Tourism is changing Ladakh: It’s a boon, but it also creates new crises

My article Tourism is changing Ladakh: It’s a boon, but it also creates new crises appeared in Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle

Here is the link...

Scholars do not agree on the etymology of the word Ladakh. For some, it is the 'Land of the Passes' (la); for others, it is the 'Land of the Lamas.' Whatever the correct interpretation, it is, for both reasons, certainly one of the most stunning places on earth.
Visiting Leh last week, I had the opportunity to experience once again the celebrated peace of the place and the hospitality of the Ladakhis.
The region has however completely changed since my first visit in 2002: along with the majestic gompas (monasteries), you can now see a myriad of cement shops symbolizing daily faster development; all due to the craze of the Indian and foreign tourists for the mountainous region.
Though the Kashmir valley constantly draws the attention of the world media and the chancelleries in Delhi, it is geographically a very small portion of the state and Ladakh is far more strategic for the nation, with two unfriendly neighbours on its borders.
At the time of Kashmir's accession to India in October 1947, political and economic power was offered to Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference government in Srinagar despite the fact that Ladakh covered 70 per cent of the area of J&K under India's administration. Dominated for the past 70 years by the successive Srinagar governments, Leh has for decades been deprived of any say on its own development. It is finally slowly changing.
Soon after Independence, when the Pakistani hordes’ motto was: 'Let us liberate our Muslim brothers from the yoke of the Hindus’, Ladakh seemed at first safe. It was without taking into account the infinite greed of the new Pakistani leaders. According to their 'two nations' theory, Muslim dominated areas of the subcontinent were to become part of Pakistan and the Hindus, Sikhs and others were to remain with India. But the theory was thrown to the winda when Karachi decided to also liberate their Buddhist ‘brothers’ in Ladakh, not for ideological reasons, but for the treasures of the Buddhist gompas which became a lure for a finance-starved Pakistan.
It is then that two young Buddhist officers from Lahaul, Captains Kushal Chand and his cousin, Prithvi Chand offered their services to the nation to stop the raiders; the duo managed the incredible feat of crossing on foot in winter the snow-bond Zoji-la between Kashmir and Ladakh; they were accompanied by a small caravan of men and mules carrying arms and ammunitions. Though Buddhists and believers in ahimsa, they risked their lives to save Ladakh. Without the knowledge of Army Headquarters - which would have been reluctant to permit such a risky operation - the young captains crossed the pass and reached safely Leh to prepare a surprise for the raiders.
They fought the weather, the altitude and the hordes of invaders to defend their co-religionists, both were awarded the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC), the second-highest decoration in war time.
The Lahaulis’ was first of a long saga of daring acts by young officers who, since then, have bravely defended Indian territory.
It is worth visiting the Hall of Fame, near the Leh airport where their exploits, as well as those of other local heroes, are depicted.
 One should mention Col Chewang Rinchen, who was twice awarded MVC - first for having stopped the advance of raiders in the Nubra Valley in June 1948 and the second for the bravery he displayed in the Turtuk sector in December 1971.
More recently, Major (later Colonel) Sonam Wangchuk (another Buddhist soldier to be awarded the MVC) and his Ladakh Scouts recaptured some of the crucial peaks occupied by Pakistan during the Kargil war in 1999. One still has the image of Wangchuk, praying to the Dalai Lama, the incarnated Bodhisattva of Compassion, to give him the strength to save India, his nation.
Immediately after J&K Accession to India, Ladakhis took the stand that their future was linked with India, though culturally, racially and linguistically they were closer to Tibet.
In May 1949, the first delegation of the Young Men's Buddhist Association of Ladakh led by Kalon Chhewang Rigzin met Nehru in Delhi and presented him a memorandum: “We seek the bosom of that gracious Mother India to receive more nutriment for growth to our full stature in every way. She has given us what we prize above all things - our religion and culture.”
Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, the head Lama of Ladakh and long-time minister in Srinagar was another one who, as early as in the 1950s, defended the rights of the Ladakhis. Bakula never chose the path of confrontation; he always tried to get a greater autonomy by working with the system. As his method did not fully succeed, faced with Delhi's decades-long apathy and the 'larger issue of Kashmir', in 1989, the Ladakhis had no alternative but to resort to an agitation, a concept alien to Buddhism. A greater autonomy and closer links with India were not granted till the Ladakh Buddhist Association organised a non-violent movement; after many frustrating decades, Ladakh was finally offered an Autonomous Hill Development Council as a compromise in 1995. Though the chairman and his executives councilors (ministers) have vast executive powers on paper, they often face a frustrating situation with Srinagar.
But Ladakh is changing. Today Tourism is a boon …and a bane.
Last year more than three lakh tourists literarily descended on Leh, providing employment, but also creating the first water crisis of the region. While the population is far better-off economically, environment is clearly in peril. How to sort out the dilemma?
Sonam Wangchuk, a Magsaysay awardee and the inspiration for one of the characters of Aamir Khan’s movies, The Three Idiots, believes that the solution is changing the pattern of tourism in space and time; he advocates bringing tourism to the villages (space) and the all-year long (time).
It may work for a time, though there is no easy solution, whether it is in Ladakh, Uttarakhand or Himachal Pradesh, mass tourism has too many negative aspects.
Ladakh has an advantage over other regions, it has a more responsive administration, i.e. the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council and with the Division status recently granted by the Central Government, the region should get a better capacity to solve such problems.
On the strategic side, though the Fire and Fury Corps of the Indian Army is watching, the enemy is still at the border.
The opening of a new landport for trade with China at Demchok or Dumchele could be an important confidence building measure with China; hopefully, it will be discussed during President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in October?
If the political leadership decides so, Demchok or Dumchele could also become a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) where the Indian and Chinese armies meet. It would be the third one in Ladakh.
The opening of a new landport with China would boost the village economy, and satisfy the local population …and one day, one can dream of a new route (without crossing a single pass) to Mt Kailash. It would then become the fastest and easiest access to the holy mountain.
In the meantime, Ladakh needs to control its too-fast development.

Good life in the smallest Tibetan village?

China Tibet News yesterday reported about the "Villagers’ good life in Yulmed".
Yulmed is Yume, the small village adopted by Emperor Xi, north of Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh,
This village has often been mentioned on this blog.
It was said to be the smallest village in Tibet.
According to yesterday's article, it is still "China’s smallest township, located in the foothills of the Himalayas near the border of China and India," but, Oh Miracle, the population has grown from 32 inhabitants to 197.
How? The Chinese media does not explain this detail.
The article just affirms that Yume, located about 200 kilometers from the county seat of Luntse (which incidentally will soon have an airport) is 'happy': "with the development of economy and the improvement of environment of Yume Township [yes, it has become a township!!], it has built numerous new houses for local villagers."
Villagers and obviously outsiders.
It was said that later this month, "197 villagers of the township will be moved into their new houses, and their living environment will be greatly improved."
What does it mean?
There is a definitive plan to repopulate the borders with India by creating new model 'townships'.
This should be a serious issue for Delhi.
Some two years ago, long before anybody had heard of the hamlet, Wu Yingjie the Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region,  had visited the area.
Probably based on his report, Chairman Xi adopted the tiny village.
For India, whether the villagers have a good life or not, is not the question; this new development is bound to put pressure on the border, at a time, when Indian villagers are migrating in large number from the border areas toward the cities (in Uttarakhand for example, it is an extremely serious issue).
Why can't India open its border villages to eco-tourism?

China's 'Tibet recipe' in Xinjiang should put India on alert

Chen Quanguo leaves Tibet to apply his recipe in Xinjiang

My article China's 'Tibet recipe' in Xinjiang should put India on alert appeared in Mail Today.

Here is the link...

