Tibet in the Asian Century

Dr Lobsang Sangay is the political leader of the Tibetan people since the Dalai Lama’s full transfer of his political power to an elected leadership in exile in 2011. Born in a Tibetan refugee settlement in northern India, Lobsang Sangay is the first Tibetan with a PhD from Harvard Law School, achieved in 2004 through a Fullbright scholarship. Dr Sangay has lectured at various universities and think-tanks throughout Europe, Asia and North America. On 28 June 2012, Lobsang Sangay addressed The Sydney Institute during a visit to Australia.

TIBET IN THE ASIAN CENTURY

LOBSANG SANGAY

It is an honour and privilege to be here at the prestigious Sydney Institute.

I can touch on many issues but I would like to start briefly with history and why Tibet matters, from a geopolitical point of view as well as an environmental one; then I would like to discuss aspects of Tibetan democracy and the violence surrounding it.

If you look at any map of China, you find that the Han Chinese-inhabited China is 40 per cent of the area. Sixty per cent continues to be, even today, inhabited by minorities such as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Manchus, Hui, and others mainly in Hunan Province. Tibet is around one fifth of China in physical size, a huge track of land and as  big as Western Europe, or California and Texas combined, or the whole of Western Australia. But its population is only six million.

The whole discussion about what China is, what China will become has been debated and written about for some time. As far as Tibetans are concerned, we have lived side-by-side with the Chinese for a couple of thousand years. So, we know them pretty well. Often they have invaded us over that time, and we have invaded them. At one time, the Tibetan army moved all the way to the Chinese capital Xi’an, and occupied the capital for a month. It even expelled the emperor.

During the Tang dynasty, there was a treaty signed between Tibet and China, which today stands in the form of stone pillars in Lhasa. It says that Tibetans would be happy in the land of Tibet and the Chinese would be happy in the land of China. The treaty is signed by both a Chinese and Tibetan representative. As early as the eighth century, this treat  established that Tibet and China were two different states, or nation states.

During the Tang Dynasty there was a marriage between a Tibetan King and a Chinese princess. Since then, with different Chinese emperors, Chinese historical textbooks have claimed that Tibet became a part of China from that time. In fact, what is not said is that the Tibetan king had a former wife (and queen) who was a princess from Nepal, and he also had a couple of Tibetan wives. The king’s Chinese princess, Wencheng, was only a junior queen. As such, the marriage to Wencheng does not make Tibet a part of China. And perhaps Nepal has priority in such marriages to this Tibetan king.

When this theory of Tibet as a part of China did not convince the scholars, another argument was invented. They moved to the Yuan Dynasty, when Mongols ruled China, and argued that Tibet became part of China from then. But Mongolians are descendents of Genghis Khan, so perhaps Mongolians have more claim over Tibet than the Chinese. That argument is also not convincing.

There is a third line of reasoning that says Tibet became part of China in the Qing Dynasty. But this is a much disputed argument, because at the end of Qing Dynasty, around 1912, Tibet became a de jure independent country or at least de facto independent country. In 1951, Tibet was occupied, or invaded, by China but before that it had its own tax system, its own currency, and not a single case went to the Chinese judicial system. It was an independent country. Nepal submitted its petition for UN membership in the 1970s and among the several reasons it offered for membership was that they had treaty relationship with Tibet.

So Nepal became a member of the United Nations while Tibetans, unfortunately, did not. The story goes that the Tibetan leadership was off guard and failed to apply itself for membership.

When the Chinese army marched into Tibet, they claimed they were liberating Tibetans. One version saw Tibetans as backward, slaves, dirty, filthy, and needing to be civilised. The Zhōngguó, meaning the Middle Kingdom, is China – the Middle Kingdom of the universe, of the whole world. And any barbarians, not just Tibetans, on the periphery of this Middle Kingdom ought to be civilised and liberated. And, under this view, all people beyond Zhōngguó, the Middle Kingdom, are barbarians. So, we all are barbarians, brothers and sisters here in this room, at least most of us.

The Chinese thought they would liberate and civilise Tibetans peacefully. Unfortunately, that liberation was neither peaceful nor civilised, because, as per one account, as high as a million Tibetans perished. They died of starvation or were killed.

Often it is said by the Chinese that, during the Cultural Revolution, most of the monasteries and historical institutions in China and Tibet were destroyed. This is but, not so. By 1963, as per the reports submitted by Panchen Lama to Mao Zedong, who later labelled them a “poison arrow”, 98 per cent of Tibetan monasteries and nunneries were destroyed. This was two years before the Cultural Revolution. With this destruction came massive loss of life and chaos. My parents fled – my father was a monk in a monastery called Litang that was bombarded and destroyed by 1965. He fled to Lhasa and he joined a guerrilla force. Of all the things, he was in charge of arms and ammunitions. So, imagine what this did to him. One day he was a monk and a few months later he was a guerrilla in charge of arms and ammunition. My father saw himself as defending his monastery and his country.

