PICTURE CHINA

While ninety-two percent of the Chinese people belong to the dominant Han ethnic group, there are 55 other recognized ethnic minority groups scattered throughout the country. Muslim Uigur and Mongolian people populate the north of the country, Tibetans in the southwest and Miao in the southern areas bordering Vietnam, Laos and Burma. These groups have historically faced great hardship at the hands of the Han and have had their cultures threatened by Han resettlement. In recent times several groups have been granted status as Autonomous regions and are regaining some control over their lands.

The area straddling the border of Guangxi and Guizhou provinces in Southern China is the home of the China’s Dong minority group and the Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County. The Dong are renowned for their colorful dress, distinctive wooden architecture and incredibly engineered terraced rice fields.

In the villages of Zhaoxing, Che De, and Tang An the Dong people live much as they have for hundreds of years. Farmers work the fields, women use natural indigo dye to make traditional clothing and old men use bamboo to make baskets. Although many things remain the same, the modern world has made inroads even here. Satellite dishes have appeared on some houses, electric mills have replaced the hand milling of rice and in the towns accessible by road, villagers are prepared to greet the occasional Chinese tour bus with handicrafts to sell.

Every fifth day the dusty riverside town of Chong An is transformed into a bustling market as hundreds of people of the Miao ethnic group from the surrounding villages descend on the town. Villagers arrive in their distinctive traditional dress by road, by boat and from countless mountain paths. They come to sell their crops and to buy clothing and household goods.

There are separate sections of the market dedicated to everything that one might need. One street is filled with women selling vegetables, another with dyed cloth and clothing and another lined with butchers. There are areas where live pigs, poultry, fish, cats and dogs are sold and there is a street lined with barbers, dentists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.

While the market serves a very functional purpose for the villagers, it is also a social occasion. Old men smoke and admire each other’s caged songbirds, groups of children buy sweets and there are even gambling tables where people wager a few Yuan on the roll of the dice.

In the backstreets of the Chong An market there is an entire areas dedicated to medicine and dentistry. Some villagers come for traditional Chinese medicine such as herbal remedies, cupping and acupuncture while others come to have an old tooth pulled or have a new set made. Far from the sterile hospitals or modern traditional medicine clinics in China’s large cities, this brand of medicine is practiced out on the streets for all to see.

Lhasa is the capitol of China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region and the epicenter of the Tibetan cultural world. Situated at 3700 meters in a valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped mountains, it is a place that is both beautiful and tragic. Once the home of the Dalai Lamas and the center of Tibetan Buddhism, Lhasa, and Tibet in general, has undergone tremendous hardship since the Chinese “liberated” the country in 1950.*

The Lhasa of today is a divided city. The western half looks much like any other Chinese city. Rows of shops line the wide boulevards and modern glass and concrete buildings are starting to dot the skyline. A mini Tiananmen Square lies opposite the Potala Palace and Chinese flags are strategically places throughout the city.

The Tibetan quarter, on the other hand, retains much of the feel of old Tibet. It is filled with ragged pilgrims who travel from throughout the country to visit the Jokhang, the most holy site in Tibetan Buddhism. From dawn until dusk the area is filled with prostrating believers and permeated by the smell of smoke from giant incense burners.

Despite all that has been lost, Lhasa is still an exciting and evocative place to visit. The Tibetan people are friendly and surprisingly resilient despite all that they have suffered. Like the rest of China, Lhasa is changing rapidly and new train connection will, no doubt, increase the speed of these changes. One can only hope that the Tibetan culture will be able to continue to survive the pressures of Chinese assimilation and modernization.

*In this post, I, like the international community, have referred to Tibet as a province of The People’s Republic of China. The issue of the Chinese occupation of Tibet is complicated and multi-faceted and I will not attempt to delve into it here. To find out more, I recommend these websites:

Wikipedia Article on Tibet
Free Tibet Organization
Official Site of Tibetan Govt in Exile

The Tibetan countryside is one of the most beautiful areas of China. Surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains and dotted with monasteries and holy lakes, it is in the rural areas that the Tibetan culture remains most intact.

Unfortunately, rural Tibet is also among the poorest areas of China with lower incomes and life expectancy than anywhere else in the country. One quarter of Tibetan counties cannot feed or clothe themselves, one third of children don’t go to school and the literacy rate is only 30 percent. Tibet relies heavily on Chinese aid, which had totaled more than 40 billion Yuan ($5 billion) since 1952.

Spread across thousands of villages and small towns, many rural Tibetans live much as they have for thousands of years. Despite the obvious hardship that their lives entail, most Tibetans remain warm and lively and a journey through rural Tibet reveals just how friendly the Tibetan people are.