Tibet Chic: An Examination of the Social Construction of Tibet by the West

Copyright Miguel Llora, MA
December 07, 2005

Revisiting Tibet Chic 2005

Revisiting Tibet Chic 2005
a.k.a. “Tibet Chic is alive and well.”

Introduction

This paper began as an examination of the contemporary phenomenon of Tibet Chic. It has expanded into the search for a core source for the misrepresentation and Orientalism surrounding Tibet. Moreover, the project expanded into an analysis of the social construction of Tibet by the West and how we are all trapped within it. What began as a deconstruction of the phenomenon of Tibet Chic has resulted in an attempt to undertake a reconstruction of a more authentic description of Tibet. Moreover, with this paper, I hope alter some (if not all) western perceptions of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, and the future of Tibet as an independent state. It is prudent to consider taking this examination a step further: to provide an alternative to what is effectively a superficial “Orientalist” examination of Tibet.

The main thrust of this project is epistemological decentering. In this light, this paper is inspired by the work of Michel Foucault and Donald Lopez, Jr. Foucault informs us as to how we have become trapped in our own social constructions and epistemic grids:

As the archeology of our thought easily shows, man is an invention of recent date. And one perhaps that is nearing its end. If those arrangements were to disappear as they appeared, if some event of which we can at the moment do no more than sense the possibility - without knowing either what its form will be or what it promises - were to cause them to crumble, as the ground of Classical thought did, at the end of the eighteenth century, then one can certainly wager that man would be erased, like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the sea (Foucault, The Order 387).

* * *

The carceral city, with its imaginary ‘geo-politics’, is governed by quite different principles. The extract from La Phalange reminds us of some of the more important ones: that at the center of this city, and as if to hold it in place, there is, not the ‘center of power’, not a network of forces, but a multiple network of diverse elements - walls, space, institutions, rules, discourse; that the model of the carceral city is not, therefore, the body of the king, with the powers that emanate from it, nor the contractual meetings of wills from which a body that was both individual and collective was born, but a strategic distribution of elements of different natures and levels. […] And that ultimately what presides over all these mechanisms is not the unitary functioning of an apparatus or an institution, but the necessity of combat and the rules of strategy. […] In this central and centralized humanity, the effect and instruments of complex power relations, bodies and forces subjected to multiple mechanisms of ‘incarceration’, objects for discourses that are in themselves elements for this strategy, must we hear the distant roar of battle (Foucault, Discipline 307-8).

Donald Lopez shows us that from within how to find some way to break free from the carceral community and perhaps “some may find a file with which to begin the slow work or sawing though the bars” (Lopez, Prisoners 13). Donald Lopez writes about his book Prisoners of Shangri-La as follows:

This book does not set out to apportion praise and blame. Neither is its purpose to distinguish good Tibetology from bad, to separate fact from fiction, or the scholarly from the popular, but to show their confluence. The question considered is not how knowledge is tainted but how knowledge takes form. This book then is an exploration of some of the mirror-lined cultural labyrinths that have been created by Tibetans, Tibetophiles, and Tibetologists, labyrinths that the scholar may map but in which the scholar also must wander. We are captives of confines of our own making, we are all prisoners of Shangri-La. This book, then, is not written outside the walls of the prison, nor does it hold the key that would permit escape. Hidden in its pages, however, some may find a file with which to begin the slow work of sawing though the bars (Lopez, Prisoners 13).

Examining Tibet Chic will be our entry point out of this carceral community that Foucault spoke about in Discipline and Punish and what Lopez expands on in Prisoners of Shangri-La.

Tibet Chic is a phenomenon in the tradition of what Clifford Geertz in, The Interpretation of Culture, would call a “radically thinned description” (Geertz 16). A thin description is a superficial examination, as opposed to what the title of the source of the last citation suggests as its opposite – a “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture” (Geertz 3-30).

In Chapter I - The History Informing Tibet Chic is an examination of the historical context of the current Tibet Chic phenomenon. I was discovered after careful literature review that current misperceptions and enchantment with Tibet begins with Theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Meade 245, Cranston 81-2, Ryan 19-24, and Barker 26-37). Blavatsky’s imagery of Tibet inspired the likes of Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff to seek out and claimed to have lived in Tibet (Brauen 41). Gurdjieff, Brauen suggests invokes the imagery of Hilton’s Lost Horizon (Brauen 42). Or is it, as Brauen suggests the other way around (Brauen 43). No matter the order, it is argued that Hilton eventually set the stage for the more popular representations of Shangri-La placing in popular imagination a sense of remoteness and holiness that, as Donald Lopez suggests, imprisons us today (Lopez, Prisoners 13) .

In Chapter II - Tibet Chic, I describe of the current phenomenon of Tibet Chic. Also discussed are several possible reasons for its popularity. Journalist Stephen Prothero suggests that it could be due to one of three reasons or a combination thereof: “Tibetan monks resonate with a sense of reassurance in this madcap world […] Tibetan Buddhism offers piety without a need to believe in God […] and The battle between the Dalai Lama and China are clear cut symbols of good versus evil” (Prothero 3). Several well-meaning celebrities like Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, Actors Richard Gere and Steven Seagal are three examples of sincere searchers of inner-peace (like Prothero suggests looking for “reassurance in this madcap world”), who also see Tibet as a political cause. I will argue in this paper that although these reasons are informative, they lack a more fundamental area of consideration: a sense of otherness: otherness which will stand as a fourth, but more fundamental, reason for the phenomenon which is Tibet Chic.

In Chapter III - Grounding Tibet Chic in a ‘True West,’ this paper focuses on answering the following questions of the East vis-à-vis the West. In an effort to build a “thicker” description, an examination of the caricatures is in order, building up false dichotomies and then breaking them down. What is all this otherness about? Grounded on one idea or another of “the West,” Edward Said, in his seminal piece Orientalism, observes westerners fall into the trap of creating an image of the “other” in his seminal piece Orientalism. What constitutes “the West”? For Said, the West is a social construction – the creation of the West, much like the East, is really a function of an agenda of power. It is argued here that there is no essential West just as much as there is no essential East per se. Both are as much a fiction as a product of fiction. Luckily, the notion of a true west (or true east for that matter) is already undergoing a re-examination within and around the popular culture that spawned it, as will be presented via citations from Sam Shephard’s play True West as well as a sampling from David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly. What is a “true” anything anyway?

In Chapter IV - Two looks at Shangri-La, Hollywood is placed under the microscope. Hollywood, home to perhaps the greatest myth creators of all time, has created movies that first blatantly disregarded and then attempted to faithfully recreate the tradition and symbols of Tibet. Starting out with Lost Horizon in 1937 and 1973 and later followed by more recent film depictions – Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet – Hollywood has been the handmaiden of what Gerard Genette would call the “paratext” of Tibet in the west. We move from “thin” description to a “thick” in less than a generation – but is it enough?

In Chapter V - ‘True East’ – Is Tibet Part of China? I attempt a “thick description” of Tibet as East and to bring to presence what is really happening in Tibet. What is implied in this section is that such a description does not reflect the fantasy created by Shangri-La mythmakers. Being distracted from the reality makes it difficult to be successful at social action. Tibet is really about people and not fantasy. It is about what they decide to make it – not just a product of our projections and ideals.

In Chapter VI - Sampling Tibet Chic: Phil Borges we something more empirical – we move to an examination of the Phil Borges collection Tibetan Portraits. Borges does not portray an authentic Tibet and plays into the hand of “old-school” Shangri-La mythmakers. It is not that myths are “bad” per se; they just detract from the truth and may or may not produce praxis – the kind that really gets at the “truth” of an “authentic” Tibet. In a move similar to Donald Lopez, Jr., this paper is meant neither to vilify nor valorize, but to take baby steps and to grow in our understanding of how and why we arrange ourselves the way we do. To get to that, it is best to start at the beginning.

Chapter I

The History Informing Tibet Chic

The link to contemporary images of Tibet can be ascribed to one Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff via Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Brauen 41-2). Blavatsky’s influence via the Theosophical Society and her groundbreaking piece “The Secret Doctrine” set the stage for future representations of Tibet as Shangri-La. Shangri-La, that is, as mystical home of the seven Mahatmas (Lopez, Modern 2; Brauen 42). Of the Mahatmas, the key teacher would be Mahatma M. or Morya (Fuller 24-7, Barborka 133-5). According to Blavatsky, the “Seven Mahatmas” were considered “masters,” who existed in different parts of the globe but whose origins are Tibetan (Blavatsky, Key 288-9). As a designation, “Mahatma” suggests a spiritual center in the Himalayas (Barborka 405).

It is alleged (and proved false) that in her younger days, Blavatsky who pursued occult interests traveled to Tibet to confer with the Mahatmas (Brauen 26-9). It is argued that her ideas of Tibet of this splendid inaccessible spiritual hub of the world was in keeping with her episteme, for Tibet was seen mythical loci of occultism and exoticism towards the end of the nineteenth century (Brauen 38). Blavatsky claimed that she apprenticed seven-year with the Mahatmas and learned mystical matters high in the Himalayas. Little factual evidence has been provided to verify that such a journey took place. Brauen argues that Blavatsky’s writings are all figments of her imagination (Brauen 26-9).

[1]
Notwithstanding, the desire to make that journey to Shangri-La (a play on Shambala) would inspire and inform the west (effectively creating “knowledge”) about Tibet (Brauen 38, Lowenstein 157). Many Hollywood movies, from the late nineteenth century to the present, with representative novel of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon in 1933 are the focus of this paper. Jeffrey Paine writes:

In the nineteenth century Madame Blavatsky had founded a quasi-religion, Theosophy, based on her experience in Tibet, although in fact she had never set foot there. Later the writer James Hilton fashioned a fictional Himalayan utopia called Shangri-La, in a novel so popular that Franklin Roosevelt named his rural retreat after it. (And forever afterwards anyone who wants to dismiss Tibet calls it Shangri-La.) The Russian painter Nicholas Roerich roamed the Tibetan borderland trying to locate the lost kingdom of Shambala (the model for Hilton’s Shangri-La) and discovered nary a clue until he showed some Mongolian herdsmen photographs of New York City. “That’s it!” they exclaimed. “That’s Shambala” (Paine 254)!

Orville Schell’s identifies in Virtual Tibet, various historical as well as popular references to Tibet. In this book Schell shows the resilience of old imagery in their manifestation in the contemporary. Blavatsky’s place in the Theosophical Society gave her the forum to spread her visions of Tibet. Hilton’s vision as played out eventually by Frank Capra will be the center within which our examination of Tibet Chic will emanate. From there we will examine the various contemporary expressions of Shangri-La – that mystical place that we are all prisoners of.

