a team of seven members, and teams for small monasteries have three to five members.
91. We were informed in several cases that nuns who adhered to the Nyingmapa tradition practiced as nuns but lived at home.
92. Figures for the Serthar Buddhist Institute are based on information from a Drango County Religious Affairs Department investigative mission that returned from Serthar in March 2000. Investigators concluded that 155 monks and as many as 700 nuns came from neighboring Drango County. According to Germano, “Remembering the Dismembered Body of Tibet,” 68, the site had 30–40 Chinese monks and nuns in 1991.
93. International Campaign for Tibet, News Report, 20 June 2001, “Thousands of Tibetan Monks and Nuns Ordered to Leave Remote Encampment.”
94. In many areas, county religious affairs were controlled by the United Front department of the CCP. In the changing political climate after 1978, however, most counties established a separate government department for implementing the new religious policies, although local branches of the United Front occasionally still handle religious affairs at the county level.
95. See, e.g., Thar, “Bla Ma,” 417–27.
96. See also Goldstein, “Revival of Monastic Life,” 15–52.
97. This campaign was reportedly carried out pursuant to State Religious Affairs Department directive no. 62 (1994). In Yunnan, it was based on Yunnan Province Government directive no. 39 (1994) and no. 92 (1996).
98. From the testimony of Agya Rinpoche at the hearing on religious freedom in China, organized by the Commission on International Religious Freedom and held in Los Angeles on 16 March 2000. Reprinted at http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2000/3/17.
3 / THE DILEMMAS OF EDUCATION IN TIBETAN AREAS
1. Upton, “Cascades of Change.”
2. See, e.g., Hansen, Lessons in Being Chinese, 159.
3. “Education on the Move,” South China Morning Post, 21 March 2001.
4. “Racial Discrimination,” issued by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Development, 2000, at http://www.tchrd.org/pubs/racial.
5. Hansen, Lessons in Being Chinese, 159.
6. Ibid., 169.
7. “Problems Related to Bilingual Education in Tibet,” unpublished paper.
8. Upton, “Cascades of Change.”
9. Qinghai Sheng zhi; Jiaoyu zhi.
10. In the 1940s, three clans—the Kangsai, Kanggan, and Gongmugang (Chinese transcriptions)—each established a primary school, where both Tibetan and Chinese were taught. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 309.
11. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu.
12. The Central Nationalities Institute is now known as Central Nationalities University.
13. Although local government departments in autonomous areas thus have the right to develop their own educational programs and decide on the language of instruction for local schools, it is important to recognize that minority students do not have the explicit right to be educated in their native language.
14. For more information on educational policies and teaching in Tibetan within the TAR, see Bass, Education in Tibet.
15. Tibet Information Network (TIN), News Update, “Policy Shift in Teaching Tibetan,” issued 6 May 1997. According to TIN, the policy shift was announced on 17 April 1997 by Deputy Secretary Tenzin, during a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to China James Sasser.
16. We did not receive information about this system from the Tibetan areas we visited in Qinghai Province.
17. Third-grade level equals three years of study.
18. Ruo’ergai Xian zhi, 642.
19. This type of education is referred to as “first category” (Ch: yi lei).
20. This type of education is referred to as “second category” (Ch: er lei). In 1985, in addition to the first and second categories, a third type of bilingual education was invented and the names of the two first types were switched. Since then, “first category” has referred to bilingual schools that use Chinese as the medium of instruction and teach Tibetan beginning in the third grade; after six years of primary school, the Tibetan level of graduates would be at the fourth-grade level. “Second category” refers to instruction in Tibetan with Chinese taught beginning in the third grade; upon graduation, these students’ Tibetan level is equivalent to that of primary school graduates, and their Chinese level would be at the fourth-grade level. In the third category of education, all subjects are taught either in Chinese or in Tibetan after completion of the third grade.
21. Interview with Kakhok County officials, April 1999.
22. Interview with school staff, April 1999.
23. At the time of our visit, the school’s Tibetan-language department had two classes: one taught in Chinese and the other in Tibetan. The mathematics department also had a class taught in Tibetan. In all other departments, Chinese was the language of instruction. According to the headmaster, as of 1999, about 40–50 percent of the students in this college were Tibetans.
24. Interview at Southwest Nationalities Institute, April 1999.
25. Until the first term of 2000, sixty new students were allowed per year. Regulations introduced in the second term of 2000 reduced the annual number of new students to fifty. The reasons for the reduction were said to be the small number of applicants who passed the entrance exam and the difficulties experienced by graduates in finding jobs after the job assignment system ended. Of the students, 10–15 percent received grants of ¥800, ¥600, or ¥400 (US$100, US$75, or US$50). The annual tuition fee was ¥2,000–2,400 (US$250–$300), boarding included.
26. The Ganzi Tibetan School was first established in Derge County in 1984, moved to Tawu County in 1986, and then to Dartsedo County in 1994, where it is now located, near the prefecture seat.
27. The Rokpa Foundation sponsors one class, the 1997 class, for four years.
28. The full name is (Ch) Kangding Minzu Shizhuan Gaodeng Zhuanke Xuexiao.
29. Interview with independent sources.
30. The Oregonian, 10 May 2001, “Leaving Tibet: A Long Trek to Freedom,” citing information from the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet.
