A different angle on the Potala

I’m back in Lhasa again, and I’m ready to leave the TAR. I bought my plane ticket back to Chengdu, where I can extend my visa. Then my tour of Tibet will continue, outside the TAR, which is an artificial Chinese cartographic construction. When the ethnic “autonomous” regions were formed by the Communist government, the boundaries were drawn so the minority people did not form a majority in their regions. So today most of the six million or so Tibetan people in China are actually outside of what is today known as Tibet. They can be found in the surrounding provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Xinjian Autonomous Region.

I plan to travel through remote Western Sichuan to Yunnan, which was once the Tibetan province of Kham. It should be better than Tibet, because the people are freer (Dalai Lama photos are not illegal, for instance), there is less of a police/army presence, and there won’t be visa and permit worries.

So what did I think of the Tibet Autonomous Region? Unfortunately, I could only stay two weeks, but it feels a lot longer, because independent travel is so difficult and uncomfortable. I got to see the major sites, and the highlights were the amazing Potala and the magical Barkhor of Lhasa, Ganden Monastery’s stunning mountain setting, and Shigatse’s impressive Tashilunpo Monastery.

Pilgrim girls

Traveling on public transport, I was limited to the cities and a few major monasteries. I would like to come back some day to get further afield, particularly to the holy Mount Kailash in remote Western Tibet, a two week trip by landcruiser.

I was also limited because I wasn’t fully equipped. Tibet breaks all my rules for traveling light. A sleeping bag, tent, stove, boots, and winter jacket are necessary outside of the cities. Due to the lack of facilities and transport, self-sufficiency is a must.

As nice as the sights I saw were, in general I found the Tibet Autonomous Region to be a depressing place, and not just because everything is brown and grey. Tibet is being thoroughly colonized by the last empire, China. There are more Chinese than Tibetans there, and the cities are all Chinese, with depressing little Tibetan quarters. As much as I like Chinese cities, all the red and gold and neon lights just seem out of place in Tibet.

Then there were the Tibetans themselves. It’s hard to get a feel for these things as a two-week tourist, but they seemed downtrodden, unhappy, and listless. I’m reminded of Alice Springs, Australia, with Aborigines sitting around doing nothing all day. There are a lot of Tibetans sitting around too. The monasteries were sad because they were merely shadows of their former glory, ravaged by the insanity of the Cultural Revolution, with only a few monks under police supervision. And I was amazed by the number of police and soldiers.

Light a candle for Tibet

It must be said, though, that the Chinese have done a lot of good. They have provided roads, electricity, mobile phone networks, and schools (at least in the cities). But it seems like most Chinese progress benefits the Chinese immigrants. There would be no way to know for sure, because all statistics come from the Chinese government, which is infamous for producing bogus data.

I believe progress and modernization are good. But the occupation and colonization of a country are not. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to “free Tibet,” because it’s more Chinese than Tibetan now.