"Fish Speaking Back to Ichthyologists": Two Blogposts on Chinese Tourists in Tibet

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated two blogposts written by young Tibetan netizens on similar topics, Chinese tourists in Tibet and their attitudes to Tibetans. 

The number of Chinese tourists to Tibet has dramatically increased over the past years and this looks set to continue with a number of luxury hotels either just opened or set to open over the next months. This article from UK's The Independent newspaper of November 3, 2010, centres on the opening of the St. Regis Hotel in Lhasa. The article says:

The surge of tourists to the Himalayan region has seen visitor numbers jump during the first nine months of 2010 to 5.8 million, up 23 per cent on the same period a year earlier.

And newly wealthy Chinese want luxury accommodation. "The St Regis Lhasa Resort offers refined luxury and superlative service in a storied city," gushes the breathless blurb on the St Regis website. "Discover Potala Palace and Norbulingka, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Jokhang Temple, all minutes from our resort."

The idea of the Tibetan being luohou (backward) is entrenched in the official state discourse on Tibet; and the perception has penetrated the Chinese popular image of Tibet. Yet it is notable how recent an invention this is: it has been systematised only after the conquest of 1959 [...] This makes it all the more shocking to the rulers when elements of this docile and indolent native population protest: like a fish speaking back to ichthyologists.

(This essay has been very popular this week, it was written by a friend who came to Lhasa over the summer holiday. It is very well written, so I am going to share it with everyone. Tell me what you think!)

“Have you been to Tibet?” is becoming a more and more popular phrase nowadays, overheard frequently. It appears to be an important requirement one must fulfil, in order to give the impression of a fashionable and perfect life. Is this not crazy?

I don’t want to seem like an old miser, complaining everyday because I have nothing better to do. In fact, I see myself as quite an energetic and positive person in life. However, trying to achieve inner peace does not necessarily mean that one should not vent a little anger from time to time.

Some things, I believe, need to be justifiably critiqued harshly.

The question that I pose is, “I dare to ask, what have you come to Lhasa for?”

Culturally speaking, Tibet has many aspects that are unique to it. You don’t need to be overtly critical here as it already has its own established systems that perfectly express its own organic beauty.

These new tourists (please excuse my harsh words) need to act according to their new environment.

1. When you come to Tibet, put aside for the time being, your vast framework of knowledge and try to be a little more modest in order to experience and understand this strange and different culture. You will not be able to interpret and describe everything fully using your pre-existing systems of knowledge or language. Obviously some people will always claim to be all-knowing and understand everything completely. When you encounter such types, the only thing you can do is step down graciously...
   
   
2. When you come to Tibet, for the time being try to be a bit more contemplative and attentive, and concede to the fact that you don’t know everything. The Potala Palace in Lhasa has to bear the strain of hosting 4000 tourists every day, a heavy burden you must agree. Therefore, please be a bit more quiet and considerate when visiting this place, you flashy tourists with your sunglasses and cameras. A true traveller needs to read and adhere to notices and signs. If you were to visit Buckingham Palace, do you think they would allow you to be bustling around, disturbing everything in such a manner? China already has too many little emperors who think the world revolves around them, and there is no way of avoiding these people.
   
   
3. When you come to Tibet, you will have to listen attentively to everything your tour guide says, this you cannot avoid. But if the tour guide is only reciting a list of government achievements, and lecturing you about the autobiography of Princess Wencheng, then I ask you this, is this really getting to the true history of Tibet? The central plains of China have always been rich and fertile, and the poor Princess was forced to marry Songtsen Gompo, who ruled over such a barren and backward land. So why and what did she sacrifice her own personal happiness for, is it not clear? This is outlandish fiction told by the tour guides!
   
   
4. When you come to Tibet, remember the famous phrase “Lhasa is Sin City - the place where anything goes”. Both the Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace were built in order to honour Princess Wencheng, and the entire Tibetan cuisine came about because of Princess Wencheng. She is the reason why the moon and stars exist, why the Yangtze River flows. Princess Wencheng is the source and manifestation of everything in the world...
   