Chapter II

Tibet Chic

What would be considered a bird’s eye view of the phenomenon of Tibet Chic? For the purposes of limiting this examination, Tibet Chic is defined as attachment to an idea of Tibet and its lamas that is not authentic. Stephen Jay Gould defines authenticity in “Counters and Cable Cars” as having “many guises, each contributing something essential to our calm satisfaction with the truly genuine” (239). Furthermore, he states that authenticity falls within three categories: as object, of place, and of use (239-80). One could also argue that there are various levels of authenticity.

For purposes of this paper, authenticity will be looked at within the spectrum of three elements outlined above: as object, of place, and of use. By place I mean the location of the lamas as an object created by the west (thus violating Gould’s “rules” of authenticity – as object of our imagination they are not in Tibet AS lamas). Moreover, the lamas are taken out of their environment and used in the west for various agendas and in a context outside of their original creation, a phenomenon akin to “museumizing.” All other issues – Tibet as a country, Tibetan Buddhism and the lamas – are all encased in this examination of authenticity. Do they exist for use as constructs or do we give them due respect as appropriated objects of our discourse?

Not to get stuck on the fetish of authenticity, where does all this take us in terms of Tibet Chic? Why is Tibet so much in vogue? Tibet is in vogue mainly because it is not authentic – it is what we perceive it to be. This is not to deny its objective existence, but just to emphasize that we create an image of Tibet in our minds and move along from there. There are a few pragmatic, almost superficial, reasons why Tibet is Chic, but deep down inside, Tibet is a creation of a Western ideal – this notion of “otherness” is the topic of the next section.

Stephen Prothero of Boston University suggests that it could be due to three factors: the search for inner peace, America’s rejection of theism and what looks to be a clear-cut case of good versus evil. I would like to add that all these three sentiments fall under a larger and more fundamental arena of “othering.” Prothero writes:

Why the Tibetan vogue? Bob Summers of McCann Erickson Worldwide in Atlanta thinks the image of the Tibetan monk resonates because it is reassuring in this madcap, materialistic world. Being acquainted with Asian holy men via “Kung Fu” and the “Karate Kid,” when we see a Tibetan monk, we know he stands for wisdom, tranquility, simplicity – “the inner peace of knowing you can get yourself a Wall Street bonus,” says Summers.

Theologically, Tibetan Buddhism offers piety without the need to believe in God. According to Chris Queen, a Harvard dean and a practicing Buddhist, Americans are “tired of theism” but aching for spiritual fulfillment. Tibetan Buddhism promises spirituality without the trappings of religion – a pope without the pomp.

The Dalai Lama is also irresistibly politically correct. On college campuses, according to University of Michigan Professor Donald Lopez, Student see Tibetan freedom as “an unambiguous political cause.” The battle between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese isn’t just good theater – “Gandhi” goes to Tibet – it’s a post-Cold War morality tale pitting the evil Chinese empire against everybody’s exotic underdog (Prothero 3).

Several well-meaning celebrities like Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys and Actor Richard Gere are two examples of sincere searchers of inner-peace (like Prothero suggests looking for “reassurance in this madcap world”), who also see Tibet as a political cause.

Between Gere and Yauch, with regards to Tibet Gere is arguably the more visible of the two. Much has been written about Gere’s involvement with the Tibetans and it was rumored that he once considered becoming a monk . It would be difficult to speculate on his motivation, but from what has been written Gere is both sincere and devout. In an extensive article in the Shambala Sun, Trish Deitch Rohrer wrote this about Gere:

[2]

Lodi Gyari, emissary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Washington, who has known Gere for twenty years, says that Gere is extraordinarily happy to have come into the dharma, because his path is so exceptionally difficult. “You see all these very famous people, and they are the most unhappy. They suffer so much because of their self-importance, because of their ego. And there’s Richard, so very happy because he’s Richard Gere – he’s famous. But at the same time he can really lead a life that is free from what many of his peers in Hollywood suffer from on a daily basis.” Gyari says that Gere is a very serious student – so serious that he has come to some “realization.” Rinchen Dharlo concurs, saying that though Gere doesn’t claim to be one, he is a great Buddhist scholar, like any of the well-known Buddhist professors.” Not only that, but Gere has an in-depth knowledge of Tibetan culture, understanding, Dharlo says, that it’s in danger of being “lost forever” (Rohrer 4).

[3]

Singer Adam Yauch on the other hand, is less bound religiously but is nonetheless as committed where political action is concerned. Yauch, it would be fair to say, is also involved and religion acts as inspiration. In an interview with Amy Green of the Shambala Sun, Yauch had this to say:

[4]

Amy Green: Do you feel that the Dalai Lama is the main Tibetan teacher that you connect with?

Adam Yauch: I think the Dalai Lama is an amazing individual, but I think that Tibetans in general are really centered in the heart, coming from a real warm place. Real compassion. I think that all of the years that Tibet spent focused on Buddhism kind of affected the collective consciousness of Tibet and just kinda stayed in. It’s so deeply inlaid in the culture. It’s the closest thing that I’ve seen on the planet, as one culture, that really is the most advanced culture mentally, as opposed to our, physical advancement (Green 1-2).

* * *

Amy Green: It seems that bodhisattva vow and path have something to do with going beyond the idea of what you think you should do to be a good person, and into doing what is actually appropriate for you to do. That helps others.

Adam Yauch: Yeah. It’s just understanding exactly what “bodhisattva” and “path” are, I think. Because, the bottom line, I think, of the bodhisattva path is doing what most benefits the totality of the universe, of all that is. And when you put yourself out there in a way that you aren’t really functional, then that is not going to be the most benefit of the universe. You know, it’s just trying to get a feel, in your heart, for what’s going to most benefit the interconnectedness of all that is (Green 6-7).

Gelugpa hegemony is being challenged in the Tibet Chic arena. In February of 1997, Steven Seagal was “recognized” as a tulku (reincarnation) of the treasure revealer Chungdrag Dorje (The Action Lama 1). Chungdrag Dorje is a Buddhist master of the Nyingmapa tradition. The Nyingma sect is arguably the oldest Tibetan Buddhist sect (Tibetan Buddhism: Religion in Tibet 1). The Nyingma tradition was wounded by the Guru Padmasambhava in 817 C.E. at the invitation of King Trison Deutsan (The Nyingma Tradition 1). Known as the ‘Red’ sect (as opposed to the ‘Yellow’ hat sect or Gelugpa), the Nyingma are known for their closer adherence to the indigenous Bonpo heritage (Tibetan Buddhism: Religion in Tibet 1, The Bonpo’s Tradition 1). His Holiness Penor Rinpoche (the same Rinpoche who announced Seagal’s discovery is the Supreme Head of the Nyingmapa Buddhist tradition (A short Biography of H.H. Penor Rinpoche 1).

After careful examination of the text relating to the recognition of Seagal as the tulku of Chungdrag Dorje of Palyul Monastery it is still uncertain or at least this writer cannot uncover or decipher any reason why the move to recognize Seagal – now or ever. Seagal has a string of very violent movies, none of which seem to correlate with his installation as tulku. Difficult to say really what is going on here. However, having imported so-called Buddhist notions (which is not to say that the phenomenon of compassion is alien in the geographic West) it would seem that not even Gere, Yauch, and Seagal cannot claim exception to having done some of this analysis on an East vs. West duality.

[5]

As Prothero noted, seeking inner peace (in terms of the idea that we get a sense of the East from popular culture), Americans (Westerners) are tired of their monotheistic tradition and look to the mystical East for an answer. Suddenly, our myths no longer satisfy our existential needs, we look eastward.

Chapter III

Grounding Tibet Chic in a “True West”

Myths serve as Meta narratives and give ethnic groups and their members a story to form their identity (Campbell 7). Myth as a phenomenon is dialogical and co-created (Campbell 21). Edward Said reminds us in Orientalism - “The Orient was almost a European invention, and has been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences” (1). Said’s argument is that Europe had to create the “Orient” in order to justify the category of “European.” Said places the Orient at the center of the western experience by making the Orient an integral part in the construction of the narrative of the West. What is missing in the one sided discourse of the West is a sense of the complexity of the East. Abramson writes:

In 1925, cinemas in London’s West End were showing the documentary film Epic of Everest. Shot during a recent failed British expedition during which two climbers died near Everest’s peak, the film was a paean to the unconquerable “purity” of the Tibetan mountains, in contrast to the “dirt” and queer customs of the Tibetan people. It became the subject of official Tibetan government protests and a cause celebre in Anglo-Tibetan relations not only because of certain “vulgar and indecent” scenes (such as one which portrayed a man delousing a boy and killing the lice between his teeth, leading to the British interpretation that lice were part of the Tibetan diet), but even more so because the screenings were accompanied by a music and dance performance by a troupe of Tibetan monks, referred to in the British popular press as “the dancing lamas.” Peter Hansen’s excellent article on the subject shows how the British media reacted to the Tibetans with a mix of condescending humor (a sample headline read, “Seven Lamas Come to Town. Escape from Tibet as Bales of Fur”; the monks were also taken to the London Zoo and photographed with the llamas), respect for their mystical religion, sympathy towards these strangers in a strange land, and, most telling, objections that the tawdry display would kill “the romance and mystery of Tibet” (Abramson 8).

Understanding the complexity of the East forms a threat to self-construction in the West. What is the Orient’s perspective collectively or as individuals? What would the Westerners do about the complexity of the Orient? What happens when the “other” gains status with agency and begins to speak? The western construction, based on a faux East begins to disintegrate.

One of the aims of this paper is to give the Tibetans agency and voice, and to shed light on the construction of Tibet by the West. Said posits that the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West); he writes “I shall be calling Orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience” (1). The myth of Shangri-La as created by James Hilton in his classic book Lost Horizon is part of the western phenomenon of Orientalism. Hilton’s story has its place in western mythology that serves just as much to define the West as it does to define the East. Caricaturing Tibet (as a representation of the East or Orient) as the fantasy Shangri-La of idyllic peace, serenity and subservience serves to render the West as discordant, intrusive and domineering. Objectifying Tibet, as representative of the East frames the Orient as exotic sets it up as one-dimensional.

[6] [7]

As attractive as Hilton’s Shangri-La utopia is, it is inauthentic and places Tibet in the category of a Brigadoon fantasy . Brigadoon and Shangri-La share several common features. The most compelling feature is a sense of escape to an idyllic locale far away from the turbulent western everyday. In Brigadoon, Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) is trying to escape the hustle and bustle lifestyle of New York. Analogously in the book and the two film depictions of Lost Horizon, Hugh Conway (Hilton’s), Robert Conway (the 1937 version played by Ronald Coleman), or Richard Conway (in the 1973 version played by Peter Finch) are trying to escape the tired and self-destructive war torn world. Neither one is real in a material sense.