The stability of the Muslim region is vital for Beijing and its gigantic BRI project. At the end of August 2016, Wu Yingjie takes over as party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) from Chen Quanguo who is sent to "pacify" the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party has taken this crucial decision during the annual closed-door meeting in the summer resort of Beidahe. Chen replaces Zhang Chunxian as XUAR party secretary.
It is indeed a promotion for Chen, given the fact that Xinjiang's party secretaries often serve in the politburo. Infrastructure His selection is linked to the "Tibet Recipe", the way Chen managed to "pacify" the TAR.
Once in Urumqi, Chen immediately started applying the formula that he used in Tibet to Xinjiang. But what is this recipe?
First, Chen transformed the Roof of the World into a vast Disneyland. In 2006, the arrival of the train on the plateau changed everything for Beijing and unfortunately for the Tibetans.
Wave after wave of Chinese tourists could be poured into Tibet to experience the "Paradise on Earth" with its blue sky, pristine lakes and rivers, its luxuriant forests and deep canyons (the latter in Southern Tibet).
In 2016, 25 million tourists, mainly from the Mainland, are said to have visited the Land of Snows. For this, infrastructure needed to be developed, airports opened, four-way highways constructed, hotels and entertainment parks built; this was done in Tibet on a war-footing.
Wave after wave of Chinese tourists poured into Tibet. In passing, the Tibetan intangible heritage had to be preserved, often with Chinese characteristics. The same formula has now to be replicated in Xinjiang. Second, in order to "stabilise" the plateau, Chen imposed restrictions on the local population like never before.
Similar policies will be used in Xinjiang. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an organisation based in the US, just released a "glossary" of special slogans or "formulations" (tifa) used by the Chinese officials and the media when referring to party policies on the plateau.
HRW explains: “China’s authorities place extraordinary emphasis on the importance of ‘propaganda’ in sustaining their rule. This phenomenon is particularly evident in Tibet, where there has been a long history of human rights violations, extreme hostility towards political rights, and heavy restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”
"Poetic" tifas such as Social Management, Comprehensive Rectification, Preventive Control, Eliminate-Unseen-Threats, Nets-in-the-Sky-Traps-on-the-Ground or Copper-Ramparts-Iron Walls, are recurrently used.
The latter one for example, translates into “an impenetrable public security defense network consisting of citizen patrols, border security posts, police checkposts, surveillance systems, internet controls, identity card monitoring, travel restrictions, informant networks, and other mechanisms.”
The implementation of these tifas, which originated during Chen’s tenure in Tibet, is often dreadful... but efficient for Beijing.

Rights 
Chen has taken these tifas with him to Xinjiang and started making good use of them. The "stability" of the Western province is vital for China, as it is the geographical hub for the Belt and Road Initiative: it will connect the New Silk Road (Central Asia) to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Chen now plans to bring millions of tourists to Xinjiang in order to "dilute" the Uyghur characteristics. In a "White Paper on Xinjiang" recently published by Beijing, the Communist Party hides its failure by saying: “Legitimate rights of religious organisations have been effectively safeguarded. Xinjiang has published translations of the religious classics of Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity in multiple languages,” adding 1.76 million copies of the Quran have been printed and distributed. But on the ground the situation is different.
To take just one example, Beijing has decided to collect DNA samples from all Xinjiang’s residents. This week, Xinhua reported China's decision to dispatch 10,000 teachers to the restive XUAR and TAR “to support local education could help solve the educational problems.” Stability Beijing says that the main problem is the lack of eligible bilingual teachers in the regions, but will the teachers from the mainland teach the Turkish language of the Uyghurs or Mandarin? Not difficult to guess. Language, in Tibet or Xinjiang, is an instrument of assimilation.

Infrastructure
Chen is also working hard to improve the infrastructure. Last week, Xinhua announced the construction of 10 new airports to be built in Xinjiang by 2020; further, six older airports will be renovated and expanded. It has implications for India.
One of these airports will be built in Yutian (also known as Keriya), a county of Hotan Prefecture not far from the disputed Aksai Chin. Located south of the Taklimakan desert and north of the Kunlun range, Keriya has always been a major stopover on the ancient Silk Road. In view of the proximity of the Indian border, it makes sense for China to have a new "civil" airport at Keriya, considering that there is no such thing as a "civil" airport in China, especially so close to the Indian border. Keriya airport is designed to annually handle 1,80,000 passengers and 400 tons of cargo; it will have a 3,200-meter runway, a 3,000-square-meter terminal building and cost 104 million US dollars, says Xinhua. There is no doubt that Chen has been mandated to apply the "Tibet Recipe" in Xinjiang.
Will he succeed is another question.
It is however certain that the stability of the Muslim region is vital for the Middle Kingdom and its gigantic BRI "linking" project; India needs to watch and be prepared.

What India can learn from Bali

My article What India can learn from Bali appeared in Mail Today.

Since my teenage years, Bali was a dream. I remember turning again and gain the pages of tiny photo book by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famed French photographer and founder of Magnum Agency. The book titled ‘Les Danses à Bali’ (‘Dances in Bali’) was published soon after the photographer’s visit to the Island in 1949. With his exquisite art of catching expressions, Cartier-Bresson depicted the dancing schools of the island which enact some of the powerful scenes of the Ramayana, mostly portrayed by young tiny Balinese girls.
More than 65 years later, many things have changed on the island, but the peaceful spiritual atmosphere caught by the lens of Cartier-Bresson’s Leica remains … with a difference, the hundreds of thousands of tourists.

From Cartier-Bresson (1949)

I could myself witness these changes during a recent visit to the ‘paradise’ island of Indonesia.

The first ‘incredible’ experience is the arrival at Denpasar International Airport. Walking towards the Immigration’s counters, I could see hundreds of visitors of different nationalities, Westerners, but also Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese …and a few Indians, queuing for a visa. I thought to myself, “Oh no, it may take at least 2 hours before we get out of the airport.” It was a first pleasant surprise, less than 20 minutes later, we were through. Being used to the Indian system (which has improved in recent years), I could not believe the speed with which the immigration officers were issuing visas-on-arrival. They just scan your passport, stamped and that is it.
I recalled the cumbersome Inner Line Permit still in force in many States of India’s North-East. Why can’t the Government of India introduce such a system in India when visitors want to enter Arunachal Pradesh or Nagaland? The babus of India are unfortunately unable to understand simplicity and efficiency; their system has to be complicated so that they are able to keep some ‘control’.
It is not that Bali has not faced security issues. On October 12, 2002, 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians) were killed in a suicide bomb attack. Another attack occurred three years later, killing four foreigners.
But while ‘security’ is taken care of, the visitors are welcomed with a smile and a thunderous ‘How are you, Sir/Mam”. India has certainly a lot to learn.

India’s North-East
A comparison with the North-East is interesting; like the Balinese, its inhabitants are fun-loving and smiling, they speak good English and are rather ‘relaxed’, further they are great hosts.
The Seven (or Eight) sisters could become the hub of domestic tourism if ‘Delhi’ could understand the potential of tourism for the economy and the integration of the North-East.
One evening, watching the Ramayana enacted by a large group of Balinese dancers and a choir ‘in trance’, I noticed how the Island has become cosmopolitan while still being anchored deeply in its Hindu tradition. Was the way the main characters of the epic perform their roles now different from the one witnessed by Cartier-Bresson in 1949? Probably not.
Sitting there, I was fascinated by the haunting chants of the choir, the battle between Good and Evil, with Sita prisoner of the evil Ravana and the Great Hanuman jumping through and interacting with the crowd, to the amusement of all. Perhaps even more interesting, I happened to be surrounded by vociferous Muslim ladies from Malaysia, fully participating in the high drama on the stage.
It was probably the magic of Hinduism to bring together such a motley crowd, vibrating in unison.

The Political Aspect
Another interesting aspect linked with the islands’ present situation is the arrival of waves of Chinese visitors, linked with the much-talked about One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative of President Xi Jinping.
Indonesia would like to participate in the ambitious Dream by attracting 10 million tourists from China by 2019. The latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show that 1.43 million Chinese tourists visited Bali in 2016, representing a 25 percent annual increase over the previous year. The 10 million benchmark may be difficult to achieve for the Indonesian tourist industry, moreover, a survey recently revealed that the typical Chinese tourist to Bali spends only one quarter of what is spent by their European and Australian counterparts.
While for Indonesia tourism is a source of hefty revenue, for China, it means a presence in South-East Asia.

Tourism an economic weapon
The Agence France Press (AFP) recently spoke of China's new weapon in the economic war, i.e. tourism, explaining: “Slapping import bans on products like mangoes, coal and salmon has long been China's way of punishing countries that refuse to toe its political line. But Beijing has shown that it can also hurt others by cutting a lucrative Chinese export, tourism.”
The article quotes the example of South Korea over a US anti-missile shield and the ban on Chinese tour groups from visiting Korea. Similarly, tourism to Taiwan has also fallen sharply as relations across the strait worsened.
Countries submitting to China's demands are rewarded and those who do not ‘behave’ are punished.
Closer to us, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn earlier this month published the ‘hidden’ report on CPEC. One of the chapters speaks about the development of a ‘coastal tourism’ industry; a long belt of coastal enjoyment industry that includes yacht wharfs, cruise homeports, nightlife, city parks, public squares, theaters, golf courses and spas, hot spring hotels and water sports. The report adds: “for the development of coastal vacation products, Islamic culture, historical culture, folk culture and marine culture shall all be integrated.” Many see this as a new form of colonization; though thus is far from being the case in Bali as yet.
The point remains that India has still a lot to learn from the Island in terms of ‘hospitality’ …and cleanliness.

