What Do Tibetans Want?

What if someone held a protest and nobody could be there to report it?  And even if they could, what if nobody heard what the protesters were saying? Or if they heard, what if they didn't understand? Or what if the things they were saying got hijacked or drowned out by other people with their own very different concerns? Could such a protest be said to have taken place at all?

In recent weeks news from Tibet has been painfully slow in getting to the outside world. I just today received this information from an English translation of Wozer's Chinese-language blog entry of April 26, 2008:

Two nuns, 32-year-old Lhaga and 30-year-old Sonam Dekyi in Draka Nunnery in Ganzi County in Kham (Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province) were arrested by the police on April 23, when they distributed “Wind-horse” banners with scriptures and leaflets written with such words as ‘Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Tibet is a independent country,” etc, while shouting slogans in the county seat of Ganzi County.

{On the same incident, there is a bit at RFA.  Thanks for the tip from Agam's Gecko. Note how the PSB officer does not verify the story when the journalists phone him. Indeed, he denies it.}

Like much of the more recent information coming out of Tibet, to my knowledge the facts about this event have not been verified. Indeed, verification of news is one of the main obstacles preventing news about Tibet from reaching the newspapers. This was so even last month, when news agencies seeking verification would often desperately search for a phone number, any old phone number, of a hotel or office in the vicinity of the protest. Even then they would often get people unwilling or "not authorized" to say anything.

With all the normal channels of communication, the ones we take so much for granted in the 21st century, closed off by the party in power (a story we heard back in 1987), it makes it all the more crucial to find out what these protests are all about. One way of doing this would be to examine what we can objectively know about what the protesters are saying. And one way we can be clear about their demands in a way that doesn't require much in the way of 2nd-hand verification is to look at what they say on their protest banners, banners like the one in the photo above held by monks marching in Rebkong in Amdo.

Of course there are obstacles, not least of all the fact that most of the protest banners have been written in Tibetan language only, even if the protest took place in Beijing. And in one case at least it's too difficult to read them in the videos & photos we have. Watching the video of the Labrang monks' protest of April 9th, I was frustrated not to be able to get a clear look at the Tibetan words, although I imagined, after freezing frames every second or two, that one cloth banner started with the words "drowa mii tobtang" ('gro-ba mi'i thob-thang), which means 'rights of human beings,' or more simply, 'human rights,' which might suggest that this was the main issue on these monks' minds. I got the clearest glimpse of this banner in this Dutch-language newscast. This shows a 2nd banner, even less legible.  But you can also see the monk saying in very fast and for myself (I'm ashamed to admit) only partially intelligible Amdo language translated into Nederlands in the sub-titling as We hebben geen vrijheid, helemaal geen vrijheid, en ook geen rechten.  We willen dat de Dalai Lama terugkomt."I imagine that may have made perfect sense to you, but I'll try a translation anyway: 'We have no freedom, no freedom at all, and no rights either. We want the Dalai Lama to return.' Clear enough? I think so.

The Rebkong protests were not well covered by the international press, first of all because it seems no tourists were present, or endangered by the events. Sad to say, but I believe this does make a difference to them when deciding what is newsworthy. And besides, as I said before, because the usual journalistic standards for verification have proven difficult to fulfill.

So first, before talking about the banner and its inscription, I'd like to copy a long account of the recent history of demonstrations in Rebkong/Rebgong, based on the same source quoted above, the blog dated April 17:

As early as two months ago, i.e. on the evening of February 11, because the military police disrupted the religious ceremony held by the local monastery in Rebgong (Ch. Tongren) County in Tsolho (Ch. Huangnan) Prefecture, Qinghai Province, it caused great resentment among the local monks and lay people. Thus, they shouted slogans demanding freedom of religious belief and wishing a long life to the Dalai Lama. Consequently, they were dispersed by the local government with tear gas, and they madly arrested over 200 monks and lay people. 

The next day, this prompted several thousand monks and lay people to stage a demonstration at the county seat, demanding the local government to release the monks and lay people who were arrested. Under the pressure, the local government had to release all those who were arrested, but three monks and one old man were severely injured from beating, and had to be sent to the emergency room so as to save their lives. 