If the only encounter the readers/viewers have with Tibet is a fantasy (or our only encounter with Scotland is Brigadoon) our view of reality is skewed. What is important to note is that these inauthentic depictions form distractions and make it difficult to engage politically in the issues of Tibet. Complexity then becomes the greatest threat to the illusory Shangri-La myth.

[8]

Deconstructing the myth of Shangri-La can begin by examining it in terms of its complexity and power relations. The power relation reveals the complexity of the subject and negates the simplistic construction. One way to see the myth of Shangri-La is to see it in terms of West versus East, as explained by Said. Complexity is introduced when China replaces the West as the neo-colonial force in its invasion of Tibet. China has appropriated Communism from the West and is now a politically dominant force in the region. What is forming is a complex interaction between Tibet, China and the West. We can begin to recognize the complex interaction between Tibet, China and the West by understanding the tenuous nature of the construction of the West. If the Orient is a Western construction, we can use the West as the starting point.

In True West Sam Shepard deconstructs the category of the West. The protagonists, two brothers Lee and Austin collide over their perceived roles. Lee is characterized as a drifter and as a man of the desert. Lee is envious of Austin, who is a successful screenwriter, and takes the place of Austin in the quest to sell producer Saul Kimmer on the idea of an “authentic” West. Lee and Austin are at odds about what forms a “realistic” version of the true west. Is it the “spaghetti western” ideal that Lee is trying to create or is it the “realism” of the highways of Southern California that Austin is trying to articulate? The drama reaches fever pitch when Austin’s identity is challenged by Lee’s crass desert imagery, manipulation of popular myth. Lack of discipline convinces Saul the Lee is the real thing.

In juxtaposing his two main characters (Lee and Austin) are vying for the more authentic representation of the true west, Shepard makes us rethink myths as a foundation of construction. Shepard casts aspersions on constructions both collectively and for the self. The notion of an essential true west is problematic because there are, at least in this story, two different versions. There is no single unifying version of what the West is.

Lee manages to convince Saul that his story idea has a ring of truth to it. Austin, conversely, tries to convince Saul otherwise, that his version of the West is factual:

Saul: It has a ring of Truth, Austin.
Austin: (laughs) Truth?
Lee: It is true.
Saul: Something about the real West.
Austin: Why? Because it’s got horses? Because it’s got grown men acting like little boys?
Saul: Your brother is speaking from experience.
Austin: So am I!
Saul: But nobody is interested in love these days. Austin. Let’s face it.
Austin: (to Saul) He’s been camped out on the desert for three months. Talking to cactus. What’s he know about what people wanna’ see on the screen! I drive on the freeway everyday. I swallow the smog. I watch the news in color. I shop in the Safeway. I’m the one who’s in touch! Not him! (704)

Who is right? Is it a question of right or wrong? Is there a true west? If the construct of the West is fluid, does fluidity apply to the East as well? Is it then a matter of seeing what we want to see?

In M Butterfly, David Henry Hwang warns us that the West tends to see what it wants to see when looking at the East. He warns the West of the dangers of this form of self-delusion. In the Playwright’s Notes, Hwang outlines his source of inspiration:

“A former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer have been sentenced to six years in jail for spying for China after a two day trial that traced a story of clandestine love and mistaken sexual identity […] Mr. Bouriscot was accused of passing information to China after he fell in love with Mr. Shi, whom he believed for twenty years to be a woman.” – The New York Times, May 11, 1986.

This play was suggested by international newspaper accounts of a recent espionage trial. For purposes of dramatization, names have been changed, characters created, and incidents devised or altered, and this play does not purport to be a factual record of real events or real people.

“I could escape this feeling with my China girl …” – David Bowie & Iggy Pop

(Hwang, Playwright’s Notes)

Disclaimer aside, in an encounter between Song Liling and Rene Gallimard, the conversation leads to representations of a more intimate nature.

Gallimard: Absolutely. You were utterly convincing. It’s the first time -
Song: Convincing? As a Japanese woman? The Japanese used hundreds of our people for medical experiments during the war, you know. But I gather such an irony is lost on you.
Gallimard: No! I was about to say, it’s the first time I’ve seen the beauty of the story.
Song: Really?
Gallimard: Of her death. It’s a [...] pure sacrifice. He’s unworthy, but what can she do? She loves him [...] so much. It’s a very beautiful story.
Song: Well, yes, to a Westerner.
Gallimard: Excuse me?
Song: It’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man.
Gallimard: Well, I didn’t quite mean [...]
Song: Consider it this way: what would you say if a blonde homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now, I believe you would consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it’s an Oriental who kills herself - ah! - you find it beautiful.
Silence (Hwang 17).

Similar to the myth of Shangri-La, the Oriental woman discussed in M Butterfly (as representative of the East) is submissive and overpowered by a stronger domineering Western man. On a collective level, Hwang parodies the West is feeling comfortable deluding itself that the East welcomes domination by the West. In conversation with Ambassador Manuel Toulun in the French Embassy in Beijing (the scene takes place in 1961), Gallimard is schooled on the simplicity of the Oriental mind:

Toulun: And a more troublesome corner is hard to imagine.
Gallimard: So, the Americans plan to begin bombing?
Toulun: This is very secret, Gallimard: yes. The Americans don’t have an embassy here. They’re asking us to be their eyes and ears. Say Jack Kennedy signed an order to bomb North Vietnam, Laos. How would the Chinese react?
Gallimard: I think the Chinese will squawk –
Toulun: Uh-huh.
Gallimard: -but, in their hearts, they don’t even like Ho Chi Minh.
Pause
Toulun: What a bunch of jerks. Vietnam was our colony. Not only didn’t the Americans help us fight to keep them, but now, seven years later, they’ve come back to grab the territory for themselves. It’s very irritating.
Gallimard: With all due respect, sir, why should the Americans have won our war for us back in ‘54 if we didn’t have the will to win it ourselves?
Toulun: You’re kidding, aren’t you?
Pause
Gallimard: The Orientals simply want to be associated with whoever shows the most strength and power. You live with the Chinese, sir. Do you think they like Communism? (Hwang 44)

Hwang warns us of perception issues regarding the Orient (in the common sense form and not the way Said uses it – which limits the Orient to the Arab world) within a Western framework are not just constructed but naïvely paternalistic. Abramson writes:

In turn, the Dalai Lama becomes the son that Harrer yearns to have. Jamyang Wangchuk, the son of a Bhutanese diplomat, does a fine job portraying the adolescent Dalai Lama, but his role is only significant when it depicts the moments when he and Harrer bond emotionally. These scenes occasionally ring a false note, particularly as they suggest unwarrantedly that Harrer became a surrogate father to the Dalai Lama (the Dalai Lama’s real father, whom he saw more often but had a more distant relationship with than his mother, is barely shown in the film) (Abramson 9).

How much more fundamental a misunderstanding can there be to assume that the Oriental senses himself as weak and seeks association with whoever shows the most strength or power? In Said’s deconstruction, he sees the Westerners defining themselves as empire builders against an “oriental” caricature. The result of this discourse is the marginalized other in the Oriental. Shepard casts doubt on whether there is an authentic essential West, leaving us in a quandary regarding an essential East. With all this as a background, we can ask, what is the true east? Is there a true east? Is it Shangri-La? If it is not, can we begin to get a more authentic representation of the Orient by focusing on the uniqueness of Tibet?

Chapter IV

Two looks at Shangri-La

Rick Lyman reminds us in his New York Times article, “In Two Looks at Tibet, No Sign of Shangri-La,” that the notion of Tibet as the idyllic Shangri-La is coming under reexamination. He begins his article by saying:

From the time Ronald Colman stumbled into Shangri-La in the 1937 movie “Lost Horizon,” Tibet in its various Hollywood manifestations has come to represent a kind of ultimate otherness, a golden-hued sanctuary teeming with quiescent people too simple, too trusting, too good for this world (Lyman 60).

Hollywood’s powerful tradition for myth making celebrates the notion of an idyllic enclave in the high Himalayas. James Hilton’s Lost Horizon inspired several more books and two movies.

The first Lost Horizon movie, the 1937 version directed by Frank Capra, applied the standard western construction of Shangri-La. Capra appropriated Hilton’s book and moved the construction to another level. It was as if both print and film formed a conspiracy to romanticize Shangri-La:

They arrive at the enchanted mountain paradise of Shangri-La, with magnificent marble structures, gardens, terraces, and pools making up the lamasery. The weary travelers are given rooms and every courtesy. In this utopian land of perfect peace, love, beauty and harmony, there is no war, greed, hatred, disease or crime, and time has virtually stopped - people do not grow old quickly. The visitors learn that they cannot leave the escapist paradise. <http://www.filmsite.org/losth.html 14-Apr-97>

The 1937 film inspired a newer and more extensive Shangri-La caricature in the 1973 version of Lost Horizon. Complete with Burt Bacharach soundtrack, the 1973 Ross Hunter version, also idealized Tibet as Shangri-La. The Shangri-La mystification leads to an inauthentic stereotype that detracts from an authentic representation. In the next section, I will attempt to reconstruct Tibet within a more authentic representation of place.

In an effort to begin to demystify what has now become an entrenched image of Tibet as Shangri-La, Lyman outlines historical realities:

Because of the political situation in Tibet, neither film (“Seven Years in Tibet,” directed by Jean Arnaud and “Kundun,” directed by Martin Scorcese) could be filmed there. Mr. Scorcese’s Tibet is actually the ragged peaks and arid plains of south-central Morocco; Mr. Arnaud’s is the sharp valleys and icy peaks of the Argentine Andes and the Canadian Rockies. Both filmmakers employed numerous Tibetan religious and political leaders to insure historical accuracy and realism. And both said their goal in such attention to detail was not the thrill of the exotic but the deeper feelings stirred by a sense of real life (Lyman 60).

Nonetheless, the real danger of fantasy is that it leads to essentializing. Essentializing is dangerous for many reasons: it leads to a distorted view of reality, it leads to all sorts of misunderstanding, and it eventually leads to stereotyping. Despite the social constructed nature of reality some descriptions are better than others and have less of a negative impact then those other descriptions.

Taking a Postmodern approach starts with the understanding that culture is a social construction. Truth is a matter of perspective, and perspectives are a byproduct of social interchange or discourse (Anderson 163). Culture and the self within that culture are a social construction and the validity of all variations is important. By exposing the West to Tibet’s relations with China, a more authentic representation appears. It is important to note that Tibet is not a simplified Shangri-La, but rather a nation with complexity. Tibet becomes a subject with agency and is not simply a construction of the West or China. Tibet has agency and becomes a co-creator of the discourse of the West.