 

Mr Chen's recipe: tourism in Xinjiang

Repression before Tourism

At the end of August 2016, Wu Yingjie took over as Party Secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) from Chen Quanguo who was sent to ‘pacify’ Xinjiang.
The decision had been taken during the annual closed-door meeting at Beidahe.
An official statement released had then announced that Zhang Chunxian would be replaced by Chen Quanguo as secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
This was indeed a promotion for Chen, given the fact that Xinjiang's Party Secretaries often serve in the Politburo (though Chen will have to wait until the 19th Party Congress later this year to find out if he has made it).
In the meantime, Chen has to deliver the goods.
A question on everybody’s lips: will Chen apply the same recipe to pacify the restive Muslim Dominion than he used in Tibet.
Six months after his appointment, it looks like Chen is ready to use ‘tourism’ as a weapon of mass destruction to eliminate the resentment of the Uyghur population against the Central Government in Beijing.

Large Scale Training
Last week, Xinhua announced that the XUAR will train 1.2 million rural residents by 2020 as part of a new wave of infrastructure spending.
Why so much infrastructure?
Let us not forget that all infrastructure developments in China have a dual use, military and civilian.
The civilian part is usually linked to tourism (at least it is so in Tibet).
According to The Global Times: “Xinjiang's fixed asset investment will surpass 1.5 trillion yuan (around 217 billion US dollars) in 2017, up more than 50 percent year on year.”
The mouthpiece of the Party speaks of a training program “to meet labor demand in various projects, mainly in infrastructure sectors such as transport, water conservancy, energy and telecommunication.”
Ming Hong, deputy head of regional department of human resources and social security told The Global Times: “Xinjiang will provide language and skills training to 800,000 farmers and herdsmen that have no working experience, over the next four years.”
Language skills refer to Mandarin and perhaps English.
Ming says that the government wants to offer training ranging from one to three months to 360,000 rural labors: “From this year to 2020, another 40,000 young people, mainly from southern Xinjiang, will enroll in vocational schools and be offered occupational qualification certificates after two to three years of study.”
The new trainees will mainly be used in the tourism sector.
The Global Times admits: “Addressing the employment of surplus labor is the key to Xinjiang's social stability and economic development.”
In other words, the same formula than in Tibet: tourism = stability = integration.

More planes for Xinjiang
Another indication of the direction Beijing has decided to move in Xinjiang is given by article in The China Daily.
It says that during the current year, Xinjiang will import 10 new aircraft from Switzerland to develop tourism, improve emergency rescue capabilities and boost its role in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Lin Haitao, head of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Aviation Business Administration told the media: “The first of the 10 aircraft - all of which are Pilatus PC-12 produced by Switzerland's Pilatus Aircraft Co - recently arrived in Shihezi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the second one is expected to arrive soon.”
The aircraft will be operated by Xinjiang General Aviation Co Ltd, one of the country's biggest aviation service providers in China.
According to the same source, the 10 new airplanes will be mainly used to "transport tourists between scenic spots that are scattered across the vast autonomous region, as well as being chartered for emergency rescue missions. The fleet can also serve neighboring countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (OBOR), if needed.”
The OBOR initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, aims to rejuvenate two ancient trade routes - the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road - regional connectivity is closely linked to the new strategy.
Liu Kuntong, director of planning in the local government explained: "The addition of the 10 airplanes is just the start of our efforts to improve regional connectivity. We will increase investment in the sector and support the goal of building an air passage along the Belt and the Road."
Apart from the OBOR which is a panacea for all problems in China today, tourism like in Tibet, can kill several birds with one stone …and its helps develop infrastructure for the PLA.
The most important initiative is the new link road between Tibet and Xinjiang already mentioned on this blog.
Tourism also provides employment; improve the living standard of local Uyghur population and gives opportunities for Han migration, etc.


Delegates to the 'Two Sessions'
According to China Tibet Online during the recent ‘Two Sessions’, representatives to the National People's Congress (NPC) from Xinjiang and Tibet stated that the OBOR, “expanded the vision of residents in remote and poverty-stricken regions and is bringing the northwestern region of the country into a well-off society along with the rest of China.”
Yang Qin, a representative from Xinjiang remarked: “Trading between Xinjiang and Central Asia are busier than ever. As long as we have good products, we never have to worry about sales."
As the chairman of a fruit products cooperative in Manas County of Changji Prefecture in Xinjiang, she said that she benefited from the opportunities provided by the OROB.
Yang Qin explained: “The cooperative members have reaped the rewards of cross-border trading. This year, we have brought in new species of specialty mushrooms and are trying to expand production. We're hoping to break into the international market by the end of the year.”
There is of course a large part of propaganda especially when a delegate from Tibet says: “Tibet is now becoming the relay point between China and South Asia. There is a nonstop stream of merchants incoming from India, Nepal, and other countries, and trading is becoming more and more robust.”
There is hardly any trade with India through the three official land-ports (Shipkila, Lipulekla and Nathula). But the ‘Two Sessions’ is first and foremost a propaganda exercise.
A Nepalese businessman who frequents China for business and opened an import/export company in Kyirong land-port between Nepal and Tibet said that “With the rapid growth of China-Nepal trading in the past two years, his business has also taken off and is earning 450 thousand Yuan (65 thousand US dollars) annually: “There are about eight thousand kinds of Nepalese products being sent to and sold in southwest China's Tibet every year.”
There is no doubt that a ‘good’ delegate should praise Xi Jinping, the Core Leader and its Dream Project, the OBOR.
It remains that the Xinjiang government under Chen Quanguo is decided to increase infrastructure construction “for transportation, irrigation, energy, and other infrastructure in Tibet”.
Whether it is part of the OBOR initiative or not is irrelevant.
According to Xinhua, some 25 proposals were submitted by the Tibet delegation to the National People's Congress; it included infrastructure construction, livelihood improvement, industrial development, environmental protection in the fields of “politics, economics, culture, education, ecology and other areas,” reported the news agency.
The proposals on infrastructure construction projects include railways, highways, water conservancy, electric power, ecological zones and logistics parks, “which are the most urgent problems needing high attention on the region's way to reform and development,” explained one delegate.
There is no doubt that the delegates from Xinjiang presented similar requirements.
Millions of Han tourists will soon visit the Western Dominion, before that, some minimum level of security needs to be insured by the authorities to reassure the tourists.
The Han tourists are not a very brave lot, they stop en masse coming to France after the terror attacks last year.
It is a tricky job for Mr Chen.

China loves Tibet: an unacknowledged victory for the Dalai Lama?

There was a time when the Chinese considered Tibet the most backward, uncultured part of the Middle Kingdom, mainly inhabited by barbarians.
This is not the case anymore and this has important implications for the Tibetan ‘freedom struggle’.
China Tibet News published today some statistics: “during the seven-day National Day holiday, Tibet received 1.03 million tourists, up 18 percent from the previous year. The visitors brought 490 million yuan (about 73.28 million U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue, a year-on-year increase of 20.7 percent.”
The website affiliated to Xinhua remarks: “Traveling to Tibet is a dream for many people. Picturesque scenery and rich human landscape in Tibet attract a large number of tourists every year. Since the beginning of 2016, thanks to the improvement of tourism service standardization, tourism service covering eating, accommodation, traffic, traveling, shopping and entertainment has been enhanced. It provides a comfortable traveling environment for tourists from both home and abroad.”
The old soldiers of the 18th Army who entered (invaded) Central Tibet in the Fall of 1951 would not believe their ears (and eyes).
China Tibet Online adds: “According to tourism authorities, in addition to traditional group tour, one-day tour in Lhasa, one-day tour in suburbs and other excursions are also very popular among tourists. Self-driving tour and cycling tour are highlights in Tibet's tourism market during the National Day holiday. Most tourists having made a travel plan ahead of time intend to enjoy the entertainment with distinctive culture and buy unique tourism products.”
Tibet a 'unique' product.

Are the figures right?
Incidentally, The Washington Post does not believe these figures. Its correspondent met with some tourism officials in Tibet who told him: “The numbers actually reflect the number of person/visits. In other words, if someone visits three places in Tibet, such as Lhasa, Shigatse and Nyingchi, they will be counted three times.”
Wang Songping, a deputy director in the Tibet Tourism Development Commission admitted that all the places that a tourist went and spent money are being counted.
Some officials explained the trick (it was later denied), they multiply the number of arrivals to Lhasa by a factor of 2.7 or 2.8, calculating ‘an average probability’ to account for the fact that most people visit two or three places.
It was how the bumper harvest was 'counted' during the Great Leap Forward, when tens of millions died of starvation.

