Dispatches from Tibet

July 25th, 2008
by Kathleen McLaughlin

Far Eastern Economic Review
Lhasa Diary

Posted on July 25, 2008

As I was strolling near the Jokham Temple in central Lhasa on Friday just after sunset, a young Tibetan man cycled up next to me on his bike.

He greeted me in clear, proper English, asking where I was from and how long I would be in Tibet. My first paranoid thought was of him as a not-too-subtle undercover officer looking for information. My instincts told me otherwise. He somehow seemed too earnest. The young man said he was studying English in Lhasa and was eager to find some foreigners to practice conversation with. When he started studying in the capital, he hoped to use his English with the multitude of foreign tourists who come here each year. Since the troubles of March 14, he smiled, there simply hadn’t been any around to talk with.

He wanted to know, could we trade phone numbers and set up a time to meet and speak English together?

My heart sank a little. When a dozen passing soldiers and two uniformed police eyed us warily, I wanted to run, or to at least warn the young man away. Instead, I smiled and we parted ways. I’m still a little worried he may have been questioned after I left him.

I relate this story only to try to give some idea just how tense and oppressive the atmosphere is these days in Lhasa (and this, I’ve been told, is much freer than it was just a few weeks ago). It is quite clear from words and actions that any Tibetan speaking openly to a foreign journalist would draw unwanted attention and potential trouble from the omnipresent Chinese army and police. Hence, finding, speaking to and protecting potential Tibetan sources during the course of a five-day trip with little time to build trust, and government minders on the watch, is a monumental task.

Whether we are continually monitored or followed, I don’t know. I assume so. With police and army patrolling most street corners, white faces have no chance of escaping notice. Inside the famed Potala Palace, for instance, there are an equal number of People’s Liberation Army uniforms and monks’ robes worn.

I’m not at all concerned for my own safety. Instead, I fear even being seen speaking with me will cause problems for Tibetans living already under these so obviously extreme conditions.

Posted on July 25, 2008

This should be peak tourist season in Tibet. Instead, only a scattered handful of Chinese tour groups seem to be visiting the Tibetan capital’s most prominent places this week. Western tourists are scarce enough to make heads turn.

And while business is bad, the majority of those few tourists who are coming to Lhasa often strike at the heart of the ethnic tensions that spurred riots in March. A Tibetan business proprietor here said her place is usually full of foreigners this time of year, with tourist season in high gear from May through September. Now, she said, just a few Chinese tour groups visit sporadically and making a living is quite tough.

Asked what she thinks of the Chinese groups, the woman rolled her eyes. “Eh, you know we can’t say anything bad about them or we’ll get put in prison,” she said with a wry laugh.

The Chinese government reopened Tibet to domestic tourists in May, while foreign tourists were held off until late June. Locals say though business is bad, it has picked up slightly in the past two weeks or so. It’s unclear what impact the political trauma of Lhasa’s unrest and the Chinese crackdown has had on the desire of foreign tourists to visit here.

Of several Western tourists we approached at the Potala Palace today, all had purchased their tickets and tour packages last year. For several months this spring, they believed Tibet would be off their itinerary. Travelers in a group of about 15 Americans said they only learned a week before leaving for China that their Tibet-entry permits had been granted after all.

The Potala, probably Lhasa’s most famous destination as the former home of the Dalai Lama, is open to tourists and heavily guarded, as are several other key sites. Several monasteries, however, remain off-limits. As I mentioned yesterday, our minder from the Tibetan foreign affairs offices said there are currently four or five groups of Western tourists in Tibet.

It’s easy to see why the tourist ban and slump is a serious problem for Tibet, and for China. According to the Chinese government’s figures, tourism is a strong and rapidly growing peg of Tibet’s economy, accounting for more than 14% of the region’s gross domestic product in 2007. The Xinhua news agency says money brought into Tibet through tourism increased by some 75% in 2007 from a year earlier. There are no official figures available for tourism thus far this year, but it’s clear from streets full of empty souvenir shops that business is barely hanging on.

Chinese businesses are also hurting. Continued bad business conditions here will weaken the government’s oft-touted economic development of Tibet. So the big question now is when and whether the tourists who helped make Lhasa boom will return. Another Tibetan business person asked me to tell Westerners to come back.

“But tell them it’s not just tourism, tell them to think about the Tibetan people,” he said.

A Tibetan pilgrim prays outside the Jokham Temple while a Chinese tour group rests on the sidewalk.

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