A dying culture

This was an incredibly busy day, pretty much non-stop, and I am so exhausted I can barely think. Still, I know there are a lot of people reading this blog and I don’t want to let them down by going 24 hours without a new post.

 

We got an incredibly rare opportunity this morning at the hotel before we began venturing out to our activities. We sat down with Pasang, our Tibetan guide, and just asked him questions about this land and its culture. The answers were kinda depressing.

 

We had already seen the erosion of Tibetan culture as we went around the streets of Lhasa. Take a look at these two pictures, which are hardly uncommon in this city.

 

But the invasion of what Tibet has always been is not just coming from the influence of big business into the region. Pasang told us that many Tibetan children barely even know their native language any more. The schools teach everything in Mandarin and treat the native Tibetan language like any other foreign language, such as taking English or French or Japanese. Pasang said Tibetan youth are no longer very interested in becoming monks. The monk population in this highly religious land has declined precipitously in the past few decades. The other religious problem is that the monasteries now almost seem more interested in catering to tourists and making money than they do in actually pursuing traditional religious values and helping people.

 

While you could tell he was reluctant to talk too much about it, Pasang made it clear that the influx of Chinese nationals is bringing about major change in Tibet. The businesses in Lhasa are almost all owned by Han Chinese and they tend to hire other Han people. It is hard for Tibetan nationals to get jobs because they have to know how to read and write Mandarin. Tibet represents about 18% of the territory in China but only has 2.5 million people… that’s about 2/10s of a percent of China’s total population. It is easy to see how the Han Chinese could overcome Tibet without even thinking about it.

 

It was quite a sobering conversation. We realized that the amazing sites we had seen on our visit were things that are slowly disappearing.

 

 

A huge incense burner outside the Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s holiest site.