Soon afterward, the authorities transferred special police from Xining and Zhengzhou (in the local hotel there are banners on which such words as "Welcome the special police from Zhengzhou to stay at our hotel") to Rebgong. Suppressed by the massive forces, the “Incident of February 11” that happened in Rebgong was temporarily calmed down, but we can say this was the prelude to the series of incidents that happened after March 10 in Lhasa and protests which spread to all Tibetan areas. 

On March 17, all the monks of Rongwu Monastery in Rebgong (Ch. Tongren) County made incense offering at the mountain pass to the west of Rongwu Monastery, reciting in unison prayers for the Dalai Lama. 

Later when the monks were about to go on to protest in the downtown, they were prevented from going by lay people who were crying out loud and pleading with them not to go. Some monks slashed their wrists under great indignation and resentment, and appeared to be very excited. 

At that time, the armed policemen were on high alert. In the end, the monks made several demands to the government via the reincarnated lama of the monastery Sharitsang Rinpoche: the armed policemen cannot patrol around the monastery; dismantle the security cameras installed in the monastery; Buddhist activities such as making incense offering should not be stopped unreasonably. 

The local government agreed to all the demands. However, in the afternoon, the local officials organized work teams to visit Tibetan families, forcing Tibetans to sign their name on the written pledge. They had to pledge not to go on protest etc. 

At the same time, on March 18, police with special duties from Xining were dispatched to Rebgong and the authorities continued their revenge against the protesters. 

On April 15, the authorities again arrested the old man and monks who were injured through beating in the “Incident of February 11” and kept them in custody. Thereafter, some monks and lay people who participated in the protest were arrested one after another. At the same time, they had been keeping a close watch on and controlling the dissidents in the region. This morning (April 17) some monks from Rongwu Monastery went to inquire about the conditions of monks and lay people who are imprisoned by the authorities, the local government ignored them, and did not give any answers to them. 

On their way back to the monastery, these monks were surrounded and blocked by the military police. First they arrested 20 monks on the spot. The common people pleaded with the police and attempted to prevent them from taking action; soon quite a great number of these lay people were also arrested and taken away. This incident happened around noon. 

According to a local person, at that time about 100 monks and lay people, who filled four military trucks, were arrested. Among them there was a reincarnated lama known by his Dharma name Khaso,* who is a well respected 60-year lama. He was also arrested when he was trying to mediate. Throughout the incident, none of the monks or lay people resisted, they were just expressing their wishes and appealing. 

In the afternoon, the authorities dispatched a great number of military police to rush to Rebgong from Xining. It is said that, in reality, they are infantry soldiers who changed into military police uniform and changed their plate numbers as well. Meanwhile, a great number of fully armed military police charged into Rongwu Monastery, carrying batons and machine guns. They searched all the living quarters of the monks, confiscating all the photos of the Dalai Lama and all the DVDs concerning the Dalai Lama. Many monks were arrested and taken away from the monastery. The local people said that 80% of the monks in Rongwu Monastery** were arrested, and altogether at least 200 monks and lay people were arrested. 

At present the monastery is rather empty. There are only a few old monks left in the monastery, but even they are not allowed to leave the monastery. The local people’s morale is rather low, and they are sad and indignant. Even those Tibetans who are incorporated into the Chinese system are very dissatisfied. Everyone feels insecure, and the atmosphere is rather tense."

{*For more about this respected religious teacher, 80-year-old (!!) Alak Khasutsang, along with a photograph, look here. I've already placed him in my short list of heroes (and by 'heroes' I do not mean martyrs) for his willingness to put himself in harm's way in order to negotiate peace. (And Yes, this list most definitely includes Grace Wang or rather Wang Qianyuan, a young woman who deserves to be the pride of Chinese people everywhere, and I'm confident she will be in the near future.) While you are there, take note of the protest banners at the top of the page. The one on your left is the same one depicted above, just in a different photograph of the same event. **If you would like to know about the history of Rongwo Monastery, see the book by Gruschke listed below.}

According to the source of the photo, it was taken during the demonstrations of March 17. You will notice that the faces have been 'fuzzed' to prevent recognition. This is sadly necessary since they might well be used as evidence in a country that recognizes no such thing as a legal demonstration (the only exception, in actual practice, being when it seems China's national pride has been slighted; and of course Hong Kong is also an exception for the time being ...).

