Tibet, the "Roof of the World" (Bod to Tibetans, Xizang to the
Chinese), has exerted a pull of almost supernatural proportions
over travellers for many centuries. However, it is today a sad,
subjugated colony of China. The scenery has a majesty and grandeur
that are spellbinding, the religious monuments and practices are
overwhelmingly picturesque and moving, and the Tibetan people are
welcoming and wonderful, but this is a previously proud and
independent nation in thrall to a foreign power: look just a little
below the surface and it is all too apparent that Tibet's past has
been tragic, its present is painful, and the future looks
bleak.
This doesn't mean you should stay away, however. While
tourism provides legitimacy as well as foreign currency to
the Chinese government, many people, the Dalai Lama among them,
believe that travellers should visit Tibet to learn all they can of
the country and its people. Although the daily bureaucratic
irritations for independent visitors can sometimes seem
overwhelming, official Chinese policy is to increase the number of
tourists, and hence tourism earnings, in Tibet. While the Chinese
prefer easily controllable, high-rolling tour parties rather than
the less malleable, less lucrative budget travellers, they are, for
the moment, prepared to tolerate both.
The isolation of Tibet has long stirred the imagination of the
West, yet until the British, under the command of Younghusband,
invaded in 1904, only a trickle of bold eccentrics, adventurers and
the odd missionary had succeeded in getting close to Lhasa, and
then only at serious risk to their lives, for it was firm Tibetan
policy to exclude all influence from the outside world. So great
was the uncertainty about the geographical nature of the country
even 150 years ago that the British in India despatched carefully
trained spies, known as pundits, to walk the length and
breadth of the country, counting their footsteps with rosaries and
mapping as they went. When Younghusband's invasion force finally
reached Lhasa they were, perhaps inevitably, disappointed. One
journalist accompanying them wrote:
If one approached within a league of Lhasa, saw the
glittering domes of the Potala and turned back without entering the
precincts one might still imagine an enchanted city. It was in fact
an unsanitary slum. In the pitted streets pools of rainwater and
piles of refuse were everywhere: the houses were mean and filthy,
the stench pervasive. Pigs and ravens competed for nameless
delicacies in open sewers.
Since 1950 Tibet has become much more accessible with approaches
eased by plane links with Chengdu and Kathmandu. Today's visitors
are perhaps more worldly than to expect a romantic Shangri-la, but
there is no doubt that many people are surprised by the heavy
military and civilian Chinese presence, the modern apartments and
factories alongside traditional Tibetan rural lifestyles and
monasteries.
The massive Tibetan plateau , at an average height of
4500m above sea level, is guarded on all sides by towering mountain
ranges: the Himalaya separates Tibet from India, Nepal and Bhutan
to the south, the Karakoram from Pakistan to the west and the
Kunlun from Xinjiang to the north. To the east, dividing Tibet from
Sichuan and Yunnan, an extensive series of subsidiary ranges covers
almost a thousand kilometres. The plateau is also birthplace to
some of the greatest rivers of Asia, with the Yangzi, Mekong,
Yellow and Salween rising in the east, and the Indus, Brahmaputra,
Sutlej and some feeder rivers of the Ganges in the west near Mount
Kailash.
Covering a massive 1.2 million square kilometres, today's
Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is but a shadow of the
former Tibetan lands. The old area, sometimes referred to as
Greater Tibet or Ethnographic Tibet, was carved up by the Chinese
following their invasion in 1950, when the Amdo and Kham regions
were absorbed into Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces.
The TAR consists only of the West and Central (U-Tsang) regions of
Greater Tibet and divides into four geographical areas. The
northern and largest portion is the almost uninhabited Chang
Tang , a rocky desert averaging 4000m altitude, where winter
temperatures can fall to minus 44°C. South of this is the
mountainous grazing area , land that cannot support settled
agriculture, inhabited by the wide-ranging nomadic people with
their herds of yaks, sheep and goats. The southern valleys ,
sandwiched between this nomad area and the Himalaya along
the southern border, are the most hospitable for human habitation.
Not surprisingly, this is the most populated area and where
visitors spend the majority of their time, particularly in the
extensive valley system of the Tsangpo River (Brahmaputra) and its
tributaries.
There has been heavy Han migration into the region since 1950,
and although it is impossible to know how many Chinese live here
now, it is likely they will soon outnumber Tibetans, if they don't
already. The situation is most marked in the cities, where the
greatest opportunities exist: not only are the numbers of Han
increasing all the time, but they are becoming economically
dominant too.
It's worth bearing a few things in mind while you're here. Many
of the Chinese who have come to Tibet are poor people trying to
make a life for themselves and their families - they may have
little knowledge or understanding of the wider political
implications of their presence here. Also, life in Tibet has taken
its toll on Tibetans, and there have been instances of Tibetans
asking for Dalai Lama pictures or asking foreigners to take letters
to relatives outside the country and then turning the foreigners in
to the security forces to be deported. Be careful whom you trust,
but also be aware of the harm you may be doing. Everyday
conversations are going to cause no damage, but if you are seen to
be asking a lot of politically loaded questions about sensitive
issues then not only are you putting yourself at risk but any
Tibetans who talk to you could be in danger long after you have
left the country.
Tibet offers some of the most awe-inspiring scenery in
the world, and the sheer scale of the high-altitude valleys,
mountains and lakes in which human habitation is but a speck on the
landscape is humbling. Lhasa , Shigatse and
Gyantse offer the most accessible monasteries and
temples - the Jokhang, Tashilunpo and the Kumbum respectively -
and are also tourist-friendly cities with the biggest range of
facilities in the region. The Potala Palace in Lhasa remains
an enduring image of Tibet in the Western mind and should on no
account be missed, and there are plenty of smaller sights in the
city to keep anyone busy for several days. Farther afield, the
Yarlung and Chongye valleys to the southeast boast
temples and ancient monuments, and the ancient walled monastery of
Samye is easily combined with these. The tourist corridor
between Zhangmu on the Nepalese border and Lhasa is relatively
well-trodden these days, although by no means overcrowded, and
offers side-trips to the huge Mongolian-style monastery at
Sakya and to Everest Base Camp .