China: Great Dragon Rising - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 332

Figure 11-20
This is the magnificent Potala Palace in Lhasa. Its
13 stories are filled with narrow corridors and more
than 1,000 rooms filled with 200,000 images of
Buddha and an array of T Tantric gods. The odor of
yak butter sculptures and candles permeates every-
thing, and swarms of humanity cluster around the
statues to make offerings and pray . The complex
occupies 5 square miles (13 km 2 ) and stands
425 feet (130 m) above the Lhasa River valley .
Photo courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

In 1959, Tibetan resistance exploded and the Dalai
Lama went into exile in India. Chinese retaliation caused
anywhere from 87,000 to 430,000 deaths. T Torture and
humiliation were ubiquitous. Peasants and nomads,
forced into communes, were made to grow wheat instead
of their traditional barley . T Tens of thousands starved to
death in the famines following the Great Leap Forward.
Tibet was declared a Xizang Autonomous Region of the
People' s Republic of China in 1965.
The Cultural Revolution, led by the Red Guards, dec-
imated Tibet. Thousands were killed or sent to labor
camps. Monasteries and religious artifacts were destroyed.
By 1978, the number of monasteries had plummeted from
2,700 to 8. Holy texts were turned into toilet paper. Only
Mao' s death in 1976 ended this hideous onslaught.
In the 1980s, the Chinese apologized and proceeded
to rebuild monasteries and restore the cultural land-
scape. However, about 130,000 Tibetans lived in exile
and the Dalai Lama, headquartered in Dharamsala, In-
dia, began to seek understanding and aid from abroad.
Support for Tibet' s independence has grown worldwide.
However, in the absence of the Dalai Lama, socialist
transformation had begun in earnest.
China now sees Tibet as a storehouse of natural re-
sources and is determined to sinicize it. Coal, lithium,
uranium, gold, chromium, and tin are only some of the
minerals sought by the Chinese. The Qaidam Basin
(once part of Tibet) is of special interest for oil.
Chinese settlers continue to stream into Tibet, a re-
gion of barely more than 2 million inhabitants. With
travel enhanced by the new rail line (mentioned above)
and an improved road from Kathmandu to Lhasa, this
and other towns are becoming dominated by Han Chi-
nese. Out of some 13,000 shopkeepers in Lhasa, for in-
stance, only 300 are Tibetans.

China is forcing nomads to settle into permanent
houses built especially for them. The government says
that this will enable them to pool their resources and
gain access to education and health care. While nomads
are decrying their lack of choice, officials claim that con-
trolling nomadic movements is essential for keeping “the
upper hand in our struggle with the Dalai clique.”
T Tourism is being promoted, and huge hotels and re-
lated tourist attractions are being built. Much of tradi-
tional Lhasa has disappeared to the typical white tile and
blue glass of Chinese new development. The caretaker
monks of the Potala Palace have been replaced by
Chinese-trained “guides,” and the Drepang (“rice heap”)
monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa, once home to
10,000 monks, now has around 700. Most of the
monastery lies in ruins.
Crackdowns on religion continue. As late as 1997,
the Chinese authorities announced that religion would
have to bow to communism. “Development” has meant
that half of Tibet' s forests have been felled and more than
a quarter of its mineral resources have been extracted
since 1959. A fiber-optic cable has been laid between
Lhasa and Shigatse, and plans are underway for a rail link
with Sichuan.
The year 2008 saw more violence that was triggered
by monks from the Drepang monastery who marched in
peaceful protest against Chinese oppression. Monks
from other monasteries joined the protest and 50 monks
were arrested. The march turned violent as mobs of
Tibetans rioted and burned and looted Chinese busi-
nesses. Hundreds of monks, nuns, and civilians were
arrested and many will be subject to torture that is
widely used in Tibet. Chinese officials claim that these
individuals are “splittists” (separatists) and blame the
Dalai Lama for the uprising. T Tourism has been curtailed