Please take action now to resist this plan and protect religious freedom in Tibet. Tibet is rich in tradition and some Tibetans, particularly nomads, have lifestyles that have changed little over generations. It is also a modern country with many urban Tibetans living busy city lives.
Communications are very important to Tibetans and the use of mobile phones and the internet is extensive, including in some of the most remote parts of Tibet. While China attempts to prevent Tibetans accessing foreign media and influences, Tibetans work hard to circumvent restrictions and engage with the world beyond their borders.
Many young people are seeking new ways to resist China's rule and to preserve Tibetan culture. Moving across the Tibetan plateau whilst raising yaks and other livestock has been a way of life in Tibet for centuries. Since the early s, China has sought to enforce its control on Tibet by destroying the nomadic way of life. It has moved more than two million Tibetan nomads from the land they have lived off for generations to barrack-like urban settlements.
Torn from all they know, nomads face poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. Tibetan nomads have protested resettlement programmes and also Chinese mining and damming projects which threaten their environment.
Often they resist construction that threatens to damage sacred lakes and mountains. Tibetans speak a number of languages. These are completely separate from Chinese languages, and all of them are currently threatened by the aggressive promotion of Mandarin Chinese as the official language of business, education and government.
Although the written form of Tibetan is taught in some schools, primary and secondary education is taught predominantly in Mandarin, with Tibetan as a second language. Entrance exams to universities are in Chinese. As a result, some young Tibetans are not literate in Tibetan. Many Tibetans have deep anxieties about the fate of the Tibetan script and of spoken Tibetan, but their efforts to promote the language through education are heavily repressed by the state.
Many Tibetans work to preserve Tibetan culture, such as by running local language classes. However, those doing so are coming under increasing pressure, with authorities in some areas of Tibet forcing monasteries to stop providing Tibetan classes to local communities. Tashi Wangchuk , who spoke out against the growing restrictions, was arrested in and served a five-year prison sentence. Several jailed musicians have also written songs calling for use of Tibetans' mother tongue — for example, Kalsang Yarphel , who was sentenced to four years in prison.
The Tibetan gown which is very big also serves as both mattress and quilt at night. Lamas wear the kasaya, a patchwork outer vestment of purplish red felt. They wrap their bodies with long pieces of cloth and wear aprons, tall boots and monks' hats. Zamba, roasted qingko barley or pea meal mixed with tea, is the staple food of Tibetan peasants. Tea with butter or milk is the favorite of all Tibetans.
Buttered tea is made in a wooden tub. In pastoral areas, the staple foods are beef and mutton. They eat out of wooden bowls and with short-handled knives which they always carry with them. The Tibetans take five or six light meals a day and have a liking for qingko wine. Sour milk and cheese are also standard fare. In some areas, people also eat rice and noodles. Women in pastoral areas use butter as ointment to protect their skin. Lamas may eat meat.
People in the farming areas live in stone houses while those in pastoral areas camp in tents. The Tibetan house has a flat roof and many windows, being simple in structure and color. Of a distinctive national style, Tibetan houses are often built on elevated sunny sites facing the south.
In the monasteries, the main hall also serves as the prayer hall, with dagobas of different sizes built in front of the main entrance for burning pine and cypress twigs. There are numerous prayer wheels, which are to be turned clockwise in praying for happiness and hoping to avert disaster.
Communications were poor in the old days, with yaks and mules as the chief means of transport. Riding horses were reserved for the manorial lords, who decorated the saddles according to their ranks and positions. Cattle hide rafts, wooden boats and canoes hewed out of logs were used in water transportation. Suspension, cable and simple wooden bridges were seen occasionally.
In some big towns and monasteries, there were a few carpenters, blacksmiths, stone carvers and weavers. They, too, had to perform services and pay taxes to manorial lords and were looked down upon by other people.
Farmers used crude implements such as iron plough shares, hoes, sickles and rakes and wooden tools. Cultivation was extensive, with crop rotation and fallow. Weeding and manuring were done very rarely, resulting in low output. In livestock breeding areas, the tools were even more primitive. Herds were moved about with the seasons, and the herdsmen never laid aside fodder nor built sheds for the winter.
Farmers and livestock breeders had no way of resisting natural calamities and pests, but praying to gods for protection. Natural disasters usually devastated large tracts of land and took heavy tolls of animals.
The Tibetan family is male-centered and marriage is a strictly inner-class affair. Marriage relationships vary from place to place. In some areas, cousins on the male line are forbidden to marry while cousins on the female line who are several times removed are allowed to marry each other. In other areas, cousins on the male line who are several times removed may marry each other, with no restrictions on intermarriages between relatives on the female line.
Monogamy is the principal form of marriage. There is no inhibition on social intercourse between young men and women before marriage. The husband controls and inherits the property of the family and the wife is subordinate to the husband, even if he is married into a woman's family. The proportion of polygamy is small.
