Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday - June 19, 1997

Tibet Information Network

London, June 18 (TIN) - A palace built by the Sixth Dalai Lama in the seventeenth century and regarded as one of the most important historic buildings remaining in Lhasa is being demolished this week, according to unofficial reports from the Tibetan capital.

The decision to knock down the Tromsikhang Palace, which had been awarded protected status by the Chinese government, goes against representations made to China by UNESCO as well as leading conservation experts.

The Tromsikhang Palace was one of four buildings in the heart of the Old City officially designated as due for _strict preservation as a cultural relic" by the municipal development plan for the area, the _Detailed Plan for the Lhasa Barkor", printed internally in 1994.

The demolition is part of a five year wave of modernisation in Lhasa which by the end of last year had led to the demolition of 350 of the 600 historic buildings which stood in the Old City when the Chinese arrived four decades ago. Twenty-eight historic buildings in the area are reported to have been demolished since January, 15 of them in the last month.

The city of Lhasa, which is at least 1300 years old, covered less than 3 sq km when the Chinese arrived in 1950, and now covers 54 sq km. The original _Old City" area today represents about two per cent of the total area of Lhasa, with the rest of the city constructed mainly out of modern concrete buildings.

The 60 x 40 metre Tromsikhang flanks the northern side of the Barkor, the pilgrimage route which circles the Jokhang Temple in the heart of Lhasa, and was thus within a _grade one" conservation area. However, this status was accorded by the regional government and so could be overturned without consultation with Beijing. The Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple are the only structures in Lhasa accorded national level protection.

The destruction of the former stables and the servants' quarters at the back of the palace had already begun last Friday, and demolition of the main structure is due to take place this week, reported sources in Lhasa today.

_The Tromsikhang was the most magnificent building left on the Barkor and the most prestigious, a superb building with a huge facade," said Professor Heather Stoddard, head of the Tibetan Department at University of Paris III. _We urgently need backing to try to set up an international fund to save what is left of the Old City," said Professor Stoddard, who is co-founder of the Tibet Heritage Fund Project, working with a Norwegian project to save buildings in Tibet.

Professor Jens Braarvig, head of the Network for Tibet-Norway University Co- operation, which works with Governmental and UN backing to document and preserve historic buildings in Lhasa, expressed concern at the news of the demolition and said he would be taking it up immediately with colleagues in Lhasa.

A source from UNESCO said that the organisation would be writing to the Chinese authorities immediately. _It is terrible that the historical centres of so many Chinese cities are being destroyed," added the official, noting that the damage to Kunming in southern China has been even more serious.

In December 1994 the Chinese government announced that it was considering nominating the Old City of Lhasa, which includes the Tromsikhang Palace, as a world heritage site, a status which would have protected the remaining historic buildings from destruction. Late last year the Chinese authorities indicated to UNESCO that they were in favour of the nominating the Old City, adding that _the preservation of Tibetan cultural heritage has been one of the highest priorities of China", according to a UNESCO report.

The Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama situated just outside the Old City, was proposed by China as a _World Heritage Site" and formally accepted by UNESCO three years ago.

The World Heritage Committee, an inter-governmental organisation linked to UNESCO which supervises the Potala and other world heritage sites, last year noted the damage being caused by rebuilding in Lhasa. _The pressures of urban development and growth in tourist-related activities are resulting in many construction activities in the historic sector of Lhasa," it reported in December 1996, saying that these were having _a negative impact on historic structures and their authenticity".

The Committee may have been referring to the constructions replacing the old buildings, most of which are concrete built blocks with a mock Tibetan-style facade.

The continuing demolitions in the city flout the requests of the Committee, which in December last year again called on China _to extend the World Heritage protected area to cover the historic centre of the Barkor".

It may already be too late for UNESCO to help, according to one western expert this week. _Now there are already too few historic buildings left in the Old City for UNESCO to declare it a World Heritage Site", he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Demolition Forbidden Without Permission -

Blame for the continuing wave of demolitions was levelled today at Lobsang Dondrup, the mayor of Lhasa from 1992 until last year, and now Party Secretary of the City.

In a concession to international concerns the Lhasa government issued an

order last September forbidding any demolition of historic buildings without permission from the Municipal Government.

_It was when Lobsang came to power that it began in earnest. It is he who would have given the order to knock it down, so they can building something twice as tall and make some money," said the source who has close connections with the city authorities but who asked not to be named.

A major boom in land values in the Barkor was set off in 1995 when radical market reforms were introduced to allow the sale of buildings, making ground floor shops and construction of shopping arcades hugely profitable.

The authorities in Tibet say that they face a chronic shortage of accommodation and add that demolition is essential in the Old City because _90% of its buildings are believed to be in _danger of falling down", according to a Xinhua report in April 1995.

_The main aims of the housing reforms are to speed up the construction of accommodation, solve citizens' housing problems and improve existing accommodation facilities," said the 12th document of the economic working group of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the document which authorised the property boom in January 1994. A special committee _to supervise renovation work" in the Old City area was set up by the city government in the same year. The term _renovation" is used in official Chinese statements to include demolition and reconstruction.

