Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth2-2

Whatever wrongs and new oppressions introduced by the Chinese after 1959, they did abolish slavery and the Tibetan serfdom system of unpaid labor. They eliminated the many crushing taxes, started work projects, and greatly reduced unemployment and beggary. They established secular schools, thereby breaking the educational monopoly of the monasteries. And they constructed running water and electrical systems in Lhasa.³²

Heinrich Harrer (later revealed to have been a sergeant in Hitler’s SS) wrote a bestseller about his experiences in Tibet that was made into a popular Hollywood movie. He reported that the Tibetans who resisted the Chinese “were predominantly nobles, semi-nobles and lamas; they were punished by being made to perform the lowliest tasks, such as laboring on roads and bridges. They were further humiliated by being made to clean up the city before the tourists arrived.” They also had to live in a camp originally reserved for beggars and vagrants--all of which Harrer treats as sure evidence of the dreadful nature of the Chinese occupation.³³

By 1961, Chinese occupation authorities expropriated the landed estates owned by lords and lamas. They distributed many thousands of acres to tenant farmers and landless peasants, reorganizing them into hundreds of communes.. Herds once owned by nobility were turned over to collectives of poor shepherds. Improvements were made in the breeding of livestock, and new varieties of vegetables and new strains of wheat and barley were introduced, along with irrigation improvements, all of which reportedly led to an increase in agrarian production.³⁴

Many peasants remained as religious as ever, giving alms to the clergy. But monks who had been conscripted as children into the religious orders were now free to renounce the monastic life, and thousands did, especially the younger ones. The remaining clergy lived on modest government stipends and extra income earned by officiating at prayer services, weddings, and funerals.³⁵

Both the Dalai Lama and his advisor and youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal, claimed that “more than 1.2 million Tibetans are dead as a result of the Chinese occupation.”³⁶ The official 1953 census--six years before the Chinese crackdown--recorded the entire population residing in Tibet at 1,274,000.³⁷ Other census counts put the population within Tibet at about two million. If the Chinese killed 1.2 million in the early 1960s then almost all of Tibet, would have been depopulated, transformed into a killing field dotted with death camps and mass graves--of which we have no evidence. The thinly distributed Chinese force in Tibet could not have rounded up, hunted down, and exterminated that many people even if it had spent all its time doing nothing else.

Chinese authorities claim to have put an end to floggings, mutilations, and amputations as a form of criminal punishment. They themselves, however, have been charged with acts of brutality by exile Tibetans. The authorities do admit to “mistakes,” particularly during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when the persecution of religious beliefs reached a high tide in both China and Tibet. After the uprising in the late 1950s, thousands of Tibetans were incarcerated. During the Great Leap Forward, forced collectivization and grain farming were imposed on the Tibetan peasantry, sometimes with disastrous effect on production. In the late 1970s, China began relaxing controls “and tried to undo some of the damage wrought during the previous two decades.”³⁸

In 1980, the Chinese government initiated reforms reportedly designed to grant Tibet a greater degree of self-rule and self-administration. Tibetans would now be allowed to cultivate private plots, sell their harvest surpluses, decide for themselves what crops to grow, and keep yaks and sheep. Communication with the outside world was again permitted, and frontier controls were eased to permit some Tibetans to visit exiled relatives in India and Nepal.³⁹ By the 1980s many of the principal lamas had begun to shuttle back and forth between China and the exile communities abroad, “restoring their monasteries in Tibet and helping to revitalize Buddhism there.”⁴⁰

As of 2007 Tibetan Buddhism was still practiced widely and tolerated by officialdom. Religious pilgrimages and other standard forms of worship were allowed but within limits. All monks and nuns had to sign a loyalty pledge that they would not use their religious position to foment secession or dissent. And displaying photos of the Dalai Lama was declared illegal.⁴¹

In the 1990s, the Han, the ethnic group comprising over 95 percent of China’s immense population, began moving in substantial numbers into Tibet. On the streets of Lhasa and Shigatse, signs of Han colonization are readily visible. Chinese run the factories and many of the shops and vending stalls. Tall office buildings and large shopping centers have been built with funds that might have been better spent on water treatment plants and housing. Chinese cadres in Tibet too often view their Tibetan neighbors as backward and lazy, in need of economic development and “patriotic education.” During the 1990s Tibetan government employees suspected of harboring nationalist sympathies were purged from office, and campaigns were once again launched to discredit the Dalai Lama. Individual Tibetans reportedly were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and forced labor for carrying out separatist activities and engaging in “political subversion.” Some were held in administrative detention without adequate food, water, and blankets, subjected to threats, beatings, and other mistreatment.⁴²

Tibetan history, culture, and certainly religion are slighted in schools. Teaching materials, though translated into Tibetan, focus mainly on Chinese history and culture. Chinese family planning regulations allow a three-child limit for Tibetan families. (There is only a one-child limit for Han families throughout China, and a two-child limit for rural Han families whose first child is a girl.) If a Tibetan couple goes over the three-child limit, the excess children can be denied subsidized daycare, health care, housing, and education. These penalties have been enforced irregularly and vary by district.⁴³ None of these child services, it should be noted, were available to Tibetans before the Chinese takeover.

