Tibet's Changing Values

A group of us has just returned from an 11-day trip to China's Qinghai and Tibet. This is the third in the series for my blog on what I learned from this trip.

It’s not possible to walk by the imposing Potala Palace in Lhasa and not be awestruck by the structure, rising to majestic heights in a background of blue sky and billowing white clouds. From the visit by Francis Younghusband over a century ago to now, the palace has not changed but the foreground has.

Potala used to sit amidst mud hovel and surrounded by smelly squalor. Now it towers over a broad boulevard and a huge square in the tradition of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, except in Lhasa the square is ringed with potted flowers. Most visitors will inevitably stop at the square for their souvenir photo with the palace as background.

Some observers might say this is Tibet modernizing and making progress to join the rest of the world. Others think this is cultural genocide.

The Central Government in Beijing has lavished billions to build up the infrastructure inside Tibet. In addition to the railroad on the roof of the world, at an altitude impossible to be built according to experts in the West, highways now criss-cross Tibet linking this region to rest of China.

Just a mere three years ago, a trip over the pass to see Yamdrok Lake and transit through Gyantze to get to Xigaze would have required riding an all-terrain vehicle over bone jarring mud tracks and an overnight stay at Gyantze. Now with a newly paved highway 307, the drive took less than a day.

Before the liberation of Tibet from theocratic rule, the nearest trading partner was India. From Gyantze, the nearest town to the border of India, the Tibetan trader would mount up and take 15 days to get to India and 15 days to get back. Today, Tibetans no longer get their tea from Darjeeling but from Yunnan and elsewhere within China and it doesn’t take a month to bring the shipment in.

In every village we drove by, the best looking building in the village was invariably the government funded primary school. Of course in the old days, the lords of the land never felt the need to educate the peasants and such a building was not necessary and did not exist.

On the western side of the pass on 307, we passed a man-made reservoir, built about a decade ago to capture the glacier run-off which feed an irrigation system for the farm lands below. Many farmers in addition to raising crops had built plastic film covered green houses to grow vegetables which they sold to nearby cities.

A fortress on top of a steep hill dominated the valley around Gyantse. An aristocratic family used to live in that fortress until 1959, now a museum and landmark of the city. If the valley was still controlled by the lord in the fortress, there would be no irrigation ditches, no green houses and the farmers would have remained peasants with no incentives.

The monument in front of the fortress commemorates the heroic (and tragic) resistance of Tibetans against the British incursion of 1904.

Within the commanding view of the fortress is the Palkor Temple built by the first Panchen Lama in 1418. One of the side chapel connected to the main temple contains a breathtakingly beautiful collection of clay statues of abbots, revered monks and famed scholars of Buddhism from far and wide including some from Bangladesh and India.

Except for the main temple and the great white pagoda containing 108 shrines, much of the Palkor complex was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. As our guide explained, the extent of destruction during the Cultural Revolution was quite uneven in Tibet and dependent on the cooperation and participation of local Red Guards.

The ringleaders came from the mainland but they needed local complicity to know where the targets were located and local volunteers to help with the destruction. In places where they were rebuffed by the local denizens, they left and went elsewhere for easier objectives.

At Palkor, much of the complex still lay in ruins. Elsewhere such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang, Drepung and Sera Monasteries and Norbulinka in Lhasa and the Tashilunpo Monastery in Xigaze, the tourist can see the restoration and maintenance work going on but would be hard pressed to distinguish recovery efforts from the revolution to routine maintenance from age.

In the past, the monasteries owned the land surrounding them and the peasants were at best tenant farmers. Today, the monasteries are profitable selling traditional medicine, Buddhist souvenirs, rights to photography inside the temples and unending stream of donations from the believers.

Devout worshippers visit these monasteries clutching stacks of one jiao bills (worth one tenth of a yuan and about 1.5 cents U.S.) which they stuff in front of Thankas, Buddhas, and anything else they consider holy that can help them in this and next life. These pennies can add up.

What we didn’t see in our tour was a Buddhist equivalent of the Catholic Charities, organized to help the indigent. Apparently, the mission of the monasteries is to help the people attain enlightenment but nothing to help them ease the temporal pains and physical needs.

So the lives of Tibetans are changing. They are getting educated and have more control of their livelihood. More of them may settle for promenading around the Potala holding prayer wheels rather than the three-step then full prostration march. But the Tibetans remain deeply devoted Buddhists and the feudal mindset that put themselves in the hapless class will take a long time to wear off.

Tibet Today

A group of us has just returned from an 11-day trip to China's Qinghai and Tibet. This is the second in the series for my blog on what I learned from this trip.

Arriving in Lhasa by train, a quick first impression would be that Lhasa seemed like another modern city in China. Look at Lhasa a little more closely and one then sees that it is not exactly another Chinese city. Being a recently built city, the streets were wide and cleaner than most cities on the mainland. All the billboards and storefront signs were bilingual, in hanzi and in Tibetan script in place of pinyin.