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Tibet and China are cultural and sub-cultural opposites. Tibet is a theocracy and stands constructed on centuries of Buddhist symbols (Lopez, Prisoners 7). The institution of the Dalai Lama is the cohesive force keeping the Tibetan construction together. Conversely, Chinese Communists come to this discourse with an atheistic, materialist, and dualist, social construct or worldview of a progressive class struggle. Maoist reality sees as its end goal the emancipation of the working class. The Communist mandate strives, at least theoretically, to create a classless society. Communism, like any other ideology, has equal rights and validity to exist within a postmodern framework. There is nothing to essentialize or moralize about Communism or Buddhism, as neither is intrinsically good nor bad.

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In a pluralistic world, where all cultures or constructions are valid, there is the danger of sliding on the slippery slope to nihilism. If all realities are valid, then likewise all realities are equally invalid. In the absence of absolutes, the threat of nihilism opens up a sense of possibility, but more importantly, responsibility. The Churches have lost their exclusive hold as the keepers of the ultimate truth. Science and reason have failed us as bearers of hope and salvation founded on the scientific method. What we can place out hope on is a fusion of the two. To the conservative, this would seem like a threatening prospect, but to the libertarian it is an age filled with potential unmatched since the beginning of time.

Where are we to look for a sense of grounding? Postmodernism asks us to reevaluate ourselves: to legitimize the moment and to reevaluate truth. While all that we hold as foundations of truth is resting on loose soil, there can only be infinite possibility. The end of absolutes and the end of modernity hold as much risk as promise. How do we move from the theoretical to the practical?

Centering on the clash of ideologies and the examination of the cultural, political and economic issues in Tibet is to examine Tibet in the practical context of Realpolitik.

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Idealizing leaves Tibet with no dimensions, no complexity, and no agency. Tibet has kept to itself on the moral high ground of non-violence as principle and a close symbiotic relationship with nature, while Maoist Communism derives power from the barrel of the gun. Exporting ideology in an increasingly pluralistic world of acceptance and tolerance stimulates nostalgia for the age of colonialism.

The argument made is that both Communism and Buddhism have equal validity to exist under the auspices of postmodernism. Unfortunately, the dominance of Communism relegates the Buddhist configuration to the position of “other,” thus negating it. Just as the West defines the East, so does China relegate Tibet and the Tibetans, as stated above, to the role of the “other.” Aiming at peace does not elevate Tibet to a utopia nor does it detract from the recognition that China’s encroachment into Tibet is destructive and real.

Problems arise when one ideology is stuck in the modern era of absolutes, claims to have a handle on a universal truth and wants to export it. Encroachment occurs when one succeeds in taking over the other. If we are to survive as a pluralistic world, based on thinking globally but acting locally, we must first transcend myth. Better equipped, we can step in to protect the rights of all cultures and traditions that exist.

The myth of Shangri-La, allows the Communist, by default, to destroy a fantasy. Just like westerners, since it is all a fantasy, no one has to deal with real flesh and blood issues. However, that is changing. According to Jeffrey Paine:

When the story told in these pages began, had most Americans tried to locate Tibet on a map, they would have pockmarked half the globe with bad-guess pinpricks. By the time the story ends, some Hollywood stars know more about Tibetan Buddhism than the Dalai Lama does – or at least they act that way. Perhaps never in history did another country undergo such a reversal in its image and meaning in so brief a time. In one generation Tibet’s culture went from being considered religions fantasyland to becoming a well documented and grim reality (Paine 253).

Donald Lopez writes, “To the extent that we continue to believe that Tibet prior to 1950 was a utopia, the Tibet of 1998 will be no place” (11). The West is guilty of perpetuating the problems by further expanding the myth of Shangri-La. Deconstructing by examining the power relations lifts the veil of fantasy and offers a more authentic discourse. Movies like Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun destroy the myth of Shangri-La. Portraying Tibet as real give it complexity. Hollywood, the very force that sought to construct the myth, is now the force behind its deconstruction.

If one ideology dominates the other by force or such myth making, we will be revisiting the modern era. More sinister still, the West stands accused of nostalgia for a world of colonialism masked by ideology or religion. The advantage of a postmodern approach is not the elevation of one culture or ideology over another, but the recognition that cultures once considered fringe on the fringe or the “other” are now seen as real.

Dominant groups no longer automatically dismiss the “other” as non-relevant, non-entities. We see alternative realities as valid and see how we can be mutually beneficial. Since truth is a construction of discourse, we are all in a sense creating each other. We create each other on a collective level (which I explore in this section) and on an individual level (which I will examine in the next section). Identity then becomes relational and performative. The exciting thing about postmodernism is that it celebrates diversity, as opposed to a modern approach that celebrates paradigm conflicts.

The Chinese, under the pretense of liberating Tibet from a corrupt theocracy, revisit the validity issue and denounce one construct to privilege the other. If both are equally valid, how did one become more valid then the other? Remember, China came to Tibet, not the other way around. If we peel the onion and really examine what is going on here the issue is not equal validity but a power relation. The power matrix that evolved exposes a peaceful nation taken over by a more aggressive one.

Let us not fool ourselves anymore. The real issue in Tibet is economics. The bottom line is resources and markets, more importantly who controls them. China has embarked on a systematic destruction of Tibetan culture as a means to perpetuate power relations. To date, estimates show that more than 1.2 million Tibetans were either shot, tortured or have perished in prison or labor camps. Of the over 6,200 original monasteries only 11 remain in the entire country. Millions of Han Chinese immigrated to Tibet and there are now a million more Chinese than Tibetans in Tibet. Han Chinese have laid claim to the best land and jobs available. It is a crime to carry a picture of the Dalai Lama (Avedon 4).

Foreshadowing the next phase of the struggle for Tibetan autonomy, a storm is already brewing over the next Panchen Lama, the second-highest-ranking monk in Tibetan Buddhism, who helps choose the next Dalai Lama. The Chinese have the distinction of holding the world’s youngest political prisoner under house arrest in Beijing. The young prisoner is the reincarnation of the last Panchen Lama, hand picked by the Dalai Lama. The Chinese have selected another candidate and are pushing to have him approved by the religious authorities that reside in Tibet. The invasion of Tibet was due plainly to the fact that Tibet is a virtual cornucopia of resources and China is the world biggest market for consumer goods. Blinded by the economic possibilities that western leaders cannot ignore, they look the other way. Maybe we do not know all the facts. Who does?

Once we no longer rely on the oversimplifications, we can begin to reconstruct our notions of truth, identity and of construction itself. If I am to make sense of the possibilities of our postmodern world, I must begin by asking what the “True East” is. In this examination I rely on Said to show that the East is a construction of the West. Shepard exposes the ungroundedness of the essential west. Hwang reminds me that maybe I too as a westerner could be guilty of seeing what I want to see. The key now is to listen to the “other” within this more enlightened representation. If we are to deal with each other in genuine and authentic discourse, then it is imperative that we get a more authentic view of the power relations in Tibet.

Chapter V

“True East” - Is Tibet Part of China?

Ever since China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) marched into Lhasa on September 9, 1951 (Avedon 37), the issue of Tibet being part of China has been discussed in a number of venues with no real resolution in sight. Suddenly we are light years from that idealized peaceful Tibet Chic image of a Shangri-La as handmaiden. Moreover, while we are busy talking, human and economic exploitation continues in Tibet. Is Tibet part of China? While the Tibetans put forward the argument that they were a distinct and sovereign “country” prior to 1950, the Chinese offer a very different argument.

While we discuss the merits of both sides, more and more Han Chinese are relocating to Tibet. The effects of the Han Chinese population transfers into Tibet – the economic displacement, the gradual loss of identity and culture – are real. These effects form a triune of issues aimed at the destruction of a once vibrant and autonomous society. The purpose of this section is to examine the different perspectives of whether Tibet is part of China and to identify some of the tragic consequences of this difference of opinion. The difference in perspective is not an issue of “human rights” in and of itself. However, it has empowered the leaders of the Communist Party of China to occupy and systematically move to restructure Tibet, the examination of both is essential to understanding the human rights abuses taking place in Tibet. Let us begin with the justification for the occupation.

V.1. Perspectives

The claim that Tibet is part of China centers on four issues: (1) The Marriage of Tibetan King Songsten Gampo to China’s Princess Wen Cheng, (2) the Mongol connection, (3) the 17 point agreement, (4) and the status of Tibet as a country prior to 1950.

Firstly, the Tibetans see the marriage of King Songsten Gampo and Princess Wen Cheng as having been a strategic move, to form a trading alliance and to achieve peace. The Chinese, conversely, argue that Princess Wen Cheng was influential in Tibet. The fact that a Chinese princess married a Tibetan King should prove that a clear distinction existed and a marriage of convenience had to be effected to ensure peace. Rather than promoting a connection between the two countries, I feel that the marriage further proves that Tibet was a sovereign land. Tibet was sovereign, even as early as the rule of King Songsten Gampo in the years 609 to 649 and during the Mongolian Empire (Avedon 13).

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Second, during the Yuan dynasty, Tibet was part of the Mongol empire. The roles of Tibet and China within the Mongolian empire vary dramatically. The Chinese base their argument on the slim connection that both they and Tibet were a part of the Mongol empire. On this premise, Tibet is part of China. Tibetans see things differently – while the Mongols conquered China, the Tibetans formed an alliance and paid tribute to the Mongolians (Avedon 14). John Avedon writes that Tibetans formed a Priest-Patron tie with the Mongols (14). Do the Mongols themselves have the same claim on both Tibet and China? If there was any doubt, the seventeen-point agreement of 1950 dispels all myths, as far as China is concerned.

Third, after the occupation of Tibet, the Tibetan delegation was sent to negotiate with the Chinese. Ngabo Ngawang Jigme was then coerced into signing the seventeen-point agreement outlining that Tibet was an “integral” part of China (Avedon 36). The Dalai Lama rejected the agreement. The Dalai Lama and the Government of Tibet stated that the delegation, more specifically Jigme, did not have his authority to sign any agreements. The Dalai Lama has formed a government in exile in Dharamsala, India.

There is more to this story than meets the eye:

Point 17. This agreement shall come into force immediately after signatures and seals are affixed to it (Goldstein 769).

According to Melvin Goldstein, the story goes that Ngabo Ngawang Jigme claimed to have authority but did not have the seal. The Chinese simply made new seals for each delegate and used those for the final signing (Goldstein 770). Goldstein closes the chapter with this comment on the seventeen-point agreement:

But since Ngabo did not have the authority to sign the agreement on behalf of Tibet, all China’s gain depended on the reactions of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government. The Chinese could ensure that Ngabo remained on Chinese and Tibetan territory, but they could not control the course of action of the Dalai Lama and his government (772).