Marriages between serfs had to be approved by their manorial lords. When serfs on different manors got married, one party had to pay a certain amount of ransom to the manorial lord of the other party or the manorial lord of one party had to give a serf to the other lord as compensation.
Without the permission of their manorial lords, the serfs could not get married all their lives. The commandments of the yellow sect Lama, which holds a predominant position in Lamaism, forbid the monks to marry. Monks belonging to the other sects are free to marry and the weddings are held at religious services in their lamaseries.
The most common form of burial in Tibet is sky burial, called Jator, meaning "feeding the birds. Upon the death of a reincarnate living Buddha, a grand ceremony is held. Having been embalmed with spices and antiseptics, the body is wrapped in five-colored silk, and enshrined in a dagoba.
The bodies of ordinary living Buddhas and higher lamas are usually cremated after being rubbed with butter, and the ashes are kept in a designated place as the last dedication to the monastery.
But cremation is forbidden in the harvest season. All these forms of burial indicate that the deceased have gone to the next world. In the old days, ceremonies and religious rites were held for weddings, burials or births in the homes of manorial lords.
For the serfs, however, these meant nothing but extra services. Women had to give births outside their houses and women serfs had to work only a few days after delivery. Lack of proper medical care and nutrition resulted in a very high infant mortality rate. The strict social caste system was manifested even in the use of language.
The Tibetan language has three major forms of expression: the most respectful, the respectful and the everyday speech, to be used respectively to one's superiors, one's peers and one's inferiors. The social distinctions were also reflected in people's dresses, houses, horses and Hadas -- silk scarves presented on all social occasions to show respect.
Lamaism belongs to the Mahayana School of Buddhism, which was introduced into Tibet in the seventh century and developed into Lamaism by assimilating some of the beliefs and rites of the local religion called "Bon. Apart from the Red sect, all the others, including the White sect, the Sakya sect and the Yellow sect, established at different times local regimes that integrated political and religious powers. The Yellow sect practices the institution of reincarnation of living Buddhas.
It was stipulated during the Qing Dynasty that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Bainqen Lama and other Grand Living Buddhas of the Yellow sect had to be approved by the Qing court or determined by drawing lots from a gold urn.
When a Grand Living Buddha dies, his disciples are required to choose a child, in most cases from a noble family, to be his reincarnation. Monasteries of the Yellow sect are scattered all over the Tibetan areas. In the western part of Tibet and the pastoral areas of Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, the early Tibetan native religion, the Bon, known locally as the Black sect, is still active.
There are also Taoist temples built by the Han people, mosques built by the Huis and some Christian and Catholic churches built by foreign missionaries in a few places. A large amount of cultural relics, including ancient scripts, woodblock, metal and stone carvings, have been preserved in the Tibetan areas. The engraved block printing technique was introduced from other parts of China. Some books were written in Sanskrist on loose leaves. Apart from the two well-known collections of Buddhist scriptures known as the Kanjur and the Tanjur, there are works on prosody, language, philosophy, history, geography, astronomy, mathematics and medicine as well as novels, operas, biographies, poetry, stories and fables, which are all distinguished for their unique styles.
Education in the Tibetan areas used to be monopolized by the monasteries. Some of the lamas in big lamaseries, who had learned to read and write and recite Buddhist scriptures and who had passed the test of catechism in the Buddhist doctrine, would be given the degree of Gexi, the equivalent of the doctoral degree in theology. Others, after a period of training, would be qualified to serve as religious officials or preside over religious rites.
Tibetan medicine has a long history. Doctors of this school of medicine pay great attention to practical skills. They diagnose illnesses by observation, auscultation, smelling, interrogation and pulse feeling. They also know how to collect medicinal herbs and prepare drugs and are skilled in acupuncture, moxibustion and surgery. Tibetan doctors are especially outstanding in veterinary medicine.
The Tibetans have their own calendar. They designate the years by using the five elements metal, wood, water, fire and earth , yin and yang, and the 12 animals representing the 12 Earthly Branches. A year is divided into four seasons and 12 months; which have 29 or 30 days. The technique of Tibetan sculpture is superb. The portraits of the Grand Living Buddhas are the very images of the persons depicted.
Tibetan painting features fine lines, well-knitted composition, vivid expressions of figures and bright colors. Tibetan architecture is unique in style, with buildings neatly arranged or rising like magnificent towers and castles.
The Potala Palace in Lhasa was built on the sunny side of a mountain slope. With golden roofs and white-washed walls, the building rises naturally with the slope, looking extremely imposing. It is a masterpiece of Tibetan architecture. Maxims and proverbs are very popular among the Tibetans. The metaphors are lively and pregnant with meaning.
Tibetans are also good dancers and singers. Their songs and music are well-modulated in tone and the words fit well with the tunes. They often dance while they sing.
Their dancing is beautiful with movements executed either with the arms and waist or with legs and feet, and the tap dance is most typically Tibetan.