Let's have a look at the wording which, as might be expected in a banner, is crisply and concisely worded. In direct letter-for-letter transcription (transliteration) according to the Wylie system, which is practically the standard system, it reads like this: 

gong sa gdan zhu /

rang dbang rtsol len /

You could roughly pronounce this in a central Tibetan dialect (of course these Amdo monks would read it with a different pronunciation) as:

kongsa dänshu /

rangwang tsöl len /

We'll analyze this word-for-word using the phonetic version. Kongsa means 'High Earth' or 'Lofty Level' [Level of Buddhist spiritual attainment, called Bhumis in Sanskrit].

I guess it's fairly well known that Tibetans rarely refer to His Holiness as "the Dalai Lama." It has become the accepted international norm, so when Tibetans speak in English, they will certainly do so as well. There are certain frequently-used ways to speak of His Holiness in Tibetan, of which Kongsa is only one. Others are Kündün (sku-mdun), "the Presence"; Kyabgön (skyab-mgon), "Lord who Protects" or "Lord who Provides Refuge"; Gyelwa Rinpoché (rgyal-ba rin-po-che), "Precious Victor" ['Victor,' Sanskrit Jina, is usually used for the Buddha'], and Yishin Norbu (yid-bzhin-nor-bu), "Wish-granting Jewel."

Dänshu, being a very polite term (what is sometimes called 'honorifics') literally means "to request to take [His] seat," and often means 'invitation' or, understood as it must be here as a verbal form, 'to invite.'  Some might have preferred to see a 'high honorific' used here, but I think that doesn't matter much (Amdowas are not famous for their use of honorifics to begin with). It isn't especially clear what the tense of the verb ought to be, although I assume it is or was meant to be imperative (or a future used as a kind of subjunctive). So I read this first line to mean "Invite the Dalai Lama!" although I suppose it could just as well be rendered, "We invite the Dalai Lama!" or "The Dalai Lama ought to be invited."

Rangwang, as you know from the latest Tibeto-logic blog, means 'independence.' In its literal syllable-by-syllable meaning, it could be awkwardly translated as 'own power' (being under one's own power rather than under that of another).

Tsöl, means to work hard for something, to strive or to seek.

Len means to take.

So I would translate the second line as "Seek [and] take independence!"

I hope you not only learned a little Tibetan today, if you haven't already, but that you would also have a little clearer idea about what at least one group of Tibetan protesters say they want, inscribed in very large and clear black letters drawn on white cloth for all to see. And if you have any clarifications to offer, I'd especially welcome the comments of Tibetans.  Amdowas all the more so.

Read more, see more, hear more, feel more, think more, predict more:

Cao Changching, Independence: The Tibetan People's Right, Chinese Studies in History, vol. 30, no. 3 (Spring 1997), pp. 8-28.

Cao Changching & James D. Seymour, eds., Tibet through Dissident Chinese Eyes: Essays on Self-Determination, M.E. Sharpe (London 1998).

Dru C. Gladney, Internal Colonialism and the Uyghur Nationality: Chinese Nationalism and Its Subaltern Subjects.  Available here.  Note especially the quote from a 1995 interview with Liu Binyan, a former Xinhua journalist who became a dissident and moved to the U.S.  He said,

Nationalism and Han chauvinism are now the only effective instruments in the ideological arsenal of the CCP.  Any disruption in the relationship with foreign countries or among ethnic minorities can be used to stir 'patriotic' sentiments of the people to support the communist authorities.  

We can certainly read the truth of these words in the newspapers today.

Andreas Gruschke, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Amdo, Volume 1, the Qinghai Part of Amdo, White Lotus (Bangkok 2001), pp. 51-54, on Rongwo/Rongwu (Rong-bo) Monastery's history, with remarkable color photographs on pp. 139-142.

