Sinicization of Tibet
Encyclopedia
The sinicization of Tibet is the alleged change of Tibetan society to Han Chinese
standards, by means of cultural assimilation
, migration
, and political reform. Sinicization
on the one hand is an inevitable consequence of the presence of a large number of Han Chinese
in Tibet
and on the other hand an active policy of the central government of the People's Republic of China
. The active policy intends to make Tibet an integral part of the Chinese republic and to control Tibetan ambitions of independence. The result, whether in purpose or not, is the disappearance of certain elements of the Tibetan culture
, sometimes called cultural genocide
by the government of Tibet in exile
. The government of China denies of these accusations and sees the reform of the theocratic system and modernization of the Tibetan economy as beneficial to most Tibetans.
, Governor of Qinghai
is accused by Tibetans of having carrying out Sinicization
and Islamification policies in Tibetan areas, spreading along Chinese holidays like New Year and Chinese celebrations along with the Islamic religion and making them marry non tibetans. Forced conversion
and heavy taxes were reported under his rule.
, Kham
, and Ü-Tsang
(but had only control of west Kham and Ü-Tsang). Since 1950, China reorganized the area somewhat, by making east Kham part of Sichuan
, and west Kham part of the newly established Tibet Autonomous Region
.
China calls the entry of its army into Tibet a peaceful liberation; exiled Tibetans call it an invasion
followed by colonization. However, the Chinese government points to population increases and quality of life improvements as justifications for their assertion of power in the historically Chinese-claimed region.
, that is agriculture with a destination to provide for one's family proper only. For this reason the entrance of 35.000 Chinese troops in the 1950s weighed heavily on the food supplies in Tibet. At Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama's visit to Mao Zedong
in Beijing
in 1954, Mao informed him that he would migrate 40,000 Chinese farmers to Tibet.
In the 1960s Chinese authorities forced Tibetan farmers to cultivate corn, instead of barley, the traditional crop of the Himalaya region, resulting in the first famine in Tibetan history. The harvests failed as farmers had feared and thousands of Tibetans starved from hunger.
, to attend Tibetan classes connected to local secondary schools or to a “Tibetan Secondary School” in Mainland China, where these students do not receive any Tibet-related education. In 1996, Chinese authorities declared a total enrolment of 12,590 Tibetan students in such classes. However, research conducted in the late 1990s by J. L. Upton about modern school-based Tibetan language education in the PRC has shown that, contrary to Exile claims, a large part of the content of textbooks was derived from Tibetan sources and dealt largely with Tibetan cultural life.
that was initiated by Mao and was carried on by the Gang of Four
between 1966 and 1976 with the intention of preserving Maoism
as the leading ideology of China. It was an inter-party struggle to eliminate political opposition against Mao.
The Cultural Revolution affected the whole of China and as a result Tibet also suffered greatly. Red guards attacked civilians that were seen as traitors to communism. Thousands of monasteries were looted and destroyed. Monks and nuns were forced to leave their monasteries to live a normal life and those who resisted were imprisoned. The prisoners were forced into hard labor
, maltreated, tortured, and executed. In addition, the Potala Palace
was nearly harmed, but the intervention of Premier Zhou Enlai prevented the Tibetan Red Guards from causing damage.
The central government of the People's Republic of China follows an active policy of migration of Chinese to Tibet, luring them there with attractive bonuses and favorable living conditions. Since the end of the 1990s there have come to be more Chinese than Tibetans in Greater Tibet (but still a minority in the designated Tibetan Autonomous Region). As of 2003, the population consisted of an estimated 6 million ethnic Tibetans and 7.5 million non-Tibetans of different ethnic groups.
In 1949, there were between 300 and 400 Chinese residents in Lhasa. In 1950, the town covered fewer than 3 square kilometres and harboured around 30,000 inhabitants. The Potala Palace and the village of Zhöl below it were considered separate from the city at the time.
In 1953, according to the first population census, Lhasa numbered about residents, including beggars and not counting the monks.
In 1992, Lhasa's permanent population was estimated at a little under people, including Tibetans, Han Chinese and sundry. To that figure must be added something like and temporary residents, for the most part Tibetan pilgrims and traders.
In 2008, Lhasa had 400,000 people, with a majority still being Tibetan.
The 2008 attacks by Tibetans on Han and Hui owned property were allegedly due to large amounts of them moving into Tibet. George Fitzherbert has said that, "Tibetans complain of being robbed of their dignity in their homeland by having their genuinely loved leader incessantly denounced, and of being swamped by Chinese immigration to the point of becoming a minority in their own country."
, a high-profile French
criminal
lawyer
, participated in a well-known French television program devoted to human rights, Apostrophes, in the presence of the 14th Dalaï Lama. Talking about the disappearance of the Tibetan culture
in Tibet
, Robert Badinter used the term "cultural genocide
". Later on, and for the first time in 1993, the Dalaï Lama used the same term, "cultural genocide", to describe the destruction of the Tibetan culture. More recently, at the time of 2008 Tibetan unrest
, he accused the Chinese of Cultural genocide in their crackdown.
