{"id":131330,"date":"2012-02-10T00:12:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T07:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=131330"},"modified":"2012-02-10T07:19:06","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T14:19:06","slug":"tibetans-and-han-are-one-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/02\/tibetans-and-han-are-one-family\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTibetans And Han Are One Family”"},"content":{"rendered":"
This photograph (via CDT Chinese<\/a>) was taken in 2010 in Kangding city, in the Ganzi\/Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of western Sichuan. The poster’s comment: “As I was out for a stroll, I happened to see a People’s Armed Police National Day patrol. Wow, that armoured car of theirs is impressive!<\/a>“<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The banner reads “Tibetans and Han are One Family”. Shanghaiist’s Kenneth Tan points out a satirically photoshopped image of an identical vehicle outside Hong Kong’s Sogo department store in, supposedly, 2015, its banner reading “China and Hong Kong are One Family”<\/a>.<\/p>\n If a declaration of fraternity hanging from the side of an armoured vehicle isn’t ironic enough, the blog Mountain Phoenix over Tibet notes (in a different context) the historical background of the name “Kangding” \u5eb7\u5b9a<\/strong><\/a>. It replaced “Dajianlu” \u6253\u7bad\u7089 (based on the Tibetan “Dartsedo”) in the early twentieth century, and is widely held to refer to the stabilisation or pacification of Kham (eastern Tibet).<\/p>\n A friend, who hails from Kardze town, tells me the name is a contraction of the Tibetan karpo (\u201cwhite\u201d) and dzebo (\u201cgraceful\u201d) – actually a rather unlikely and funny name for a macho Khampa place. It sounds more like a name for a Tibetan cosmetics line: \u201cFair & Lovely\u201d!<\/p>\n The town Kardze, however, is not the capital of the Prefecture Kardze. That privilege goes to Dartse(m)do, a formerly important trading-town on the old Sino-Tibetan border. But in present-day Tibet, folks who hail from Dartsedo would tell you they are from Kangding.<\/p>\n How Dartsedowas can be so brainless and voluntarily use that dreadful Chinese name is a mystery only they are able to penetrate. Doesn\u2019t it mean \u201csubjugation of Kham\u201d? Arrog Khampa, what happened to your famous pride? Linguistics is a political battlefield, if you still haven\u2019t noticed. Why do you shoot yourself in the foot?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The BBC’s Michael Bristow describes the extensive security operation currently in place in the area<\/strong><\/a>, following a series of self-immolations<\/a>:<\/p>\n A BBC team was stopped and held at the roadblock [on the way to Kangding]. “Foreigners are not allowed into Tibetan areas,” said one security man.<\/p>\n We were then escorted back into Ya’an, where we were questioned at government offices by an official, surnamed Ma, who veered from friendly to threatening.<\/p>\n “You need to make a confession and sign a statement saying you will not go back into Tibetan areas,” he barked at one point \u2026.<\/p>\n Robert Barnett, of New York’s Columbia University, said this region of western Sichuan, historically known to Tibetans as Kham, was relatively peaceful until a few years ago.<\/p>\n “We are talking about an area where China had a working relationship with Tibetans,” said Mr Barnett.<\/p>\n But he said trust started to disappear just over a decade ago when the central government began introducing hardline policies that were already in place in Tibet proper.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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