31. Ganzi Zhou zhi, 1644.
32. Xibu da kaifa, Daofu jiaoyu zenmaban? Zhuazhu jiyu, cujin fazhan, peiyang gao suzhi rencai (The policy to develop the western region. What will happen to Tawu? Seize the opportunity, promote development, and foster high-quality talents), unsigned article distributed by the Tawu County Education Department, May 2000.
33. This statement does not conform to official statistics claiming a 64.1 percent enrollment rate in the county.
34. In Kandze, we also found evidence of a three-price system by which the children of farmers and herders are exempt from paying tuition fees in primary school, but cadre children must pay ¥60–80 (US$7–10) per year, and the children of migrant laborers (presumably those without residency registration) must pay a fee of ¥460 (US$58) per year. In addition, miscellaneous fees were twice as high for the children of cadres as for the children of farmers and herders, whereas migrant children had to pay six times as much. Total annual school expenses for one migrant child in primary school amounted to ¥760 (US$95). This represents at least half an average annual income in the area and would in practice bar most children without resident status from attending school.
35. Aba Zhou nianjian 1991–1996. The source fails to note whether this is per capita income.
36. The entrance rate for primary school in 1992 was reported to be 59.3 percent, with 81,876 pupils in school that year. Ganzi Zhou zhi, 1644.
37. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 284. According to this source, only 27 percent of school-age Tibetan children in Qinghai were literate in 1982.
38. Gansu tongji nianjian 1998, 416.
39. Extrapolating from these figures, about half of all school-age children in Dechen TAP do not attend school. Out of thirty-three children, thirty enter primary school, seventeen of these complete primary school, thirteen go on to junior middle school, and seven complete junior middle school. Only about 20 percent complete nine years of education.
40. Gansu tongji nianjian 1998, 416.
41. One way of making it easier for parents to afford the expenses was to let them pay in kind (in meat, flour, or butter) rather than in cash.
42. Paid according to the number of “livestock” (Ch: shengxu).
43. According to the unpublished paper “Problems related to bilingual education in Tibet” (1999).
44. Ganzi Zhou zhi, 1659. The number of students entering middle school that year was 5,628, of which 2,822 were minzu students.
45. Tsolho Prefecture Tibetan Translation Language and Writing Working Committee (Ch: Hainan Zhou Zangyu Wengongzuo Weiyuanhui), “The Tsolho TAP Tibetan Language Working Committee’s Request for Assistance to Establish a Project for Promoting the Elimination of Tibetan Illiteracy,” dated 25 February 1997.
46. T. Zhang, Population Development in Tibet, 105.
47. Special funds for minority education are the Ethnic Minorities Education Aid Special Fund (Ch: Shaoshu Minzu Jiaoyu Buzhu Zhuankuan) and the Border Areas Construction Aid Fund (Ch: Bianjing Diqu Jianshe Buzhu Fei). Project Hope (Ch: Xiwang Gongcheng) is a major Chinese NGO source.
48. Wang, Minzu pinkun diqu, xianzhang lun jiaoyu. This book is a compilation of articles written by fifty-two county leaders from minority areas in the poor provinces in China’s western region. Several county leaders give detailed accounts about the underdevelopment of educational facilities in their areas.
49. Xibu da kaifa, Daofu jiaoyu zenmaban? Zhuazhu jiyu, cujin fazhan, peiyang gao suzhi rencai (The policy to develop the western region. What will happen to Tawu? Seize the opportunity, promote development, and foster high-quality talents), unsigned article distributed by the Tawu County Education Department, May 2000.
50. Special schools for Tibetan children were established in Beijing and other cities in eastern China as early as the 1950s, and critics have asserted that these schools are a drain on TAR education budgets. Some also criticize these schools for contributing to the sinicization of Tibetan students.
51. One of these, a county-level minzu primary school, received ¥60 (US$7.50) per month for each student learning Tibetan. According to the staff, the school had two Tibetan-language teachers, and Tibetan was taught from the fourth to the sixth grade only. In the fourth grade, Tibetan was taught four hours per week, and in the fifth and sixth grades, Tibetan was taught only two hours per week. This school has taught Tibetan language since 1986.
52. The language of instruction was Chinese, but according to teachers at the school, Tibetan was taught seven hours per week, Chinese was taught six hours per week, and English was taught five hours per week.
53. Of the total, 314 students were Tibetan and 3 were Han. All were classified as cadre children, with 85 percent coming from herding or farming areas and 15 percent from towns.
54. Language classes at this school included seven hours of Tibetan, seven hours of Chinese, and five hours of English per week.
55. This is a rare example of a bilingual middle school with English in the curriculum. Information from Ma’erkang Minzu Teachers Training School suggests that this was the only bilingual middle school that taught English in the prefecture.
56. For an introduction to the school, see Dai and Zhalo, “Lama Jigmei Gyaincain,” 24–25.
57. The English textbook used was a Qinghai publication, “Elementary English—Tibetan.”
58. (Ch) Wusheng Zizhiqu Zangwen Jiaocai Xiezuo Lingdao Xiaozu; (T) zhing chen dang rang skyong ljongs lnga’i bod yig slob gzhi mnyam sgrig byed rgyu’i gros ’cham.
