Journey to Tibet 西(藏)遊記
In the 90's, Tibet was briefly open to independent travel. I went to Tibet as a backpacker. This is what I saw and learnt.
“So the good news is we would like to offer you a job, but unfortunately, not to start for another ten weeks”
I thought for a moment, and considered the options. I wanted the job and I wanted to get out of the job I was in.
I could travel.
I had studied Chinese for years but only had brief trips in China. I accepted the job, and in the end decided to have six weeks backpacking. It was 1996. China was different. I covered a lot of ground by train, bus, truck, taxi, tray on the back of a bicycle, horse, camel1 and even airplane.
Reminded of Tibet by the Dalai Lama’s recent PR problems, I thought it was worth sharing what I learnt in the mid 1990’s, and how I learnt it. This substack and the next recount what I learnt, and so much of the general public, including the Chinese public, ignore or forget, when thinking about Tibet and China.
Let’s start with the trip from Labrang Monastery to Golmud by way of Bing Ling Temple, Jiayuguan and DunHuang MoGao Grottoes. Then look at Tibetan “Autonomous Region” in a sub (sequent) stack.
བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ
Labrang Monastery， Xia He
拉卜楞寺，夏河
Labrang Monastery in Xia He is one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug school of Tibetan buddhism and home to the largest number of monks outside the Tibetan “Autonomous” Region (TAR). It is about 200 km southwest of Lanzhou.
At the turn of the 20th century it had about 4000 monks but when I arrived it was relatively quiet. Strolling around the town I could appreciate the Tibetan buddhist architecture and observe the monks daily life and rituals, turning prayer wheels and chanting.
Many of the hotels, certainly the one I first checked into, felt like dumpy official state owned affairs, and the restaurant that “Lonely Planet”2 directed me to for dinner was like an army mess hall, run by grumpy Han Chinese, who didn't like foreigners. The military presence was noticeable, but not overwhelming.
As a backpacker you often meet and befriend other travellers. Young Israeli’s, fresh from 3 years military service, are keen to see the outside world, and I ended up on a table with a friendly couple from Tel Aviv, who I’m guessing, probably had both had combat experience.
We placed our order early and waited. Other (Han Chinese) patrons entered the restaurant, and after a while, got served meals. While I studied the situation, my dinner companions, sensitive to being discriminated against, walked into the kitchen and took prepared meals out to our table.
Cutting a long story short, as the only Mandarin speaker, it fell on me to explain all this to the Public Security Bureau, down at the station, after we were led away by the boys in green. It’s gross exaggeration to say that I spent time in a Chinese jail. It was less than an hour and the door was not locked, not even closed.
I was kicked out of the hotel I had booked into, but was able to move to an informal Tibetan run hotel, with a lively restaurant on the top floor. Since we hadn’t actually eaten, and the hour was late, I appreciated the willingness of the proprietors to keep the kitchen open. We couldn’t communicate very well but we felt very popular. Word of our unintended act of resistance had spread. If it still exists, I thoroughly recommend the Snow Yek hotel.3
Tourism in Xia He was still in its infancy, and still run by Tibetans. The next day I managed to have a horse ride in the grasslands.
So what did I learn in these few days in mid 90’s Gansu ?
Tibet is much bigger than just the TAR. Modern provincial borders have been designed to cut off the corners and make Tibetans minorities within Han dominated provinces.
All the kind sensible Han people I met travelling along the Eastern provinces had no idea of the racism and oppression I witnessed happening to groups like Tibetans. Without freedom to communicate, there is no way minority groups can express their aspirations and demand their rights.
Bing Ling Si Grottoes 炳灵寺石窟
Beginning in the sixteen kingdoms period 304 to 439 AD, and accumulating over hundreds of years, these grottoes have been used for statues, carvings and murals. They reflect the different artistic styles popular in their day.
I couldn’t get an English speaking guide, I got the Japanese speaking guide, an elderly and excitable gentleman. We spoke in Mandarin, but between my lack of vocabulary about art and history, and his local accent, I understood very little. We were standing in the large space in the top left of the photo above, well away from the walkway. Kind of the special up close tour standing on potentially slippery rock.
Inspecting artworks like this (above), I was sure my guide was going to jabber and gesticulate his way off the cliff entirely. Fortunately he was more sure of his footing than I was and he did not fall. I gingerly found my way back to the walking platform. Shaken but not overly stirred.
It was during the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 AD) that Tibet was a prosperous and large kingdom. Its buddhism influenced China and its religious art. This area was on the edge of Tang and Tibetan realms.
Tibet was a big player, with a large territory and a vibrant culture. The climate changed, and their population and influence reduced. They are not another countries ethnic minority (少数民族). Tibet is a nation.
Dunhuang MoGao Caves 敦煌莫高窟
MoGao Caves (Grottoes) near Dunhuang in Gansu contain nearly a thousand years of Chinese buddhist art, demonstrating the influence of the neighbouring Tibetan and Turkic cultures.
MoGao grottoes have become a weapon of history warfare due to the removal of frescoes now at the Harvard Art museum in Cambridge Massachusetts USA by Langdon Warner. Warner was a Harvard professor, Archaeologist, and art historian specialising in East Asian Art. Comparisons are made with Indiana Jones.
I joined a group tour, the only non-Chinese amongst a group of Chinese tourists. The tour guide would raise her voice repeatedly when discussing how “the Americans” “plundered” the site. On occasion, people would turn and stare at me. At the time I knew nothing of this history. Nor had I any connection with the USA.
Despite Warner being approved and licenced (by the Chinese authorities of the time) to explore and remove the frescoes, it probably is time to return Chinese historical relics to China.