China is crazy of Tibet
Whatever the correct number of visitors is, the fact remains that Tibet has becoming a craze for the Hans of the Mainland …and this relatively new.
This could have important implications for the future of Tibet.
According to an oped in The China Daily: “Tibetan culture has always been a dazzling pearl in the treasure trove of world civilization. Profound and extensive, it mirrors the characteristics of the ethnic groups, traces the Tibetans' pursuit of modern civilization and reflects the fact that the Tibet autonomous region is an inalienable part of Chinese territory.”
No barbarians any longer.
The Communist newspaper asks to give a definition for Tibetan culture and immediately answers: “For most, Tibetan culture can be simplified to some familiar scenarios - monasteries and temples, Buddhist monks and nuns, the Living Buddha of legendary stories and lyrical nomadic life on the pasture.”

Tibet's culture is far richer
The unnamed writer (who is said the director of the Modern Institute of China Tibetology Research Center) argues that Tibetan culture: “is far richer than that Tibetan architecture and arts such as sculpture, painting, decoration and handicrafts, as well as music, dance, drama, spoken and written language, literature in written form, folk literature, medicine and pharmacology, astronomy and the calendar have all been enriched and reached very high levels.”
The author gives a historical background: “Tibetan culture, derived from its ethnic groups and regional cultures, is both traditional and modern, religious and worldly, indigenous and exotic. It is vibrant and living, outlining the changes and development of Tibet from ancient to modern times.”
He notes: “During the reign of Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century, Buddhism was introduced to the Tubo [Tibetan] people from the Central Plain of China, India and Nepal, and gradually developed into Tibetan Buddhism with its distinctive characteristics. At the same time, the Indian and Nepalese cultures of South Asia, the Persian and Arabic cultures of West Asia and especially the Han Chinese culture of the Central Plain had considerable influence on the development of Tibetan culture.”
He admits: “For a long time, some people have turned a deaf ear to these facts and have considered Tibetan culture immutable and frozen. They have equated Tibetan Buddhism with Tibetan culture and labelled Tibet an isolated place, primitive and backward, where people live a hard, weird life. Arguably, Tibetans of different ethnicities are the creators, inheritors and developers as well as major protectors of Tibetan culture."
Could have any Tibetans dreamed that the Chinese propaganda could speak that way about Tibet a few years ago.

Follow the Party Line
Of course, the author's conclusions follow the Party line: “Tibet is an internal affair of China and foreigners should not interfere.”
My only point is that even 20 years ago, one could not have imagined such writings which are ‘normal’ today.
It is perhaps a hidden unacknowledged victory for the Dalai Lama, who, for decades, has been promoting ‘Tibetan Culture’ across the world.
Is the live of the Tibetans better?
It is another issue that needs to be looked into.

Civilian intrastructure used for military purpose on the plateau

I have often written about the dual use of the infrastructure in China (and particularly on the Tibetan plateau).
Yesterday, Xinhua reported that during their bi-monthly session, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) discussed a new law on national defense transport.
The legislation will cover the use of railways, waterways and air routes for defense purposes as well as civilian purposes.
According to Xinhua: “The new law is expected to regulate the planning, construction, management and use of resources in transportation sectors such as railways, roads, waterways, aviation, pipelines and mail services, for national defense.”
The idea is to integrate military and civilian resources and make sure that the national defense transport network is compatible “with market and economic development”.
It is what Zhao Keshi, head of the Logistical Support Department of the Central Military Commission, told the legislators.
A national authority will be formed with the objective of “overseeing the national defense transport network”.
The main players will be the local governments, military departments and more importantly, the newly-created Theater Commands.
They will be jointly responsible to implement the new law.
Xinhua explains: “A consultation mechanism will be established between local governments and military departments to disseminate and discuss information on construction plans, ongoing projects and demands.”
And when the needs occurred, civilian transport vehicles and facilities will be pressed into service by the PLA.
The concept behind the new law is that the national defense transport should consider the needs of both peace and war times and vice-versa, when the civilian departments plan for a new infrastructure it should be usable by the PLA.
Interestingly, the national defense considerations will include in any technical standards and codes for transport facilities and equipments.
Xinhua adds: “No organization or individual is allowed to undermine the proper use and safety of national defense transport projects and facilities.”
China should be setting up “a strategic projection support force to facilitate efficient organization of long-distance and large-scale national defense transport”.
Though the draft law says that “the expenses for defense transportation missions should be born by their users and the criteria should not be lower than the market price,” it is not clear who will pay the bill as both the PLA and the civilian administration are the ‘users’.
A Joint Command Organization for national defense transport will be set up in wartime or under special circumstances of peacetime, such as armed conflicts that endanger national sovereignty, says the draft.
The Joint Command will have large powers such as coordination of national or regional resources, organization transport operations, repairs and protection of transport infrastructure and facilities, etc.
Those who embezzle defense transport funds or whose dereliction of duty results in severe losses should beware, they shall be punished "in accordance with laws."

Western Theater Command
With the creation of the Western Theater Command, regrouping all the units on the Tibetan Plateau (earlier the plateau depended on two Military Regions, namely Chengdu and Lanzhou), the coordination and management of the infrastructure on the ‘Indian’ front should be much easier and more efficient for the PLA.
And course, the infrastructure built for the Disneyland of Snows can be used in an official and regulated manner by the PLA, People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) and other border forces units.
India should wake up.

Tourism and Environment on the Tibetan plateau

The magazine Nature (No 512, p. 240–241) publishes a fascinating article about the ecology of the Tibetan plateau. It quotes a report just released by the Chinese Academy of Science.
The authors of the report should have added another factor: the 15 million mainland tourists yearly pouring onto the Tibetan Autonomous Region. 
For centuries, Tibet has been the most isolated country on the planet. A few brave explorers managed to sneak in, most of the times illegally, on the Roof of the World. But things are changing, changing very fast.
Today, Chinanews.com thus describes Tibet: “Tibet with its mystery is the spiritual Garden of Eden and is longed by travelers home and abroad. Only by stepping on the snowy plateau, can one be baptized by its splendor, culture, folklore, life, snow-mountains, saint-mountains, sacred lakes, residences with local characteristics and charming landscape ”.
Tibet is fast becoming the largest entertainment park in the world; thousand times larger than Disneyland.

The government in Beijing has decided to market the Land of Snows as the ultimate ‘indigenous’ spot for the Chinese people to spend their holidays; in one way, it has become Tibet’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
Tibet has two unique assets: first, its physical reality. The beauty of the landscape, the imposing mountain ranges, the purity of the air and the rivers, the dry blue sky (especially when compared to the dusty sky of China’s great metropolis); Tibet is indeed the ideal place to visit and have a break from the fast pace of the polluted mainland of China.
The second advantage is the rich historical past of the Roof of the World, the Land of the Lamas. In Tibet, you can find everything, says the Chinese propaganda: a beautiful Chinese princess falling for the powerful emperor and converting him to Buddhism; the monasteries and nunneries, seat of a wisdom lost in the mainland; the folkloric yak or snow-lion dances; the Shoton (yoghurt) festival; the beautiful colourful handicrafts; the exotic food, you name it, …and a couple of millions of Tibetans (in the TAR) who can guide you through the mega-museum.
Of course, the ‘locals’ are not always reliable and their knowledge of Mandarin is often not that good; in any case, the show can go on without them.
When 15 millions of ‘tourists’ pour into a relatively small place like the Tibetan Autonomous Region, one has to be ready to ‘welcome’ them and provide them ‘entertainment’.  This is adding to the pressure on the environment.
The time has come to start a debate and more importantly, initiate serious and honest researches on the pros- and the cons- of mass tourism in an environmentally fragile region.
But it is still a touchy subject, because tourism is a great source of revenue for a poor mountainous region.