Thomas Heberer, Old Tibet a Hell on Earth? The Myth of Tibet and Tibetans in Chinese Art and Propaganda, contained in: Thierry Dodin & Heinz Räther, eds., Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies, Wisdom (Boston 2001), pp. 111-150.  An earlier German-language version is available with the title Das alte Tibet war eine Hölle auf Erden. Mythos Tibet in der chinesischen Kunst und Propaganda, contained in Thierry Dodin & Heinz Räther, eds., Mythos Tibet, DuMont (Cologne 1997), pp. 114-149.  In recent days the author, a well known Sinologist, has written against demonizing China; see this for example, which contains these words:

"In the eyes of Europe and North America, Tibet has long been something very special and mystical. Tibet is considered an exotic entity, which is idealized. A book published a few years ago described this phenomenon as the so-called 'myth of Tibet'," said Heberer.

Interesting to notice that he refers to the same book, Mythos Tibet, that contains his article about how Chinese idealize and exoticize Tibetans.  (It is entirely possible that his statement is misrepresented.  This is old news, but the PRC news-release agency always only makes use of the bits it knows to be politically acceptable.)

Jamyang Norbu, From Tibet the Cry is for Rangzen, contained in: Edward Lazar, ed., Tibet: The Issue Is Independence, Parallax Press (Berkeley 1994), pp. 75-78.  This has been republished recently in the author's new book, Shadow Tibet.

Elliot Sperling, The Rhetoric of Dissent: Tibetan Pamphleteers, contained in: Robert Barnett & Shirin Akiner, Resistance and Reform in Tibet, Hurst (London 1994), pp. 267-284.

Wu Naitao, Independence of Tibet: Untenable and Futile, Beijing Review, vol. 27, no. 25 (June 18, 1984), pp. 20-21.

If you would like a fast review of the events in Tibet during the Ides of March and events leading up to them, I think one of the more reasonable and factual (certainly more intelligible) accounts is this one.

A collection of some of the most disturbing and dramatic photographs from the Tibet protests between March 14th and March 17th may be found at the webpage of Citizen Journalism Report. But be warned that the first pictures are extremely difficult for beings who are at all human to look upon without extreme pain.  Very honestly, I recommend preparing your mind as far as possible before tapping on this link.  Be aware you will be seeing some bullet-ridden corpses (Tibetan corpses that the PRC press denies ever existed).  And you may rest assured that sufferings of Chinese shop owners in Lhasa are also well represented here. And if you look carefully, you will locate a very fine AP photo of the Rongwu monks' defiant act of incense burning on March 16th. At the same time, you should be aware that a few of the photos are mislabeled, including the one with the following label:

In this image made from video and provided by APTN, a protestor speaks with authorities, Friday, March 14, 2008, in Lhasa, Tibet. Police fired tear gas to disperse Buddhist monks and others staging a second day of protests Saturday in western China in sympathy with anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa, local residents said. (AP Photo/APTN)

This and the photo that follows it were both taken in Nepal (in Kathmandu most probably), not in Lhasa.  (For more examples, see anti-CNN.com; they got this part right, the fact that news agencies got confused about what took place where.  I'd give the link, but everybody in the universe has had a look at it already.)

I feel I benefitted from listening to this hour-long audio program at Tibet Connection with its very interesting comments by Dr. John Powers of Australian National University, among others.

For more on what is going on inside Tibet, have a look at the latest news in Agam's Gecko.

I'd also like to recommend Donald S. Lopez Jr., How to Think about Tibet, published on March 31, 2008, and available online at the OpenDemocracy website.  Dr. Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, makes connections between Tibet and Latvia that certainly never occurred to me.  While you're there, have a look at the piece by Gabriel Lafitte, published on March 18, 2008: Tibet: Revolt with Memories.

The incense burning of March 16, 2008 (or was it March 17?) on a hill above Rongwu Monastery (AP Photo/Cara Anna).  Another photo here.

Update of April 28 on conditions at Rongwu Monastery (from Wuzer's new blog):

It is reported that since April 21 the work team consisting of over 50 cadres carried out the “Patriotic Education Campaign” in Rongwu Monastery in Rebkong County (Ch. Tongren) in Amdo. The monks were required to criticize the Dalai Lama, and those who disobeyed were struck with batons. At present, Rongwu Monastery is controlled by a thousand military police, and monks are not allowed to enter or leave the monastery. There are about 400 or 500 monks left in the monastery, among whom over 160 were injured and over 300 are still in custody.