   
5. When you come to Tibet, you will probably encounter some strange local people with novel and different traditions. Remember that here, everyone is primitive and backwards, so you’d better not appear to be too “advanced” for their own good. Just humour them by pretending to admire their quaint handiwork, and gawk at the natives’ crude and uncivilised mannerisms... how does that suit you?
   
   
6. When you come to Tibet, you will take lots of photographs. Understand that this is to earn your traveller’s stripes and prove you’ve journeyed far and wide. There’s also no harm if it ensures that those people without the means to travel to Tibet can also be that little bit jealous of you. But have a little heart! Make sure you share those photographs you excitedly took during your travels with other people when you get back, and talk to them about the experiences you had there. This would normally be your moment to preach and show off the super-freedom you enjoy, but this is also the time where things will start unravelling, and doubts will begin to creep in, instead producing a “Me and My Misunderstandings of the World” moment.
   
   
7. When you come to Tibet, you are free to do whatever you want, but please carry yourself as if you are one who is in harmony with the world, even if it is just temporarily for a moment.
   
   
8. When you come to Tibet, I hope that you have a good trip, and that your towering intellect and pre-conceptions don't prevent you from doing so, Tashi Delek...

Gonpo Dorje
The Holy City, Evening of August 17, 2010

Comments:

Yun Dan: As long as you kind of animals (Tibetans) live among us civilised people there will always be more and more problems, you’ll see. Why do you always focus on the negative side of things? I bet people are going to seek out where you live…

Dong Qian: Why is everyone arguing? We’re all Chinese… why can’t we all just co-exist together without having to bring up the question of ethnicity? Since ancient times people have always thought of one minority as being “good” or “bad”

Gonpo Dorje: Reply to Dong Qian- are we touching on the question of ethnicity here? People are always going to have differences, that fact is undeniable. But at the end of the day, it’s about those particular people who are intolerant of other’s cultures. Who is being self-righteous here? We need to first understand this.

Aliyah: People from the Central Plains thought they were a celestial nation ordained by the Gods, and that the sun, moon and stars all revolved around them. That’s why everyone in the world despised them so much. They did not inherit any of the humility and modesty that was advocated by their ancestors.

SL Tsomu: reply to Dong Qian-  you’re right, everyone in the world wants to live peacefully together, above all Buddhists. But such an idea is easy to say in theory, when you’re not the one always being victimized.

The second blogpost was written on November 14, 2010 by a Tibetan female blogger calling herself "Namtso". Due to the amount of comments that were arriving on the post, and in particular the number of negative comments from 50-Cent bloggers, "Namtso" added a postscript to her blogpost on November 22, 2010, which we have also translated. 


There’s always a certain kind of person who insists on asking me questions such as: “Where do you live? What do you eat?” After much persistence, I finally give in and answer in an irritated way: “We live in a cave and eat rocks, it that OK?”

Afterwards, they will ask again “Can the Dalai Lama get married? Is he allowed to have a girlfriend? ...A sky burial is when you chop up the bodies right? That’s so barbaric and disgusting!”

To those who bring up these kinds of questions, allow me to pay my warmest “respects” to you and your family.

The internet is so vast and advanced, will it kill you to use "Baidu" just once and look them up yourself?

And, if I ever lose my temper, you'll just say: “I just don’t know! I really want to understand!” Yes, you always have some kind of excuse for your shameless ignorance.

A single utterance of the word “understanding” allows you to unscrupulously satisfy your vulgar psychological need to seek novelty.

A single utterance of the word “art” allows you to harass other people when you visit here, and stick your camera in other people’s faces.

And then you can secretly boast about your insider knowledge of all the sordid and primitive aspects of Tibetan culture, such as the pornographic Buddha of Joy, stories of how the Dalai Lama requested human intestines on his birthday, and the drums made of human skin!