In 2008, professor Robert Barnett, director of the Program for Tibetan Studies at Columbia University
, stated that it was time for accusations of cultural genocide to be dropped: "I think we have to get over any suggestion that the Chinese are ill-intentioned or trying to wipe out Tibet." He also voiced his doubts in a book review he published in the New York Review of Books:"Why, if Tibetan culture within Tibet is being 'fast erased from existence', [do] so many Tibetans within Tibet still appear to have a more vigorous cultural life, with over a hundred literary magazines in Tibetan, than their exile counterparts?"
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
standards, by means of cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
, migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
, and political reform. Sinicization
Sinicization
Sinicization, Sinicisation or Sinification, is the linguistic assimilation or cultural assimilation of terms and concepts of the language and culture of China...
on the one hand is an inevitable consequence of the presence of a large number of Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and on the other hand an active policy of the central government of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. The active policy intends to make Tibet an integral part of the Chinese republic and to control Tibetan ambitions of independence. The result, whether in purpose or not, is the disappearance of certain elements of the Tibetan culture
Tibetan culture
Tibetan culture developed under the influence of a number of factors. Contact with neighboring countries and cultures- including Nepal, India and China - have influenced the development of Tibetan culture, but the Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinctive local...
, sometimes called cultural genocide
Cultural genocide
Cultural genocide is a term that lawyer Raphael Lemkin proposed in 1933 as a component to genocide. The term was considered in the 1948 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples juxtaposed next to the term ethnocide, but it was removed in the final document, replaced with...
by the government of Tibet in exile
Central Tibetan Administration
The Central Tibetan Administration , is an organisation based in India with the stated goals of "rehabilitating Tibetan refugees and restoring freedom and happiness in Tibet". It was established by the 14th Dalai Lama in 1959 shortly after his exile from Tibet...
. The government of China denies of these accusations and sees the reform of the theocratic system and modernization of the Tibetan economy as beneficial to most Tibetans.
Historical
The Chinese Muslim General Ma BufangMa Bufang
Ma Bufang was a prominent Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the northwestern province of Qinghai. His rank was Lieutenant-general...
, Governor of Qinghai
Qinghai
Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...
is accused by Tibetans of having carrying out Sinicization
Sinicization
Sinicization, Sinicisation or Sinification, is the linguistic assimilation or cultural assimilation of terms and concepts of the language and culture of China...
and Islamification policies in Tibetan areas, spreading along Chinese holidays like New Year and Chinese celebrations along with the Islamic religion and making them marry non tibetans. Forced conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
and heavy taxes were reported under his rule.
Change of power
In the decades after the collapse of Qing dynasty and preceding 1950, the region roughly corresponding to the modern day TAR was a de facto independent nation. It also printed its own currency and postage, and conducted international relations with foreign countries. It claimed three provinces AmdoAmdo
Amdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
, Kham
Kham
Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...
, and Ü-Tsang
Ü-Tsang
Ü-Tsang , or Tsang-Ü, is one of the three traditional provinces of Tibet, the other two being Amdo and Kham. Geographically Ü-Tsang covered the central and western portions of the Tibetan cultural area, including the Tsang-po watershed, the western districts surrounding and extending past Mount...
(but had only control of west Kham and Ü-Tsang). Since 1950, China reorganized the area somewhat, by making east Kham part of Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, and west Kham part of the newly established Tibet Autonomous Region
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....
.
China calls the entry of its army into Tibet a peaceful liberation; exiled Tibetans call it an invasion
Invasion
An invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
followed by colonization. However, the Chinese government points to population increases and quality of life improvements as justifications for their assertion of power in the historically Chinese-claimed region.
Failures in agriculture
The economy of Tibet is dominated by subsistence agricultureSubsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their families. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye...
, that is agriculture with a destination to provide for one's family proper only. For this reason the entrance of 35.000 Chinese troops in the 1950s weighed heavily on the food supplies in Tibet. At Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama's visit to Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
in 1954, Mao informed him that he would migrate 40,000 Chinese farmers to Tibet.
In the 1960s Chinese authorities forced Tibetan farmers to cultivate corn, instead of barley, the traditional crop of the Himalaya region, resulting in the first famine in Tibetan history. The harvests failed as farmers had feared and thousands of Tibetans starved from hunger.
Sending Tibetan students to China proper
As part of sinicization , Chinese authorities recruit many of high-ranking Tibetans from primary schools to China properChina proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
, to attend Tibetan classes connected to local secondary schools or to a “Tibetan Secondary School” in Mainland China, where these students do not receive any Tibet-related education. In 1996, Chinese authorities declared a total enrolment of 12,590 Tibetan students in such classes. However, research conducted in the late 1990s by J. L. Upton about modern school-based Tibetan language education in the PRC has shown that, contrary to Exile claims, a large part of the content of textbooks was derived from Tibetan sources and dealt largely with Tibetan cultural life.