Double threat for Tibet
Climate change and human development are jeopardizing the plateau’s fragile environment.
Nature
Jane Qui
No. 512, p. 240–241
August 19, 2014
Hot, dry weather and progressive urbanization are turning grasslands into sand near the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers.
A comprehensive environmental assessment of the Plateau of Tibet has found that the region is getting hotter, wetter and more polluted, threatening its fragile ecosystems and those who rely on them.
The plateau and its surrounding mountains cover 5 million square kilo­metres and hold the largest stock of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic; the region is thus often referred to as the Third Pole. And like the actual poles, it is increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, but rapid development is putting it doubly at risk, the report says.
Released in Lhasa on 9 August by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the government of Tibet, the assessment aimed to address gaps in knowledge about the extent of the problems the 4,500-metre-high plateau faces. It finds that precipitation has risen by 12% since 1960, and temperatures have soared by 0.4 °C per decade — twice the global average.
In addition, glaciers are shrinking rapidly and one-tenth of the permafrost has thawed in the past decade alone. This means that the number of lakes has grown by 14% since 1970, and more than 80% of them have expanded since, devastating surrounding pastures and communities.
The plateau feeds Asia’s biggest rivers (see ‘Running wild’), so these problems are likely to affect billions of people, the report says. Pollution from human and industrial waste as a result of rapid development is also a serious risk.
But the assessment also suggests ways to combat the problems, calling on the Chinese and Tibetan governments to make conservation and environmental protection top priorities. It will help in the design of “policies for mitigating climate change and striking a balance between development and conservation”, says Meng Deli, Tibet’s vice-chairman.
Expand
“The Tibetan plateau is getting warmer and wetter,” says Yao Tandong, director of the CAS Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, who led the assessment. This means that vegetation is expanding to higher elevations and farther north, and growing seasons are getting longer. But some areas, such as the headwater region of Asia’s biggest rivers, have become warmer and drier and are being severely affected by desertification and grassland and wetland degradation.
Human activity, too, is on the rise. The population of the plateau reached 8.8 million in 2012, about three times higher than in 1951. And the number of livestock has more than doubled, putting more strain on grasslands.
Multiple menaces
Growing urbanization is creating more waste than the region can handle. Tibet has the capacity to treat 256,000 tonnes of domestic solid waste a year, less than the amount generated by its two largest cities, Lhasa and Shigatse. “You see a lot of rubbish lying around the plateau, including headwater regions,” says Kang Shichang, a glaciologist at the CAS Institute of Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute in Lanzhou. “It’s an environmental menace.”
A bigger threat comes from mining. According to the assessment, Tibetan mines produced 100 million tonnes of wastewater in 2007 and 18.8 million tonnes of solid waste in 2009. Because most of the mines are open pits and have limited environmental oversight, “air, water and soil pollution is particularly serious”, says the report. Officials release few details about actual pollution levels.
Pollution is coming not just from local sources. Dust, black carbon, heavy metals and other toxic compounds are being blown in from Africa, Europe and southern Asia. The dust and carbon residues are darkening glaciers, making them more susceptible to melting, and the toxic chemicals are poisoning crops, livestock and wildlife.
But the threats from mining and pollution are dwarfed by the potential repercussions of changes in ice and vegetation cover, the assessment says. Different surfaces — snow, grassland, desert — reflect and absorb different amounts of solar radiation, affecting how the air above them is heated. This means that changes in coverage are likely to affect the onset and strength of Asian monsoons. It also has important ramifications for the livelihood of downstream river communities because the glaciers, permafrost and ecosystems act as a giant sponge, helping to control the release of water and prevent floods. “The significance of the assessment goes beyond national borders,” says David Molden, head of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu.
Temperatures in the plateau are projected to rise by between 1.7 °C and 4.6 °C by the end of 2100 compared with the 1996–2005 average, based on the best- and worst-case global-emissions scenarios. So as urbanization and climate change tighten their grip, researchers worry that unbridled development will devastate the plateau’s environment. To protect it, the report says, the central government must evaluate local officials on the basis of their environmental, not just economic, achievements. It must also invest more in ecological compensation, for example by paying herders more to cut their livestock numbers. Moreover, it must be much more open about pollution incidents.
“Tibet will be a test case of how seriously China takes ecological protection,” says Yao. “Safeguarding the plateau environment is crucial not only for sustainable development of the region, but also to social stability and international relations.”

Tibet's contribution to mankind?

Polluting the Lakes!

"Dense forest, extensive grassland, clean water, blue sky and clear air are not only Tibet's largest wealth, but also the biggest contribution Tibet has provided to China and even to all mankind", thus speaks Lobsang Gyaltsen, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), which was recently held in Beijing.
Nobody can deny this.
Lobsang Gyaltsen further stresses that Tibet is for China, an important ecological safety barrier; he called Tibet, the 'Asian water-tower', the 'last pure land of the world' in view of its important ecological and strategic position.
In Gyaltsen's mind, 'strategic' is probably due to the fact that 11 of the major Asian rivers have their sources on the Tibetan plateau.
Lobsang Gyaltsen continues: "Feasible measures should be taken to protect the environment of Tibet. At present, Tibet remains as one of the best areas in ecological environment in the world."
He adds that his government has always attached a great importance to environment protection, 'sticking to the bottom line of environment protection'; he swears that the TAR "has never introduced enterprises and projects with high energy consumption, high pollution and high emissions."
That sounds good, unfortunately, the Fifth Work Forum on Tibet in 2010 decided to transform Tibet into an important international tourism destination.
When Lobsang Gyaltsen says that Tibet should upgrade its tourism industry, build high-end tourism scenes and create high-quality tourism products to promote the integrative development of tourism, culture and ecology, he is really serious?
First, why should 'Tibet tourism' be a 'product' to sell? Once you call it a 'product', it comes under the law of the 'market', who care a less for environment as  most of the large cities in China has recently been experiencing.
Gyalsten forgets that to feed and take care of 15 millions tourists on a Roof of the World every year, a lot of energy, water, food is required. All this means more pollution.
Gyaltsen also asserts that it will soon will be faster (and more convenient) to reach several places on the plateau. He mentions  the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, which connects Lhasa to the second largest Tibetan town; it will be opened in September as well as the soon-to-be started railway line connecting Lhasa and Nyingchi, near the Indian border of Arunachal.
He speaks of 'a comprehensive transport network of highways, railways, airlines and pipelines'.
He concludes: "We will never develop economy at the cost of environment."
For Tibet's Communist boss, the region is a great attraction "for its unmatched natural landscapes, such as the Mount Chomolungma [Everest] and Yarlung Tsangpo [Brahmaputra] Grand Canyon, and local customs and practices in the world, such as Tibetan songs and dances."
Gyaltsen probably sees the huge revenues pouring into the coffers of his government, but has he ever looked at the collaterals of bringing 15 million visitors on the Roof of the World?
Legislators from Tibet at the National People's Congress also vowed to protect the local environment; they even warned that ecological degradation may harm tourism.
It is in fact the opposite; mass tourism can only harm environment.

Mountain Tourism

Hong Wei, a Tibetan (from Ngari) with a Chinese name, who is deputy head of the regional tourism bureau told China Tibet Online: "Tibet is protecting its environment with a no-nonsense manner; we will never develop our economy at the cost of the environment".
Kelsang Choekar, another deputy to the NPC told the press in Beijing during the NPC: "Tibet's goal is to be a world class tourist destination. We are still far from that. If the environment in Tibet is damaged, its attraction will be greatly harmed."
Do these deputies really believe what they say, or are they saying what they are told to say?
There is no doubt that mass tourism is the best (and the quickest) way to destroy the environment as it demands large amounts of energy and generates huge quantity of solid waste.
The only 'feasible measures to protect the environment of Tibet' is to limit the numbers of yearly visitors. The same is valid for the entire Himalayan belt.

Disneyland of Snows: Hijacking Tibet

The Potala Palace

Tibet with its mystery is the spiritual Garden of Eden
and is longed by travelers home and abroad.
Only by stepping on the snowy plateau, can one be baptized by its splendor, culture, folklore, life, snow mountains, saint mountains, sacred lakes, residences with local characteristics and charming landscape.
                   Chinanews.com

As I often mentioned on this blog, Tibet is fast becoming the largest entertainment park in the world; thousand times larger than Disneyland.
The government in Beijing markets the Land of Snows as the ultimate ‘indigenous’ spot for the Chinese people to spend their holidays, it has become Tibet’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
In 1985, the Dalai Lama spoke to the ‘vast seas’ of Chinese migrants who “threaten the very existence of the Tibetans as a distinct people”. In an article in The New York Times, he explained: “In the eastern parts of our country, the Chinese now greatly outnumber Tibetans. In the Amdo province, for example, where I was born, there are, according to Chinese statistics, 2.5 million Chinese and only 750,000 Tibetans. Even in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (i.e., central and western Tibet), Chinese government sources now confirm that Chinese outnumber Tibetans.”
The Dalai Lama then pointed out: “Today, in the whole of Tibet 7.5 million Chinese settlers have already been sent, outnumbering the Tibetan population of six million…”
This was in 1985!

