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P 130935Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6845
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 002477 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
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E.O. 12356: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SCUL SOCI CH
SUBJECT: Tibetan Scholars: Cultural Preservation 
Cannot Be A Boutique Luxury 
 
Summary 
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¶1.  (SBU) Tibetan scholars and monks in Gansu Province 
advocated focused, selective cultural preservation in 
discussions with Poloffs during a recent visit, but 
stressed that making culture a boutique luxury is not 
the path to success in this effort.  Acknowledging 
that some aspects of Tibetan culture do not blend 
easily with the modernization that Tibetans themselves 
seek, they stressed the imperative of preserving the 
Tibetan language as central to the continuation of 
Tibetan culture.  Without the adoption of this 
priority by the state-sponsored education system, 
Tibetan language will disappear and take much of the 
traditional culture with it.  With regard to other 
Tibetan traditions, experts we spoke with insisted 
that traditions need to be tied to sustainable market 
opportunities such as tourism, local festivals and 
other economic activity.  Consensus on plans to 
preserve specific aspects of Tibetan culture must be 
achieved quickly, they stated, or it will be too late. 
End summary. 
 
Selective, Practical Cultural Preservation 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The rapid Sinification of ethnic Tibetan 
communities in Gansu Province and surrounding areas is 
forcing Tibetans to make practical choices about 
preserving their culture.  Contrary to some claims, 
many Tibetans are embracing Sinification or the 
gradual adoption of mainstream Chinese culture, social 
practices and lifestyle.  This leaves Tibetan culture 
and its advocates two choices, monks and scholars 
noted.  One is to be steamrolled by internal and 
external pressure to become "more Chinese."  The 
second is to concede aspects of culture that appear 
best suited for a history museum and build a consensus 
around promoting the maintenance of cultural elements 
which can maintain relevance in the modern world. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) As Lanzhou University Tibetology scholar 
(and adjunct professor at Indiana University) Tsongkha 
pointed out, there is adequate funding from the 
Government for projects aimed at preserving the 
historical record of Tibetan culture.  For example, Dr. 
Tsongkha said he and his graduate students have 
 
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funding to conduct wide-ranging field research to 
preserve the record of local languages, folk customs 
and traditional performance art and community games. 
More pressing, however, is the failure of efforts to 
promote the continuation of modern-day Tibetan culture. 
Dr. Tsongkha assessed that a lack of consensus and 
coordination, unrealistic goals, insufficient funding 
and ineffective motivators have been barriers to 
progress in this area. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) To be sustainable, modern-day, living 
Tibetan culture must provide Tibetans with tangible 
social, religious or economic benefits within the 
framework of modern Chinese society.  Efforts that pit 
retaining tradition against attaining greater socio- 
economic opportunities are doomed to fail.  Successful 
cultural preservation projects must overcome this 
dilemma with equal parts selectivity, marketing and 
cunning, Tsongkha theorized.  They must entice local 
populations to participate in cultural activities and 
retain traditions by packaging them with relevant 
social, educational and economic opportunities. 
 
A Tibetan County Fair 
--------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) In one example, Dr. Tsongkha has sponsored 
"Tibetan Village Games", the Tibetan version of a 
midwestern county fair.  After some experimentation, 
Tsongkha said that holding such fairs in the winter 
 
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was most effective as most rural Tibetans are 
economically idle in winter and are a captive audience. 
Through promotional techniques and advertising small 
prizes and the opportunity to socialize with neighbors, 
Tsongkha said he had been able to attract enthusiastic 
 
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local participation in the village games.  By 
promoting communal activities, Tsongkha was able to 
revive knowledge of traditional Tibetan games and 
provide some economic activity for the village during 
its leanest season. He is currently making the rounds 
of local villages in Tibetan Gansu to promote the idea 
of his winter games with local village officials.  "I 
often point out to them that a festival will spur 
 
BEIJING 00002477  002 OF 003 
 
 
economic activity, build a harmonious society and help 
get them promoted, anything they want to hear to get 
them interested," he commented unabashedly. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Despite these efforts, retaining 
traditional culture can be a hard sell, especially in 
urban and ethnically mixed areas where the pressure to 
and rewards for assimilating are all the more 
pronounced.  As such, village games held in mixed 
areas have never been financially self-sustaining. 
Tsongkha complained that in areas where Tibetans are 
 