Hearing Disabilities?

Not at all in an April Fools mood, I was doing a little bouncing about in the blogosphere this morning trying to land outside my accustomed blogspots. In recent days there have been a couple of what can only be described as pro-Chinese patriotic anti-Tibetan anti-press demonstrations (although they had to be called "concerts" since they evidently couldn't get demonstration permits in time) in Toronto and Vancouver. There would clearly seem to be an official plan to promote more of these kinds of events in countries along the Olympic torch route. So I started there, with the stories about the patriotic-nationalistic Chinese demos of present and future.  (I assume everyone remembers the patriotic-nationalistic anti-Japanese fury in the PRC a few years back.  Keep it in mind.  It could help our understanding today.)

As a historically oriented researcher, but one with what will seem to some to be scattered objects of interest, I have to confess I have a rather idealistic picture of what a *full* history would look like if one could only be accomplished. It would in the beginning at least resemble the title of Naipaul's famous book on India: a million mutinies daily, a million surrenders to rules and authorities daily, and a million frustrations daily (on a better day I might add, a million triumphs daily).  In short, it would be about what everyone was doing, thinking (I told you I was speaking ideally!) and saying at some particular point in time. 

The philosopher of history Wilhelm Dilthey had the idea that the historical moment is the historian's main anchor, and if you were to plant yourself in that moment and look around yourself the pieces of the puzzle would eventually fall together in your mind (and, I want to add, not just go to serve the interests of a particular sub-discipline of history, like psycho-history, social history, economic history or some doctrinaire theoretical approach to the same). 

If we could only catch the full extent and texture of the woven fabric that makes up our human world as it plays itself out in space and time. If we could only hear all the voices clearly. What an amazing picture it would be. (And if you think voices can't be woven into pictures you just weren't at the same Mozart concert I was last Friday.)

In the last two weeks I've made it one of my themes to criticize news media both east and west for leaving out of the picture Tibetans as active and thinking agents (people ready to think and act on their own, in concert with their next door neighbors), and to encourage Tibet experts to join the public discourse to help out on that point.  Thanks to a potent combination of press restrictions and speech restrictions, the voices of Tibetans inside Tibet are rarely heard out in the world. But due to the same PRC press and speech restrictions, the public in the PRC has never heard Tibetans express their actual thoughts. Periodically the accumulated resentments break out publicly, as they did in a very big way last month, and Tibetans do say what is on their minds for a brief time before getting silenced through arrests, intimidation and 'patriotic [re-]education.' Tibetans know they are risking everything - life, family, livelihood - and of course therefore naturally hesitate several times before speaking out, in that sense resembling just about everyone else in what is still, for some reason that has to do with rhetoric conservation, called the People's Republic.

So you can imagine my dismay when New York Times blogger Nicholas D. Kristof, in a blog entitled "Calling China," invited Chinese to send in their views on the Tibet situation. My immediate reaction, was Oh great, just what is needed right now, still more illusions of insight into the culture of oppression. But I caught myself in the middle of that thought and started thinking overtime.

As much as I want the world to hear what is really on the minds of Tibetans in the TAR and elsewhere in the PRC, and as much as I'm concerned that their concerns not just become political footballs for this or that extraneous cultural-political purpose, I'm also concerned about the Chinese people. What are they thinking? Are they speaking freely in any particular degree? Are we getting an accurate sense of the PRC Chinese street? 

And if in fact there is much popular (and not just populist) anger at the foreign media, some of it is justified. I've seen the news reports that confused demonstrations in Lhasa with demonstrations in Nepal and India. I've been to those places. I do know which is which. I noticed right away.  But where angry patriots see deliberate distortion by the news media, I see simple ignorance and carelessness. News staff that simply doesn't know the difference and probably didn't care until it was brought to their attention. I've heard about the German press apologies, but did the other guilty news agencies apologize or at least admit some of their news people made mistakes?  (Well, have a look here for what I think is at least a reasonable response.)

