As I am taking a course on Chinese
Geography I thought I might chronicle some of the provinces and
autonomous regions that I'm learning about as the course proceeds.
So for this week:
Kevin's favourite capital of the week:
Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
One of the first articles we had to
read for our class was “Tropes of Indolence and the Cultural
Politics of Development in Lhasa” by Emily Yeh, a cultural
geographer from the University of Colorado. Briefly, it tracked
cultural differences between Han migrants and native Tibetans in
Lhasa and the surrounding area, taking particular note of the
stereotypes that the Tibetans had been labeled with, in particular
those of “laziness” and “spoiledness”. She argues that many
of these traits are a form of protest by Tibetans, as a way of not
only showing differences between Tibetans and migrant Han, but also
to protest any “development” goals planned in far off Beijing.
And to show that its not just a question of pumping money into a
region and expecting everyone to be happy. She also notes that it
seems some Tibetans have reified these stereotypes more than others.
Much of her research was done in person through interviews in
Tibetan, which she took the time to learn fluently (our professor
mentioned that her husband was Tibetan). The piece also points out
the fact that development, tends to mean many different things to
many different people, something policy makers everywhere should
probably do well to remember. What perhaps sums up the paper the
best is the quote that she puts right at the start, from a Tibetan
villager: “Soon we'll be so developed, we won't need to eat!”
Why is it called the Tibet Autonomous
Region?
Glad you asked. China has 5 autonomous
regions that have been ostensibly set up to give minorities a bigger
say in their fate. This should be especially helpful in Tibet and
Xinjiang, the two regions of China where one minority group makes up
a higher percentage of the population. But the leadership of the
autonomous region also tends to be members of the Chinese Communist
Party. And the party still tends to be the one strongly suggesting
certain policy actions by the leaders of the autonomous region,
something we might call a conflict of interest.
Very brief notes on the Geography of
Tibet:
There is so much that could be said of
Tibet's physical geography, but best to keep it brief. It is
probably the most romanticized in Asia. The high mountains and vast
meadow covered plateaus and chilly lakes are called the roof of the
world, with good reason. The high glaciers on mountains are the
sources of some of the longest rivers in the world, including the
Yangtze, Mekong and Ganges.
Lhasa's location:
In the Southeastern part of Tibet. At
around 3500 meters, Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world.
Very brief notes on the History of
Lhasa:
There seems to be a lot of fascinating
history here (such as the long and complicated relationship between
China and Tibet) that I don't have the time to do in depth research
into. I'll just mention some major turning points. The city seems
to have first come to prominence in 7th century when the
leader of the Tibetan Empire, Songtsan Gampo, began construction of a
temple on that site that is now the Potala temple (which looks like
an amazing temple, look up some pictures of it). After which it
started to become a spiritual capital of the area, if not an
administrative one. It was in 17th century that the 5th
Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, made Lhasa his administrative capital,
which it stayed from then on for Tibet. It also became a place of
Pan Asian trade near the end of that century. It remained so until
1950 when the Chinese People's Liberation Army arrived.
Physical Sources:
E.T Yeh (2007) Tropes of Indolence and
the Cultural Politics of Development in Lhasa, Tibet, Annals of
the Association of American Geographers, 97, 593-612
Barbara A. Weightman (2011) Dragons
and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia, Third
Edition, Hoboken, N.J. Wiley.
Internet sources:
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