59. For a detailed description of the compilation and editing of Tibetan-language textbooks, see Upton, Schooling Shar-Khog.
60. For instance, we were informed that the Tibetan-language textbooks used in teachers training schools in Ngaba Prefecture were edited by the Ma’erkang Minzu Teachers Training School in cooperation with the Southwest Minzu Institute in Chengdu (responsible for textbooks on politics) and two other teachers training schools in Kandze TAP.
61. Upton, “Beyond the Contents of a Curriculum.” In terms of pages, 37 percent are translations from Chinese texts, 46 percent are modern Tibetan, and 16 percent are traditional Tibetan.
62. Ibid.
63. Tibetans live not only in the areas defined as Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties but also in a number of village districts in neighboring counties. At least eight Tibetan autonomous village districts are located in counties outside Kandze TAP, Ngaba Prefecture, and Mili Tibetan Autonomous County (TAC). Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture has, in addition to Mili TAC, two such Tibetan districts located in two other counties. He’ai Tibetan District is located in Mianning County, and Bao’an Tibetan District in Yuexi County. (Huang and Zhong, Sichuan Sheng shiyong dituce, 128, 129, shows the location of the villages.) According to Sichuan tongji nianjian 1999, 38, Mianning County has a total population of 304,000, and Yuexi has 231,000. Another five Tibetan autonomous village districts are located in Shimian County, bordering Gyesur (Jiulong) and Chaksam (Luding) Counties in Kandze TAP: Caoke Tibetan District, Wajiao Yi and Tibetan District, Xinmin Tibetan and Yi District, Xianfeng Tibetan District, and Xieluo Tibetan District. Gyesur County in Kandze TAP has at least seven Yi autonomous village districts, and Baoxing County has one Tibetan autonomous village district, Qiaoqi. (Huang and Zhong, Sichuan Sheng shiyong dituce, 105.)
64. Interview, prefecture government officials, April 1999.
65. County officials in Lixian confirmed the figure of six middle schools that used Tibetan as the language of instruction, with Kakhok (Hongyuan), Dzoge (Ruo’ergai), Ngaba (Aba), Sungchu (Songpan), Dzamthang (Rangtang), and Barkham (Ma’erkang) each having one school. However, they mentioned only fourteen middle schools that taught Tibetan as a subject, and these were distributed as follows: Kakhok (Hongyuan), two; Dzoge (Ruo’ergai), three; Ngaba (Aba), two; Sungchu (Songpan), three; Dzamthang (Rangtang), two; Barkham (Ma’erkang), one; and Chuchen (Jinchuan), one.
66. With an average of less than 60 students per school, these are probably point schools in herding areas.
67. Apart from teachers training schools, the prefecture also had a health school (1,133 students), an agricultural school (640 students), a school of economics (620 students), and a technical school (343 students), all administered by the education department. At the time of our visit, two county minzu teachers training schools were being closed down and were to become senior middle schools in autumn 2000, which means that teachers training will be available only at the Kangding Minzu Teachers Training School. Other senior middle schools at the county level were also being closed, and senior middle school education was to be concentrated in the two former teachers training schools (in Bathang and Kandze), strategically located along the two highways. These would then become key senior middle schools in the prefecture.
68. Interview with the prefecture education department, May 2000. We were told that the prefecture still did not accept foreign English teachers, and especially not American teachers.
69. In Ngaba, Tibetans constituted only 48 percent of the population as registered in the 1990 national census. In Kandze, the corresponding figure was 76 percent.
70. About 75 percent of the Tibetan population of Gansu live in Kanlho, 15 percent live in Pari, and about 10 percent live outside Tibetan autonomous areas.
71. There were 11,025 students in junior middle schools, and 2,049 students in senior middle schools.
72. According to Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 247, there were twelve minzu middle schools: four junior middle schools (50 percent of all junior middle schools) and eight senior middle schools (40 percent of all senior middle schools).
73. The four schools were the Tibetan Middle-Level Vocational School (bilingual), the medical school, the pastoral school, and the teachers training school. The total number of students in these schools was 1,278 in 1998–99.
74. Complete statistics on education from the prefecture government for each county in Kanlho can be found in appendix 4.
75. C. Yang, “Qiandan Zang yuwen jiaoxue zai fazhan minzu jiaoyuzhong de zhongyaoxing.”
76. According to the 1990 national census, 83.9 percent of the registered population of Dechen TAP were minorities and only 16.1 percent were Han. Tibetans composed 33 percent of the population.
77. According to the Dechen Prefecture Education Department, Gyelthang County had bilingual (Tibetan-Chinese) primary schools in five village districts: Dongwang (T: gtor ba rong), Gezan (T: skhad tshag), Nixi (T: nyi shar), Wujing, and Xiao Zhongdian. Weixi Lisu Autonomous County had bilingual (Tibetan-Chinese) primary schools in two village districts: Badi (T: ’aba’ sde) and Tacheng (T: mtha’ chu). Dechen County had bilingual primary schools in four districts: Yunling, Yangla (T: gyag rwa chus), Fushan, and Shenping. However, according to the Dechen County Education Department, apart from the Shengping Township district, there were bilingual Tibetan-Chinese schools in three village districts: Benzilan (T: spam rtse rags), Yemen, and Yunling.
