If you really want to know some Chinese official view on Tibet, here are some:
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Temple tells truth about Tibetan history
LHASA (Xinhua) -- When did Tibet officially fall under the administration or control of the Chinese Government as a region or province?
According to historians who have done research at Sagya Temple in eastern Tibet, it was in about the middle of the 13th century, at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1386).
Sagya Temple, which is located 450 kilometres west of Lhasa, has long been known for its large collection of Buddhist scriptures, valuable porcelain and vivid wall paintings dating back nearly a thousand years.
From the city of Xigaze westward, it is hard to believe that Sagya County, 40 kilometres southwest of Gazeul Mountain, was once the political and cultural centre of Tibet because of the bleak hills and barren mountains.
In 1264, Kublai Khan, who founded the central administrative power of Yuan Dynasty, unified Tibet and granted 13 Khri-skors (administrative units each with 10,000 households) in Tibet to Phagsba, Sakypa Dagchhen (head of the Sagya Sect), as a tribute. The emperor also gave him a certificate and the seal. Later, the Yuan emperor granted the three major parts of Tibet (eastern and western Tibet and the Qamdo area) to Phagsba as another tribute on the occasion of the second passing on of Buddhist canons. Phagsba went back to Tibet in 1265 and took power, and later appointed chieftains of the 13 Khri-skors as rulers.
According to Chinese records, Sagya Pandita's nephew Phagsba went to see Kublai Khan in 1253.
This young visitor pleased him so much that as soon as he was made Khan he asked Phagsba to be his spiritual guide, or national mentor, as a reward for his adaptations of Tibetan and Brahman scripts to spoken Mongolian.
Phagsba made a series of laws and conducted a census before setting up a regional government under the aegis of the Chinese central government in 1268.
He also called on the 130,000 households to enlarge Sagya Temple, with the aim of developing Buddhism.
Sagya Temple's appearance is that of a castle built in the style of the Yuan Dynasty, with 10-metre-high stone walls, with dozens of small blockhouses arranged along them and a large watchtower at each of the four corners.
The temple buildings are painted red, white and black, symbolizing the three great Buddhas -- Kwan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) and two other deities.
The temple buildings are an interesting mixture of the styles of the Han and the ethnic Mongolian and Tibetan minorities. The most famous of them is the 5,500-square-metre Lakangqinmu Palace, which is a repository of 40,000 books containing Buddhist scriptures.
The books are stacked in three-metre by 20-metre cabinets. The precious teachings were recorded by hand using a liquid mixture compounded of gold, silver, cinnabar and ink.
The temple also has an incredible collection of manuscripts of unique Buddhist scriptures, printed on parchment made of Bodhi-tree leaves.
A number of the books in Sagya Temple's collection of Buddhist scriptures were printed by Beijing's Religious Printing House in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and were carried to Tibet under the protection of military forces from Beijing.
In fact, these kinds of Buddhist books can be found everywhere in the temple. According to an old Tibetan proverb: "The temple wall may tumble down, but the books still stand."
There is also a large collection of historical relics in the temple, including imperial edicts of Chinese emperors, scripts from the imperial court and a variety of utensils for temple use.
The temple's greatest treasure is a gigantic conch which was given to Phagsba by the Yuan emperor. The conch is stored in a black box and is only used for the Dharma-Ghosa on significant occasions.
The temple is also renowned for its Buddhist sculptures and frescoes which record the legend of Phagsba, working scenes of ethnic artists while they were building the temple.
According to the frescoes, the popular hada, a silk scarf presented as a token of respect by Tibetans, was first used by the Han people as a symbol of the Great Wall, and was brought to Tibet by Phagsba.
The frescoes clearly show the subordinate relationship of Tibet to the Chinese central government historically.
A monk said that no relics had ever been stolen from the temple, and nor had any fires occurred there thanks to the good and meticulous care they were given.
"The temple has been under State-level protection since 1961 and is historical evidence of China's unification," he said.
chinadaily.com.cn.net
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History refutes Dalai's claim
LHASA (Xinhua) -- The Dalai Lama's propaganda in the United States, Europe and Australia is intended to back "the independence of Tibet" and to internationalize the Tibet issue, a prominent Tibetan historian said here on Wednesday.
Doje Cedain, secretary-general of the China Tibetology Research Centre in Beijing, stressed that Dalai Lama's attempt "will never succeed, because the Chinese people, including the Tibetans, are resolutely opposed to such treason against the national interests."
The 71-year-old Tibetologist said, "The Dalai's lies can only deceive those who do not know the truth."
A good example of this, according to Doje, was the Dalai Lama's claim last month to the British Parliament, that "In my efforts to seek a negotiated solution to our problem, I have refrained from asking for the complete independence of Tibet," while in the same speech he said, "Historically and according to international law, Tibet is an independent country under Chinese occupation."
Doje said that the central government will not hold talks with the Dalai Lama unless he puts a complete halt to his separatist activities and gives up the pursuit of independence in both words and deeds, because separatism violates a basic principle of a sovereign state.
Doje was once chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In addition to his research work at the Tibetology Research Centre, he works for People's University of China.