To you, religion is just another scam that you will never be conned by.
To you, belief in a religion is merely for primitive and uneducated people.
To you, compassion is just another word for a fool.
To you, having mercy in one’s heart is merely a show of weakness.

OK, I’m already sick of this dispute. I thank the Lord Buddha for blessing me with my knowledge and understanding. Just leave us alone, and let us be the uncivilised, backwards and incompetent fools you think we are!

We are quite happy this way, we don’t need you to come and save us.

So take your culture and rationale,

And leave us alone!

(Regarding the comments)
Who is the narrow-minded one now??

I wrote this article based on my own personal experiences, and it is fair to say, many other Tibetans have also encountered similar experiences. Nothing has been made up or embellished. However, by recounting these experiences, I seem to have provoked and angered certain people. As soon as they hear a peep from the Tibetan people, they are quick to jump out and hurl abuse. It is hard to say how much these people know about the reality of the situation, having never encountered any of these experiences themselves. You can tell that just by the way they are talking. These people’s prejudice and ignorance simply knows no bounds.

Communicate by talking, learn by reading. But I have to ask, where is your so-called communication and learning? From November 19, 2010, 9pm onwards, you came to my blog and commenced an unrelenting campaign of foul-mouthed insults and attacks. It was a truly ugly experience. In order to not offend other readers, I have removed some of the comments.

However, you continued to hurl abuse and attack, so I have closed the comments section of my blog. You can still leave your abuse on the messageboard/guestbook if you wish.

The monitoring and deletion of the offensive comments continued until 2am in the morning; at that point I had no choice but to close my the entire comment section. This is what it has taught me about your kind of education, your character and culture.

If you hate my opinions, you can simply click the little red X on the corner of the screen and leave. But you all decide to march into battle one after the other, coming here and jumping around all over the place.

What are you really trying to do here?

I’m afraid that your motives are not as innocent as just wanting to “communicate” and exchange opinions.

Ultimately, who is the lackey here, and who is the truly narrow-minded one?

The people will decide what is fair and just.

(Early morning, November 22, 2010)


I’ve been asked the same kind of questions before. I’ve even had someone come up to me and ask, “Why do you Tibetans all dress like beggars? Where we’re from even our children wear designer labels!” I felt so defeated then. If it had not been for my mother, who dissuaded me from arguing with that person, I would have had a few choice words for him! But instead, my mother told me to respect these people because they are our guests here. Although my mother has never read a book before, she is still more enlightened than these people. Hence you can see the true essence of our nation reflected in such a person!!!

Namtso's Reply: To quote the phrase “Our dirt is only physical, a packet of detergent and we will be clean; your uncleanliness is inside your heart, a whole lorry-load of detergent still won’t make you clean.” This is the argument, there’s no need to get angry, just continue to ignore those that taunt you.

They look upon us as if we’re poor, and lacking in material things, like mentally unhinged people!








What to do, I’ve seen and written many of these kinds of things before, but only your post has brought me so much joy. That is, those who try to offer their “assistance” can go away… those who think that just by reading holy texts they will understand everything about the current political situation. They are so ignorant I feel embarrassed for them! Our culture, our traditions…







After reading this post, I’ve thought of a few choice words that I now dedicate just to you: “Soap-dodging, dirty Tibetans, you are like rubbish. We should follow the example of the Americans and put you all on reservations like the native Americans.”










We Mongolians have also experienced this also…

Namtso's Reply: let's work together

Regardless of whether those ignorant people will ever be able to understand the advice that you offer, your sincerity and sense of responsibility is something that every Tibetan should take heed.













RE: comment above

Don’t be so happy to proclaim “Mongolians, Mongolians”, have you taken a look at Outer Mongolia? It’s completely Russian-ised, the language and writing has completely changed, and they think Chinese people are completely vile. Those Inner Mongolians who understand Chinese are even more repulsive. If they are not careful, they will soon become like homeless dogs without a master. What do you think about that, bitch.