78. The former had 320 students, and the latter had a Tibetan medicine class with 40 students.
79. According to the Dechen Prefecture Education Department, in 1997 the prefecture had 957 primary schools (362 of them with more than 1 teacher), with a total of 38,257 pupils and 2,337 teachers. There were 25 middle schools in the prefecture, 5 were six-year schools (including both junior and senior middle school) and 20 were three-year schools (junior middle school only). The total number of pupils in middle school was 9,312. In addition, the prefecture had 3 vocational middle schools, with 856 pupils and 74 teachers. These were the Minzu Teachers Training School, the medical school and the Minzu Middle School. Dechen County had 220 primary schools and 5 middle schools, Weixi County had 423 primary schools and 12 middle schools, and Gyelthang County had 314 primary schools and 10 middle schools.
80. According to the 1990 census, Tibetans constituted 20 percent of the registered population of Qinghai.
81. Despite an increase in the population during the years 1990–98, there have probably been only minor changes in the relative sizes of the different ethnic groups as registered in official population statistics.
82. This was the situation in areas such as Semnyi, in Tsochang, and Terlenkha (Delingha), Ulan, Dachaidam, and Mangya, in Tsonub.
83. Interview with the prefecture education department, July 1999.
84. The Tsochang medical school students go to Malho to study Tibetan medicine, and the Malho students go to Tsochang to study Western and Chinese medicine.
85. According to the education department, the prefecture had 232 primary schools, with 27,016 pupils; of these, 82 were minzu primary schools, with 11,124 students. There were 28 middle and vocational schools, with 9,440 students; of these, 7 were minzu middle and vocational schools, with 1,877 students.
86. These were Gangcha County Minzu Middle School (with instruction in Tibetan), Haiyan County Minzu Middle School (instruction in Chinese), and Qilian County Minzu Middle School (instruction in Chinese). Haiyan County Minzu Middle School also had a Mongolian class.
87. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 301–5, gives a different account, stating that 189 primary schools (86.3 percent of the total) and 15 middle schools teach Tibetan. The report claims that Tibetan is used in primary schools in the pastoral regions of the prefecture as well as in minzu primary and middle schools. This information accords with the initial statements of prefecture officials but not with the later figures provided by the prefecture government. The report also gives figures for minzu schools in the prefecture that are higher than those provided by the prefecture government: 126 as compared to 82 minzu primary schools and 12 as compared to 7 minzu middle and vocational schools.
88. Ibid., 311–14, provides the following information for 1987: Tsonub had a total of 235 schools, including 169 primary schools, 62 ordinary middle schools, 2 vocational middle schools, and 2 professional schools. Among these, there were 2 Mongolian middle schools, 1 Tibetan middle school, and 2 combined Mongolian and Tibetan middle schools. There were 20 Mongolian primary schools and 20 Tibetan primary schools. This is fairly consistent with the information gathered in 1999.
89. The numbers of minzu primary and middle schools in each county or district are listed in appendix 4.
90. This accords with information provided in ibid., 311–14.
91. The breakdown is 411 primary schools, 32 middle schools, 2 vocational schools, and 1 college.
92. Both past and current prefecture leaders are Tibetans.
93. Most of these schools were minzu schools, of which 1 or 2 were Chinese-Mongolian and the rest were Chinese-Tibetan. The vocational schools were a teachers training school and a medical school.
94. There were 20,096 in primary schools, 4,761 in middle schools, and 726 in vocational schools.
95. The 13 middle schools comprised 11 junior middle schools and 2 complete middle schools that included the senior level (six years). Of the 1,238 students in junior middle school, 834 were Tibetan (67 percent), and of 102 students in senior middle school, only 34 were Tibetan (33 percent). In comparison, the registered Tibetan population in Golok comprised 88 percent of the total.
96. In addition, Jyekundo, like most other TAPs, also had a Tibetan medical school. The prefecture government did not give information about this school, nor were the numbers of students and teachers included in the statistics.
97. According to Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan, 290, during the mid-1980s all minzu schools in Jyekundo TAP taught in Tibetan language during the first three years of primary school, and Chinese was used beginning in the fourth grade.
98. In several of the schools we visited in Kandze TAP, it was common practice to display detailed information about the staff on a poster on the wall. The information included a portrait photo and gave the age, educational background, ethnic affiliation, and Party membership status of every teacher. In one school, we noticed that of forty-six teachers (twenty-one of whom were Tibetan), nineteen were members of the Chinese Communist Youth League and seven were members of the Communist Party.
99. The staff of this school informed us that during the previous year, the ethnic composition of the students was 79 percent Tibetan and 21 percent others, including Han, Hui, Tu, Mongolian, and Salar. Without exception, all students were required to attend Tibetan-language classes. However, all textbooks and all classes were in Chinese except the Tibetan-language class.