Chinese Tourists near Namtso

Today, the leadership in Beijing has found a more sophisticated way to submerge (or immerge) the Tibetan population under waves of Han Chinese.
Tibet has two unique assets: first, its physical reality. The beauty of the landscape, the imposing mountain ranges, the purity of the air and the rivers, the dry pure sky (especially when compared to the sky of China’s great metropolis); Tibet is the ideal place to visit and have a break from the fast pace of the polluted mainland.
The second advantage is the rich historical past of the Roof of the World, the Land of the Lamas. In Tibet, you can find everything, says the Chinese propaganda: a beautiful Chinese princess falling for the powerful emperor and converting him to Buddhism; the monasteries and nunneries, seat of a wisdom lost in the mainland; the folkloric yak or snow-lion dances; the Shoton  (yoghurt) festival; the beautiful colourful handicrafts; the exotic food, you name it, …and a couple of millions of Tibetans (in the TAR) who can guide you through the mega-museum. Of course, the ‘locals’ are not always reliable and their knowledge of Mandarin is often not so good; in any case it is not important, the shows can go on without them.
When 15 millions of ‘tourists’ pour in a relatively small place like Lhasa, one has to be ready to ‘receive’ them and provide them ‘entertainment’.
It is what the Communist leadership has been doing during the last couple of years (for example by ‘rebuilding’ old Lhasa).

The 'new' Potala built for Wencheng Opera

The Wencheng Opera
But what about the entertainment?
It has also been planned by the Chinese authorities. Take the ‘Grand Princess Wencheng Opera’; an opera on the life of the Chinese wife of the Tibetan Emperor Songtsen Gompo, who lived in the 7th century CE. It is now being staged at the outskirt of Lhasa.
Of course, the history has to be slightly altered and Bhikruti, the other wife of Tibetan emperor has to be sent to the oubliettes of history; it would not be nice to tell mainland Han tourists that the ‘wisdom’ (i.e. Buddhism) came from the Indian subcontinent.
A few days ago, The People's Daily announced that the preview of Wencheng Opera was to be held in Lhasa on July 20: “The Opera tells the story of Princess Wencheng of Tang Dynasty marrying Songtsen Gampo, the founder of Tubo [Tibet] Dynasty and how she overcame difficulties on her way to Tibet to promote socio-economic and cultural communication between Hans and Tibetans.”

The Actors

That sounds great, except for the fact that Songtsen Gampo was the 33rd King of the Yarlung Dynasty, not the founder. A detail for Beijing! And to speak about socio-economic issues in the 7th century is far-fetched to say the least.
One Bai Ji, executive director of the opera and vice president of Dancing Association of the Tibetan Autonomous Region explains: “The Opera Princess Wencheng offers a subtle blend of time-honored Tibetan dances, opera and sutra chanting as well as dances and music styled in Tang Dynasty.”
As a bonus you have at the background the ‘natural landscape in Lhasa’.
The opera proves to be a stunning success, says Bai Ji (that sounds an India name). The Opera is to be performed 180 times a year and the price of the ticket will range from 100 to 1000 yuan ($15 to 150). That is not cheap, but Chinese tourists are rich (it is not French ladies who shop anymore in luxury shops of the Champs-Elysees in Paris, but the Chinese!).

Preview of the Opera

International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) commented: “A multi-million dollar drama about a Chinese princess is being staged in Lhasa from Thursday in a bid by the authorities to increase high-end tourism and assert China's propaganda message of its ownership of Tibet.”
The Opera will be staged with some 600 actors on a nearly-100 meters long stage; but more funny (or sad), in front of a newly-built Potala Palace, a few kilometers from the real one.
The Tibetan blogger and dissident Tsering Woeser, who lives in Beijing but frequently visits Tibet, posted images of the ‘new’ Potala on her blog. She explains: "In reality this is a project to rewrite history, to 'wipe out' the historical memory and culture of a people. This is a 'win win' project that can both make money and be a tool for brainwashing people with propaganda."
She says that more than $120 million had been invested in the project.
Bhuchung Tsering, the Interim President of ICT asserts that “while the Chinese authorities are marketing Tibet as a tourist destination based on the spiritual attractions of its Buddhist culture and landscape, Beijing has tightened its control over Tibetan religious expression and practice.”
In 2011, an article published by a Chinese publication already mentioned: “When Songtsan Gambo [Songtsen Gompo] moved his capital to Lhasa, he followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by maintaining good relations with the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains in terms of political, business, cultural and religious fields. Twice he sent a minister to Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) for a Tang princess to marry, and finally married Princess Wencheng.”
It clearly means that Tibet and China (Tang Dynasty) were then two separate entities at that time, a fact that modern Communist historians have often denied.

Wencheng Opera

How the fact of marrying a Chinese princess made Tibet part of China is still a mystery that no serious historian has been able to solve.
The China Tibet Online article further explains: “Princess Wencheng reached Tubo in 641 [CE]. She brought with her a statue of Sakyamuni equal to the size of the Buddha when he was 12 years old. The princess also brought calendars, Buddhist sutras, books on handicraft industry, and medical books.”
Obliterating the other wives of the Tibetan King, the Chinese propaganda gives the main role Wencheng: “The Tang princess assisted Songtsan Gambo in administering Tubo [Tibet], and the Wotang [Lhasa] City was built for this purpose.”
Surprisingly the 2011 article mentions the Nepali princess as a ‘concubine’: “At that time, Songtsan Gambo was planning the construction of a monastery for Nepalese Princess Khridzun [Bhikruti], one of his concubines. Princess Wencheng calculated that the sky over Gyiqoiwotang [Lhasa] resembled the eight wheels of Dharma, and the land took the shape of eight lotus petals adorned with eight auspicious treasures.”
It is amazing how the Chinese are able to use Tibetan history and tradition for their own economic and ‘touristic’ purposes. About Wencheng, the website elaborates: “Based on this understanding, she named the eight mountains around the city, ‘Bright Lotus’, ‘Treasure Umbrella’, ‘Conch’, ‘Buddha Wheel’, ‘Victorious Umbrella’, ‘Holy Bottle’, ‘Golden Fish’, and ‘Auspicious Knot’.” These are the tradition Eight Auspicious Signs of Tibetan Buddhism.
China fully uses its ‘Records’ to tell the Han tourists: “the Tang princess knew well that the snowland is [located] where a female demon reclines, with the Wutang Lake [in Lhasa] water being her blood (or heart), and the three mountains being her arteries. Since the place sits at the heart of the female demon, the lake should be filled up for the construction of a monastery”, adding that at the suggestion of Princess Wencheng, the lake was filled for construction of the Jokhang Monastery.
Historians consider that it is Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal who built the Jokhang, the Central Cathedral in Lhasa: “Then, during the reign Songtsen Gompo, after his marriage with Khri btsun [Bhrikuti], the daughter of the king of Nepal, the temple of Ra sa [Lhasa] Pe har gling was built,” says an old treatise.
Bhrikuti was said to be a devout Buddhist. She brought from Nepal several sacred statues as well as Newari craftsmen as part of her ‘dowry’. The Red Palace (Mar-po-ri Pho-drang) on Marpo Ri (Red Mountain) in Lhasa, which was later rebuilt into the thirteen storey Potala by the Fifth Dalai Lama, was constructed by Nepali craftsmen on her instructions. They also carved the statue of Manuvajra - housed in the Ramoche Temple near the Jokhang.
The opera ignores these ‘inconvenient’ facts.

A Museum at the Ambam’s residence
A mega-attraction park, at the scale of a State, should be educative and teach history to the millions who visit it. For the purpose, the Communist authorities have set up several museums in Lhasa and around.
One is the former residence of the ‘Ambam’, the Ambassador of the Ming’s court in Tibet. It has been transformed into a museum exhibiting ‘proofs’ of the Chinese control over Tibet during the Manchu Dynasty.
China Tibet Online speaks of the museum of ‘Evolution of High Commissioner System in Tibet’.

