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KLMNO THE WORLD Tibetans’ hopes hinge on Dalai Lama Ethnic areas believe spiritual leader can protect their language, culture and traditions from being overrun


BY KEITH B. RICHBURG IN TONGREN, CHINA


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n China, the Dalai Lama is officially a dangerous sepa- ratist and a “criminal,” and his supporters are prohibit- ed from discussing him or


even displaying his picture. But here inthe ethnicTibetanareas of Qinghai province, nominally au- tonomous while under strict Chi- nese control, the exiled spiritual leader remains a ubiquitous pres- ence despite his long physical ab- sence. The Dalai Lama’s beaming vis-


age gazes down from the temple altars of Buddhist monasteries. His likeness adorns a popular art- ist’s workshop and a small conve- nience store selling soft drinks, beer and snacks. And everywhere, it seems, the


fervent wish is that the Dalai Lama might return soon to help save Tibet’s language and culture, whichmany say are threatenedby China’s ethnicHanmajority.Even the Tibetans’ centuries-old tradi- tion of herding yak, cattle and sheepacross theTibetanplateau’s grasslands appears threatened as Chinese officialsmove increasing numbers of seminomadic herds- men into “resettlement towns,” where jobs are scarce. “We long for the Dalai Lama to


come back, to solve the issue of religious freedom and to help Ti- betan culture come back,” said GenGa,24,amonkatamonastery in the nearby village of Wutong. “Ifwe look ahead 10 or 20 years, if theDalaiLama fails to comeback, I do think Tibetan culture will die.” Asked to comment on the calls


for the Dalai Lama’s return, a spokesman for the Chinese Em- bassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, saidinane-mail: “We’ve been dealingwith theDalai Lama for decades, and we know him well.His personal future depends onwhether he’ll abandon his sep- aratist positions on Tibet-related issues in real earnest, as this is a matter bearing on China’s sover- eignty and territorial integrity.” Wang added: “There’s been the


cry of ‘the wolf is coming’ on the dying of the Tibetan culture and religion. The undeniable fact is that the Tibetan traditions are prospering thanks to the joint ef- fort of the Chinese government and the Tibetan people.” A three-day trip through the


ethnic Tibetan areas of Qinghai province, where the Dalai Lama was born, showed that official ef- forts to vilify the revered leader have had no discernible effect. Many Tibetans said they usually get advance notice of inspectors’ visits, so they simplyhide or cover theDalai Lama’s photo. The vilification efforts escalat-


ed after the Tibetan areas, includ- ingthisprovince,explodedinriot- ing inMarch 2008, themost seri- ous resistance to Chinese rule in decades.Thousandsofmonksand others were arrested, and outside groups, including Human Rights Watch, accused the government of systematically abusing detain- ees while looking for evidence that theDalaiLamawas responsi- ble for the unrest. Chinese officials have denied those allegations, saying authori-


KAZAK. RUSSIA Beijing CHINA INDIA Detail


Area populated by Tibetans


CHINA QINGHAI


AUTONOMOUS REGION


TIBET Lhasa NEPAL At a Tongren monastery, boys learn traditional Tibetan painting.


ties operated lawfully tomaintain order. “The judicial rights of the defendants were fully guaran- teed, as well as their ethnic cus- toms and personal dignity,” For- eign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in July. Here in Tongren, amonk in his


30swhoparticipatedinthreepro- tests in March 2008 said he was detained for six months after the riots andwas suspended fromthe ceiling, beaten and tortured with electric rods. The monk, who spoke on the


condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the beatings ended only when he agreed to make a videotaped denunciation of the Dalai Lama. “Theymademe agree to a con-


fession saying all the things I did was because I got instructions from the Dalai Lama,” the monk said. He said he believes he was singled out because ofhis support for a group of 13 monks who drafteda2007proposal callingfor the preservation of Tibetan lan- guage and culture. The monk’s account is similar


to those of scores of others who were interviewed for a Human Rights Watch report. “When the monks were tortured in deten- tion, it was often because they refused to denounce the Dalai Lama,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the China researcher for Hong Kong-based Human Rights Watch. “There is no doubt that many


Chinesestatepoliciesareaimedat diluting or reshaping Tibetan tra- ditional culture in a way that is innocuous to the state,” he said. Themain repositories of Tibet-


an Buddhist culture are themon- asteries — which were also the source of the 2008uprising—and the government has since at- tempted to increase its control over them, setting up “manage- ment committees” to ensure that the senior monks toe the correct political line. For many Tibetans, the front


line in the cultural struggle is linguistic. Some complain that even in the supposedly autono- mous prefectures of Qinghai, signs inChineseoutnumber those


BANGL. INDIA


Bay of Bengal


BURMA VIET.