Tibet did not have a standing army as such. At most, they had 10,000 military personnel, probably less than the police force of Sydney. They were outmatched and outgunned by the Chinese. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 80,000 Tibetans fled to India where I was born in a refugee community, a very small village. I grew up in the forest, cutting grass for two cows, at most three cows, and a dozen or so chickens. I went to refugee school, where we ate dhal bhat – lentil soup and rice -every day for ten years.

The question is, why was Tibet invaded? There is a theory, as you might know. The Russians, British India and China were interested in Afghanistan, Tibet and Xinjiang. They divided up these places. British India was given territory all the way to Tibet in 1904 – after the Younghusband expedition which also killed many Tibetans. On the other hand, the Russians were always interested in Afghanistan.

Tibet is geopolitically important. The Chinese military build-up in Tibet is huge. According to some Indian media reports, five major airfields are already there. A sixth one is under construction. Railway lines go all the way from Beijing to Golmud in Qinghai, to Lhasa, and are expanding from Shigatse to Sikkim on the border of India, and one to Nepal.

Highways are now, according to some reports, being built all the way to Indian border areas. And, as we know, China has built a major seaport in Pakistan, and they’re building a major one in Sri Lanka. There was an attempt, at least, to build one in Burma as well. The Burmese military leaders, however, released Aung San Suu Kyi and are now attracting foreign or what they call “democratic friendly investment” from non-Chinese foreign investors. Otherwise, India would have been surrounded by sea, by air and by highways as well.

Tibet has one of the longest borders which stretches from near Kashmir to Bangladesh. Environmentally, Tibet is very important. It is called the Third Pole by some environmentalists because, after Antarctica and the Arctic, Tibet has the third largest reserve of ice. Unlike Antarctica and Artic where the melted ice flows into the ocean, melted Tibetan ice provides fresh water to ten major rivers in Asia. The Indus river, the Brahmaputra, the Salween and the Mekong, the Yangtze River and Yellow River, all start from Tibet. Water is gold nowadays. And Tibet has plenty of water. At least, the origins of most of the major rivers in Asia.

Australia is known for its iron ore and coal, but Tibet also has a lot of minerals. According to Chinese documents, it has some 93 types of minerals, including uranium. One of the largest copper mines in Asia is in Tibet. It has gold and borax; environmentally it is very important.

Now, I’ll briefly go through the investment exiled Tibetans have made in democracy and non-violence in the last many decades, and why the Tibet issue is important for the rest of the world.

Exiled Tibet has invested in democracy and non-violence – as per the vision of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. We have established a Tibetan administration. Even if the Tibet issue is ignored, or not supported, we will keep on with our cause. This sends a signal to other marginalised groups around the world that it’s worth investing in democracy and non-violence. When marginalised groups resort to violence, then tanks rule and helicopters fly to put out the flame. By then it’s a little too late.

So, why is it important for the international community to support Tibet? Because we have invested, and believed in, and have continued to believe in democracy and non-violence.

I will lighten the mood now and briefly take you to the world of Tibetan democracy which might be of some interest. We have just come through our first election campaign. We never have had a campaign before as such. I was both criticised and, supported for introducing this modern election campaign. I introduced a website; a DVD and a pamphlet and a few posters. A Tibetan election is unlike those of other democracies. It’s not fought within districts or provinces, or even within the nation. It’s cross-continental, or global, because Tibetans are scattered over 44 countries.

In this sort of election, I had to fly from Delhi to Zurich, to Boston to Washington DC, to Toronto and back. I did not have the time to make it to Australia. But I had my website.

The seriousness of Tibetan democracy can be illustrated by the Tibetans in Ladakh, near the border of Tibet. On 20 March, it was minus 40 degrees. The Tibetan election commissioner, a local election commissioner, put two ballot boxes on the backs of yaks and donkeys, climbed the mountains for days, and waited. The nomads came down from the tents and voted. Then, they collected the ballots and counted. In Bhandara, it was 40 degrees celcius, and still the Tibetans came out into the heat and voted. From Alaska to Australia, Tibetans voted on a single day. That shows our 50 years of commitment and our investment in a democracy.

The election had a Buddhist element. There were three candidates as runners up, Tenzin Tethong and Tashi Wangdi and myself. I had been nominated by some websites and organisations in some ways by default. And I thought I should give it a go, you know. I called a very good friend and asked his advice – saying, so many websites are nominating me perhaps I should give it a run. Maybe have a shot. And he said that what I really needed was a graceful exit strategy. The other candidates were a former speaker and former deputy speaker of the parliament, a seasoned diplomat and a private secretary of his holiness the Dalai Lama. So who was I? After 16 years at Harvard, did I really think I could parachute down into Dharamsala and win an election?