Namtso and these Tibetans could argue until the end of the world! They should have a contest, and see who is the better. How about it, so you don’t have people just shouting from their own little dark corners, and consoling each other over their weaknesses. You Tibetans always think you are so great, that you are so noble, merciful and saintly. Why don’t you just disappear off the face of the earth! Then we will see who is the most arrogant.

Oh God, I really wish a higher being was here to watch over you morons. It’s fine for you to all make fools of yourselves in your backwards part of the world where no one else goes, but don’t do it out here in public! So what if you accuse us of being part of the 50 Cent Party? At least we get paid at the end, you’re just arguing blindly for nothing!








Savage Tibetans, you are the monstrous product of breeding between livestock and she-demons! You people will always be slaves because you don’t even count as human, that’s why you will never behave like one. Tibetans before liberation in 1959 would always stick their tongues out, whenever they saw a human they would stick their tongue out, just like an animal.

"When Tibetan Students Fight for the Tibetan Language

" By Woeser


High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser that was originally written for broadcast on Radio Free Asia on October 28, 2010 in Lhasa and posted on her blog on November 4, 2010.

In this blogpost, Woeser writes on the protests by Tibetan students in October 2010 against proposals to restrict the use of Tibetan language in classrooms in Qinghai province. The protests from Amdo also reached Beijing, see photos on our previous blogpost here.


This blogpost is a good follow up to Woeser's blogpost written in August 2010 titled "If Tibetans Took to the Streets for the Tibetan Language" which reflected on protests against restrictions on Cantonese. As High Peaks Pure Earth has observed, the issue of language weighs heavily on Tibetan netizens.

One note, towards the end of her blogpost, Woeser refers to "College Entrance Exam Immigration", this is an expression that comments on the practice of students from more affluent parts of China migrating to poorer areas where college entrance exam requirements are usually lower. These poorer areas also include areas of China inhabited by "minorities".

Lastly, for more explanation and reflections on the word "minzu", see our earlier blogpost titled"Going Minzu".

Photo taken in October 2008 at an exhibition of Tibetan contemporary art in Beijing's Red Gate Gallery, piece by artist Tsewang Tashi.

Since October 10, thousands of Tibetan middle and primary school pupils from four different autonomous Tibetan prefectures of Qinghai Province have been taking to the streets to demonstrate. In Beijing at the Minzu University of China, several hundred students gathered on campus. They all had one simple goal: to speak up for the Tibetan language. The situation is similar to that in August this year, when thousands of Cantonese came together in Guangzhou to fight for the Cantonese language. Both events were equal in nature, both were striving for the rights of their own language in this big unified country. The only difference is that Cantonese is a Han language, whereas Tibetan is the language of an ethnic minority. Yet, no matter whether one fights for Tibetan or for Cantonese, since it all happens in response to the same power and in the exact same circumstances, all those who decide to express their wishes publicly should be treated in the same way.

The Cantonese, who, in view of their language being marginalised, dared to say “I am willing to speak Mandarin but don’t force me to speak Mandarin!” remind us of the reality of the even more endangered Tibetan language in the Tibetan region. Yet, if we Tibetans speak of this publicly, we are immediately being framed as “splittists” or “Tibetan separatists”. I have previously written an article, "If Tibetans Took To The Streets For The Tibetan Language", which was not only about the differential treatment of Han Chinese and “ethnic minorities” when faced with exactly the same problem, it was even more about pointing out that “ethnic minorities” such as Tibetans, Mongolians, or Uyghurs are likely to be exposed to even more unfair and unjust treatments. But it should only be fair to argue that if the Cantonese behaviour gained public response, support, and understanding, so Tibetans fighting for the Tibetan language should also gain public response, support and understanding, otherwise isn’t this unconcealed ethnic discrimination?

