BY KARA SUNDBY<\/p>\n
Sonam Choezom has never set foot in Lhasa\u2019s bustling Barkhor Street market or turned the prayer wheels at its Jokhang Temple. She has never made the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash to join Hindus, Jains and other Buddhists circling the sacred mountain toward enlightenment.<\/p>\n
Instead, her memory of Mount Kailash belongs to her mother, who fled through the mountain pass to Nepal after the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in exile in Kathmandu, Sonam grew up among Nepal\u2019s 20,000 Tibetan refugees, most of who arrived after 1959. With no status in China or Nepal they, like Sonam, have never seen Tibet.<\/p>\n
Their prospects of returning to their homeland are dim. China\u2019s Western Development policy aims to boost the population and economy of the Tibet Autonomous region. However, the benefits flow largely to migrant Han Chinese workers. Many Tibetans remain marginalized by the region\u2019s growth. They are additionally concerned that enthusiasm for economic development will engulf their own struggle for cultural and political progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese projects are based on the employment of Chinese workers, not Tibetans,\u201d said Ganden Thurman, Executive Director of Tibet House, a non-profit Tibetan cultural institution founded at the request of the current Dalai Lama. \u201cOne of the preconditions for being able to work for China in Tibet is that you have to speak Chinese. And since Tibetans aren\u2019t Chinese, they don\u2019t speak Chinese. Which means they can\u2019t get jobs until they speak Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exclusion is fostering increased resentment among many Tibetans. Though their gross domestic project is growing at 12 percent annually \u2013 a more robust rate than China as a whole \u2013 Tibetan exiles do not see a connection to their cultural and political demands. Additionally, some of them are more concerned about the social and environmental impact in the countryside where the majority of Tibetans still live.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the one hand, they\u2019ve hugely, unimaginably boosted the degree of wealth in the urban areas,\u201d said Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program
\nat Columbia University\u2019s Weatherhead East Asia Institute. \u201cThey\u2019ve created a new middle class of Tibetans who were given a massive boost in their salaries and allowed to buy cheaper housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Barnett says, the economic boom in the region does not make up for the dearth of political and cultural progress, and the exclusivity of decision making.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in the west like to measure protest by economics, but that is not the question,\u201d said Barnett. \u201cTake the example of architecture. You end up with cities that look nothing like Tibetan cities because the people who should be consulted are not being involved in these decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
This lack of consultation with Tibetans is also reflected in the region\u2019s degraded and polluted environment. China\u2019s massive infrastructure investment is still confined primarily to towns. Subsequent stages of development, however, will include mining excavation, which carries much larger potential for damage. The downsides associated with mining \u2013 including downstream pollution and damage to cultural sites and the environment \u2013 give it a far greater dimension of risk. These projects proceed without much Tibetan consultation. That which does occur is, according to Barnett, not convincing.<\/p>\n
However, according to Dr. Yan Sun, a Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York, the issue with China\u2019s development projects is not one of local exclusion. Rather, she says, the projects have created a fiscal dependency and psychological dependency of the Tibetan people.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFrankly, Tibet has become a serious welfare case on the rest of China and there is little incentive for local or indigenous officials to come up with effective local ways to develop the economy and alleviate poverty,\u201d said Dr. Sun. \u201cAll fiscal shortages and needs are filled eagerly by the center. Local officials simply reach out their hands for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Such words are likely to increase the discord inside Tibet, where nationalism among young Tibetans is very large, especially where they see economic policies trampling over culture.<\/p>\n
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\u201cChina has been it\u2019s own worst enemy in many ways,\u201d said Barnett. \u201cThe only reason Tibetan youth hasn\u2019t become more Sino-cized is because of China\u2019s aggressive handling of them. Future culture and identity concerns should be taken seriously and it\u2019s a shame the issue is not given proper attention by the Chinese, who are only concerned with claims to territory.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As for Sonam, the fraudulent Nepali passport that brought her to the United States in 2004 will not allow her to return to Nepal or make a life in Tibet. She lives now in New York City with her husband, a fellow Tibetan refugee from Nepal, and spends her days trying to preserve her ancestor\u2019s unique culture through the efforts of Tibet House.<\/p>\n
Even if she were able to return, Sonam says she would not.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father said he would not come back until Tibet is free,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I am my father\u2019s daughter. Besides, I have no family left there now.\u201d<\/p>\n