The question not often asked is, if Tibet was a part of China, why go through all this trouble to ensure a legal transfer of sovereignty. The truth is, the Chinese were aware that Tibet was separate and sovereign, and had been for a long time. The Tibetans had all the forms of a government (the topic of the next sub-section) except a strong standing army, and that was their undoing.

Lastly, prior to 1950, the Tibetans had hosted several foreign delegations in Lhasa (a component to identification as a sovereign nation), but the Chinese steadfastly refused to accept Tibet as a separate country. Despite making the case for “driving the foreign imperialists out” (in the seventeen point agreement), the Chinese refused to accept the diplomatic presence of England and other countries as a sign of nationhood. The Chinese did note that the presence of an English radio operator was a form of foreign imperialism and they should be driven out (Avedon 36). The claim of a diplomatic presence is a dicey one. On the one hand it gives Tibet status as a nation, but it allows China to claim a threat from its western border. The reality was that there was a presence, but so miniscule that it posed no threat to anyone, not the Tibetans, not the Indians, and certainly not the Chinese. On this premise, the Chinese moved to “liberate” Tibet both from the foreign imperialists and the theocracy. The liberators aim was to take Tibet into the 20^th century.

On one point, and one point only, the Tibetan situation is similar to that in Palestine. The Tibetan government in exile, much like the Palestinian government in exile, is having difficulty proving its status. The question now is whether there was an “invasion” or not. The question is seen to be moot in both cases. The Israelis build settlements, the Chinese are moving both Han and Muslims into Tibet (Goldstein 729).

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Below, I will outline the result of this “liberation” and its impact on the Tibetans as a people.

V.2. Population Transfer, Economic Displacement, and Gradual Cultural Genocide in Tibet

The consequences of the occupation of Tibet by China are too numerous to outline and explore in this short paper. However, having a keen interest in the issues of economic displacement and the cultural genocide resulting from the population transfer, I will dedicate the next few sections to examining these issues. The choice to examine these issues, however, is an arbitrary one. Perhaps the choice was based on of these issues being the most visible. The issues are outlined below.

Chinese authorities continue to move ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet. The Chinese justification centers on filling the need for skilled labor for projects in Tibet. The reality is otherwise. The Han Chinese are serving the development market providing services to other Chinese in Tibet. Tibetans themselves should be doing this as it gives them a market to fill and a sense of economic autonomy. Donald Altschiller wrote an extensive chapter on Tibet in China at the Crossroads that deals with the issue of Population Transfer:

One of the thorniest issues today, beyond the human rights abuses, is the movement of Chinese into Tibet. A declassified CIA study from the late 1970s holds that the first thousand or so Han (i.e., ethnic Chinese) settlers began to arrive in an organized fashion in 1976. Since then, it has been very hard to come up with accurate numbers, but we do know that the numbers of Han settlers has greatly increased (198).

John Ackerly, founder of the International Campaign for Tibet, testified before the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs that the World Bank (as of June 13, 2000) were in the process of financing the move of more Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims into Tibet. Ackerly respectfully submitted that, “It is our position that the World Bank should not fund the resettlement of Chinese into Tibet areas under any circumstances” (21).

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Han Chinese from the hinterland are encouraged and supported to come to Tibet and are attracted by offers of preferential conditions. Various forms of endowments are used to attract qualified personnel from the hinterland to serve in Tibet. While subsidies have been promised to improve the Tibetan economy, they hardly seem to reach the Tibetans. Once again, before the same Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Hon. Julia V. Taft, the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues at the Department of State had this to say:

Recent reports suggest that the privatization of health care, increased emphasis on Chinese language curriculum, and continuing Han migration into Tibet are all weakening the social and economic position of Tibet’s indigenous population. Lacking the skills to compete with Han laborers, ethnic Tibetans are not participating in the region’s economic boom. In fact, rapid economic growth, the expanding tourism industry, and the introduction of more modern cultural influences have also disrupted traditional living patterns and customs, causing environmental problems and threatening the traditional Tibetan culture (3).

Aside from the disruptions outlined above, the Tibetans further claim that subsidies are wasted and used to support the bureaucracy (largely Han Chinese) and Han enterprises (Recent 9) created by the Chinese and to resettle Chinese immigrants.

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With the Chinese policy of resettlement to Tibet, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. With this influx come sweeping changes, the effects of which are yet to be assessed. Aside from becoming a minority in their own country, Tibetans are forced to adopt Chinese as the communication medium. Mandarin has replaced Tibetan as the official language. Moreover, freedom of religion has been abolished. Dr. Elizabeth Napper of The Tibetan Nun’s Project and Dr. Elliot Sperling of the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, both spoke out at the same Subcommittee Hearing referred to earlier concerning the lack of freedom of religion and the violence relating thereto. Dr. Sperling, in his role as a consultant for Human Rights Watch had this to say:

Human Rights Watch has a number of concerns that cover ongoing human rights violations in Tibet. One of our concerns is the continued implementation of Chinese policies aimed at subordinating religious practices and sentiments to serve the political needs of the state that impinge upon the freedom of many Tibetans to peacefully practice or even express certain vital aspects of their religious beliefs. These policies are implemented through the use of coercion, violent repression, and imprisonment (Recent 23).

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Compared to pre-1959 levels, only 1 in 20 monks is still allowed to practice. The Tibetans are “allowed” to practice, that is, under the government’s watch. Up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed. With advent of the gradual cultural genocide, the Tibetan culture is undergoing dangerous erosion and has come close to being eradicated there.

V.3. Economic Displacement of Tibetans

The continued influx of the Han Chinese population in Tibet has resulted in a critical displacement of Tibetans in their own country. Michel Oksenberg writes in Ezra F. Vogel’s Living with China U.S./China Relations in the Twenty-First Century regarding the economic displacement of the Tibetans:

Tibetans remain overwhelmingly an agricultural people; many are nomads. Their illiteracy rates are high. Han Chinese are the bearers of an industrial economy. In Tibet they tend to live in cities and dominate commercial life. Somewhat better educated, urban oriented, entrepreneurial, and Mandarin speaking, the Han are significantly better equipped to take advantage of the limited economic opportunities that Tibet offers. Tibetans are ill prepared to participate fully in the economic development of their region. The long-term prognosis for a possible renaissance of traditional Tibetan civilization is bleak (82).

Moreover, Han immigration has also placed considerable demands on the land in Tibet. For a long time, a policy was enforced which was not aimed at the utilization of land in compliance with local conditions. The policy was aimed at growing crops, particularly grain crops, in all places, regardless of their specific climactic and land conditions. Production suited to the local conditions was ousted. The result was disastrous. For every acre of land reclaimed, three acres of land have turned to sand. Moreover, pastures are eaten up by agriculture and farmland is eaten up by sandstorms. Workers and administrators of Han Chinese descent carry out the mining and logging operations. Once the extraction becomes less profitable, the land is left despoiled and the traditional livelihood disrupted. The result of this environmental, cultural and economic incursion will be devastation of epic proportion.

Based then on a rather tenuous explanation regarding the composition of China based on a Mongolian Empire configuration, the slim and rather dubious connection between King Songsten Gampo and Princess Wen Cheng, the Chinese have moved to effect some of the most grievous of human rights violations on the Tibetans. The combined as well as interrelated effects of the Han Chinese population transfers into Tibet, the gradual loss of identity and culture as well as the economic displacement of Tibetans in their own country, form a triune of issues aimed at the destruction of a once vibrant and autonomous society. The true cost to Tibet in terms of environmental impact, human lives, and opportunities unrealized cannot ever be calculated fully. It is imperative that before irreparable damage is done that there be an orderly and viable transfer of power and the healing process to start. Dr. Sperling articulated this issue best when he testified:

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In fact, if I may depart from my statement to say something on a personal note, for many years, prior to the President’s visit in 1998, we were often told that one cannot mention human rights in public with Chinese officials because it involves the loss of face. One does not do that publicly. One has to discuss this very quietly in the background as background topic otherwise these can be no progress.

One of the most gratifying things about that visit in 1998 is that the President did raise the issue of human rights publicly, very publicly, and since that time, I would say happily, people have stopped talking about this arcane, orientalist notion that somehow you cannot discuss these things in public with the Chinese Government. You can talk about them in public. They ought to be talked about in public (Recent 25).

As long as China remains the “holy grail” for East Asia and the United States is the final frontier for capitalist goods and services, the myth of King Songsten Gampo and Princess Wen Cheng will continue to persist. For the same reason, the Mongolian connection will also remain an “apparent” reality. The dynamic just outlined only proves that history is less about the past and more about the present and the future.

Despite the Dalai Lama acquiescing that somehow Tibet will be part of China, the question he often ponders is how. After the political issues are settled, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has already said he wants no part in the new Tibet political structure (Recent 37). In the interim we live with an impasse of different perspectives and tragic consequences. One way to release us from this trap is to dig deeper and to educate ourselves in order to get a deeper understanding and transcend the “thin descriptions.”

Chapter VI

Sampling Tibet Chic: An Response to Phil Borges

Phil Borges was honored a few years ago with an exhibit at the Dianne Farris Gallery in Vancouver, Canada. Borges has earned his place as a premier photographer alongside such notables as the late Galen Rowell and is enshrined through his collection of photographs entitled Tibetan Portraits (http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artist/borges/).

Borges has to be given credit for his attempt to express through an aesthetic medium the plight of the Tibetan. On a personal level and on the surface, a closer examination of the images of Yama (Figure 1), Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dalai Lama (Figure 2) and former political prisoner Palden Gyatso (Figure 3) exemplify a violation of a sense of the “authenticity of place” outlined above. The image that comes closest to coming to some sense of authenticity for me was the figure of Yama (Figure 1). Clad in her faux Adidas sport suit with the smeared cheek and the windswept hair comes closest to a vision of the “every child” at play. The unknown item she clutches is a mystery. Is this a rock? A marble? A ball? What is its significance? Borges is trying to play up a sense of mystery.

Figure 1: Yama

Figure 2: 14^th Dalai Lama

Figure 3: Palden Gyatso

As a form of pedagogy, this form of romanticizing leads to idealization and removes rather than draws me in. Unfortunately, the picture does not bring me to any greater understanding about what is going on in Tibet – until I read the captions. Graduate student Stephen Y. G. Tan of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, writes in Negating Negatives: The Dialectics of Photography, “Phil Borges’ hand-colored portraits of Tibetan refugees succeeded only in transforming their stoic faces into symbols of martyrdom, instead of raising questions on the political situation that caused their flight” (8). If Oscar Wilde is accurately recreated by Donald Lopez who thereafter appropriates Wilde’s notion that “Life imitates Art” (Lopez, Prisoners 183), then what are we left with? Simulacra. Lopez’s insight in this regard are helpful and are worth recreating here, “If we extend Wilde’s theory, it would seem that Western enthusiasts of Tibetan Buddhism are more authentic in their Buddhism than Tibetans precisely because they are more intimate with the simulacrum of Tibet that is the invention, that is the artifice” (Lopez, Prisoners 183-4). By idealizing the way Borges does, the lines between what is authentic and what are simulacra begin to blur and the result is confusion rather than clarity. A deeper reflection leads one to the conclusion that something insidious is at play, the phenomenon of stereotyping.