Of course, placing the recent attempts of Tibetans fighting for their language on a par with the Cantonese case stems from some kind of deep apprehension. Let’s be honest, we are afraid that those children, teenagers and adolescents trying to fight for the ignoble existence of their innate but scarred mother tongue, will be suppressed, one by one, by those in power adopting their usual arbitrary and boorish methods, resulting in the buds of life of those young people being nipped before they have even blossomed. In fact, the slogans, which they advocate, asking for common values of “ethnic equality and freedom of language”, should be regarded as the most fundamental human rights and are by no means unreasonable requests. Those kids in their school uniforms took to the streets and shouted, “We Need Classes in Tibetan”, a sad and emotional scene, which directly penetrated the lies invented by the authorities. It also made people shed tears of misery and even though the government shows no compassion, they should at least show some mercy. For example, they punished two Tibetan high school students from Machu for participating in a demonstration asking to release Tibetans who had been arrested two years ago; this must stop!!!

In fact, the circumstances that triggered this year’s fight for the Tibetan language are a great deal more complicated than the Cantonese case. It is not only simple fact that the authorities are pushing for cultural homogenisation and shear all tongues that do not speak Mandarin. The policies initiated by Qinghai Province as part of the education reform have an experimental character and are a little bit like the “patriotic education” advocated in Lhasa’s monasteries ten years ago, which today have already infiltrated all monasteries in all of Tibet. These new policies, first being implemented in 6 autonomous prefectures of the Qinghai Province (whose Tibetan education has so far actually presented quite good results) aim to turn all secondary and primary “minzu” schools as well as common schools into “Han Schools”, promoting the idea of “Mandarin comes first, Tibetan comes second, establishing Mandarin as the main language of teaching and the first language to be learnt”.  This education reform is envisaged to come into effect in the entire Tibetan region, speeding up the process of all monks and lay people in the Tibetan region becoming more Han and being sinicised from a young age; to become part of mainstream society, as the government would say.

Another reason is directly linked to the protests that swept across the whole of Tibet in 2008. At the time, many pupils from Tibetan primary and secondary schools participated in the protests, a fact that the local authorities most definitely regarded as a thorny issue, which needed to be resolved. At the end of April last year, several hundred Tibetan primary and secondary children of Labrang County skipped classes and took to the streets to show their dissatisfaction that their schools criticised His Holiness the Dalai Lama, also appealing to the authorities to put a halt to “college entrance exam immigration”. Afterwards, the Gannan County Committee Secretary, Chen Jianhua, gave the students a severe warning in a meeting: “What is the point in learning Tibetan? Knowing Tibetan, will you ever walk through Tumain Gate (the border of Gannan and Linxia Counties)? What kind of people do Tibetan schools produce? Are they producing the new socialist generation or class enemies?” In line with this, in the outline of the Qinghai education reform, the reform is regarded as “an important political responsibility”. As we see from this, after reviewing the protests in 2008, the government came to the conclusion that it is all or nothing; one might as well completely destroy Tibetan language education, stamp out the source of trouble and settle the matter once and for all.

Lhasa, October 28, 2010

TEN WAYS TO PROMOTE TIBETAN LANGUAGE

Tibetans in Tibet are taking great risks to fight for their right to study in their mother tongue while China tries to marginalize the Tibetan language. To support the conservation of Tibetan language, we can all contribute by taking some simple actions:

1. Listen to Tibetan news at RFA (http://rfa.org/), VOA (http://voanews.com/), and VOT (http://vot.org/) weekly. Watch VOA’s incredibly popular Kunleng TV twice a week: http://www.voanews.com/tibetan-english/news/.

2. Read Tibetan news at least once a week at Bodkyi Dusbab (http://tibettimes.net/), Bodkyi Bangchen (http://tibetexpress.net/), http://Khabdha.org/. Read poems and essays by persecuted writers: Tashi Rapten, Kunga Tsangyang (http://freekunga.com/), Shogdung, Kalsang Tsultrim, Dolma Kyab, and Jamyang Kyi at http://wokar.net/.

3. Install Tibetan unicode on your computer so that you can type in Tibetan. Download the software at http://lobsangmonlam.org/. It’s as easy as ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ ང་། and it’s compatible with Mac as well as Windows.