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in the minority, they are unwilling to make efforts to 
preserve Tibetan culture in the face of Han Chinese 
dominance.  For example, his brother preferred to 
build a "Chinese style" house in their village, as 
opposed to a traditional Tibetan house.  He believed 
that a Tibetan house would mark him as unmodern, 
Tsongkha said.  (Note:  The majority of Tibetans in 
 
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this area, close to the provincial capital of Qinghai 
and the important Kumbum Monastery, do not speak 
Tibetan.  End Note.)  The psychology in these areas of 
a link between the anti-modern and Tibetan culture 
must be broken, Tsongkha stated.  In mixed areas, 
Tibetan language itself it at risk; many young urban 
Tibetans no longer speak or read it, Tsongkha noted. 
 
The Trouble with Language 
------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) This points to a broader crisis for the 
Tibetan language and issues Tibetan youth face in 
attempting to succeed in China's higher education 
system.  Tibetan culture is strongly rooted in 
language and many believe that if the language dies 
out, so will the culture.  The only hope for the 
Tibetan language is standardization of regional 
dialects and institutionalization through 
incorporation into the state-sponsored education 
system, commented Tsutrim, a monk who is also the 
vice-headmaster of a privately-funded traditional 
Tibetan nomad school in Qinghai Province. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Yet Tibetans on both sides of the culture 
debate have resisted these obvious steps. 
Preservationists cling to the notion that every local 
dialect should be preserved while assimilated Tibetans 
leave their language behind, directing their children 
towards Mandarin and English as the only path to 
success, Tsongkha noted.  Even if Tibetans reach a 
consensus, attach benefits to studying the Tibetan 
language and succeed in pushing for its inclusion in 
the school system, Tibetan may simply become an added 
linguistic burden with no practical use for many of 
the Tibetan youth who are already struggling in the 
current education system.  Saddled with another 
language to master, economic obstacles and the tainted 
legacy of ethnic minority higher education as a 
recruiting system for Party cadres, Tibetans still 
don't see higher education as a path to success and 
few succeed at the national level, Tsutrim 
acknowledged. 
 
Getting Government Support 
-------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Tsongkha, Tsutrim and the founder of a 
Tibetan cultural website all separately agreed that 
local governments could be persuaded to support 
cultural preservation projects, as long as they see it 
in their interest.  The key to success in this regard 
is to promote projects aimed at meeting government 
goals of cultural preservation, conservation, 
community health and economic dynamism while treading 
lightly around sensitive issues like religion. 
Tsutrim noted that while his school teaches a very 
 
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traditional Tibetan curriculum, the school works with 
local education officials, also teaches the national 
curriculum and provides schooling for underserved 
students.  Officials are able to promote the school to 
their superiors as an example of innovative (and free 
to the government) cultural preservation.  Dr. 
Tsongkha said he actively courts local officials and 
 
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academic institutions, who then attach themselves to 
his projects and publicize them as their own 
achievements.  While his village games aim to promote 
the unique Tibetan identity, they are marketed to 
officials as cultural preservation and social outreach 
allowing them to support the projects with little risk. 
 
Comment 
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BEIJING 00002477  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) Any lack of consensus among Tibetan 
preservationists over how to go about most effectively 
preserving important aspects of Tibetan identity 
threatens to delay preservation efforts and speed 
Sinification.  Efforts to build consensus are hampered, 
however, by the artificial divisions that have been 
created among Tibetan administrative regions among 
other barriers. Tibetans debate the issue of 
standardizing Tibetan language on websites devoted to 
Tibetan culture, but meanwhile, many Tibetan children 
are speaking only in Chinese.  Academics have not even 
yet fully perfected the "unicode" that will allow 
Tibetan to be globally digitized.  Efforts such as 
those advocated by experts we spoke with will need to 
be stepped up and more broadly supported if they are 
to be successful.  As one Tibetan contact recently 
lamented, "the modern world has come to us too quickly 
and we are not able to adjust as fast." 
 
RANDT