Tibet Information Newtwork - London

27 march 1997

More than 60 Tibetans working for the government in Lhasa have lost their jobs because they visited India without permission from the authorities, according to unofficial reports from the Tibetan capitol. Last year, the authorities in Tibet stepped up scrutiny of Tibetans returning from trips to India, where the Tibetan exile government is based, and accused them of responsibility for a bomb explosion in December.

The Tibetans, who were all working as tour guides in Lhasa, discovered earlier this month that they are not allowed to apply for a renewal of their guide permits, which have to be issued by 30th March. The ban is reported to have affected 69 Tibetans so far, all of whom have visited India in the last two years, according to unofficial sources in Lhasa.

Zhou Lizong, Vice Director of the Tibet Tourism Bureau, refused to confirm or deny that any Tibetan tour guides had lost their jobs when contacted by TIN in Lhasa by phone.

The ban may also be extended to hotel workers, according to unconfirmed reports, suggesting that the ruling may be based on official concern about Tibetans with pro-independence sympathies having contact with local Tibetans and foreign visitors. In 1993 a tour guide who had returned from India was jailed for 8 months for stealing state secrets and released only after international pressure, and last year an exile musician, Ngawang Choephel, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for unspecified spying activities after returning to Tibet. A major bomb blast outside the offices of the Lhasa City Metropolitan District on 25 December last year was described by Tibet Radio as yet another counter-revolutionary bombing staged by the Dalai clique in Lhasa City.

All tour guides in Lhasa were also told last month that they had to sit an exam, in order to have their permits renewed, following two weeks of study from 10th to 30th March. The reason given by the authorities for the exam was that there were new regulations they had to learn, a western tourist, who visited Lhasa in March told TIN.

The guides who had visited India in the last two years paid their registration fee of 800 yuan in February, unaware of the new ruling, and were then told that they were not permitted to register as a tour guide, and would not be allowed to work in hotels either. Many of them will now have to rely on their families for support, said the western tourist who met two guides who had been refused renewal of their permits. One of them had travelled illegally to India where he studied in an exile school for a year before returning to Tibet, said the tourist, who asked not to be named. Another tourist today reported that the number of guides banned was over 70.

The ruling on the 69 tour guides may also be intended to discourage other young Tibetans from visiting the exile community in India , where they can study Tibetan culture and English, skills which are at a premium in the tourist trade in Tibet. The move is also likely to lead to increased numbers of tour guides studying in or being brought in from China, rather than India.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that more Chinese tour guides will be appointed to replace the Tibetan guides who were not allowed to resubmit themselves for registration. Over the last three years, there have been increasing numbers of domestic and overseas Chinese visitors to Tibet. The Lhasa Holiday Inn recorded bookings by 29,000 foreigners (including overseas Chinese) and 9,000 domestic bookings in a 12 month period between 1995-6, a rise in Chinese visitors which will increase the demand for Chinese tour guides. In the late 1980s the Tibetan authorities attempted to increase the proportion of Chinese guides in Lhasa; but this proved to be more unpopular with Western tour groups and was suspended.

Western tourists like Tibetan tour guides because they are generally more knowledgeable about the culture, said a Westerner who works in the travel industry and has taken package tours to Tibet. They have reported to us that Chinese guides often do not seem to be interested in learning anything more than the basic facts that can be found in a guidebook. Often they dont speak Tibetan, or sometimes even English. Now Tibetan tour guides will be worried about their job security if they study in India, and so there will be a decrease in their knowledge about Tibet and its culture, he commented.

The travel agent, who asked not to be named, said that some travel companies actively sought to use Tibetan rather than Chinese guides because foreign tourists preferred them, and the authorities in Tibet said today that this practice will be allowed to continue. It is no problem for western tourists to employ Tibetan tour guides, Mr Zhou, Vice director of the tourism in Tibet, told TIN.

SECURITY RISKS OF TOUR GUIDES

At the beginning of last year, Tibetan tour guides had to sit an exam set by the authorities over a 20-day period, administered by the Beijing Security Police and the Tourism Bureau from Beijing and Tibet. Topics covered included questions about Deng Xiaoping Thought and the question: Is Tibet independent? All the tour guides passed the examination and were granted permits and were not expecting to have to re-apply for their permits this year.

The Tibetan authorities have been concerned about the security risks involving Tibetans who work with foreign tourists since at least June 1994 when the Government announced in its annual work report that tour guides should be watched in order to put an end to the acts of some tour guides in colluding with foreign tourists to harm State security. Tibetan tour guides working in Tibet but educated or born in India were not allowed to escort tourist groups, for a brief period in May 1994, apparently in order to lessen the risk of security lapses. Many of the 2,000 or more Tibetans who travel secretly to India each year return to Tibet after attending similar courses in English and Tibetan culture in Dharamsala, Northern India, the base of the Tibetan government in exile. The trips are carried out secretly, but in the last two years increased border controls have allowed police in Tibet to identify almost all returnees, most of whom are now detained and interrogated for up to three months on their return to Tibe

t. By putting more effort into construction along the borders and by tightening control along the borders, we must block the way for Dalai infiltrators to sneak into our region, stated the 1994 Third Forum on Work in Tibet, a major conference in Beijing in 1994 which set Chinas current policies for Tibet. The Forum accused exiles of attempting to send lay and religious people into Tibet to spread nationalist ideas and called for a policy of counter-infiltration to overcome this strategy, We must intensify our counterinfiltration struggle in all areas, give tit for tat, carry out crack downs and preventive measures at the same time and take the initiative to attack Tibet Daily, 10 March 95. In July last year an unnamed monk was detained in Yadong on the Tibet-Bhutan border and accused of infiltration, according to the Tibet Daily. The article gave no further details of his alleged offence and his current whereabouts are unknown.