I called another friend who said to give him two days. When he called back he said that he had talked to all my friends in Dharamsala – that’s where our administration is based – and in Washington DC. None of them would vote for me. This was hardly a recommendation.

So I downloaded my feelings and the situation on a third friend, and he said, “Lobsang – you have nothing to lose, so go for it.” With that encouragement, I set about campaigning. In the final round, there were three candidates. Two of us debated in Dharamsala and the following day we had a debate in Delhi. And now the Buddhist element took over. We looked at each other in Dharamsala and said, hey, let’s take a taxi together. And we took a 12-hour taxi ride from Dharamsala to Delhi together. There I was the whole night with my rival.

By the time we reached Delhi, it was 2am and most hotels were closed. Our two organisers found one hotel still open where we asked for four rooms but were only offered two. So it was organisers in one room and candidates in the other. We had a sumptuous breakfast followed by hearty debate, then a good lunch together and said good bye, giving each other various campaign. We were such buddies by then, we were offering help to each other on ways to improve each other’s chances of gaining support. It was very Buddhist.

On 10 March, with 20 March the final round, we were looking forward to hearing His Holiness the Dalai Lama make his most important speech of the year. I was sitting at the back-end of the podium. His holiness is our spiritual leader and political leader; we serve him and the Tibetan people.

But, his holiness had a different idea. On 10 March, he announced that he was giving up his political authority to whoever was elected. I nearly lost my balance – here I was trying to be his political successor. He was His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nobel laureate, Templeton Prize winner, Global statesman. I was trying to fill his shoes, the biggest shoes ever. And, then I thought, oh my goodness, what am I supposed to do? Now I thought was the time for my friend’s advice to have a means of decent withdrawal.  It was too late because I won an overwhelming majority in the preliminary round, ten days before the final vote.

I took a deep breath to stop the paralysis. It was then I told myself this is my destiny, my karma. Tibetans must take the responsibility to move forward, to lead the cause. We have fulfilled the legacy of the older generation, honoured the sacrifices of the older generation and built on the hard work of the older generation. We had to fulfil the expectations of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and Tibetans inside Tibet. With that pledge, I stepped forward.

On 20 March, Tibetans all over the world voted. On 27 April I was declared the winner, the least experienced, the youngest, one who had never worked in Dharamsala, who had lived 16 years in America with central heating. Now I was going to Dharamsala where in the winter it’s warmer outside the house than inside the house. So, I welcome you all to come to Dharamsala, but not in winter.

So now, I’m hardly the highest paid executive in the world on $360 a month. But, I’m a Tibetan. Tibet is my homeland. The Tibetan cause is our cause. No matter how difficult it is, we have invested in democracy and we have invested in non-violence. There have been, some 50 non-violent cases, communities or nation states, who have prevailed. And we want to be one of the successful stories of the twenty-first century. With your support, your interest, your engagement, we will get there, we will climb the Himalayan Mountains and we will reach the mountain-top and look forward and see freedom on the Tibetan side. That will be the day when we will all go back, the day Tibetans in Tibet are waiting for. That is the expectation of Tibetans in Tibet – to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

You might have read how 42 Tibetans have committed self-immolations, of which 35 have died. This reflects how desperate the situation is, and how tragic the situation is. Given a choice, we want to live rather than die. These Tibetans say, the precious life that I have, I’ll give up. Because, the situation is unbearable, and it should be taken note by the government in Beijing and by people around the world. We want to see genuine autonomy within China; within the framework of the Chinese constitution. We are not challenging China’s sovereignty or territorial integrity. What we are saying is, if the Chinese government implements its own laws, it could amount to genuine autonomy for us. It is a reasonable demand. It is a moderate demand. Unfortunately, the Chinese government refuses to solve the issue of Tibet even today.

Instead, it is clamp down, crack down and oppression of the Tibetan people. The Chinese government recently announced it would shut down Lhasa, the capital city, as well as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, to foreign tourists and discourage Chinese tourists. They have threatened to throw out Tibetans who have come from other places to Lhasa where the military presence is very high. If you go to Lhasa, there are sharp shooters on rooftops, there are military personnel in uniform marching up and down, in civilian clothes as well. Tibetans feel real suffocation.

We do, however, believe our day will come, and we shall fight our cause democratically and non-violently. Till then, remain with us, remain engaged with us. Remain with what we cherish and aspire to. Our values are enshrined in the Australian Constitution and Australian values; human rights, freedom, and democracy.