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution was a revolution involving students and laborers of the Chinese communist partyCommunist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
that was initiated by Mao and was carried on by the Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
between 1966 and 1976 with the intention of preserving Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
as the leading ideology of China. It was an inter-party struggle to eliminate political opposition against Mao.
The Cultural Revolution affected the whole of China and as a result Tibet also suffered greatly. Red guards attacked civilians that were seen as traitors to communism. Thousands of monasteries were looted and destroyed. Monks and nuns were forced to leave their monasteries to live a normal life and those who resisted were imprisoned. The prisoners were forced into hard labor
Hard Labor
Hard Labor is the eleventh album by American rock band Three Dog Night, released in 1974 .- Cover Artwork :The original album cover, depicting of the birth of a record album , was deemed too controversial and was soon reworked with a huge bandage covering the "birth". The cover also includes an...
, maltreated, tortured, and executed. In addition, the Potala Palace
Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It was named after Mount Potala, the abode of Chenresig or Avalokitesvara...
was nearly harmed, but the intervention of Premier Zhou Enlai prevented the Tibetan Red Guards from causing damage.
Migration of Chinese (Mostly Han and Hui)
Tibet is 4,000 metres above sea level, with an annual average temperature below zero. Low pressure and thin oxygen make it very difficult for people outside Tibet to stay there for long periods. As a rule, the Han themselves are not keen on settling in Tibet as their children are subject to pulmonary oedema, and adults to altitude sickness.The central government of the People's Republic of China follows an active policy of migration of Chinese to Tibet, luring them there with attractive bonuses and favorable living conditions. Since the end of the 1990s there have come to be more Chinese than Tibetans in Greater Tibet (but still a minority in the designated Tibetan Autonomous Region). As of 2003, the population consisted of an estimated 6 million ethnic Tibetans and 7.5 million non-Tibetans of different ethnic groups.
In 1949, there were between 300 and 400 Chinese residents in Lhasa. In 1950, the town covered fewer than 3 square kilometres and harboured around 30,000 inhabitants. The Potala Palace and the village of Zhöl below it were considered separate from the city at the time.
In 1953, according to the first population census, Lhasa numbered about residents, including beggars and not counting the monks.
In 1992, Lhasa's permanent population was estimated at a little under people, including Tibetans, Han Chinese and sundry. To that figure must be added something like and temporary residents, for the most part Tibetan pilgrims and traders.
In 2008, Lhasa had 400,000 people, with a majority still being Tibetan.
The 2008 attacks by Tibetans on Han and Hui owned property were allegedly due to large amounts of them moving into Tibet. George Fitzherbert has said that, "Tibetans complain of being robbed of their dignity in their homeland by having their genuinely loved leader incessantly denounced, and of being swamped by Chinese immigration to the point of becoming a minority in their own country."
Cultural identity
Some young Tibetans feel that they are both Tibetans and Chinese and are fluent in both Tibetan and Mandarin.Cultural genocide accusations
In 1989, Robert BadinterRobert Badinter
Robert Badinter is a high-profile French criminal lawyer, university professor and politician mainly known for his struggle against the death penalty, the abolition of which he successfully sponsored in Parliament in 1981...
, a high-profile French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
criminal
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, participated in a well-known French television program devoted to human rights, Apostrophes, in the presence of the 14th Dalaï Lama. Talking about the disappearance of the Tibetan culture
Tibetan culture
Tibetan culture developed under the influence of a number of factors. Contact with neighboring countries and cultures- including Nepal, India and China - have influenced the development of Tibetan culture, but the Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinctive local...
in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, Robert Badinter used the term "cultural genocide
Cultural genocide
Cultural genocide is a term that lawyer Raphael Lemkin proposed in 1933 as a component to genocide. The term was considered in the 1948 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples juxtaposed next to the term ethnocide, but it was removed in the final document, replaced with...
". Later on, and for the first time in 1993, the Dalaï Lama used the same term, "cultural genocide", to describe the destruction of the Tibetan culture. More recently, at the time of 2008 Tibetan unrest
2008 Tibetan unrest
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also known from its Chinese name as the 3•14 Riots, was a series of riots, protests, and demonstrations that started in Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa and spread to other Tibetan areas and a number of monasteries including outside the Tibet Autonomous Region...
, he accused the Chinese of Cultural genocide in their crackdown.
In 2008, professor Robert Barnett, director of the Program for Tibetan Studies at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, stated that it was time for accusations of cultural genocide to be dropped: "I think we have to get over any suggestion that the Chinese are ill-intentioned or trying to wipe out Tibet." He also voiced his doubts in a book review he published in the New York Review of Books:"Why, if Tibetan culture within Tibet is being 'fast erased from existence', [do] so many Tibetans within Tibet still appear to have a more vigorous cultural life, with over a hundred literary magazines in Tibetan, than their exile counterparts?"
Further reading
- Fischer, Andrew M. Urban Fault Lines in Shangri-La: Population and economic foundations of inter-ethnic conflict in the Tibetan areas of Western China Crisis States Working Paper No.42, 2004. London: Crisis States Research Centre (CSRC).