I hope that Harvard will study, copy and then return the frescoes to the National Palace Museum in the Republic of China (Taiwan) for safekeeping and display, and that the Museum and ROC authorities will accept them without recrimination, or crowing about a victory over the imperialists. Let everyone save face and encourage the return of more antiquities to their place of origin.
If there is another Cultural Revolution in the mainland then at least those items would be safe. If they get bombed at some point, then they will of course be lost.
Dune tobogganing was the thing to do in Dunhuang, when not looking at frescoes and being accused of plunder. Snow is cold and far away.
Pictured below are two Chinese solo backpackers, fresh out of school, from nearby provinces and out to see the world. It was the first time for both of them that they had left their home provinces which were adjacent or near Gansu.
The young boy kept embarrassing the girl by commenting that her accent was really hard for him to understand. At first I was shocked by his rudeness, but after a while I accepted that he genuinely did not understand.
She had speech impediment, and he really thought that people in her province must all speak like her, since he had never been outside his home province.
Lessons from MoGao
History is a weapon4
China was opening up - to itself ! and the future for the young looked bright and fun.
Dunhuang to Golmud Trip
“He’s just a little kid” said his Mum as she held up her pantless infant to avoid wee on his clothes. She and her husband were sitting next to me on the bus and while I did not pass judgement, I did move my backpack from the floor in time to allow the flow of the yellow river to burst the banks of a dent in the bus floor and inundate the bags of the passenger in front of us.
While annoyed, the passenger affected did not get too upset. This was a long and dicey trip and all of us seemed to accept that a degree of understanding and patience would be required to make it work for us all.
All. Two Japanese male tourists in their 20’s. Me. The majority of passengers represented the demographics of the Gansu / Qinghai area. Hui (moslem Han) (sitting next to me on the bus), non moslem Han, Xinjiang Turkic people (eg Uyghur, Kazakh), and Tibetans (with the wet bag). All on a bus, driving through the rocky desert, rarely sighting another vehicle, let alone a shop with a supply of water or food. They were relatively quiet, possibly nervous. It did not seem like an explosive racial mix, despite the history and the politics. These were country people who simply wanted to get to their destination.
We stopped once or twice in the desert, to do rudimentary vehicle maintenance. I didn’t get a look at the engine, but watching a loose back wheel being put back in place and then the wheel nuts being tightened by hand, and only by hand, made me realise that the risks in this trip were higher than anticipated. In the end the wheel did not fall off, but the engine gave out, on the outskirts of Golmud. Walking to the city would have been long but possible. Night was falling, but a disabled bus was a magnet for taxis, and I made it safely to a hotel.
Learnings:
Think twice before traveling on whatever vehicle is available, just because it is available.
The Qinghai / Gansu area is a multi ethnic land of many very different people with thousands of years of history, including exchange of ideas, religion, goods, technologies, fighting with each other, and forbearance5 including when a kid wees on your luggage.
Golmud to Lhasa:
In Golmud in Qinghai I got a permit to go to Tibet. Upon arrival in Lhasa I was to report to my “guide” who would watch me during my time there.
The trip was four days in a sleeper bus, basically four days lying down as altitude increased incrementally. I only got sick once, fortunately vomiting outside the bus.
How much for a Yak ?
I didn’t speak to many of the others on this trip. I felt too alien but I was conscious that I would learn nothing this way. How could I start a conversation with a real Tibetan ?
I noticed this one guy who looked educated and approachable. I thought his observations and world view might be interesting if only I could engage him in conversation. What would I talk about ?
Me: Excuse me, how much do you think it costs to buy a Yak ? 请问，你认为买个牦牛要多少钱？
Tibetan Gentleman: Do you want to buy that one ?
Me: Well, actually no, it would not be very convenient… I was just curious..
He then proceeded to chat about a range of topics in well pronounced, easily understood Mandarin but quickly made the observation about territory that I had not previously been aware of.
Han people think that because Mongols conquered them and conquered us that now our land is theirs.
He meant the Chinese aspiration to hold onto the same borders as the Qing empire after overthrowing the Qing in 1911, although it all starts with Genghis Khan way before that6. He then proceeded to explain that old Tibet included not just Tibet TAR but Qinghai, and parts of neighbouring provinces like Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu (as I had observed) travelling in these areas.
Shifting Control of Tibetan Territory:7
What made this exchange interesting to me was that he was
Tibetan
Fluent in Mandarin
Probably working in a more developed Chinese city earning a high salary, financially benefiting from China’s economic growth
Proud of his culture, and indignant at the plight of the Tibetan people
He was doing what he needed to do to live in the world as it is, but had not accepted, forgiven or forgotten what had been done to his people. He was pretending to be assimilated into the “pomegranate” of Chinese society.
Chinese education and propaganda has for years and still today uses the analogy of the seeds of a pomegranate to describe ethnic unity.
The problem with this analogy is that pomegranate seeds are IDENTICAL and 56 ethnic groups in China are DIVERSE. 🤦🏻♂️
NEXT Read:
ok, ok, horse and camel were just tourist rides.
Pre - internet, backpackers around the world relied on one publication, to get around. Lose it, and you got lost.
A look at satellite view of Labrang and surrounding area is disorienting. There is dramatic development and what may be a military base. It is likely that herders and villagers may have been moved into the area in a development drive. Less likely but possible is Han settlement, to rebalance the demographics.
Actually I picked that up on my first trip to the PRC. Taiwan has the same Chinese history but for them, history is in the past.
There was yelling for a moment but it was mainly due to being surprised.
I know this is simplistic, look up Wikipedia if you want the full story !
Tibetan_empire_greatest_extent_780s-790s_CEBy Javierfv1212 - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https///commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14732068