Sixty Years: Language Matters
Today is International Mother Language Day, a day cited by
UNESCO and one that you would think would be celebrated by all people across the
globe. Language is the marker that identifies our commonalities and our diversities
in a way that no outward appearance can. Learning a language other than one’s own
breaks down barriers and builds an appreciation for and a sense of communion with
other humans. Learning another’s language is a true sign of some degree of
empathy. Or so I think it should be. Others don’t feel that way
It goes without saying that if you can eradicate a language,
you have effectively eradicated a culture. The government of the People’s
Republic of China has been attempting to do this with the Tibetan language (and
by extension, Tibetan culture) for decades. It has stepped up its machinations
a good bit in the past couple of years with a measure of success. Across a spectrum
of cultural areas (music, language, nomadic traditions, religion, and for that
matter, history), Tibet is being erased on a regular basis via dis- and misinformation,
and on-going Sinicization.
In a world where facts are regularly disputed and ignored
because they’re inconvenient or run counter to a wished-for prevailing
narrative, it’s too easy for the past to become less than a fairy-tale and more
a gaping memory hole. Amnesia on a grand scale enables a whole restructuring of
history and can lead to the erasure of elements that just because they’re true,
doesn’t mean they can’t be replaced. This extends to historicity and to people.
To people.
This is why some of us care. For sixty years, the world has
watched the slow eradication of Tibetan culture from the Tibetan plateau. The
dismantling/absorption of what was historically Tibet happened relatively
quickly with Amdo and Kham being swallowed up into the maw of the PRC; but Central
Tibet remains as the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It’s difficult to watch the dissolution
of part of humanity’s heritage play out before your eyes, across your lifetime.
However, that’s the case for me. Tibet fell to China’s Red Army when I was a
year and three months or so old. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of change in the
world; some of it really quite good. Tibet’s falling to China is not part of
that.
My Tibetan is generally and genuinely wretched. I can’t claim
any great competence in spoken colloquial Tibetan, but I can stammer my way
through a conversation. Fortunately, I can read it pretty well and that reaps
dividends in studying historical and religious texts (oh, and signs and news
articles). Many of my friends are Tibetan, in the U.S. and abroad, and not a
single one is unaffected by what happens in their homeland.
In the darkest moments, it’s difficult to see how Tibet will
ever be free, given the current situation. There is, however, some hope to be
found in knowing that the language isn’t necessarily dying. It’s in danger, but
Tibetan or some form of Tibetan dialect is spoken across the Himalaya region, outside
of Tibet.
Mustangi, Manange, Gurung, Sherpa, and Tokpe Gola are Tibetic
languages spoken throughout Nepal. Dzongkha is a Tibetic language in Bhutan.
Central Tibetan is mostly found across the Tibetan diaspora in India, though
you're likely to run into Amdo and Kham dialects, as well. It’s a brutal scenario
that the Tibetan language is being driven underground in its homeland, but
might actually survive in exile.
Estimates are that there are some six million Tibetan
speakers in the world (not including the Tibetic derivations referred to
above); the language continues across academic disciplines and through
interactions with inji (like me!) who picked it up for a variety of
other reasons. In other words, Tibetan is unlikely to vanish and as long as the
language does not vanish, the hold that China has on Tibet will forever be
arguable.
Having said that, I’ve run into more than a few people who
say, “Look, is it really so bad for the Tibetans? China’s built up an
infrastructure! They have modern technology! They’re not so backward anymore!”
The presumptions in this kind of reasoning are mind-numbing.
I’ll be returning to these points over and over again, but
this time, I’ll make it quick. Is it really so bad for the Tibetans? Yes. It
is. Unless they’re members of the CCP, and even then, Tibetans are regarded as
second-class citizens, at best. The amenities available for Tibetan communist
cadres are significant. For Chinese cadres even more so. For the quotidian
Tibetan, not so much.
Marginalization and being removed from your family’s land
is more than likely not something most people would regard as a plus.The infrastructure was not improved for the benefit of the
Tibetan people. China’s Communist Party is not interested in the well-being of
the so-called “Han minorities” (an oxymoron that stymies rational thought).
Tibet does not exist as anything more than a resource for Chinese industry and
capital. Which brings us to the environment; mining and development has despoiled
soil, air, and water across the plateau. Tibet is a mother lode of mother lodes
for copper, lithium, uranium, and gold, to name a few minerals. However, the
cost of this is paid for environmentally, demographically, and socially.
Pastoral population dislocation, heavy metal pollution of
soil, ground water and estuaries like the Lhasa River (and by extension, the
Yarlung Tsangpo) lead to more than the inconvenience of relocating to a
different neighborhood or a few tracts of land now rendered toxic or useless.
Entire ways of life have been disrupted, crops and food supplies contaminated, communities
decimated, and major rivers that flow from the Tibetan Plateau are more polluted.
And it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak, read, teach,
or learn Tibetan in Tibet.
Over the coming two weeks, I’ll be taking a look at the ramifications
of the invasion and occupation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China. I’ll
post references and links to resources and hopefully, provide some greater
context for why Tibet matters (still). The age of colonization is far from
over. Empires still exist in corporate, if not national forms, and Tibet is
emblematic and a cautionary tale of the effects of “liberation” by a larger and
more powerful country.
I will also be critiquing the approach by allies of Tibetan
independence and – sorry to my friends who are Middle Way supporters –
particularly, the Middle Way Policy adopted by the Central Tibetan Administration
(CTA; the Tibetan Government in Exile).
It’s bleak, but I think there are signs that Tibet’s situation
is not completely hopeless. The issues we run into when we view events through
absolutist lenses are often more fluid and subject to change than we may be
aware of.
References/resources (with some notes):
https://tibettruth.com/2019/02/21/tibet-censored-by-unesco-and-international-mother-language-day/:
while I appreciate the work Tibet Truth aims to do, and largely agree with
them, there’s a tendency to hyperbole and extreme readings that taint the
reporting with a kind of panic that while understandable, lends a “clickbait”
feeling to their work Yes, the Tibet situation is critical and demands more
fervent responses and action, but all too often, this is undermined by punchy, “look
at this; you won’t believe what’s going on” rhetoric. Nevertheless, they do support
their posts and provide links to other sources.
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