Sixth question: Are Tibet's religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic characteristics on the brink of extinction?

On March 6, the Dalai Lama said while being interviewed by western media that "the Han Chinese plan to eliminate the Tibetan language and culture." On March 10, the Dalai Lama repeated his same old claim that Tibet's "religious, cultural, linguistic and ethnic characteristics are on the brink of extinction."

According to An Caidan, curator of the library and a research fellow at CTRC, for those who have a basic understanding of the situation in Tibet, the Dalai Lama's lies are extremely absurd. For experts, his fallacies are simply not worth debunking. In the old Tibet, education was only available for the nobles and available in lamaseries. Unless they became lamas, ordinary Tibetans did not have the opportunity for education. Nowadays, due to the Central Government's legislation and policy support, usage of the Tibetan language has been popularized in an unprecedented way. "From education for children to higher education and from vocational education to special education, which education level does not have teaching materials in the Tibetan language?" he was quoted as saying.

"Look at the modern cultural facilities that can be found all over Lhasa and throughout Tibet. They are open to the general public, not just benefiting a certain person or certain noble class. But in old Tibet, how many ordinary people, except the ruling class, were able to admire traditional Tibetan singing and dancing?" Ciren Yangzong, an associate research fellow at CTRC, said. "The paintings of Tibetan artists are exhibited at the National Art Museum of China and the songs composed by Tibetan musicians are sung throughout the nation. Tibetan elements have aroused widespread attention and are appreciated by many, indicating that the functions of protecting, developing, and flourishing Tibetan culture are self-evident."

Galsang, Deputy Director of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission under the Tibet Autonomous Region Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, had worked for the autonomous region's archives department for over 30 years.

However, he has never found any records in existing contemporary archives concerning investments made by old Tibet's local government to renovate monasteries. Most of the maintenance for monasteries was done by people forced to take part in the compulsory service.

After the Democratic Reform, however, the Central Government regarded Tibetan Buddhism as part of traditional Tibetan ethnic culture and granted it effective preservation. Since the 1980s, the central government has successively allocated more than 700 million yuan to preserve Tibet's places of religious worship such as monasteries, stupas and offering halls.

In particular, from 1989 to 1994, China allocated special funds of over 55 million yuan and a large amount of gold and silver to renovate the Potala Palace.

Beginning in 2001, China has additionally allocated 330 million yuan to a special fund for preserving three major historical relics—the Potala Palace, Norbulingka and the Sakya Monastery.

In 2007, the Central Government allocated an additional 570 million yuan for the comprehensive maintenance and preservation of Tibet's 22 cultural relic units under top state protection during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan." This was unprecedented in China's history of cultural relic preservation.

By People's Daily Online