Most of the musical instruments were introduced from the interior of China. Long-handled drums and trumpets are the main musical instruments used by the lamas. They can depict natural sounds, the cries of animals and the singing of birds that can be heard at a great distance. Religious dances are often performed by people wearing masks of deities, humans or animals.
The Tibetan opera is one of the famous opera forms in China. It is performed without curtain or stage. In the past, all performers were men. Wearing masks, they danced and sang to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Sometimes the orchestra would chime in with the singers, creating a lively atmosphere.
There are many taboos and activities that bear a strong mark of religion. Buddhists are forbidden to kill. Many wild animals, including fish, field vole, Mongolian gazelle and vulture, are under protection. The Tibetans, rich or poor, all have family niches for keeping Buddha statues. Most people wear a metal amulet box, about the size of a cigarette case, on the breast, and turn prayer wheels. It is forbidden to turn prayer wheels counter-clockwise and stride over ritual objects and braziers.
The Tibetan New Year is the most important festival in Tibet. People in their holiday best extend greetings to each other and go to the monasteries to receive blessings. On the 15th day of the first moon, all major monasteries hold religious rites and all families light up butter lamps when night falls. It is also the occasion for lamas in the Ta'er Ghumbum monastery in Qinghai and the Qoikang monastery in Lhasa to display their exquisite and beautifully decorated butter carvings.
Post Life With the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, , the Tibetan areas in the western part of the country was liberated one after another and the Tibetans there entered a new period of historical development. In , representatives of the Central People's Government and the Tibet local government held negotiations in Beijing and signed on May 23 a article agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet. Soon afterwards, the central government representative Zhang Jingwu arrived in Lhasa and Chinese People's Liberation Army units marched into Tibet from Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan in accordance with the agreement.
The Dalai Lama, Bainqen Erdini and representatives of the Tibetan people attended the congress and later visited various places in the country. The State Council then called a meeting at which representatives of the Tibet local government, the Bainqen Kampo Lija and the Qamdo People's Liberation Committee formed a preparatory group for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region after repeated consultations and discussions. But by the eleventh century Tibet had acquired all the Buddhism it could from India, as Buddhism as an organized religion had ceased to exist there.
Political influence from China had been strong during the Tang Dynasty, in the seventh and eighth centuries mainly, and had been all but nonexistent during the period of the Sung.
The Mongol Yuan Dynasty had claimed authority over Tibet but the actual effect was small. Not until did a "Chinese" dynasty, this time the Manchu Ching Dynasty, gain control over Tibetan political affairs. Thus the Tibetans had many centuries to develop and combine the influences received at an earlier date into their own unique political and religious systems. The most unique aspect of the Tibetan system is that they did indeed combine the political and the religious, even providing for political succession by the Buddhist method of reincarnation.
The main strengths of Tibetan culture, or of Tibetan high culture, derive from this long period of relative isolation. Besides racial and linguistic differences, it is the uniqueness of the political and cultural system developed by the Tibetans which is the basis of their claim of independence from China, and which must sustain them in their abrupt entry into the modern world. Modern Tibetan culture has been subjected to strong disintegrating influences including the obvious trauma of loss of independence.
These influences can be classified in three broad categories, each of potential terminal impact. Chronologically they include: 1 Chinese colonialism; 2 Communist Chinese minorities policies and attempts to "build socialism" in Tibet; and 3 modernization, including the impact of communications media and tourism.
The modern Chinese state is composed of many formerly independent small states. The latest additions in this process are the territories acquired after the establishment of the Peoples' Republic: Inner Mongolia, Xinziang East Turkestan and Tibet. China regarded Tibet as an independent if subservient state up until , when the Manchu Ching Dynasty gained, by invasion, supervision over Tibetan political affairs.
This supervision or suzerainty was effective only until , when China was fragmented by the Opium Wars and subsequent period of European colonialism. Tibetan independence was re-established in by the 13th Dalai Lama at the time of the fall of the Manchu Dynasty.
Chinese claims that "Tibet is and has always been part of China" have little basis in fact; but Chinese intentions toward Tibet are obvious if unfulfilled until recently.
The greatest threat to the survival of Tibetan culture came with the Chinese "liberation" in and the flight of the Dalai Lama to India in Although committed by the 17 Point Agreement of to preserve the political and cultural autonomy of Tibet, the Chinese in their attempts to impose policies of "socialization" left little to the authority of the Tibetan government.
Gaining a free hand by the departure of the Dalai Lama and collapse of the traditional Tibetan government in , the Chinese intensified their attempts to transform Tibetan society according to the doctrines and techniques of socialism. Throughout the s and s, traditional Tibetan culture was subjected to tremendous reform pressure.
Traditional organization of society was intentionally fragmented and an economic class basis artificially implemented in a society, which with one obvious exception - the major division between the aristocracy and commoners - had indistinct class divisions.
Tibetan language was simplified, by elimination of honorifics and the introduction of "proletarian" terminology, and de-emphasized in schools in favor of Chinese. Buddhism was eradicated as far as possible both in its physical and spiritual forms.
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