Lasha, the capital of Tibet..
Like the rest of Tibet a dual feeling. The city, the palace, the sites, monastraies and especially the old city are enchanting, and cannot be missed. The Chinese people here are also friendly as are the Tibetan people. But on the other hand it feels like there are more soldiers and police here than civilians. There must a police station every 10-15m literally atsome pionts it feels like there is less than 1-2min walk between one and the other. There are camera's every where. soldiers on roof tops. It is of course stricly prohibited to take pictures of any it. There people in civilian clothing following us, people take picturesof us every were we go. I have never felt so watched and controlled in my life, every move you make seems to be monitored. As if we are in the worlds largest open prison. (some people would say this is exactly what it is). We would disagree, the Tibetan people still perform cora around the temple, the Chinese civilians who live here are also friendly and seem to get allong with the Tibetans, the language is officially recognised and the culture is very clearly present. (from what we can see during our brief visit) On the other hand the official policy and the iorn first of the governements control of this regeon give a distinctly different feel, one of opression.
Because of this duality it is hard to feel how Tibetans feel about the situation, and we do not want to put them in danger by asking them to tell us what they really think. Many people tell us how the Chinese have introduced infrastructure, the airport, roads, highspeed rail way, electricity, waste management, proper plumbing etc. The flip side of this most of these things were installed to quickly move the military in and out to controll the people and createand infrasturture to exploit the massive natural resources of the Tibetan plateau. Obviously wealth bussiness and trade follow from these improvements aswell. But perhaps the Tibetan people preffer freedom to electricity, plumbing and commerce...
Like the rest of Tibet a dual feeling. The city, the palace, the sites, monastraies and especially the old city are enchanting, and cannot be missed. The Chinese people here are also friendly as are the Tibetan people. But on the other hand it feels like there are more soldiers and police here than civilians. There must a police station every 10-15m literally atsome pionts it feels like there is less than 1-2min walk between one and the other. There are camera's every where. soldiers on roof tops. It is of course stricly prohibited to take pictures of any it. There people in civilian clothing following us, people take picturesof us every were we go. I have never felt so watched and controlled in my life, every move you make seems to be monitored. As if we are in the worlds largest open prison. (some people would say this is exactly what it is). We would disagree, the Tibetan people still perform cora around the temple, the Chinese civilians who live here are also friendly and seem to get allong with the Tibetans, the language is officially recognised and the culture is very clearly present. (from what we can see during our brief visit) On the other hand the official policy and the iorn first of the governements control of this regeon give a distinctly different feel, one of opression.
Because of this duality it is hard to feel how Tibetans feel about the situation, and we do not want to put them in danger by asking them to tell us what they really think. Many people tell us how the Chinese have introduced infrastructure, the airport, roads, highspeed rail way, electricity, waste management, proper plumbing etc. The flip side of this most of these things were installed to quickly move the military in and out to controll the people and createand infrasturture to exploit the massive natural resources of the Tibetan plateau. Obviously wealth bussiness and trade follow from these improvements aswell. But perhaps the Tibetan people preffer freedom to electricity, plumbing and commerce...
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