100. The office that sets the minimum scores each year is the students enrollment office (Ch: zhaosheng bangongshi) within the prefecture’s education department.
101. Teachers in these areas retire at age fifty for women and fifty-five for men, five years younger than in central China.
102. Although 98 percent of the new English teachers were Tibetan, the English-language classes were being taught in Chinese.
103. As of 1999, teachers training in Tsochang was available in Semnyi County. The school then had 443 students in thirteen classes. Six of these were Tibetan classes, with 112 students. Chinese, Tibetan, and English were taught. The Chinese track reportedly had six hours of Chinese and two hours of English weekly, while the Tibetan track had six hours of Tibetan, six hours of Chinese, and two hours of English.
104. See Bass, Education in Tibet, 235–37.
105. Note our discussion of dialects and language differences in chapter 1. Some scholars would argue that Tibetan students from places such as Mili, Tashiling, or Namphel would in fact be learning a foreign language, rather than their own native language, when they are taught Tibetan in school.
106. An exception is the Northwest Minzu Institute, where chemistry, management, and computer science have been taught in Tibetan since 1995.
107. For example, fifty students instead of the former annual enrollment of sixty students were accepted to the Tibetan-language courses at Southwest Minzu University, starting in autumn 2000.
108. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu.
109. Ibid., 23.
110. We collected a number of articles and papers with titles such as “Why Tibetans Don’t Speak Tibetan Well”; “A Concern That Tibetans Don’t Understand Written Tibetan” (Wei Zangzu shuo bu hao zangyu, Zangzu bu dong zangwen danyou), in Dundrup, Wo de xinyuan, 38–44; “A Brief Discussion of the ‘Uselessness’ of the Tibetan Language” (Qiantan zangwen “wuyong” tan), a hand-written document by a local Tibetan teacher given to us by the Tawu County Education Department, May 2000; and “A Study of Bilingual Education and Teaching in Tibetan Areas of Sichuan” (Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu), by Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu.
4 / IN SEARCH OF TIBETAN CULTURE
1. Although “cultural relics” is the standard translation for this term, “cultural artifacts” would be more accurate.
2. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture.
3. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu, 7. This source actually refers to the Tibetan autonomous region of Xikang Province. For a discussion of the name Xikang or Sikang, see Watson, Frontiers of China, 59–60. After the People’s Republic of China was established, the name Sikang dropped out of use, but the formal abolition of Sikang Province apparently was not announced until July 1955.
4. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu, 8.
5. Shakya, “Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers,” 20–24. Tsering Shakya was born in Tibet in 1959 and fled to India with his family in 1967.
6. It should be noted that the recruitment of literate monks as interpreters was not always voluntary. For instance, we met a monk from a monastery in Golok (Guoluo) TAP, Qinghai, who told us that when his monastery was closed in 1958, he and the other monks were sent to a labor camp. After three years in the labor camp, his Chinese was good enough for him to become an interpreter for the local authorities.
7. Interview with one of the key Tibetan news reporters, August 1999.
8. Interviews in villages in Tsolho (Hainan) TAP, near Thriga (Guide) County seat, August 1999. Even viewers who lived very close to Xining, where the Tibetan programs are broadcast, informed us that they were often unable to receive the programs in the village due to poor transmission.
9. This statement seems to contradict the argument that most Tibetans in Mili are actually not Tibetans at all but are Premi. It may also reflect the dispute itself, and the need for people to reaffirm or reject their Tibetan or Premi identity when these identities are questioned.
10. By 1985, 164 feature films, 6 art films, 34 educational films, and 26 documentary films had been translated.
11. According to Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Minzu Yanjiusuo, Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yuyan shiyong qingkuang, 283, between 1975 and 1985, nineteen films were translated into Mongolian at the Tsonub (Haixi) station of the Qinghai Province Film Translation and Production Factory. Between 1981 and 1985, two films were dubbed into Tu language by the same translation unit, Huzhu station. In a meeting of the Qinghai Academy of Social Sciences, July 1999, we were told that the Jyekundo (Yushu) station dubbed films into the Kham dialect.
12. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture, 16–25.
13. Among recent academic works are The History of Tibetan Literature, compiled by the staff of the Central Nationalities Institute, and the Tibetan-language The Combined Religion and Politics, by Dunkar Lobsang Tinley, former professor of Tibetan studies at the Central Nationalities Institute. The Tibet Academy of Social Sciences published A General History of Tibet in Chinese and, in Tibetan editions, The Inference Theory in Tibetan Philosophy and A Dictionary of Tibetan Philosophy.
14. At the horse race festival in Jyekundo TAP, which we visited in July 1999, the prefecture’s culture department sponsored a local Gesar storyteller. He was seated in a festival tent and sat in trance for several hours reciting parts of the Gesar epic. Local people visited the tent in large numbers and obviously enjoyed the stories very much. During our fieldwork, we heard mention of other Gesar storytellers.
15. Harris, In the Image of Tibet, questions the freedom of expression of modern Tibetan writers and artists. For example, she writes about the Sweet Tea Painting Association (T: cha ngarbo rimo tsokpa), where young Lhasa artists went underground in the late 1980s to avoid government interference, 182, 187.
16. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
17. (T) mtsho sngon bod skad gsar ’gyur.
18. (T) kan lho gsar ’gyur and nga ba gsar ’gyur. Ngaba News is a four-page daily and has a circulation of about 2,500.
19. (T) mtsho sngon slob gso, (Ch) Qinghai jiaoyu. Published by the provincial education department.
20. (T) rtser snyegs, (Ch) Pandeng. Published by the Qinghai Party School.
21. (T) tang gi ’tshoba. Published by the Qinghai Communist Party Propaganda Department.
22. (T) mtsho sngon khrims lugs gsar ’gyur.
23. (T) mtso sngon tsan rig dang ’phrul chas gsar ’gyur.
24. (T) gangs ljongs kyi gzhon nu.
25. (T) sbrang char. Published by the Qinghai Minzu Publishing House.
26. (T) mtsho sngon mang tshogs sgyu rtsal. Published by the Qinghai Folk Arts and Literature editorial committee.
27. (T) zla zer. Published by the Kanlho Art and Literature Association.
28. Each issue sells approximately twenty copies in local bookstores.
29. In some prefectures (e.g., Malho [Huangnan] and Tsolho [Hainan]), about one fourth of the books were in Tibetan, whereas in others (e.g., Tsochang [Haibei]), we were unable to find books in Tibetan at all. In Golok, the bookstore was closed, and nobody could tell us for how long or if it was going to reopen in the same location. Judging by the facade, the store appeared to have been closed for a while. In Kandze, we stopped in at bookshops in every county we visited.
30. Shakya, “Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers,” 20–24. For a thorough survey of publications in Tibetan, see Stoddard, “Tibetan Publications and National Identity,” 121–56.
31. Shakya, “Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers,” 20–24.
32. The TAR Writers Association is a province-level organization sponsored by the regional government, not an association of Tibetan writers. Although there is no separate association of Tibetan writers, a number of Tibetan writers are members of the Association of Minority Writers in China. According to news reports from 1990, of the 1,800 members of this association, 30 were Tibetan (Stoddard, “Tibetan Publications and National Identity,” 121–56, citing Lasa Wanbao, 18 September 1990, and Bod ljongs nyin re’i tshags par, 6 October 1990).
33. Shakya, “Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers,” 21.
34. Ibid., 22.
35. Biographical information from “Preface,” by Dondrup Wangbum, in the English translation of Dawa, Soul in Bondage, 5–11.
36. On the works of Tashi Dawa and other young Tibetan authors, see Grünfelder, An den Lederriemen geknotete Seele.
37. Upton, “Beyond the Contents of a Curriculum.”
38. Shakya, “Waterfall and Fragrant Flowers,” 20–24.
39. (T) dga’ ldan rnam rgyal ’phel rgyas gling.
40. Kangding Minzu Shifan Zhuanke Xuexiao Ketizu, Sichuan Zangqu shuangyu jiaoyu yu jiaoxue yanjiu, 246.
41. Ibid., 255–58.
42. According to ibid., 281–82, about 20,000 Mongolians used Tibetan during the mid-1980s. In addition, some Tu, Bao’an, Salar, and Hui people were reported to use Tibetan to “communicate among themselves.”
43. Ibid., 301.
44. According to the staff of this office, as of 1999, Kangtsa (Gangcha) County also had a translation office, and Dola (Qilian) and Dashi (Haiyan) had translators but no special offices for translation. The prefecture had twenty-four people working on translation in 1999.
45. Interview with the Tsochang TAP translation office, July 1999.
46. The following documents were received during our visit to Tsolho Prefecture Tibetan Translation Language and Writing Working Committee in July 1999: “Written Application for Editing and Publishing Qinghai-Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Ancient Tibetan Books Subsidized by ASIA” (dated 1 September 1998, and including twenty-six titles); “Written Application for Editing and Publishing a Dictionary on Common Foods on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Tibetan, Chinese, and English by Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” (dated 18 September 1998, and “based on the actual requirements to preserve the traditional Tibetan cultural heritage of the Hainan area”); “The Situation in Regard to the Development of the Tibetan Translation Work in Qinghai Province, Hainan TAP,” a speech directed to the “leaders” (dated 20 July 1997); and “The Hainan TAP Tibetan Language Working Committee’s Request for Assistance to Establish a Project for Promoting the Elimination of Tibetan Illiteracy” (dated 25 February 1997).
47. Interview, July 1999. According to officials in the office, by 1999 the unit was staffed by nine people and had edited sixteen books.
48. For instance, in Tsolho TAP, the culture department published a four-volume edition on the prefecture’s cultural history, based on research conducted since 1985. This publication includes famous folk stories and folksongs and was published in both Chinese and Tibetan editions.
49. Source: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/china/yunnan.htm.
50. These are the villages of Wutun, Manduhu, Guomori, and Cashari (Chinese transcriptions).
51. We were told that most thanka are made for display in homes, while statues are made mainly for the monasteries. Statues of the Dharma guides (protector deities) are usually only for monasteries, although Sakyamuni figures can be bought for the home.
