| Tibet and
the Potala Palace: |
| From Riches
to Ruins |
| By Richard S. Ehrlich |
| LHASA,
China -- The Dalai Lama may remember the Potala Palace as his center of
power in Tibet, but the Chinese have turned the stunning 1,000-room structure
into a slick corporate logo, decorating beer bottles, computer screens
and plastic packets of dried yak meat.
For some people,
the ultimate blasphemy -- or commercial success in the eyes of the Chinese
regime -- appears deep inside the Potala Palace where Tibetan Buddhist
lamas formerly received religious offerings from devotees. Mindful of the
popular capitalist chant, "location, location, location," the heart
of the Potala Palace is now occupied by a tacky, spacious, Chinese-run
gift shop. |
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| "When visiting
the Potala Palace, the Sitting Room of the Red Palace is an ideal place
for you to have a rest, as well as to do some shopping," invites the
store's sign, erected inside the palace near exquisite Buddhist murals.
"Originally, this Sitting Room is used for laying offerings. Now it
is used as a Sitting Room for the tourists to take a break," the sign
adds, hoping to lure customers into a seemingly unpopular showroom, where
glass display-cases highlight bland trinkets.
In addition
to its cache as an advertising icon, cash flows into the pockets of the
Chinese government every time a tourist buys a 4.70 US dollar ticket to
enter the Potala, or chooses to pay more to photograph, or explore special
roped-off sights inside.
China heralds
the Potala Palace as a magnificent trophy "liberated" from Tibet's
medieval theocracy, from where generations of "reincarnated" Dalai Lamas
ruled through a repressive, "superstitious" system. All the treasures
and "Tibetan cultural relics" which weren't looted from the Potala
are now regarded by China as proof of how a wealthy "elite" of Tibetan
Buddhist clergymen and their political collaborators -- known as regents
-- enjoyed unimaginable splendor, while the Tibetan people suffered horrific
poverty. |
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| "When the
14th Dalai (Lama) ruled Tibet, 95 percent of the Tibetans were serfs and
slaves, with no human rights at all," noted a Beijing-published magazine
self-consciously titled, "China's Tibet," and typical of the government's
position regarding pre-1959 Tibet. "But the 14th Dalai, and people like
him, enjoyed full rights.
In terms of
human rights, Tibet today is much, much better than under his rule.
"Seeing
the West accuse China of 'violating human rights in Tibet,' the 14th Dalai,
who hates to see Tibetans enjoy much more human rights than under his rule,
joins the West in making the accusation," it added. The Dalai Lama,
meanwhile, claims the Chinese killed one million of the toiling Tibetans
that China supposedly was freeing -- especially during the 1960s and 1970s. |
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Offshore
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| China insists
the missing one million Tibetans actually perished from epidemics and poverty
under the neglectful reign of the dalai lamas, before Chinese communists
arrived in the 1950s, and the population statistics were then juggled by
the Dalai Lama and the West.
Meanwhile,
the vast, 13-storey Potala Palace, which dates back to the 1600s when the
5th Dalai Lama resided there, has been reduced to a stunning, lifeless
museum. A few senior monks watch over priceless shrines, and discreetly
tell visitors of the holiness inhabiting big, jewel-covered tombs of dead
dalai lamas, which the palace contains on view for public adoration. A
Chinese security officer, in pale green uniform, relaxes near a row of
single flames which delicately sway from bowls filled with burning yak
butter.
The Potala
Palace's giant, white-and-maroon, cake-like architecture dominates Lhasa's
skyline, and is the only Tibetan structure to appear as a logo on a myriad
of Chinese and Tibetan products. Department stores in front of the Potala
sell attractive desk ornaments, which include a framed photo of the palace,
in matching design. On nearby shelves, Chinese-made computers attract customers
by showing how a colorful Potala picture can fill the screen. |
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| Big posters
of the Potala sell alongside portraits of Hollywood film stars and China's
late dictator Mao Zedong. The Potala also appears above a hairy yak emblazoned
on hand-sized, US .40-cent packets of delicious jerky – made of "yak
meat, sugar, salt, cooking wine, sesame, chilli (and) vegetable oil."
Every bottle
of Lhasa Beer sports the Potala's picture, as do the brew's cardboard packing
crates.
Travel agencies
and tourist brochures understandably use the Potala as their most attractive
cover, usually without having to name the easy-to-identify fortress-temple.
Tibetans revere the Potala Palace as the place where the Dalai Lama's spirit
continues to blossom, despite his self-exile in India. Each day, and night,
Tibetans kowtow near the palace's stone gate, and walk a worn circle around
its outer wall, praying for his return and other boons. |
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| When Tibetans
wander the Potala Palace's dark halls and shrines, their worshipping appears
as a sobbing of souls. Lhasa's majority Chinese enjoy the palace's physical
beauty, perched on a small, central outcrop called Red Hill, surrounded
by flat city streets. But the Chinese do not pilgrimage in reverence to
the Dalai Lama's empty throne.
Han Suyin,
an apologist author for Chinese rule over Tibet, wrote in her book, "Lhasa,
The Open City," that the Potala was a "termite nest" and "an
evil, parasitic monster, despite the glamor." A wealthy Chinese businessman,
waiting his turn at the Bank of China within sight of the palace, said
he didn't know much about the Potala, though he passed by nearly every
day. "That place? No, I haven't gone in. Is it worth visiting?"
he asked in an interview. He was curious about the Potala's value, but
not as an advertising logo. Squinting at the Potala's mammoth white walls,
he asked, "How much does it cost to see inside?" |
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Article
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