'Renovated' residence of the Ambans

The Chinese website calls the Chinese representative ‘the High Commissioner in charge of the affairs of the local government of Tibet’.
From ‘Representative’, the Amban becomes ‘in charge of Tibet.’
It is if the Chinese Ambassador in Nepal was described as “in charge of the affairs of the local government of Nepal” (though it that particular case, there is some truth in the description).
It is however a distortion which will be perpetuated by the millions of visitors when they return to the mainland.
The Chinese website explains: “The office of High Commissioner in charge of the affairs of the local government of Tibet, established by the Qing [Manchu] Dynasty（1644-1911 A.D.), played an important role in the history of Tibet.”
Some details of China’s version of the Tibet’s cultural and political history are given: “In the Qing Dynasty, the normal life of Tibetan people was infringed on with negative consequences by frequent foreign invasions and civil strikes, such as the invasions from Dzungaria, Gurkha, India and Britain, as well as the unrest in Gyumey. To maintain the local order and safeguard national unity, the Emperor Yongzheng [1678–1735] established the office of High Commissioner in charge of the affairs of the local government of Tibet backed by 2000 Qing troops to be permanently stationed there.”
It is true that the Tibetan government at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th faced a lot of troubles with some Mongol tribes and as per an arrangement called ‘Choe-yong’ (Priest-Patron) requested the intervention on the Manchu troops to help restore the order in Lhasa. It was a temporary intervention which had nothing to do with the ‘ownership’ of Tibet.
According to the history re-written for the sake of the Chinese tourists, the new museum states the office of High Commissioner was established for two reasons, “to better administer the local affairs against foreign invasions and to suppress the civil strife.”

Amban's Museum

The foreign ‘invasions’ (whether it is from Dzungaria [Mongolia], Gurkha, India and Britain) seem a joke, but it probably serves the purpose of those who conceived the museum.
Here is the Chinese version of the relations between Tibet and China at the end of the 17th cnetury: “In 1673, unrest erupted in Dzungaria with its leader being murdered. The leader’s younger brother, Ganden, used to be a monk, had to make himself the chief to put down the unrest. He annexed most of the Oylut’s tribes and took over the southern part of Xinjiang. In 1690, Ganden and his troops invaded many regions under the Qing court’s government such as the Ujimqin, a Mongolian region just 900 lis (450 kilometers) away from Beijing, which deeply threatened the governance of Emperor Kangxi [1661 to 1722].” Apparently, the Emperor went himself thrice to repress the Ganden’s powers.
The trouble with the Mongols tribes was a historical fact, but the take-over of the administration of the Land of Snows is just a colonial rendering of the history of the Roof of the World.
For Beijing’s historians: “After that, Tsewang Rabten succeeded to his uncle’s reign [or his father?] and continued with the anti-government activities and plotted the rebellion in Tibet. Feeling anxious about the situation in Tibet, the Qing court appointed the assistant minister Hao Shou to take charge of the Tibetan administrative affairs together with the local governor in March 1709.”
It is true that the 18th and 19th century witnessed one of the most troubled times in Tibet’s history. After the Qosot Mongol chief, Lhazang Khan kidnapped the young Sixth Dalai Lama, he became extremely unpopular.
In 1717, the invasion of Tibet by a force led by Tsewang Rabten, the Dzungar chieftain, lead to further political conflict and Lhazang Khan was eventually killed. The arrival of the Dzungars saw the end of Qosot’s control over Tibet. Later, the Manchu rulers got rid of the Dzungars and recognize one of two competing candidates as 7th Dalai Lama. Three years later, the young 7th Dalai Lama entered Lhasa. He was accompanied by the Manchu troops; this however did not stop the internal strife.

The Amban's residence in the 1940s

The Manchus, who had been called to help restore peace in Lhasa, used the opportunity to assert their ‘rights’.
Was the fact that India was once administrated by the British, made the country a colony of Great Britain forever?
Most of the world’s States have not been at one point or another of their history ‘administrated’ by another State; this does not make this State ipso facto a colony or a vassal State or a Province of the temporary ‘administrator’.
In the following decade, it is a Tibetan, Miwang Pholanay who played a constructive role in reducing the sectarian struggle and reorganizing the Tibetan administration.
Today, China Tibet Online gives its own rendering of the events: “During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, the central government, deeply impressed with the necessity of strengthening the Tibetan administration and safeguarding the national unity, sent some officers to perform their duties in Tibet and handled all the administrative affairs in Tibet, thereby establishing the system of High Commissioner, which created a precedent and historical mechanism for the central government to take direct control over Tibet.”
In 1793 Emperor Qianlong [1711 – 1799], Yongzhen’s successor promulgated a 29-Point ‘Regulations for Governance’ for Tibet. It is also cited by Beijing as one of the proofs of the Manchus’ control over Tibet.
One of the main contentions was about the role of the Ambans. However, for Rev. Huc and Gabet, the two French missionaries who visited Lhasa in 1846: "The Government of Tibet resembles that of the Pope and the position occupied by the Chinese Ambassadors was the same as that of the Austrian Ambassador at Rome."
The fact is that for more than 150 years the Tibetan Government did not ‘listen’ to the High Commissioner. The best proof is that when the British invaded Tibet in 1904, there was no Chinese ‘representative’ to discuss with Capt. Francis Younghusband.

6th Dalai Lama Culture, Tourism Festival
To entertain further the Chinese visitors, the administration of the Tibetan Autonomous Region is organizing ‘festivals’ such as the Lhasa Shoton Festival and Damxung Horse Racing Festival.
According to Xinhua: “The Shoton Festival is one of the most popular traditional festivals in Tibet. It celebrates eating yogurt, the Tibetan monks who end their season of meditation, watch Tibetan dramatic operas. It is held annually in the month of August, or late in the sixth month or early in the seventh month of the Tibetan calendar. The festival is a great occasion for both Tibetans and tourists.”
The Chinese news agency explains that during the festival, “there are celebrations in the streets, squares and monasteries in Lhasa”, though the main venue is the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace, the Norbulinka, a monument recognized by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Xinhua does not mention that another UNESCO Site (the Bakhor, near the Jokhang) has been completed destroyed and reconstructed to house tourist facilities such high-end shops and hotels (read Tsering Woeser's blog on the subject).
Amongst the several ‘festivals’ held for the tourists, the strangest is the 2013 Culture and Tourism Festival on the 6th Dalai Lama's love songs to be held from August 8th to 14th in Lhoka (Southern Tibet).
It is not that the love songs of the Dalai Lama are not beautiful, but the Chinese propaganda pretends that Tsangyang Gyatso, the 6th Dalai Lama is born in Tibet, while he is born in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.
The announcement says: “tourists can enjoy beautiful Tibetan love songs performed by locals from the Tsona County in Lhoka Prefecture, hometown of Tsangyang Gyatso, the household name of the 6th Dalai Lama.”
The fact that Tsangyang Gyatso is born on the other side of the McMahon in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh is cleverly overlook. The Chinese authorities probably extend ‘Lhoka’ till the plains of Assam.
Xinhua announces further: “The festival will showcase the culture splendor and mental outlook of the Monbas [Monpas], one of the ethnic minorities living in Tibet, also an ethnic minority from which Tsang Gyasto (sic) comes. According to the plan (sic), various folk activities will be performed, including drinking and singing competitions, Monba dramas, cultural relics’ display and commodity exchanges (sic).”
The most surprising is that India seems blissfully unaware of this blatant territorial claim. The Government of Arunachal should organize its own Festival in Urgyeling, near Tawang where Tsangyang Gyatso is really born.

The Gedun Chomphel Museum
Even more amazing is the Museum dedicated to the great scholar from Amdo, Gedun Chophel (or Chompel). According to the Tibet Business Newspaper, the museum was opened in Lhasa in July.

Gedun Chopel

China Tibet Online also reported: “With a strong Tibetan flavor, the Gedun Chophel Museum is part of the Lhasa old town's protection project, covering an area of 1,269 square meters and consisting of three stories.”
Can you imagine, three storeys dedicated to the first Tibetan ‘dissident’?
The Chinese website mentions: “Gedun Chophel was born on April 20, 1903, in the Zho Phung She Village Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province [in fact in Rekong county of Amdo province]. He believed in the Nyingma Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.”
This is not true, the ‘Angry Monk of Rekong’ got his main education in Labrang Tashi Kyel and Gomang College of Drepung Monastery, two famous Gelukpa institutions.
The presentation continues: “In Gedun Chophel’s age, China experienced a turbulent period of domestic strife and foreign aggressions. He pursued truth, upheld humanist spirit, turned his conception of history from Buddhist theology to humanism, and made important contribution to Tibetan modern academic and intellectual history. While pursuing new thoughts and seeking for social changes, he severely disclosed and satirized various social problems of old Tibet and the British colonist’s plot to invade Tibet.”
What about all the years that Gedun Choepel spent in India? It is omitted by the Chinese propaganda.
The entire life of Gedun Choepel was dedicated to freedom; he would have certainly have had the harshest words for today’s Communist practices, for their repressive policies as well as the diktats imposed by the Party on the Tibetan common men and the Buddhist monasteries.
More than 60 years after his death, China to praise Gedun Chophel, but does not mention that a few days before the great scholar died in 1951, as the Chinese troops were entering, Gedun went around the Bakhor screaming “The Chinese are here”. He had always dreamt of a powerful and modern Tibet. Even when he was very sick at the end of his life, he used to visit the parade ground to watch the training of the Tibetan army. He admired the Great Kings of Tibet who had been able to keep Tibet united.
Interestingly, he is adulated by a generation of young refugees who see in him someone who had the strength to rebel against the establishment.
This explains why he was so disliked by Hugh Richardson, the British (and later Indian) Representative in Lhasa. A colonial Empire does not like rebels. It is ironic that today Communist China is building a Museum dedicated to the life of Gedun.
A Chinese website explains: “He [Gedun] participated in the survey and the catalog of the remains of the palm-leaf manuscripts in Tibet [with Rahul Sankrityayan], the interpretation of ancient Tibetan literature in Dunhuang, the exploration of Tibetan philology, the English translation of Tibetan ancient books and other groundbreaking academic activities. He also wrote and translated a lot of books, and produced a great number of paintings. All these promoted the later development of Tibetology.”
What is more intriguing is that according to the Chinese website: “In April, 1946, the then ‘Gaxag’ [Kashag] government, incited by the British government, put Gedun Chophel into jail, where he was kept in a gruesome prison and intermittently tortured.”