4. Write Facebook status updates in Tibetan on Wednesdays. “བོད་ ནང་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ མང་པོས་ སྐད་ཡིག་ རང་དབང་ ཆེད་ སྐད་འབོད་ བྱེད་འདུག” If you don’t have Tibetan installed in your computer, you can use the Tibetan Virtual Keyboard http://apps.facebook.com/tibetankeyboard/?ref=mf

5. Send an occasional email in Tibetan – it will surprise your parents, delight your friends, and confound the hackers!

6. Stop worrying about spelling. One day soon, there will be Tibetan spell-check on your computer. For now, bad spelling is better than no spelling. Besides, you can download Monlam’s online Tibetan dictionary at http://www.4shared.com/get/0o_FOTWt/Monlam_Dictionary.html.

7. Give a Tibetan comic book or picture book to a kid as their holiday gift. If you have a kid, read a Tibetan story to put them to bed. གཟིམས་འཇག་གནང་ངོ་།

8. Listen to contemporary Tibetan music (this is too easy not to). No matter what your taste you will love Rangzen Shonu (http://rangzenshonu.net/), JJI Exile Brothers, Yadong, Kunga, Sherten, Techung, Phurbu T Namgyal, etc.

9. Buy Tibetan books, magazines, CDs (http://semshae.org/) and DVDs. Tibetan writers and artists are churning out works of art and literature, and we must build a global market to consume their products. Let’s vote for Tibetan language with our wallets.

10. Speak in Tibetan whenever possible, not just when sharing secrets on the subway.

This guide is brought to you by the Tibetan staff members of Students for a Free Tibet.
བོད་རང་བཙན་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་ བོད་པའི་ ལས་བྱེད་པ་ རྣམས་ ནས་ ཕུལ།།

A Blogpost and A Poem on Tibetan language

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost and a poem both on the topic of Tibetan language.

Since the student protests of last month, October 2010, against the proposals to restrict the use of Tibetan language in classrooms in Qinghai province, the serious issues facing Tibetan language have evidently been weighing on the minds of Tibetan netizens.

Interestingly, the Tibetan language blog sites have been very quiet and prefer not to directly talk about the issues the recent language protests have raised, whilst on the Chinese language blog sites frequented by Tibetans, there is much chatter about the issue. Perhaps the language issues are felt more acutely and painfully by those who have lost their language. 

 The poem below titled "Sorry" was first posted by a Tibetan blogger on their blog on October 23, 2010, and mourns the loss of their ability to read Tibetan. The poem associates the loss of Tibetan language with a concomitant loss of heritage, tradition and culture, as can be seen by the references to Sambhota, the inventor of Tibetan script and the 6th Dalai Lama, an accomplished poet.




"Sorry"

Cough up a yuan for every Chinese word

Tibetans in Zachukha are taking matters into their own hands. As Chinese authorities attempt to further marginalize the Tibetan language by replacing it with Chinese as the medium of instruction in schools, Tibetans in Sershul Monastery have hit upon a brilliant idea to protect their language from Chinese invasion.

The plan works like this: everyone makes an effort to speak in pure Tibetan in the monastery. Every time someone utters a Chinese word, they get fined a yuan!

“…Chinese government officials including the County leaders and an official from the local United Work Front Department arrived at Sershul monastery and confiscated boxes containing money collected as fine for speaking “Drak kay”, a reference used to describe mix of spoken Tibetan and Chinese languages. The government officials told the monks that the system of levying fine on people over spoken language must be stopped. The monks told them that they had forced no one to comply with the fine system and that the people of the area had voluntarily agreed to be fined if they spoke “Drak kay”.”

The news article in Tibet Times goes on to say that since 2008, “Tibetans in the area have been following a rule of sorts to levy penalty of one Yuan on anyone who does not speak pure Tibetan.”

It appears that this new self-imposed rule is spreading through other parts of Tibet. It’s hard to imagine a better way to preserve our language.