LAOS THAI.


THE WASHINGTON POST


in Tibetan. In government offices, they say, they are forced to speak Chinese. And they worry that Ti- betan is not taught in schools on an equal footingwithChinese. One of the most hotly debated


government policies, among Ti- betans and outside experts, is the effort to induce herdsmen to give up their nomadic lifestyle on the grasslands and resettle in rows of brickhouses innewlybuilt towns. Officials and some outside ex-


perts say the policywill help over- come poverty and stop overgraz- ing of the grasslands. Butmost of the herdsmen are illiterate, and there are few jobs in the resettle- ment towns. Somewho have been resettled have returned to the no- madic life, but often while keep- ing older relatives and children in the towns to be closer to medical care and schools. “Itwas pretty hard to find a job


there,” said Gartsang Cerang, 36, who lived in the resettlement


DIGEST PAKISTAN


3 chargedwith aiding Times Square plotter Pakistani authorities have


charged three men with terror- ism-related offenses for allegedly helping the failed Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, prepare for the attemptedMay 1 attack by arrangingmeetingswithtopPaki- stani Taliban leaders and sending himmoney, a seniorpoliceofficial in Islamabad saidWednesday. The three men, Shahid Hus-


sain, ShoaibMughal andHumbal Akhtar, are relatively young,mid- dle-class Pakistanis who have been close friends with Shahzad for several years, said Deputy In- spector General Bin Yamin. They allegedly facilitated Shahzad’s training at Taliban boot camps in Pakistan’s tribal areas andsetupa meeting with Pakistani Taliban leaderHakimullahMehsud. When Shahzad ran short of


money in the United States as he prepared for the bombing at- tempt, the three men sent him $13,000, Yamin said. Yaminsaidthemengave inves-


tigators lengthy confessions and had been formally charged with criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism.


—LosAngeles Times CHINA


Officials, U.S. visitors signal thawin ties Senior U.S. officials concluded


a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday with both sides de- claring that the talks have helped to steady the recently rocky U.S.-China relationship. Among the most tangible out-


comes of the talks are signs that exchanges between the two coun- tries’militariesmay resume. Chi- na suspended most military ex- changes at the beginning of this year after the United States sold arms to Taiwan. Both sides issued statements


Wednesday indicating a thaw ahead of a planned visit toWash- ington by President Hu Jintao early next year. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of


China’s CentralMilitary Commis- sion, said China values its rela- tions with the U.S. military and hopes to improve exchanges. On the U.S. side, National Se-


curity Council spokesman Mike Hammer said, “TheUnited States seeks to expand cooperation in the many areas where our coun- tries’ interests coincide while we will speak frankly and with re- spectwhenwe disagree.” —WilliamWan


RUSSIA


START pact blocks cheating, Gates says Defense Secretary Robert M.


Gates assured lawmakers that he expects Russia to abide by a new nuclear arms treaty but that even ifMoscowcheats itwon’t gainany military advantage. In a newly declassified letter,


Gates wrote that he and top U.S. military leaders have concluded that Russia would not be able to achieve “militarily significant cheating” under the New START treaty, even if it tried. He wrote that the Obama ad-


ministrationexpectsRussia toad- here to the treaty’s limits. If it did not, he said, the Penta-


gon could respond by putting its doomsdaysubmarinesandbomb- ers on higher alert and arming them with extra nuclear war- heads.


—Associated Press NIGERIA


Sect’s prison attack spurs newfears A radical Muslim sect


launched a coordinated sunset raid on a prison in northernNige- ria, freeing more than 750 in-


matesandraisingnewfearsabout violence in the oil-rich nation just months before elections. The attack Tuesday night by


theBokoHaramsect,whichadvo- cates the impositionof strict shar- ia lawinNigeria, left the prisonin ruins and showed the group had access to the sophisticated weap- ons itneededto overpowerprison guards. Now, analysts say, the group may seek to take on the government directly. —Associated Press


Sri Lanka ends presidential term limits: SriLanka’sParliament vot- ed to eliminate termlimits for the presidency, a move critics say could lead to dictatorship. The amendment also will tighten President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s hold on power by giving himtotal control over the judiciary, police and civil service.