And of course there does seem to be real popular feeling among Chinese people everywhere (and not just in the PRC) that the foreign press reports have shown a callous disregard for the injuries to person and property, the beatings and burnings to death, of Chinese people in Lhasa. I would just like to ask the Tibet supporters what might seem a provocative question coming as it does from another Tibet supporter. Does it make sense for the short or long term goals of Tibetans to make a billion Chinese angry at you and at them? 

When you unfurl your smuggled-in banners in Beijing, it should be only the police, acting under government orders, that pounce on you and drag you away, and not a billion people. Can you let up on the enemy concept and the polarizing rhetoric for a moment? Can you spare an iota of empathy for Chinese shopkeepers that might have burned to death in their own shops?  Are you claiming that nothing like that happened?

On that note, I'd like to invite you to leave Tibeto-logic, not logic, behind and go read something else. I'm sending you to a blog called Chinese in Vancouver, a blog entry entitled "The Voices of Han Chinese in Lhasa."  If you want to talk about it you can add your comment there, or come back and we'll talk about it here. I'd be especially interested to hear what the Tibet supporters, and of course Tibetans, have to say. The people who are most concerned about the future of Tibetans (as they carry the most admirable of their old traditions into the changed circumstances in which we all are living) will come up with some new thinking about how we ought to best move forward in our efforts to be helpful without inadvertently being harmful, or so I'm hoping. I was thinking that this new thinking ought to come from you, since I'm just sitting here wondering out loud with nothing of use to say and nobody here to listen.

Postscript, April 3:  This story just put up on BBC website, with the title "The Challenges of Reporting in China." Worthwhile to read if you are interested in the discussions about international press coverage of the continuing Tibet situation.*  

(*The Tibet situation has been and is continuing, and will continue whether the press decides to, or is able to, cover it or not.  So don't you Beijing press-people think any amount of TFS can justify your bouts of attention deficiency.  Just get over it, guys.  It's all in your head.  Even the more obvious symptoms.)

Now Begins the Silence?

Like you, I've been following the news from Tibet with a very heavy heart, with much anxiety. Of course I'm mainly disturbed by the unfolding events, but another part of the reason for my distress is seeing the press distortions. The "spin" as it's called. It is supremely disheartening to see the reports that deny ordinary Tibetan people any local agency, the ones that refuse to see how people power can rise up and move mountains. That's right. Our minds are not in the control of those purportedly ruling over us, even when governments may attempt to limit our powers of expression. This is something we all know. Sometimes we need reminding.

I've been too busy following what people are writing (not to mention the photos and videos) that I haven't had a chance to write much of anything myself.

I never thought of Tibeto-logic as a current news site or an editorial page. It's supposed to be about human culture and its history, not politics.  Not really.

But today I'd like to steer you toward reading what I believe is a very significant story that you may have otherwise overlooked.  In most recent news we hear of huge convoys of elite paramilitary (probably PLA) troops headed for the Tibetan plateau.  Now it's been reported that the last two remaining foreign journalists have been forcibly evicted from Tibetan inhabited territories.

A story I just read helps explain why we may not be getting much news in coming days that has much to do with what is actually going on.  Or most of the stories will be about the lack of reliable information, about the frustration of the news people.

Read it, weep, and understand something about the nature of repression in a country that lacks several basic human freedoms, fair trials, freedom of expression, the ability to receive accurate information. Weep for Tibetans. Weep for Chinese. I'm thinking today would be a good day to curse the whole damned world we live in, perhaps curse ourselves for quite apparently wasting our feeble lives in unsuccessful efforts to make it better, more truth-full, more just, more equitable, more compassionate. Weep for us all. Just don't waste any more time weeping for yourself and your own personal concerns.

Authorities obstruct foreign journalists, step up controls and propaganda in Tibet

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the methods being used by the Chinese authorities to obstruct foreign journalists trying to cover the situation in the Tibetan regions, and calls for the immediate and unconditional return of the foreign press to Tibet and to nearby provinces with a sizable Tibetan population.

Please do not hesitate to go to the full story by pressing firmly on this word.