He has compiled the "Collections of Archives and Historical Documents Relating to Relations Between the Tibet Locality and the Central Government since the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)."
"China's sovereignty over Tibet should never be doubted. My book contains a large number of historical documents, in Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, and Chinese, which prove that Tibet is an inalienable part of China," he said.
"If Tibet was not part of China in the Yuan Dynasty, why did the central government take the dimensions of fields, register households, collect taxes, impose duties and appoint officials in Tibet?" Doje asked.
Historical records in Tibetan also show that the central government has exercised sovereignty over Tibet, he said. When the central government, led by the Kuomintang in 1931, prepared to convene a national congress, the 13th Dalai Lama sent representatives. And in 1946 the local government in Tibet twice sent representatives to similar national conferences, records show.
"Those records are still in the Tibetan Archives Hall," Doje said, adding that, "If Tibet was not part of China, why did Tibetans become members of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee (China's parliament)? The 14th Dalai Lama does not even have this common knowledge."
The renowned Tibetan scholar said the history of the 14th Dalai Lama itself proves the central government's authority over Tibet.
His exemption from the Golden Urn lot-drawing procedure to determine the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, his instalment on the holy throne, and his political power were all the result of permission by the Nationalist Government, the central government at that time, Doje said.
"Why do the international anti-China forces still make a fuss over the question when an answer is already at hand? They want to separate Tibet from China. The 14th Dalai Lama, in order to get support from them and to please them, has gone too far down the separatist road," he said.
"The attempts to achieve 'the independence of Tibet' have not succeed thus far, and will never succeed," Doje said, "because the Chinese people will not stand for it."
chinadaily.com.cn.net
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Dalai Lama fabricates accusation: professor
AN anthropology professor on Wednesday debunked as "sheer fabrication" the assertion by the Dalai Lama in Britain's Parliament recently that the Chinese Government has "moved large numbers of people into Tibet," causing Tibetans to become an insignificant ethnic minority group in Tibet.
Professor Ma Rong, director of the Sociology and Anthropology Institute of Beijing University, said that in truth, Tibetans account for 95.5 per cent of the total population of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and the Han people just 3 per cent.
"The Han people really constitute an ethnic minority group in Tibet," he said. "As a scholar, I believe irrefutable facts and reliable data only."
Ma received a master's degree and PhD from Brown University in the United States in the 1980s. Later, he studied as a post-doctoral student in the John King Fairbank Centre of Harvard University, also in the US.
According to Ma, the central and local governments in China began in the late 1970s and early 1980s to tighten control over the transfer of people into Tibetan-inhabited areas. As a result, the number of Han people moving into such areas has decreased.
Since China initiated reform and opening in 1979, farmers in less developed areas in Central and Western China have been moving to coastal areas to seek jobs, he said.
In Tibet, the Han people are mostly construction workers for projects undertaken by other areas in China, he said, adding they work there on a rotating basis.
Statistics indicate that since the 1950s, some 200,000 people from other parts of China have worked in Tibet.
Ma said the workers on rotation are university graduates, young government officials, doctors, teachers, engineers and technicians. After working in Tibet for several years, they will return to their hometowns.
The Dalai Lama's claim that the Tibet ethnic group has a population of 6 million is "totally groundless," Ma said.
The assertion by some Western media organizations that the Tibetan population has "dropped dramatically" and that "800,000 Tibetans were starved to death" are also totally groundless and not substantiated by specific statistical figures, he said.
A new survey conducted by his colleagues under his guidance demonstrates that the population of Tibetans in Tibet nearly doubled in just 42 years, from 1.15 million in 1952 to 2.23 million in 1994, rising at an average annual rate of 1.6 per cent.
The survey also indicates during that period, the population of Tibetans in other areas with regional autonomy grew even faster, rising at an annual rate of 2.14 to 2.8 per cent.
The national population census in 1990 found the Tibetan population was 4.59 million, ranking ninth among the 55 ethnic minority groups in China.
According to a report accompanying the survey, the rapid growth of the Tibetan population is largely due to increased appropriations directed by the government to Tibet, offered since democratic reform was carried out there in 1959.
All social undertakings in Tibet, especially medical care, have been growing rapidly since then, resulting in a decrease in the Tibetans' mortality rate and a substantial rise in the birth rate.
Before 1959, the serf system inhibited the growth of the Tibetan population. For several centuries, harsh living conditions and unsophisticated medical services caused a decline in the Tibetan population.
The report said family planning was first practised among the Han people in 1975. Yet Tibetan workers were not obliged to take birth control measures until 1982, and then only on a small scale.
In fact, Tibetans in agricultural and pastoral areas are not subject to any compulsory family planning measures.
According to Ma, the Dalai Lama asserted that Tibet actually includes other lands in a greater Tibetan region, which covers the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-inhabited areas in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
Ma said this claim is neither true to historical facts nor realistic, because the local government never administered a greater Tibetan region.
When Tibet was liberated by peaceful means, the local government administered only the present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Scholars who specialize on Tibet agree the survey uses irrefutable facts and reliable data to dismiss the attack on the Chinese Government by the Dalai Lama, together with a small number of people in the West, by taking advantage of the disagreement over the actual Tibetan population. (Xinhua)
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