52. His name is Lobsum Shangqug, and he is introduced in China’s Tibet 6 (2000): 43.
53. According to the officials we interviewed, Labrang was a province-level cultural relic from 1961 until 1982, when it became a state-level cultural relic. Of the sites in Sangchu, we were told that the ancient towns of Bajiao and Sangke are province-level cultural relics, while Kecai Monastery, the ancient towns of Madang and Siru, and the Ming dynasty frontier wall of Tumen guan are among the county-level cultural relics.
54. Other important excavations and discoveries were listed as Zongri culture in Tongde County, 1987 (stone utensils, 20,000–50,000 years old); Gonghe County, 1987 (Stone Age utensils); and Layihai culture (approximately 7,600 years old) in Guinan County, 1983. No discoveries of Tibetan culture were reported.
55. The Tsolho Prefecture Culture Department told us that all the song and dance troupes in Qinghai were established around 1964.
56. A book about the 1981 and 1991 festivals was published locally, but we were told it was completely sold out. A new festival publication was expected for the fiftieth anniversary in 2001.
57. Sepa Monastery (Tibetan name unknown) and Samdup Monastery (Ch: Sangzhou Si; T: ’dzomnyog bsam ’grub dgon). Both are Sakyapa monasteries.
58. Schoolchildren usually wear Western-style clothes, but in some Tibetanmedium schools both the staff and the children tend to dress in chuba. Many rural people, especially herders, still use chuba for everyday wear.
59. Madsen, “Social Change.”
5 / CULTURE AS A WAY OF LIFE
1. See, e.g., Upton, “Home on the Grasslands?” 98–124.
2. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
3. Department of Information and International Relations, Tibet 2000.
4. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture.
5. Dreyer, “Go West Young Han,” 353–69.
6. Ibid., citing Minzu Tuanjie, November 1958, “Quickly Develop the Minority Nationality Areas,” 7.
7. W. Smith, Tibetan Nation, 442, citing “The Rich Frontier Regions Await the Exploration of Our Youth,” Chinese Agriculture and Reclamation, 20 February 1959. The settlers reportedly reclaimed 330,000 mu of land in Tsonub (Haixi) and Tsolho (Hainan).
8. Seymour and Anderson, New Ghosts, Old Ghosts, 131.
9. Ibid., 136.
10. Inspection panel’s report and findings on the Qinghai project, www.wds.world-bank.org. Although the panel’s mandate limited its focus to compliance with the bank’s own policies, the panel pointed out a number of problems with the project design. It found that policies on environmental assessment, resettlement, indigenous peoples, natural habitats, pest management, and information disclosure had been seriously violated.
11. Ruo’ergai Xian zhi, 124.
12. Longworth and Williamson, China’s Pastoral Region, 65.
13. Seymour and Anderson, New Ghosts, Old Ghosts, 131.
14. Ibid., 150–58.
15. The number of camps was reduced by about one third, and by 1998 there were only nineteen large enterprises (factories and farms) in Qinghai that relied primarily on prison labor.
16. Seymour and Anderson, New Ghosts, Old Ghosts, 131.
17. Ibid., 147.
18. Ibid. The grain output of one prison farm alone, the Xiangride Prison Farm in Dulan County, accounted for 13.3 percent of the total grain output of Tsonub in 1989.
19. Ibid., 131.
20. Clarke, “The Movement of Population,” 233.
21. China Daily, 30 December 1999. Estimates are that more than 1,000 people entered Hoh Xil Nature Reserve illegally in 1999. As a result, the reserve was closed to anyone without a permit as of 1 January 2000. Big-game hunters who can afford it, however, may purchase permits to hunt bharal and argali in Qinghai.
22. Ekvall, Fields on the Hoof, 96–97.
23. Dege Xian zhi, 196.
24. Marshall and Cooke, Tibet Outside the TAR, citing China Nationalities Economy 1993, 102.
25. Marshall and Cooke, Tibet Outside the TAR, 1523.
26. Clarke, China’s Reforms of Tibet, and Goldstein and Beall, Nomads of Western Tibet.
27. Zhang, Case Study on Mountain Environmental Management.
28. Miller, Rangelands and Pastoral Production.
29. International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law. Government policy is also cited as the major underlying cause of rangeland degradation by Longworth and Williamson, China’s Pastoral Region, 333.
30. Tibet Information Network, News Update, 20 September 1991.
31. Ibid.
32. China Daily, 24 August 1998, citing Xie Shijie, secretary of the Sichuan Province Chinese Communist Party Committee.
33. Winkler, “Floods, Logging, and Hydro-Electricity.”
34. Ibid.
35. Ganzi Zhou zhi, 207. The highest density of forest is found in Danba (Rongdrak), where 36 percent of the area is forested, and Chaksam (Luding), where forest covers 30 percent of the county.
36. Xinhua News Report, 4 September 1998.
37. The two prefectures together cover an area of 236,570 square kilometers.
38. Winkler, “Floods, Logging, and Hydro-Electricity.”
39. This includes asbestos, iron, magnesium, silica, potash, salt, copper, lead, zinc, gold, rock crystal, natural gas, coal, and petroleum.