Muhammad cartoonist receives free-speech award in Berlin: At an award ceremony honoring his achievements for freedom of speech,GermanChancellorAnge- la Merkel praised the bravery of Danish cartoonist Kurt Wester- gaard, who she said “has had to fear for his life” since he carica- tured the prophetMuhammad in 2005.


—Fromnews services BHU. Tongren MONGOLIA 0 500 MILES JAPAN


Shanghai 0


800 MILES


Group tests thewaters for Mubarak son succession


BY HEBA SALEH


cairo — A previously unknown group of activists in Egypt is putting up posters and collecting signatures urging Gamal Muba- rak, the son and presumed suc- cessor of the country’s leader, to run for president in next year’s election. The campaign appears to be a


test of support for the younger Mubarak amid general unease about the prospect of a dynastic succession. But the Popular Coalition for


the Support of Gamal Mubarak says its campaign is a citizens initiative with no support from the man it seeks to elevate, who has often deniedhaving presiden- tial ambitions. In Cairo’s working-class area of


PHOTOS BY KEITH B. RICHBURG/THE WASHINGTON POST Hastings, a herdsman, plans to make money by having tourists in the Qinghai Lake area pose with this white yak that he bought.


town ofDowa before returning to the grasslands three months ago. “Life inthe townwas prettyhard.” He has to start over now—he has only half a dozen yak and two sheep and lives in a tent with his daughter Nam Turji, 17. He left two children, ages 13 and 14, in town. Marjo Herji, 30, said many of


the herdsmen on the mountain- side overlooking Qinghai Lake have left towork in tourist shops. But she said she and her husband plan to stay. “It’s hard for us to do any other job. We don’t have any special skills,” she said, churning yakmilk into butter with a hand- crankedmachine. But she left her daughter in the


village to attend first grade, and she hopes the girl does not follow in the herder’s life. “It’s better for her to become a literate person,” she said. China is developing Qinghai


Lake as amajor tourist attraction, and some Tibetans have found jobs shuttling Chinese visitors in electric golf carts, letting them pose for photographs with rare white yaks and renting out local costumes. But they say the pay is scantandthe tourist seasonshort. Life onthe grasslands ishard, too, they say, but they could sustain themselveswith their herds. It is difficult to see howa politi-


cal settlement that allowed the Dalai Lama to return could re- verse some of the trends on the plateau, but Barry Sautman, a Ti- bet expert at the Hong Kong Uni- versity of Science andTechnology, said, “If he were there, he could have quite a bit of influence with the central government.” Tibetans are hopeful — and


waiting. richburgk@washpost.com


Staff researcherWang Juan contributed to this report.


Bab el-She’reyya, near the stone walls surrounding the old Islamic heart of the city, thecampaignhas splashed dozens ofGamalposters on the white tiles outside a cafe. “Gamal Mubarak is a smart politician,” said Magdy el-Kordy, the campaign’s coordinator. “He feels the pulse of the people. We have launched the motto, ‘Gamal Mubarak, the hope of the poor.’ ” That campaign has been ac- companied by another proclaim- ing support for Gen. Omar Sulei- man, Egypt’s intelligence chief and another possible contender for the succession. President Hosni Mubarak, 82,


whohas been in power since 1981, underwentgallbladder surgery in Germany in March. His absence for several weeks revived talk of his presumed plans for his son to succeed him. The elder Mubarak has not yet indicated whether he will contest presidential elections due next year. “We feel that the era of Hosni


Mubarak is about to end, even if it is not necessarily next year,” said Mostapha Kamel el-Sayed, a po- litical analyst. “We are not sure of the succession or of how the political scene will evolve.” He said he thinks the poster campaigns are a possible sign of a division within the rulingNation- al Democratic Party over whether the younger Mubarak should be the next leader. The posters promoting Sulei-


man labeled him “the alterna- tive.” An online statement pre- sumed to be from the anonymous activists appealed to Egypt’s “honorable army” to save the country from “the shame and disgrace of the succession which the president’s son seeks.” The posters were taken down


within hours by the authorities, who also banned newspapers from reporting on them. Suleiman, 74, has never ex-


pressed an interest in being presi- dent and is not thought to be behind the poster campaign on his behalf. Constitutional changes adopt-


ed in 2007 in effect bar indepen- dent candidates from running for president. The largest opposition force in the country is the banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose can- didates run as independents. —Financial Times


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2010


AARON FAVILA/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Members of a Pakistani family displaced by recent flooding ride on a truck atop their belongings as they return to their homes in the Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province.


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