The purest air and the bluest sky in the world. This is what I
first saw in Tibet when I went there some 20 years ago.
Under the blinding sunshine were men wrapped up in sheep hides.
With chest and arms exposed to the air, they chatted merrily with
girls with deeply sun-tanned cheeks.
Out of my love for art, I spent one year there.
From my Tibetan friends I came to understand how Tibet had groaned
under serfdom before 1959, the year the Democratic Reform took
place in the region. About 95 percent of the Tibetan people were
either serfs or slaves under serfdom. They owned no fields, no
grassland, no forests and no production tools, all of which
belonged to the serf and slave owners. These serf and slave owners,
who made up less than 5 percent of the Tibetan population,
controlled everything. They were free to transfer, mortgage, sell
or buy their slaves or use them as gifts.
Not only the local authorities but also large monasteries, manorial
lords and tribal chiefs were empowered to handle legal cases and
set up jails.
According to the legal code then enforced in Tibet, the Tibetans
were divided into nine grades in three classes. Serfs and slaves
were listed at the bottom of the social level. If they violated any
rules set by their owners, punishments included gouging out eyes,
cutting off tongues, hands and feet, pushing people off cliffs,
drowning and beheading. I once saw victims who had suffered some of
these punishments.
When the 17-Article Agreement was signed for Tibet's peaceful
liberation in May 1951, the central government allowed the local
government of Tibet to retain the old social system and pledged not
to embark on reform until conditions were appropriate. The 14th
Dalai Lama expressed his support for the People's Liberation Army
(PLA) to enter Tibet "to consolidate national defense, expel
imperialist forces and defend the unification of the territory of
the motherland."
Under the instigation of reactionary forces, however, the 14th
Dalai Lama tore up the 17-Article Agreement and staged an armed
rebellion. When the rebellion was suppressed, he fled to India and
lives there to this day.
The central government then started to undertake democratic reform
and the changing of the old social system. Serfs and slaves won
emancipation.
Some 40 years have passed. Tibet has achieved bumper harvests, and
livestock breeding has developed apace. The region's agricultural
output value has increased many hundredfold. Modern industries,
transport, school education, medicare, science and technology,
which did not exist in Tibet before, all now show shining progress.
Tibet has got rid of the closed feudal system and entered a modern
society. My friends, who were former slaves, told me: "We have
jumped from hell to paradise."
Not all in Tibet are satisfied with the situation. There were those
who did not want to accept the loss of the paradisiacal life they
enjoyed under serfdom. They collaborate with overseas anti-China
forces to mislead people who were ignorant of the situation. I came
across many of these people abroad.
During a painting show I held in India, an Indian woman pointed at
a portrait, saying "The old Chinese man is well painted." When I
told her the old man was a Tibetan, the Indian woman burst into
laughter. "If you say Tibet is part of China, India will be part of
China in the future." I told her Tibet has been part of Chinese
territory since the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century. India is an
independent country, and China has never claimed one inch of Indian
territory. I advised her to read books on that period of
history.
Some of my American friends yearn to understand Tibet. One of them
phoned me, saying an encyclopaedia stated that "China occupied
Tibet in the 1950s." He asked me to explain this. He had no vicious
intent in making this inquiry. I asked him whether the book said
Tibet was an independent state before the 1950s and he said no. I
then explained that it was very natural for Tibet to win
liberation, then I asked him when Beijing and Shanghai were
liberated, would it have been correct to say they were "occupied by
the Chinese?" Obviously not.
When Richard Gere "advised" the Chinese leaders to "leave Tibet"
during an Oscar awards ceremony, I flew into a rage. I brought
together some reporters for a press conference and refuted his
fallacy. I told them the history of Tibet, advising them not to
view the central government's liberation of Tibet in the same light
as the white people's attempts to drive the Indians out of the
United States. I also told them how the central government and
various fraternal provinces offered aid to Tibet.
The central government and the whole country are doing their best
to assist Tibet in economic construction, but there are people who
allege that the Chinese are "invading" and "occupying" Tibet. I can
hardly allow such slander.
When people are told the truth, they understand. They were appalled
to see documents issued by the local government of Tibet in the
late 1940s, and the human skulls, blood, skin and intestines, which
were used as sacrifices to the Dalai Lama when he celebrated his
birthday. They are relieved to learn the Tibetan population has
risen from fewer than 1 million in 1955 to 2.6 million today (with
less than 3 percent of them Han people); and their life expectancy
has increased from 35 years to 67 years.
However, what I have said is almost nothing when compared with the
uproar stirred up by Westerners. The majority of people outside
China know almost nothing of the truth about Tibet.
The West resorts to movies to mislead the public. "Seven years in
Tibet", shot in 1997, turns a devoted Nazi into a hero defending
human rights. At the same time, no stone is left unturned in the
attempt to slander the PLA sent to defend the border area.
While this Nazi was dandified as a brilliant young man, all the
members of the PLA were acted by ugly actors to leave viewers with
a bad impression. When they entered Tibet in the movie, they
trampled on Tibetan Buddhist mandalas. This is how they were
described, although the PLA entered Tibet with insufficient food in
their stomachs and never bothered Tibetans along the way. The movie
claims 1 million Tibetans were butchered (although there were fewer
than 1 million Tibetans in Tibet at that time).
On
the other hand, when I watched "Changes in Tibet", a TV series, I
was satisfied. It recorded how Tibet won peaceful liberation, how
the PLA entered Tibet, how the armed rebellion was suppressed, and
how the Democratic Reform was conducted. The director, Zai Junjie,
was with the PLA 18th Army. He knew the truth. All the heroes in
the TV play are identified clearly by name and rank for
authenticity. The TV play makes it possible for viewers to
appreciate this history and become acquainted with those who
created it.
The author is a sculptor now residing in the United States. This
article was originally published in the bimonthly English-language
magazine China's Tibet.
(China
Daily November 29, 2001)