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RETURNING TO TIBET

Much of Lhasa was ransacked by Tibetan rioters in 2008. Life in Tibet is finally returning to normal, sort of. The Economist's Beijing correspondent reports on his first visit back ...

From THE ECONOMIST online

In Lhasa the authorities want to project an image of life returning to normal after the riots of March 2008. In some ways it is. The extensive wreckage I saw during my last visit, which happened to coincide with the riots, has long since been cleared. Ethnic Han Chinese whose shops were wrecked and merchandise piled up and burned by Tibetans are back in business. After the violence I had seen Tibetan pilgrims turned away from the Jokhang temple in the heart of Lhasa by gun-waving troops. Now they are flocking to it again, prostrating themselves on the paving slabs outside (two small boys among them wearing sacks to protect their clothing from the wear of countless obeisances).

That I have been allowed to return is doubtless part of the authorities’ efforts. An occasional visit by a journalist gives the impression that the city is open. It is still far from it. Numerous previous requests to go there since the unrest had been turned down (though, it must be said, it was rarely easy for journalists to get permission to go, even before the rioting). Tourism—a crucial driver of the city’s economy—has yet to recover fully. The upheaval unnerved Han Chinese who might have visited from other parts of China. Jittery officials did not help by tightening restrictions on foreign tourists, including a requirement that they be escorted by guides.

My own official guide took me today to Sera monastery, about 3km (2 miles) north of the city. I had tried to visit this important centre of Tibetan learning just after the rioting, only to be detained by police standing guard outside. Sera, and Lhasa’s two other large monasteries Drepung and Ganden, have long been at the forefront of Tibetan dissent. A protest by Sera monks outside the Jokhang temple on March 10th 2008, and a subsequent demonstration by colleagues demanding the monks’ release, were part of the build-up to the violence (directed mainly against property rather than people) in Lhasa four days later.

The police presence outside Sera is hardly less evident than it was on my last, abortive visit. This time I got through with my government escort, but even beyond the police cordon (through which, it seemed, pilgrims were allowed to pass) the ancient monastery itself was teeming with security officials. I probably saw more of them than I saw monks. Half a dozen people in plainclothes accompanied me, along with one of Sera’s senior monks, Qamba Tashi.

The monk enthusiastically described the monastery’s religious artefacts, but was clearly reluctant to give away much of anything about life in Sera today. There were, he said, 500 monks at Sera. A report in the official media last year suggested that there could have been twice as many there when the riots broke out in Lhasa (in which very few monks were seen participating). Some 500 “visiting monks and lodgers” were expelled after the unrest, the report said. Qamba Tashi said that no monks from Sera itself were punished after the riots, though “some” of the temporary residents had been. Again, no details. Visitors would have included long-term students; Sera is one of Tibetan Buddhism’s highest centres of learning.

In downtown Lhasa, approaches to the city’s two main temples, Jokhang and Ramoche, are guarded by clusters of riot police in camouflage uniforms and helmets, armed with batons and—some of them—rifles. Others are stationed on rooftops overlooking the square in front of Jokhang, a large open area surrounded by shops selling Tibetan handicrafts that is often the starting point of any unrest in Lhasa. A foreign tourist describes seeing police get upset when another foreigner took a photograph that included such police in the background.

China needs to be careful if it wishes for a return to normality in Lhasa. There is little sign that it has understood how a massive influx of tourists in 2006, following the inauguration of Tibet’s first rail link with the rest of China, helped fuel the riots. The resulting boom brought with it a large number of ethnic Han immigrants and left some Tibetans feeling marginalised. Extra security measures adopted since the riots are likely to put a lasting damper on tourism here. But they will do nothing to make Tibetans happier.

(This is the first instalment of a correspondent's diary in Tibet, published in The Economist online.)

Picture credit: luthor522 (via Flickr)