Images of Tibet

Charting an overland trip to the base camp of Mt. Everest.

A colleague of mine took some beautiful photographs during a recent trip to Tibet. For a narrated slide show of some 25 of his photos, click here.

One of my articles from the Tibet trip concerned the relocation of a quarter of a million rural people since the beginning of 2006. This is a significant story that has occurred largely off the radar of major world media because of the difficulty foreign reporters have in getting into Tibet, as readers of posts over the past month know. Click here to read the story.

I’ll have more reports on Tibet coming out shortly, including a package of three stories on the perils of climbing Mount Everest.

Let me offer a preview of what's coming with the Everest package. The main question is this: Are there people climbing Mt. Everest at this moment who shouldn't be on the mountain?

If you're interested in that question, click here to read a blog by Greg Child, a climber and photojournalist for the Discovery Channel who is blogging about an expedition up Mt. Everest right now by Himalayan Expeditions, a well-regarded mountaineering company.

In his blog, Child refers to a paying client of the expedition, Betsy Huelskamp, a Los Angeles resident who apparently misrepresented her climbing experience and doesn't even know how to put crampons on her climbing boots. For those not familiar with mountain climbing, crampons have steel-tipped prongs that allow one to grip on icy surfaces.

Greg's April 25 blog item refers to Betsy and has more than 50 comments appended, some of them quite interesting.

Comments

[tddn]

There are a million thing you can bitch about Tibet. but this relocation project isnt one of them.
Why dont you go live in Tibet nomad's tents? live with animals, take 3 baths your whole lifetime, share your wife with yoru brothers.
No matter what the Chinese government do, you just can stop the bitching. For example, some westerners complained that few tibetans were hired to build the Qinghai-Tibet railway(only 10%)-- Communist Chinese never let tibetans get jobs!! Another crime against Tibet!!! The truth is there were very high death toll during the 5 year constrution period,like thousands. now imagine this, if 90% of construction workers were Tibetans. The same white people would come out and yell : Evel communist chinese are using tibetans as slave labor!! Thousands of tibetans died while building the railway!!

[Lina]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks!
About the relocation without consulting the Tibetans, I guess you are right to say that it is the way CCP rules. Not a big fan of CCP myself, I do think it's a bit misleading to imply that the way it governs particularly discriminates against the Tibetans. The party is simply not used to the idea of answering to ordinary citizens, not in Tibet alone, but in China as a whole. To be fair, CCP should not be accused of every crime just because of its a bad track record.

[Jay'me Golden]

No wonder we are such good friends with China...bush must be chatting with the leadership there. It seems that we are going through the same thing here...via New Orleans. How sad that a country can up and move its people from an area where they have lived for centuries and without anyone protesting about it. We will be facing that same thing here if we dont get rid of this White House. Our poverty level is right up there with Chinas. Whats next!

[A Chinese]

In addition to tddn's comment.

Those "experts" also said the railroad only benefits the Chinese. Tim, which side benefited from the transcontinental railway in America more, the east coast or the west coast? Those money you and the Han tourists spent in Tibet, did they benefit the Tibetan people?

I don't understand why you Western people care so much about Tibet. Is this because that the Brits failed to colonize it from China and you people have a grudge against the Chinese?

What do you suggest the Chinese government should do? Copy the treatment of the native Indians? Drive them to the verge of extinction then put them in museums to show how we appreciate their culture?

[tddn]

A Chinese
Agreed.
If Beijing government doesnt use this project to help improve the livehood of tibetans, same white people will come out later and say that" tibetans doesnt benefit from Q-T railway. They are still living like nomads without clear water to drink, modern plumbing, medical care.

[tddn]

A side note:

There are millions of poor Han farmers that could only dream about getting money from the government to build a modern house. I can only see discrimination against Han not Tibetans.

[Lina]

One person's remedy is another person's poison. To make a sound argument, you'd have to prove that the Tibetans who were relocated actually wanted it. I bet quite a lot wanted to stay.

[A Chinese]

Lina, that's Tim's job to prove it, isn't it? Apparently, other than speculations of the advocates, he failed to provide any hard evidence that the people are not happy to move, that makes his argument less credible.

I had a trip to Luguhu in Yunan (borders Tibet) a couple of years ago. Tourism had made great impacts to the region, many local Mosuo people abandoned their traditional way of life. I was so worried that tourism will destroy their culture and I got into an argument with my Chinese friends, then several young Mosuos sitting at the next table joined in. I soon found myself alone in the debate. The Mosuos told me that they don't want to be kept in a backward way of life just for the enjoyment of the Westerners and the tourists. They want to modernize too. They said tourism did not destroy their culture, on the contrary, it's gives them a chance to preserve it.

So people like us, who live comfortable lives in the West, should not make our judgment so quickly just based on our values, OK?

[Lina]

Actually I was commenting on tddn's side note. About your remark on Tim's argument, I made my position clear in my first comment.

[mahathir_fan]

It is not just Tibet that got relocated.

I can tell you for a matter of fact that the province of Fujian had been relocated completely.

My ancestors were Tang Chinese and they came from Fujian. When they left Fujian, nearly everyone living in Fujian was a Tang Chinese.

But today, according to the latest census, there is hardly any Tang Chinese living in Fujian. All have been relocated away and replaced by Han Chinese. Today, Han Chinese is the majority in Fujian, not Tang Chinese.

The holocaust of the Tang Chinese have been forgotten by the world.

[jk]

came across Mutant Palm and saw his blog post
http://tenementpalm.blogspot.com/2007/05/tim-johnson-what-happened-with-your.html

and the one at boingboing.net

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/08/china_forces_250000_.html

kind of a slap in the face. isnt it? Mr Johnson.