Published by: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, July 30, 1996

BEIJING (July 26) XINHUA - An article titled "Is This Protection or Sabotage?", which is contributed by Xu Xingsheng today, outlines current cultural affairs in the Tibet Autonomous Region and says that Tibetan culture has a long history and strong ethnic characteristics.

While touring Europe in the spring of 1996, the Dalai Lama asserted that the traditional culture of Tibet has been destroyed and that the study of traditional culture in the capital, Lhasa, are subject to restrictions.

"The Tibetan ethnic group has gradually formed its unique culture in the long process of historical development," the article says, and asks, Has it been protected and developed or destroyed since the liberation of Tibet in 1951?

And, what are the specific contents of traditional culture? What do destruction and restriction refer to? The Dalai Lama often talks ambiguously on these matters.

According to the article, universally-recognized traditional culture refers to the spoken and written language.

Have these been destroyed or developed? The 17-Article Agreement on peaceful liberation of Tibet signed by China's central government and the Tibetan local government on May 23, 1951, states that efforts will be made to develop the spoken and written language of the Tibetan ethnic group, in accordance with specific conditions in Tibet.

The regulations on the study, use, and development of the Tibetan language adopted by the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress in July 1987 stipulate that the Tibetan and Han languages are equally important in Tibet, but with the Tibetan language playing a dominant role.

"The position of the Tibetan language has been defined according to law, " the article noted, and decisions, regulations and decrees adopted by the Regional People's Congress, and official documents and notices issued by the regional government use both the Tibetan and Han languages.

The two languages are also used in newspapers and TV and radio broadcasts, and books written in the Tibetan Language account for 70 percent of those published in Tibet.

In the hiring of factory and office workers and in accepting students for enrollment, priority is given to those with a good knowledge of the Tibetan Language.

The Tibetan language is also used for all major meetings. All offices, street and road signs, and public facilities use signs printed in the two languages, and the Tibetan Language is the medium used to teach major courses in all schools.

As in the case of any language, Tibetan has been developed along with the changes of the times. It has been greatly enriched in the process of social progress, with the addition of a large number of new words in philosophy, politics, the economy, science, and technology.

When the Dalai Lama ruled Tibet, there were few schools in the region and 95 percent of the people were illiterate. Those few Tibetans who could read were mostly lamas who read only Buddhist scriptures. But, Tibet now has thousands of schools that give Tibetans access to their language, drastically reducing the illiteracy rate.

We certainly should not talk about traditional culture without mentioning literature. King Gesser, a ten-million-character classic Tibetan folk epic, regarded as the crystallization of wisdom of the Tibetan people, used to be found only in the oral form among the Tibetan people.

After Tibet was liberated, the central government established special institutes, whose purpose was to rescue, collect, collate materials, and do research on the epic.

More than 3,000 tapes and three million books on the epic in Tibetan have by now been published.

Nyima Cering, a Tibetan artist, has had exhibitions of his paintings in the United States, Britain, India, and Spain, attracting attention at each show.

"Your paintings not only show traditional Buddhist painting techniques, but also show progress, which justifies the development of Tibetan art in China." said O'kying, a Tibetan living in Britain.

Over the past decade, more than 20 Tibetan art troupes have performed abroad, displaying the spectacular charm of the traditional culture. In 1994, one troupe performed in several European countries, and in Vienna the performance drew the following comment from newspapers: "cultural ambassadors from the roof of the world caused a hit in Vienna."

In June 1995, after enjoying the performance of the Shannan Song and Dance Troupe, not a few Dutch people were heard to remark, "Tibetan songs and dances are so marvellous, we cannot understand when they say that 'Tibetan songs and dances have been destroyed.'"

Tibetan artists, who were looked down upon and were homeless when the Dalai Lama ruled Tibet, are now respected across the country.

Cedain Zhoima, a herdsman's daughter in southern Tibet, is now a major actress and vice-chairwomen of the China Federation of Literary and Art