The problem with this attempt at assisting what he has identified as “endangered cultures” is that Borges reinforces stereotypes. Explaining the epistemic violence (where one is pegged, categorized, taxonomized, and effectively objectified) perpetuated by stereotypes is a tricky endeavor. For an explanation on stereotypes, particularly referring to Tibet, I will once again turn to Donald Lopez who writes:

Tibet’s complexities and competing histories have been flattened into a stereotype. Stereotypes operate through adjectives, which establish chosen characteristics as if they were eternal truths. Tibet is “isolated,” Tibetans are “content,” monks are “spiritual.” With sufficient repetition these adjectives become innate qualities, immune from history. And once these qualities harden into an essence, that essence may split into two opposing elements (Lopez, Prisoners 10).

And this is where discourse as outlined by Foucault in The Archeology of Knowledge takes over.

Instead of something said once and for all – and lost in the past like the result of a battle, a geological catastrophe, or the death of a king – the statement, as it emerges in its materiality, appears with a status, enters various networks and various fields of use, is subjected to transferences or modifications, is integrated into operations and strategies in which its identity is maintained or effaced (Lopez, Prisoners 46). [Note: This quote actually comes from The Archeology of Knowledge but was cited from Lopez in Prisoners of Shangri-La.]

The stereotypes are bundled into utterances and writings which have been authorized, by artists like Phil Borges, only to be split into either/or rather than both/and categories into whatever agenda and power relation the discourse is subject to, and I argue, that is where the real epistemic violence is done. Lopez continues by outlining what I would call his version epistemic violence that is within the framework of dualities:

Thus Lamaism may be portrayed in the West as the most authentic and most degenerate form of Buddhism, Tibetan monks may be portrayed as saintly or rapacious, Tibetan artists may be portrayed as inspired mystics and mindless automatons, Tibetan peasants may be portrayed as pristine or filthy. This language about Tibet not only creates knowledge about Tibet, in many ways creates Tibet, a Tibet that Tibetans in exile have come to appropriate and deploy in an effort to gain both standing in exile and independence for their country (Lopez, Prisoners 10).

In a move similar to the creation of the Shangri-La myths, the Tibetans have now become allies of their own gravediggers. Unless we can, together, dispel the myths, Tibet will forever be subject to our fictions. We may never escape the function of construction, at least now, cognizant of the mechanism of our epistemological creations, we can (both the Tibetans and the West) reconstruct within a framework that is, at best, more authentic if not more reflective of reality.

These reflections, I wish to remind the reader, are anecdotal and other viewers, I am certain, may react differently. However, should the process outlined previously, repeat itself with even one other observer, Borges would have failed to achieve the kind of reflection and thus empathy for his subject he originally attempted to do. Tibet Chic, then, not only does not bring us closer but also at times separates us even further.

The backdrops behind both the Dalai Lama (Figure 2) and Palden Gyatso (Figure 3) are reminiscent of the two movie versions of Lost Horizon mentioned earlier. Moreover, the photo of Palden Gyatso does not really bring us any closer to his real history as a political prisoner, but leaves us thinking that this is a venerable old sage out in the mountains awaiting our arrival – to bestow esoteric some wisdom upon us. Taken out of their environment these shots include a violation of a sense of “authenticity of use” along with space. While these photos are supposed to cause the uninformed to think twice about the brutality and transcend Tibet Chic, they relegate Tibet to a fantasyland of the lost Shangri-La and become part of a discourse of fantasy bent on remaining so. Having outlined my reflections as such does not detract from Borges’s mission and aesthetic accomplishments. I certainly do not mean him any disrespect. This is a beautiful collection of photos and his heart is in the right place. However, what comes out of Borges is a reinforcement of the stereotypes that I have labored hard to identify and expose by giving us yet another “thin description” of Tibetans and what they represent.

Conclusion

Forming closure on this project is like trying to place a band-aid over a cut that really requires stitches: It is a good start but will it really stop the hemorrhage? Drawing an analogy to illness, in this paper, the “disease” of Tibet Chic was “diagnosed” and examined. The doctor prescribed that we engage in the deconstruction and reconstruction process and try to affect a cure. We need to break through the veil – to try and achieve a deeper, more fundamental, and hopefully a more authentic (a thick description, so to speak) understanding of the goings on at the roof of the world. Paine writes:

In retrospect Blavatsky, Roerich, Hilton, and other Shangri-La-esques appear like children frolicking in a playground, which a holocaust would later decimate. After 1959 Tibet became a real world matter of statistics, accurate knowledge, and factual information, but at the price of its near-extinction. Yet from the political defeat of Tibet rose up the cultural triumph of its religion. The fortitude and equilibrium of Tibetans displayed under foreign domination and in exile attracted curiosity about Tibetan Buddhism – evidently the source of their resilience. For overall those people suffered the trials of Job, but they behaved like a tribe of Walt Whitmans. Their buoyant spirits suggested that they might know the secrets of outwitting tragedy. It was a positive image of religion, and the image came at the right time (Paine 254).

Although I have strong reservations of unreflectively transplanting Tibetan Buddhism into the West – I have to admit to appreciating Paine’s optimism; however, I maintain that it seems like the only real home Tibetan Buddhism will have is as an adjunct or curiosity in places like the United States and Europe. Moreover, the examination suggests that, for the most part, we are really visitors in another man’s home when we examine the “other.” A conclusion like this seems, at least on the surface, to be somewhat pessimistic. However, if we realize that we are guests in another’s home and do the best we can to understand, without the pretense of being an expert, then we achieve two very important objectives: we better understand others as well as ourselves and we cease to objectify the “other.” Tibet Chic, then, is more about “us” as western outsiders then it is about “them.” If we realize that “all is one” then we have already learned a valuable lesson.

-oOo-

Works Consulted

Books

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Lopez, Donald S. Prisoners of Shangri-La Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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Strober, Deborah Hart and Strober, Gerald. His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Oral Biography. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2005.

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Vogel, Ezra, ed. Living with China: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.

Articles

Abramson, Mark. “Mountains, Monks and Mandalas: ‘Kundun’ and ‘Seven Years in Tibet.’” Cineaste, 23.3 (Summer 1998): 8-12.

Berger, Rose Marie. “Tibet or Not Tibet - Hollywood visits China.” Sojourners Magazine, 27.1 (Jan.-Feb. 1998): 61-3.

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Thurman, Robert. “The Realpolitik of Spirituality.” Shambala Sun. (Nov. 1996).

Wise, Jeff. “The New Western Buddha-Chic.” World Press Review. 44.5 (May 1997): 33-7.

Hearings

Recent Developments in Tibet: One Step Forward, Three Steps Back - Hearing before the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs Washington. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001.

Electronic/Internet Source

“Free the Panchen Lama.” International Campaign for Tibet: Free the Panchen Lama. International Campaign for Tibet. 29 Oct. 2002. <www.savetibet.org/PanchenLama/ PanchenLamaMain.cfm>.

“His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.” HKStar.com. HKStar.com. 20 Nov. 2005. <home.hkstar.com/~franchish/penor.htm>.

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“The Gelug Tradition.” The Government of Tibet in Exile. 20 Nov. 2005. <www.tibet.com/Buddhism/gelug.html>.

“The Geshe Degree.” The Government of Tibet in Exile. 20 Nov. 2005. <www.tibet.com/Buddhism/geshe.html>.

“The Kagyu Tradition.” The Government of Tibet in Exile. 20 Nov. 2005. <www.tibet.com/Buddhism/kagyu.html>.

“The Nyingma Tradition.” The Government of Tibet in Exile. 20 Nov. 2005. <www.tibet.com/Buddhism/nyingma.html>.

“The Sakya Tradition.” The Government of Tibet in Exile. 20 Nov. 2005. <www.tibet.com/Buddhism/sakya.html>.

“Tibet - The Issues.” International Campaign for Tibet: Tibet - The Issues. International Campaign for Tibet. 29 Oct. 2002. <www.savetibet.org/Tibet/TibetMain.cfm>.

“Tibet - The Issues: Human Rights in Tibet.” International Campaign for Tibet: Tibet - The Issues: Human Rights in Tibet. International Campaign for Tibet. 29 Oct. 2002. <www.savetibet.org/Tibet/TibetList.cfm?c=74>.

“Tibet - The Issues: Tibetan History, Politics and Legal Situation.” International Campaign for Tibet: Tibet - The Issues: Tibetan History, Politics and Legal Situation. International Campaign for Tibet. 29 Oct. 2002. <www.savetibet.org/Tibet/TibetList.cfm?c=22>.

Ellis, Eric. “Washington And Hollywood Share A Common Enemy.” Washington And Hollywood Share A Common Enemy Eric Ellis. 27 Feb. 1997. Financial Review. 22 Jan. 2003. <http://www.ericellis.com/uspolitics4.htm>.

Emerson, Tony, and Power, Carla. “With more than seven movies in the works on Tibet, the embattled land is Hollywood’s favorite theme and Trendiest cause.” Tibet Gets Chic. 14 May 1997. World Tibet Network News. 22 Jan. 2003. <http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/ 1997/5/14_2.html>.

Forney, Matthew. “China Falls for Tibet Chic.” TIMEasia.com: News -- China Falls for Tibet Chic. 21 Jan. 2001. Time Asia. 22 Jan. 2003. <http://www.time.com/time/ asia/magazine/2001/0129/china.tibet.html>

Gyatso, Tenzin “Human Rights and Universal Responsibility.” Human Rights and Universal Responsibility. 15 June 1993. The Government of Tibet in Exile. 29 Oct. 2002. <www.tibet.com/DL/vienna.html>.

Prothero, Stephen. “Tibetan Buddhism is hot in Hollywood, boffo in advertising, the cause of choice in rock ‘n’ roll.” Buddha Chic. 24 May 1997. World Tibet Network News. 22 Jan. 2003. <http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1997 /5/29_1.html>

Sae-Saue, Jayson. “Orientalism.” Edward Said, “Orientalism.” 29 Nov. 2001. University of Colorado at Boulder. 02 Jan. 2003 <http://www.colorado.edu/English/engl2010mk/ 2said.html>.

