Home » Tibet China Bhutan » Tibet trip

Tashi dele from Tibet [April-May 1999]

Tibet trip

Agelasto
2004-05-20 20:00:06

Displayed times (last time: )

/>as Chinese officials argue, depends on which historians? views you subscribe to. In any
case, Tibet was a Buddhist kingdom which has had some sort of political relationship with
China for a very long time. At this moment Tibet is fully a part of China. The region is
called the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and the Chinese government policy treats it very
differently from the rest of China. The government pumps in a lot of money into Tibet,
subsidizing health, education and welfare in the cities, and providing various incentives for
Han Chinese who consent to work in what is considered a hardship posting.
Tibet is home to about 2.5 million ethnic Tibetans. In the three Chinese provinces that
border Tibet dwell another 2.5 million Tibetans; there are, for example, complete Tibetan
villages in Sichuan Province, which is to Tibet?s east. There are about another 200,000
Tibetans outside of China, mostly in northern India, where the spiritual leader, the 14th
Dalai Lama, lives, as well as in other countries, mostly the U.S. and Switzerland. Tibet is
not all ethnic Tibetans. There are about one million ethnic Han Chinese in Tibet, mostly
living in the two major cities (Lhasa and Shigatse) or in army outposts. The People?s
Liberation Army is thought to have about 200,000 men stationed in Tibet; most are
involved in road construction, other civil engineering projects and border control. Tibet
borders Burma, India, Bhutan, Nepal and just misses Pakistan.
What surprises most visitors to Tibet is that there are so many Han Chinese. This did not
surprise me, for I was fully aware that Tibet for 50 years has been secured within the
borders of the PRC, something recognized by most of the world?s politicians. I knew that
China has been encouraging Han Chinese to move to Tibet. I also knew that Tibet is
under-populated in relation to over-crowded China. Given this reality I had expected ...