Gedun Chompel

Those who have known him intimately have never reported torture, though the life was not easy in the Shol prison at the bottom of the Potala.
In my book, 1962: the McMahon Line Saga, I have dealt at length on the reasons for which Gedun Choepel was arrested; it is probably due to internal power struggle between some members of the Tibetan aristocracy and the fact that Gedun travelled through Mon Tawang (in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh) and prepared detailed maps of the areas for Rapga Pandatsang, who was close to Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang regime.
One of the many mysteries surrounding Gedun Choepel and his incarceration is the loss of the Black Box in which his revolutionary works, particularly his new history of Tibet were kept. A small sentence in the Chinese communique is mysterious; it says: “The Government of Tibet Autonomous Region decided to build a museum for him, which will exclusively show some of his books and daily necessities.”
Have the Chinese found Gedun’s Black Box?

Arrival of new Chinese cadres
It may not be directly linked to the development of the mega-entertainment park, but Xinhua recently reported that “cadres, chosen from state organs and central government-run enterprises to work in Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-inhabited areas of Qinghai Province, left Beijing for their destinations.”
Does Tibet need more Chinese guides to look after the millions of Han tourists? Xinhua says: “They are among the latest batch of 1,376 cadres dispatched from across the country to work in Tibet and Qinghai and help with development in both regions. Their tenures there usually last three years.”
It further explains: “The central government launched the cadres aid program for Tibet in 1995 and sent nearly 4,800 cadres from across the country to the southwest region in six previous batches.”
A similar program was organized in Qinghai Province (Amdo) in 2010.
According to Chinese officials quoted by Xinhua: “Such aid programs have created closer ties between Tibet and Qinghai's Tibetan-inhabited regions and the country's central and coastal provinces, and are also helpful in boosting economic development, stability and ethnic solidarity.”
In other words, more Chinese officials in Tibet! How will it help?
I would be curious to know the percentage of Tibetans amongst the 600-strong crew staging the Wengchen Opera. Probably mostly Hans!
The Dalai Lama often speaks of genuine autonomy for Tibet, but today, in the present situation, it does not mean anything.
Tibet has become an immense zoo for Han holiday-goers.
Some other examples of exhibitions and cultural programs organized for the Chinese tourists

• The Tibetan Opera Art Center in Lhasa

  

  Purang Festival

  
  Tibet Daily reported that the first exhibition hall of Tibetan opera was opened (for free) on August 1 in the Tibetan Opera Art Center in Lhasa: “The exhibition hall will showcase the history, school, costume, performance as well as achievement of Tibetan opera in its six sections. And it will display the Tibetan opera art comprehensively and vividly through a large number of real objects, texts, pictures, videos and live performances”.
  
• History of ‘Peacock Costume’ in Purang
  Purang (or Burang for the Chinese) is a border town near the tri-junction between Tibet, Nepal and India in southwest Tibet.
  According to a Chinese website: “Burang has the most unique and exquisite ‘Burang costume’ with a history of 1000 years. There is a legend about how Burang costume was named after peacock. Thousands years ago, the town lived a kind-hearted beautiful princess who was always bullied by other wives of her husband. At last the girl escaped by turning into a peacock and disappeared. In memory of the princess, residents made clothes modeling the shape of peacock, which was called ‘peacock’ or ‘flying into sky’ costumes. The Burang costume is famous for its luxurious accessories. Hundreds pieces of beeswax, numerous pearls and kallaites, bunchy red corals, and delicate silver and gold decorations compose of a priceless suit with 25 kilos.”

• A glimpse of Gorchom dance in Ngawa and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan (Kham)
  The announcement says: “The Manai Gorchom circle dance in Manai Township, Jinchuan County, Aba (Nagwa) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. Manai Gorchom, a court dance in ancient times, is the living fossil of Chinese circle dance. Nowadays, generally popular among local Tibetans, the Manai Gorchom becomes a miracle among ethnic dances with its unique style in costume, dance and melody. In December 2008, the Manai Gorchom was listed as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
• Tibetan masks exhibition
  China Tibet Online announced a Tibetan mask art exhibition to be held in the Mask Art Center in Lhasa during this year's Shoton Festival from August 6 to 12.
  The exhibition will display over 160 delicate masks from all ‘prefectures’ of Tibet to the public, which are divided into four sections covering masks in sorcerer's dance, masks in Tibetan opera, hanging masks and folk masks. It also creates ‘employment’ as “local masters will attend and show their craftsmanship of mask making to audiences as well,” says the website.

• Tibet to host 1st Yamdrok Yamtso Lake cycling tour
  Chinatibetnews.com interviewed a cycle-racer: "We left from the holy city, Lhasa and then went toward Okada Barak mountain. During the travel, we passed through plateau dawn by riding bicycle, and finally arrived at Yangzhuoyong [ke Yamdrok Yamtso] Lake which decorated with jaspers.
  This was not a romantic montage in a dream any more, according to experience tour organizing committee of Yangzhuoyong lake, the first experience tour will be held at Yangzhuoyong lake in Tibet from August 18th to 20th.
  During the tour, bike enthusiasts from the whole areas of China and the wide travelers will enjoy a perfect holy-traveling meal in a zero distance.
  Yangzhuoyong Lake, Namtso Lake and Manasarovar Lake, are called three major holy lakes in Tibet. They are far from Lhasa less than 100 kilometers. These beautiful lakes and mountains make them very famous in the southern Tibet."

• Thonmi Cultural Tourism Festival in Nyemo
  China Tibet Online reported that the opening ceremony of the second Thonmi Cultural Tourism Festival took place at Thonpa village in Nyemo County of Lhasa of July 29. The theme of this year’s festival is "Hometown of ancient Tibetan language and water mill incense".
  It appears that some local Tibetan villagers have found jobs ‘in local scenic spots since the village developed tourism’. Tsering Dorje, a security guard working at a scenic spot, told the Chinese website that “in the past he had to go far to make money by renovating houses. Now he can earn his bread nearby, plus the convenience of caring for the elderly at home.”

Many more ‘festivals’ could be cited.
But, that is not all: the culture of Tibet is now being exported to the mainland as well as abroad. It is also a way of enticing more visitors to visit the Roof of the World. One example is ‘Beauty of Tibet Painting Contest’.
Xinhua mentions that the second ‘Contest’ started in Beijing on July 18. The organizers were collecting ‘Tibet-related artworks from professional artists and amateurs nationwide’. The theme of the contest was "My Chinese Dream".
China is now dreaming of Tibet; for decades only ‘liberation’ was on the menu; this is a big change, perhaps not for the good of the Tibetan people.

Some illustrations:

'Renovation' of Old Lhasa

'Renovation' of Old Lhasa

'Renovation' of Old Lhasa

Bakhor Street

Yaks for Tourists

The Tibetan Zoo

Tour du Tibet

Chinese Tourists near Namtso

Chinese Tourists near Namtso

Skating in Lhasa

Skating in Lhasa

Breath-taking Tibet

Potala Palace

Namtso lake

'Beauty of Tibet' Contest

Costumes in Purang

Costumes in Purang

Costumes in Purang

'Beauty of Tibet' Contest

And Tibetan delicacies!

Religious 'entertainment'

'Visit Tibet in Summer'

'Visit Tibet in Winter'