Schwankert, Steven. “In The Grip of Tibet Chic.” Asiaweek.com. Asiaweek.com. 22 Jan. 2003.

Tsai, Joyce. “Pseudo Activist Chic.” Pseudo Activist Chic. Apr. 1998. Princeton University. 22 Jan. 2001. <http://www.princeton.edu/~progrev/97-98/apr98jt.html>.

Zuck, Jon. “Two Elegies for Tibet: Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun.” Two Elegies for Tibet: Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun. 1996. Homepage. 22 Jan. 2003. <http://www.frimmin.com/movies/tibet.html>.

Appendix 1

TIBETAN PORTRAITS

COPYRIGHT © BY PHIL BORGES AT THE DIANNE FARRIS GALLERY - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tibetan Portraits

Phil Borges: The Face of Pakistan exhibition, © 2002

Phil Borges Animist: The Spirit of Place, © 2000

Phil Borges Enduring Spirit, © 1996

Appendix 2

“TRUE EAST” - Is Tibet Part of China?

[The counterpoint to Phil Borges]

COPYRIGHT © [http://www.tibetimages.co.uk/politics/politicspage1/politics1.html]

TIBET IN BLACK AND WHITE
IMAGES © 2003 MATTHEW T. KAPSTEIN
COPYRIGHT © 2003 SHELLEY AND DONALD RUBIN FOUNDATION

THE REAL TIBET
PROVIDED THROUGH THE KINDNESS OF JOHN ACKERLY OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
IMAGES © 2003 JOHN ACKERLY
COPYRIGHT © 2003 INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET

Tibet (others collected)

Section Added Only for Website - The Paratext of Shangri-La: From Lost Horizon to Kundun

Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Source: < http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/hilton.html> 26-Aug-97

James Hilton’s Lost Horizon is assured a place in the annals of publishing history, not necessarily for its literary value, but for the simple fact that it was the first novel published in paperback in 1939 by Ian Ballantine. Even before the paperback came out, Frank Capra had turned it into a successful movie starring Ronald Colman. In 1973, a musical remake of the film was made. Of course, the book itself if very different from either movie version. Hilton employs several traditional methods in his story. The novel opens in a gentleman’s club in Berlin where four Englishmen have met for the evening. Talk turns to a plane hi-jacking that had occurred in Baskul, India the previous year. When the men realize they all knew one of the kidnap victims, Hugh Conway, the conversation briefly touches on his probable fate. After the group breaks up, one of their number, the author Rutherford, confides to another that he has seen Conway since the kidnapping and goes on to provide a manuscript accounting for Conway’s experiences. Conway is among four kidnap victims, the others being Mallinson, his young assistant who is anxious to get back to civilization, Barnard, a brash American, and Miss Brinklow, an evangelist. Conway himself rounds out the group as an established diplomat and stoic. When the plane crashes in the Kuen-Lun Mountains, the quartet is rescued and taken to the hidden lamasery of Shangri-La. Hilton is stingy in letting out the secret of Shangri-La, which helps build the tension in this novel. Mallinson’s attitude towards Shangri-La makes his actions somewhat targeted, while the rest of the group, while not as flamboyant, also telegraph their eventual course of action. Lost Horizon is not, of course, an adventure novel. It is more cerebral than that. The monks at Shangri-La believe in a philosophy which is a mix of Christianity as brought to the valley by the eighteenth century French priest Perrault (also the name of the French fabulist who compiled fairy tales such as “Sleeping Beauty”) and the Buddhism, which existed before Perrault’s arrival. The motto of these monks could best be summed up as “Everything in moderation, even moderation” The valley of Shangri-La is a peaceful place, taking from the world around it, but remaining aloof from all the negative actions of that world. Although idyllic, it is not the paradise of the Bible, nor of any Western philosophy, invoking instead much that is Eastern. The dichotomy between the world outside the valley and the society, which Hilton envisioned, is brought into even starker contrast by today’s knowledge that a war much worse than the one Conway fought in, would engulf many regions of the world less than a decade after Hilton wrote the book. Hilton foresaw another great war and mentions it as a vague prophecy in the book. One very telling moment comes when Miss Brinklow decides to attempt to understand the religious beliefs of the valley’s residents. Chang, the lama-in-training assigned to be their tour guide, explains that the lamas “devote themselves […] to contemplation and to the pursuit of wisdom.” “But that isn’t doing anything, “Brinklow complains, expressing a Western viewpoint. Chang calmly agrees, “Then, madam, they do nothing.” Chang does not attempt to argue with Brinklow nor sway her to his point of view in any way. When she announces her intention of converting the monastery’s followers, the lama’s neither stand in her way nor help, they merely allow her to do as she will. Lost Horizon is the type of book written to make the reader think. Even at the very end, when everything seems to be settled, Hilton throws the reader a curve ball, causing them to wonder whether Conway’s memories of Shangri-La are real or merely the result of shock and exposure. And, if they are real, does the secret guarded in Shangri-La really exist or was it merely a fairy tale like those told by a different Perrault?

Shangri-La: The Return to the World of Lost Horizon by Eleanor Cooney & Daniel Altieri
Source: <http://www.bookworld.com/morrow> 6-Feb-97

When Hugh Conway came out of his amnesia and jumped ship in Honolulu in James Hilton’s 1933 classic Lost Horizon, it was the last the world saw of him. For over sixty years readers have wondered: What happened to him to make him lose his memory? Did he ever make it back to Shangri-La, the idyllic hidden valley in the mountains of Tibet? (We are not talking about the Capra movie here. In the book, these are unanswered questions.)In Shangri-La, the official sequel to Lost Horizon, it is the 1960s. The Chinese have brought the Cultural Revolution across the border into Tibet. Dark times are at hand. A Chinese general, a leader of the occupying forces, stumbles onto a series of clues, which seem to lead to a legendary hidden valley somewhere in the remote highlands. He envisions the ultimate plunder, and the sanctity of Shangri-La is threatened as his search becomes deadly earnest. Readers learn the answers to those old questions and learn some of the harsh facts of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In Shangri-La, the notion of the hidden paradise is expanded to include all of Tibet--not completely lost yet, but perilously near to it.

Lost Horizon (1937)
Source: < http://www.filmsite.org/losth.html> 14-Apr-97

A timeless, widely acclaimed classic romantic fantasy film directed by Frank Capra. Courageous British diplomat, Far Eastern writer and idealistic dreamer Robert Conway (Ronald Coleman) is caught in war-torn China, aiding the evacuation of refugees. He escapes in the last passenger plane out with his younger brother George (John Howard), a fugitive swindler Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), a fossil-hunting expert Lovett (Edward Everett Horton) and a girl with tuberculosis Gloria Stone (Isabell Jewell). He learns that the plane appears to be hijacked, flown not by a European but by an Asian, and flying in the wrong direction over the mountainous Himalayas in Tibet. The plane crashes into the deep snow, and it appears that all is lost when a caravan appears, led by an elderly Chinese man named Chang (H.B. Warner). They join his caravan and are led for many miles through the rough snow-covered terrain to a small pass, and suddenly find themselves in a beautiful, warm, snowless, sunny fertile land, called ‘the Valley of the Blue Moon.’ They arrive at the enchanted mountain paradise of Shangri-La, with magnificent marble structures, gardens, terraces, and pools making up the lamasery. The weary travelers are given rooms and every courtesy. In this utopian land of perfect peace, love, beauty and harmony, there is no war, greed, hatred, disease or crime, and time has virtually stopped - people do not grow old quickly. The visitors learn that they cannot leave the escapist paradise. Called to speak to the High Priest, Conway is told he is chosen to be the Priest’s successor, because of his idealistic writings and because the Priest is dying (and more than 200 years old). The High Lama (Sam Jaffe) describes the mission behind Shangri-La and introduces Conway to its mysteries. With a world destined to be destroyed by wars and lust for power, Shangri-La was created: Against that time is why I avoided death and am here and why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life and it is our hope that they may find it here. For here we shall be with their books and their music and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be kind. When that day comes, it is our hope that the brotherly love of Shangri-La will spread throughout the world. All of the travelers find peace and contentment in Shangri-La except for Robert’s restless brother George and Maria (Margo), a Russian girl who has lived there but is dissatisfied and thinks the Lama is an insane impostor. She is warned that if she leaves she will age considerably. Robert is convinced to disbelieve Shangri-La’s unearthly wonders and is persuaded to leave Shangri-La with his brother and Maria. He looks back for one last tearful view of the paradise. In a memorable sequence, an avalanche buries their expedition. In the fierce weather, Maria’s face ages rapidly, and she dies an old wrinkled woman. Despairing, George commits suicide by throwing himself off a cliff. In the final sequence of the film, the scene shifts to a London club where foreign news reports are received. Robert is found alive in a Chinese village. An explorer Lord Gainsford (Hugh Buckler), who has been trying to trace him, describes how he heard reports that Conway kept talking about a place called Shangri-La and relentlessly and determinedly kept searching for it until he finally disappeared. Asked if he believes in Shangri-La, Lord Gainsford gives a toast and salutes a missing Robert Conway: Gentlemen, I give you a toast. Here’s my hope that Robert Conway will find his Shangri-La. Here’s my hope that we all find our Shangri-La.

Lost Horizon (1973)
Source: < http://www.etsmtl.ca/pers/jboisono/shawnphillips/discog/losthorm.htm> 11-Aug-97

This retelling of the classic tale of James Hilton’s Utopian lost world plays out uneasily amid musical production numbers and Bacharach pop music. While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon, Shangri-La. Hidden from the rest of the world, Shangri-La is a haven of peace and tranquility for world-weary diplomat Richard Conway. His ambitious brother, George, sees it as a prison from which he must escape, even if it means risking his life and bringing destruction to the ancient culture of Shangri-La.

Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Source: <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767806239/qid=1045550274/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6112518-0797409?v=glance&s=dvd> 17-Feb-03

If it hadn’t been for Brad Pitt signing on to play the lead role of obsessive Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, there’s a good chance this lavish $70 million film would not have been made. It was one of two films from 1997 (the other being Martin Scorcese’s exquisite Kundun) to view the turmoil between China and Tibet through the eyes of the young Dalai Lama. But with Pitt onboard, this adaptation of Harrer’s acclaimed book focuses more on Harrer, a Nazi party member whose life was changed by his experiences in Tibet with the Dalai Lama. Having survived a treacherous climb on the challenging peak of Nanga Parbat and a stint in a British POW camp, Harrer and climbing guide Peter Aufschnaiter (nicely played by David Thewlis) arrive at the Tibetan city of Lhasa, where the 14-year-old Dalai Lama lives as ruler of Tibet. Their stay is longer than either could have expected (the “seven years” of the title), and their lives are forever transformed by their proximity to the Tibetan leader and the peaceful ways of the Buddhist people. China looms over the land as a constant invasive threat, but Seven Years in Tibet is more concerned with viewing Tibetan history through the eyes of a visitor. The film is filled with stunning images and delightful moments of discovery and soothing, lighthearted spirituality, and although he is somewhat miscast, Pitt brings the requisite integrity to his central role. What is missing here is a greater understanding of the young Dalai Lama and the culture of Tibet. [20] Whereas Kundun tells its story purely from the Dalai Lama’s point of view, Seven Years in Tibet is essentially an outsider’s tale. --Jeff Shannon

Kundun (1997)
Source: <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305090580/qid=1045549953/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-6112518-0797409?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846#product-details> 17-Feb-03

It would be a mistake to call Kundun a disappointment, or a film that director Martin Scorcese was not equipped to create. Both statements may be true to some viewers, but they ignore the higher purpose of Scorcese’s artistic intention and take away from a film that is by any definition unique. In chronicling the life of the 14th Dalai Lama, Kundun defies conventional narrative in favor of an episodic approach, presenting a sequential flow of events from the life of the young leader of Buddhist Tibet. From the moment he is recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937 to his exile from Tibet in the wake of China’s invasion, the Dalai Lama is seen as an enlightened spiritual figurehead. This gives the film its tone of serenity and reverence but denies us the privilege of admiring the Dalai Lama as a fascinating human character. --Jeff Shannon

---

[1]
Brauen writes about Nicholas Roerich. According to Brauen, “Blavatsky left her mark on the Tibet images of several personalities seriously interested in religion, for example on that of Nicholas Roerich, who felt the Shambala myth particularly spoke to him” (Brauen 37).

[2]
“There was a rumor going around a couple of years ago that Gere was going to leave his acting career and become a monk. It would, after all, make sense, considering how hard he is on himself about the time he spends or doesn’t spend on his practice, and his concomitant impulse to practice more. When I asked him if he ever considered leaving acting and just practicing, he laughs hard, and then sits in silence. “Yeah, sure,” he finally says. “I don’t think anyone who’s ever been touched by a teacher doesn’t feel […]” He looks at me, then, and says that when “the Tibetans heard the rumor about him becoming a monk, they were very, very upset. “Many of them came to me and said, ‘Please don’t. We need you so much.” He laughs again. “Not that I was going to become a monk. But it was clear that I was of value in the role that I’m playing now” (Rohrer 8).

[3]
On a more political note, Rohrer writes: “I wonder out loud, in my conversation with Gere: I thought suffering was alleviated by understanding emptiness, no-self. Isn’t this work, I ask him, only alleviating the suffering of a few human beings temporarily? He says, “On a practical level, if people are starving, if people are being politically abused and tortured, if there is no freedom, what space is there for them to even consider the nature of self, consider emptiness, consider a view?” He looks at me, smiling. “Look,” he says, “ultimately, this is all for everyone. Because until everyone has been removed from suffering, none of us is. Right? We’re that connected”” (Rohrer 6).

[4]
“Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, the driving force behind the free-Tibet movement in the United States, was inspired by Fela’s (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti - addition mine) politics. “I respected Fela’s drive to bring about positive change through his music,” says Yauch. “One of the times I saw Fela, he stood onstage talking until the audience screamed, ‘Just play a song.’ He said, ‘The only reason I play music is so I can get up here and talk.’ Although he made that claim, it was still some of the best music I ever heard” (Goldman 2).

[5]
In the statement by H.H. Penor Rinpoche, he argues that: “As a terton, Chungdrag Dorje rediscovered teachings and sacred objects hidden by Padmasambhava in the eighth century. Such treasures (terma) were concealed with the intention that they would be discovered and revealed at a later date when the circumstances were such that they would be of particular benefit to sentient beings. Texts of the teachings discovered by Chungdrag Dorje have apparently not survived the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Sacred objects discovered by Chungdrag Dorje include an unusually shaped bell, a phurba (ritual dagger), and the syllable ‘A’ carved in stone and pigments used to create the sacred wall paintings in his monastery mentioned above. Several of these objects have been preserved and are still kept at Palyul Monastery today (The Action Lama 2).

[6]
Donald Lopez brings a whole new dynamic to my understanding of Shangri-La. Linked to the discourse of the Theosophists and connecting James Hilton to Theosophist symbols brings a, heretofore, hidden area of consideration to the fore. Lopez writes, “Even those Europeans with a more fanciful interest in Tibet distinguished Tibetan’s own religious practice and the secret knowledge of occult masters. The Theosophists believed that Tibet to be the abode of the Mahatmas (Great Souls), keepers of the wisdom of Atlantis who congregated in a secret region of Tibet to escape the increasing levels of magnetism produced by civilization; they believed as well that the Tibetans were unaware of the Mahatmas’ presence in their land. In James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, what makes Shangri-La invaluable is not the indigenous knowledge of the indigenous people, but that over the centuries of his long life, a Belgian Catholic missionary had gathered all that was good in European culture – a brotherhood of foreigners (mostly European but some Americans and Chinese) protected them from the impending world conflagration. They lived in the lamasery of Shangri-La, which towered physically and symbolically above the Valley of the Blue Moon, where the happy Tibetans lived their simple lives. For centuries many of Tibet’s devotees have most valued not the people who live there but the treasure it preserves” (Lopez 5).

[7]
Jayson Sae-Saue of the University of Colorado in Boulder writes: “We then illustrated some examples of the Orient as a construct. Said cites Giambattista Vico, “that men must take seriously, that what they know is what they have made, and extend it to geography.” We looked at the concept of time with the aid of a map of England. Greenwich Mean Time, or “real” time is based on the division of hemispheres and regulates time all over the world. Zero degrees longitude runs just to the east of London and divides the Occident from the Orient. The map demonstrates the east is a man-made concept reflecting colonial authority. Said’s argument rests on postmodern notions of the map preceding the territory. Postmodernist Jean Baudrillard later illustrates this notion in The Precession of the Simulacra (1981). (Also the title of a great J Church record on Jade Tree Records-one of my high school indie-rock favorites) Baudrillard argues that the signs have taken priority over the signified (emphasis mine). He writes, “It is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting away.” The map dictates the territory and the global division between the East and the West, and not the territory, which determines the map. According to Said, the Orient gets lost in Orientalism; it becomes nothing more than a signifier does (remember it is signified is arbitrary). The East emerges as a constructed image created in the West. East/West distinctions are man made both in identity and geography” (1).

[8]
This paper is also about the social construction of Tibet by the West. However, in an effort to be as comprehensive as possible, it should be made clear that this was neither a one way street nor were the Tibetans not complicit in this soup of mythmaking. For the purposes of this paper, the latter phenomenon is more of interest to us then the former. According to Donald Lopez, the Tibetans understood what was going on and decided to ride the bandwagon and perpetuate their own myths for western consumption. Lopez writes, “During this period of European exploration and colonization, Tibet was closed to Europeans. Bounded on the south by the highest mountains signified a cold and pristine purity. Tibet could be imagined as a domain of lost wisdom. Because Tibet did not become a European colony, many of Europe’s fantasies about India and China, dispelled by colonialism, made their way across the mountains into an idealized Tibet. But many myths were of Tibetan making. Long before the Theosophists wrote of the secret region where the Mahatmas reigned, before James Hilton described the Edenic Valley of the Blue Moon in Lost Horizon, Tibetans wrote guidebooks to idyllic hidden valleys (sbas yul)” (Lopez 6).

[9]
The citation actually appears in “Studying Consciousness in the Postmodern Age”, an article by Stanley Krippner and Michael Winkler.

[10]
Are rights postmodern? Not really. However, the notion of equal validity is more postmodern that modern. Within the framework of modernity there still exists the dualities that were entrenched into our (and I use this term guardedly) western psyche. The Age of Reason or the Enlightenment have left us artifacts such as Le Mission Civilastrice (The Civilizing Mission), and a normative framework that privileges particular voices over others. With a postmodern reading comes a new set of voices and perspectives outlined within the framework of power relations and the notion of the “other.”

[11]
The New Webster’s Dictionary defines Realpolitik as: n politics, which deal solely in terms of national interests and realities of the situation, being neither doctrinaire not idealistic and not concerned with ethics. [G. = Real Politics]

[12]
After the death of Songsten Gampo, he was succeeded by Tibet’s thirty-seventh monarch, Trisong Detsen (741-798) - reference to this can be found at the end of (Avedon 13). Arguably one of the most influential Kings because it was during his reign that Tibet reached its heights and collapse. Tibet then evolved into the theocratic existence being what we now see in His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso - the 14th Dalai Lama.

[13]
After the fall of Chamdo in 1950, the Tibetans filed an appeal at the UN. Caught between the US, Britain and India, the Tibetans fell victim to all kinds of geopolitical concerns regarding China (Goldstein 729).

[14]
This statement and many others are outlined in the Hearing document entitled Recent Developments in Tibet: One Step Forward, Three Steps Back held on June 13, 2000. It is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate or from the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington (21).

[15]
After Julia V. Taft completed her statement and was in discussion with Chairman Thomas, she intimated that: “We have got to help get economic development in the hands of the Tibetans. There is money going into Tibet but it is going in for Han employees and Han enterprises. It is not going to really help the Tibetans. We have got to see if we can change that dynamic” (Recent 9).

[16]
There is more. Later in his testimony, Dr. Sperling mentions that, “In addition to that, we are also concerned about the continued abuse of prisoners in Tibet and the use of torture against them. Torture, in fact, we believe has become entrenched in Tibet as part of the price for political activism” (Recent 23). Witnessed in the testimony by Dr. Sperling, Dr. Napper, Mr. Ackerly and Ms. Taft, it is clear that there are situations of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and disappearances - particularly the case of Panchen Lama Gendhun Choekyi Nyima. Much like the camps all over the world, death really comes more from the atrocious conditions at workcamps rather than killings. The deaths in Tibet have less to do with the arbitrary arrest, torture and “suicides” but more to do with the systematic decimation of the Tibetan mode de emploi. The death toll, as per 1984, is estimated at around one million (Avedon 299).

[17]
Is Tibet part of China? According to the statements identified above, in discussion with Senator Kerry, discussion went back and forth on this issue. President Jiang would not engage in discussion on Tibet unless the Tibetans acknowledged that Tibet and Taiwan were both an “inalienable” parts of China. (Recent 7) Taft replies when asked if the Dalai Lama believes this to be so, she states: “He has agreed it is part of China. The Dalai Lama would like Tibet to be a self-governing, autonomous region in China.” (Recent 11) If the US is set on the idea that Tibet is part of China, then discussions will focus on “how” Tibet will be part of China.

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