40. See especially Wang and Bai, Poverty of Plenty. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the economic backwardness of China’s five western autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet, and Guangxi) and three provinces (Yunnan, Guizhou, and Qinghai).
41. Ibid., 23.
42. Song and Yao, “Resources Exploitation and Conservation of Qaidam Basin under the Principle of Sustainable Development,” unpublished paper, 1998.
43. For those who investigate development projects funded by foreign agencies, it is important to realize that local people are very reluctant to criticize the authorities, particularly to a foreigner. This makes it extremely difficult to obtain accurate information from the beneficiaries of development projects and others who will be affected.
44. Department of Information and International Relations, Tibet.
45. Interviews with county government officials, April 1999.
46. Winkler, “Floods, Logging, and Hydro-Electricity.”
47. Dundrup, Wo de xinyuan, 44–46. The book is a privately published bilingual Chinese- and Tibetan-language publication from Dartsedo, Kandze TAP, Sichuan. It is a compilation of the author’s articles written between 1986 and 1991.
48. Passed by the National People’s Congress in March 2000.
49. People’s Daily, 6 October 2000, “Multinationals Marching into Western China.”
50. The Telegraph, 22 October 2000, “China Planning Nuclear Blasts to Build Giant Hydro Project.”
51. New York Times, 16 October 2000, “China Plans to Divert Rivers to Thirsty North.”
52. People’s Daily, 15 June 2000, “Plan to Recruit Talent for West China Kicked Off.”
53. People’s Government of Dechen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Decree no. 1 (1997).
54. The regulations state that specialized personnel coming from outside the prefecture “shall be given subsidies for living expenses and provided with housing by the benefited units” and that those units that make “great achievements in importing capital, technology, and talents shall be commended and rewarded by the government of the same level.” In addition, 15–30 percent of the increased profits of that year may be given to a unit (company or corporation) or individual from outside the prefecture who aids in improving profits for an enterprise in the prefecture.
55. Nanping County has recently been renamed Jiuzhaigou County.
56. Luding and Kangding had about 3,500 hotel beds and 400 persons professionally involved in tourism, according to information from the prefecture’s tourism department in May 2000. There are five travel agencies in the prefecture, two of which belong to the department. The tourism department is also in charge of environmental protection.
57. Sichuan Sheng Lüyou Guihua Shijisuo, Sichuan Sheng Ganzi Zangzu Zizhizhou lüyou fazhan zongti guihua 2000–2015.
58. From a recent publication, Ganzi TAP Lüyouju Bian, Shengji xiangrui de difang, 12. This publication is one of three small glossy books that the department published about tourism. The authors of these publications are all local officials from Kandze TAP. By May 2000, the office had sixteen employees, only three of whom were from outside the prefecture.
59. Makley, “Gendered Practices,” 61–95.
60. Peng, “Tibetan Pilgrimage,” 184.
61. See Greenwood, “Culture by the Pound,” 171–86, and Swain, “Gender Roles in Indigenous Tourism,” 83–104.
62. On the importance of tourism as an agent of change, see, e.g., V. Smith, “Eskimo Tourism,” 77. This study claims that in the Alaskan Arctic, even mass tourism (introducing four times the total population of a community in three months) has not been a significant agent of cultural change; factors such as land rights, patterns of trade, and government welfare policies have been far more important. For an assessment of marketing culture, see, e.g., Boissevain, “Introduction,” 1–26.
63. Peng, “Tibetan Pilgrimage,” 198.
64. Cingcade, “Tourism and the Many Tibets,” 1–24.
65. Makley, “Gendered Practices,” 61–94.
66. Cingcade, “Tourism and the Many Tibets,” 5.
67. Schein, Minority Rules, 163.
68. Peng, “Tibetan Pilgrimage,” 185.
6 / TIBETAN CULTURE ON THE MARGINS: DESTRUCTION OR RECONSTRUCTION?
1. Information Office of the State Council, Development of Tibetan Culture, 17.
2. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
3. The most famous Tibetan artist is Yadong, who became a national superstar after he won the Chinese MTV prize in 1995. Numerous tapes of Yadong’s songs were available everywhere we went, and our impression is that every young Tibetan we met knew the lyrics of these songs.
4. Makley, “Gendered Practices,” 61–95.
5. However, the DOE publishes its own Tibetan-language textbooks for all school grades. A report issued by the Tibetan government-in-exile further explains that “Tibetan language, history, and culture constitute a major part of the curriculum in all Tibetan schools.” See Rikha, Tibetan Education in Exile.
6. Many language minorities around the world are facing similar problems. There are a variety of dilemmas involved in saving such endangered languages and few easy answers to the enormous challenge such rescue missions represent.
7. See Korom, Constructing Tibetan Culture.
8. Harris, In the Image of Tibet.
9. Ibid. See particularly chapter 6 on “Tibets” in collision.
10. Department of Information and International Relations, Destruction of Tibetan Culture.
11. As previously noted, the majority of monks in Tibetan monasteries in India are new arrivals from Tibet. An important reason for this is that Tibetan exiles prefer to send their children to school, while relatively few choose to join a monastery.