A survey by a western researcher in 1993 found that 67 buildings on the site of newly demolished historic structures in Lhasa were no better than the old buildings in sanitation, water supply or electrical service, and were worse in terms of climate suitability, insulation and earthquake protection.

The facade of the Tromsikhang is expected to be retained, and the remainder replaced by a four-storey block which is said to have no plans for plumbing, meaning that at least forty families may have to depend on a single tap in the courtyard for their drinking water supply, according to an unofficial report.

If the new building does have four storeys it will breach Lhasa's conservation regulations, which do not prohibit demolitions as long as the new facades are in keeping with traditional appearance and do not rise higher than the three storey Jokhang Temple.

_There are specific conservation requirements within the scope of a grade one conservation area, applying to the Jokhang and neighbouring land," states the 1994 plan for the development of the Barkor. _These are the complete preservation of the unique collective appearance of the traditional street area, with buildings preserving the traditional Tibetan style; conservation and restoration in respect of building height, size, style and decoration, in basic accord with the original form," it continues. The Tromsikhang is in _the cream area, concentrating the special features of the Old City's traditional street area," says the plan.

Critics of the demolition policy disputed claims that the historic buildings demolished in the current wave were in a dangerous condition. _The Tromsikhang was in a terrible state because of the way it was being used, especially the east wing," said one Westerner who surveyed it unofficially in 1992. _But it was structurally sound and could have been renovated," he added.

There was also criticism for westerners' failure to fund renovation projects in Lhasa. _The Lhasa Government has given us a signed agreement allowing us carte blanche to carry out restoration projects on any historic houses over the next five years - but we don't have sufficient backing to do anything," said Professor Stoddard, saying that the Tibet Heritage Fund Project had been able to raise only $52,000 so far, enough only to save two small houses about one eighth the size of the Tromsikhang Palace.

_The Tromsikhang could have been saved last summer if we had come back with funds. Everyone in the West says the project is wonderful, but it is almost always hot air and our funds are now nearly exhausted," she added. The project is currently working with the authorities on designing a sewage system, which is urgently required for the Old City, but has been given no funds to restore any more houses.

Bhutanese Embassy, Chinese Court -

The Tromsikhang Palace is on the Barkor, Lhasa's oldest street, near the seventh-century Jokhang temple and near the site of Surkhang house, which was replaced by a large shopping arcade in 1993.

It lies on the south side of a square which has housed the main market in the city since the 18th century and which is named after the palace, whose name means _the building which looks over the Market". The north side of the square now houses a giant supermarket of the same name, housing 1400 shops or stalls, constructed on the site of several other historic buildings.

Residents of the Tromsikhang, known as Chongsaikang in Chinese, say it was built by the Seventh Dalai Lama in the 1740s as a gift to the regent Miwang Phola, whose duties included supervising the market, but historical texts say that it was constructed in the late 17th century by the Sixth Dalai Lama and used as a residence by the Mongol ruler Lhazang Khan, who ruled Tibet from 1704 to 1717.

There were four main houses each with their own courtyard within the Tromsikhang complex, one of which was used as the Bhutanese Embassy, and another as a police station. The two sections in the northern half of the building, which contained the offices of the Tibetan cabinet and of leading officials, were demolished over five years ago and have been replaced by teashops and market stalls. In recent times the rooms in the three storey building had been rented out to 30 or 40 families in each house.

Conservationists had hoped that developers in Lhasa would spare the building because of its historic associations with China - the building was also known as the Manchu Yamen, or Qing Court, because part of it was used by the Qing dynasty emperors' representatives, known as Ambans, two of whom were killed by Tibetans on the premises in 1750. Six stone tablets bearing instructions by a mid-18th century Qing dynasty emperor are still preserved inside the building's walls.

_The Tromsikhang was one of the four remaining great secular buildings left in Lhasa when I was last there in 1992", said Namsa Chenmo, a famous Tibetan tailor now in India who lived in the building.

_There are a few old houses still there in Lhasa," said Gongan Lhawutara, one of the senior officials in the old regime whose office was in the Tromsikhang but who is now living in exile. _After a few years these also will not be there", he added, when told about the demolition. _They destroy all the houses with history", he said.

_When they pull down buildings like the Tromsikhang Palace, my parents' generation cry in their hearts," said a 23-year old Tibetan now in exile who once lived in the Barkor. _But many of the youngsters are happy because the Chinese tell them it is progress, and that they are going to make a new Hong Kong out of Lhasa," he added.

The authorities in Tibet spent 61 million yuan ($7.3 million) _renovating" residential buildings in Lhasa from 1979 to 1993, and 12 million yuan ($1.4 million) from 1994 to 1996. Reconstruction in Lhasa is being carried out by the Lhasa Real Estate Development Corporation, whose goal is _to renovate old housing in the old urban area" according to a Xinhua report last November, which said some 2,500 families in Lhasa had moved into new houses since 1994. _A total of 17,000 sq metres of floor space in old dwellings was renovated over the three years", said Party Secretary Lobsang Dondrup, cited under his governmental title of vice-chairman of the region.