慈悲的封建制——西藏迷思（第二章之二）

1959年以后随着中国人的进入，不管他们给西藏带来了什么灾难和新压迫，但他们确实废除了奴隶制和剥削性质的西藏农奴制。他们废除了大量存在严重剥削的税收，发展劳动项目，尽力减少失业和赤贫人口。他们建立了世俗学校，打破了被僧侣们垄断的教育系统。并且，他们还在拉萨兴修水利、电力系统。

Heinrich Harrer（后被揭发曾在希特勒近卫军中任职）写作了一本畅销书，描述了他在西藏的经历，并被好莱坞翻拍成电影。他笔下的西藏反华分子“大多都是贵族、小贵族和喇嘛；他们被惩罚进行地位较低的工作，例如修筑道路和桥梁。更为屈辱的是他们被强制在观光者到来之前进行城市清洁工作。”他们还被安排在原来给乞丐和流浪者居住的房子里——所有的这些，都被Harrer引为中国人进驻后的可怕的不法行为的证据。[注33]

1961年，中国当局没收了领主和喇嘛的财产。他们把上千亩土地分配给了租户和无地的农民，并组织了若干公社……曾被贵族占有的牧群，成为了穷牧民管理下的集体财产。畜牧业也得到了很好的发展，随着灌溉系统的完善，各种蔬菜和新品种的小麦、大麦被引进，所有这些带来了农业的发展兴旺。[注34]

尚持有宗教信仰的农民还是会向会向僧侣们施舍。但是自小被征入寺庙的僧侣们可以自由的放弃这种宗教生活，事实上有上千人放弃了僧侣身份，特别是那些年轻人。其余的僧侣们从政府部门可以领到适量的津贴，通过一些祷告工作、婚礼主持和葬礼仪式可以得到额外的补助。[注35]

达赖喇嘛和他的顾问、最小的兄长Tendzin Choegyal声称：“超过1,200,000的西藏人，因为中国的占领致死。”[注36]根据官方1953年的统计数据——中国镇压前6年——西藏当时的人口数为1,274,000。[注37]而另一份人口普查数据则认为西藏人口大约为2,000,000。如果在20世纪60年代，中国人杀害了1,200,000名西藏人，那就相当于将西藏人赶尽杀绝，西藏就会杳无人烟，成为了死亡之地——所有的这些都没有证据证明。即便是什么别的都不干，分布于西藏各地的零散中国势力也是没有办法集中这么多藏民，并杀害他们的。

中国当局称已经废除了鞭笞、残害和截肢这样的犯罪惩罚方式。但是，他们自己却被指控对流亡的藏民犯有暴行。当局承认自己的“错误”，特别是在1966到1976年文化大革命期间，宗教迫害在中国和西藏都达到高潮。20世纪50年代后期的叛乱以后，数千名的藏民被羁押。大跃进期间，劳动集体化和农业经营方式被强加于西藏农民头上，有时这给生产带来了灾难性的影响。20世纪70年代后期，中国开始放松管制“并试图弥补这过去的二十年来造成的伤害。”[注38]

20世纪80年代，中国政府开始改革，报道称这是为了把西藏变为自治地区。西藏人自此可以种植自留地，处理丰收的余粮，自发决定种植种类，拥有自己的牦牛和羊群。与外界的联系被合法化，边境管理放松，允许藏民自由探访流亡在印度和尼泊尔的亲属。[注39]20世纪80年代期间，大喇嘛们开始往返中国和其他海外流亡社区，“以修复西藏的寺院，并帮助他们复兴佛教。”[注40]

直到2007年，西藏佛教还被广泛的传播，并被官方允许。宗教朝圣和一些形式的礼拜在规定范围内被允许进行。所有的僧侣们都被要求签订保证书，称自己不会利用宗教手段来散布分裂主张和不同政见。展示达赖喇嘛的图像被认为是非法的。[注41]

20世纪90年代，占中国人口95%的汉族人开始大量涌入西藏。在拉萨和日喀则的街上，汉族殖民的标志随处可见。中国人拥有工厂和大量商店和摊位。高耸的办公楼和大型商业中心被建立起来，动用的资金原本可以在水利工程和住房建设上得到更好运用。西藏的中国干部认为他们的藏族邻居落后懒惰，需要进行经济建设和“爱国主义教育”。20世纪90年代，西藏政府内部，被认为怀有民族主义思想的分子被清除出干部队伍，诋毁达赖喇嘛的运动再次掀起。因为搞分裂活动和“政治破坏”，一些藏民被拘禁、关押、强制劳动。一些人被行政拘留，却不提供食物、水和防寒物品。他们还遭受威胁、鞭打和其他虐待。[注42]

西藏的历史、文化和宗教信仰的教育，在学校里并没有被重视。尽管使用藏语教学，但是所教授的内容大都关于中国历史和文化。中国家庭规定允许藏民家庭拥有三个孩子。（在中国汉族家庭只能生育一个孩子，另外农村规定汉族家庭第一个孩子是女孩的话，尚可生育第二个孩子。）如果一个藏民家庭违反了三个孩子的规定，超标的孩子不能享受照顾补贴、健康保障项目、住宅补贴和教育权利。这些处罚条例被地方非法强制实施。[注43]必须注意的是，这些相关规定在中国进驻前，藏民从未听说过。

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