Tibetan people in colorful garb walked, clockwise around objects of veneration, such as a temple, all the while spinning a prayer wheel held in their hands. Every once in a while, we would see some Tibetans clap three times, take three steps and prostrate themselves in full stretch on the ground and then getting up to repeat the process.

We were told by our guide, a Tibetan, that 30% of the population of 2.8 million lived in the urban area, another 30% lived in the countryside as farmers and the remaining 40% has continued to live according to their nomadic tradition. As we drove through the Tibetan countryside, we can see that lives of at least 60% of the (non-nomadic) lives of ordinary Tibetans have materially improved from the feudal days.

Those living in the cities are participating in a booming economy, our multilingual tour guide being one example. As Lhasa, Shigatse and other cities become increasingly popular tourist destinations, a boom in the hospitality industry has followed. As more tourists come, demand for restaurants and native handicraft also increased.

Jobs are also created by the infrastructure investments made by the central government. We saw early efforts underway to lay a second track connecting Lhasa and Xining in Qinghai. National Highway 109 begins from Beijing and runs over 3700 km to Lhasa. National Highway 318 runs from Shanghai through Lhasa to the border, over 5400 km in length. Road crews are constantly maintaining and repairing these and other highways in Tibet.

As we drove to Xigaze on the newly paved NH 307, a trip that took two days only 5 years ago now took less than one, we saw lush farms fed by a well coordinated system of irrigation ditches. Many newly built homes in these villages along the road side testified to evidence of new wealth.

Would the people of Tibet welcome Dalai Lama back, I asked. Yes, most of the Tibetans would welcome him back as the spiritual leader but not as the secular leader, our guide said. “Because we fully understand that if the Dalai Lama becomes the leader of our government again, our standard of living would take a big step backwards.”

For two reasons, he went to say. Tibet’s economy is weak and not self-sustaining. More than half of Tibet’s operating budget comes from the central government. If the Dalai Lama takes over, the subsidy is likely to go away. More importantly, about 70% of Tibet’s aristocrats fled to India with the Dalai Lama. These followers want nothing more than to revert to the feudal days when they owned everything. While such a reversion is unlikely after so many years, just the tension could wreak havoc on the Tibetan society.

Here is the dilemma of modern Tibet as I see it. The Dalai Lama is just one person, albeit first among them. Even if he wants moderation and willing to give up claims to secular rule, his followers are unlikely to let him do so. They have lost too much in leaving Tibet and seeing former serfs and slaves thrive and becoming financially independent.

Beijing also has a problem. When Beijing interjected itself in the selection of the next Panchen Lama, most Tibetans are skeptical of the legitimacy of this selection. The 11th Panchen Lama is only 19. It remains to be seen whether he can win the hearts of the Tibetan people with time. The popularity of the 10th was damaged by the perception that he collaborated with the Beijing government. He died in 1989.

Beijing also has to deal with a perception and education problem. Most Tibetans born after 1959 have only a vague to no idea of what life was like under a theocratic rule. Without knowledge of Tibet’s past, some now believe they could do even better by themselves without the Han Chinese presence. This is still a minority voice but is being fed by resentment over the evident success of roadside restaurants and stalls all seemingly owned and run by the Han Chinese from neighboring Sichuan province.

The aforementioned 60% of Tibetans now appreciates the value of education and sees a good education as the ticket to a better life. Beijing’s challenge is figuring out how to reach the 40% nomads roaming in Tibet and get them to join the mainstream economy. Our guide told us that the government has been building permanent dwellings for them and encouraging them to live in a permanent base. Thus the percent of nomads is expected to decline, albeit gradually.

The future of Tibet is clouded with uncertainties. Beijing is not going to negotiate with Dalai Lama unless he is willing to renounce his right to rule. He can’t renounce because his followers of aristocrats won’t let him. The impasse might not be broken until he passes on. Then the Beijing anointed Panchen Lama will help find the 15th Dalai Lama and selling that candidate to the people of Tibet—a huge undertaking of uncertain outcome.

Buddhism in Tibet

A group of us has just returned from an 11-day trip to China's Qinghai and Tibet. This is the first of my blog on what I learned from this trip.

Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in the 7th century AD (some say earlier but that would spoil this story) when the great king of the Tubo kingdom, Songtsen Gampo united what was then the territory of Tibetan influence. As gestures of goodwill (or appeasement depending on your point of view), the kings of Nepal and Tang China sent their daughters to become consorts to the great king.

This 33rd king of Tubo did more than marry two princesses in addition to his principal wife of ethnic Tibetan origin. He was a military genius, ordered the creation of the Tibetan language in written form, began the construction that was to become the Potala Palace, among many other worthy undertakings.

Princess Wencheng, daughter of Li Shimin, himself one of the great Tang emperors in China’s history, brought with her a sacred statue of Buddha said to have been made in celestial heaven and resided there for many years before being sent down to earth. I don’t have the full story of how the statue ended up in Li Shimin’s hands or why he would willingly give it up, but this statue is on display in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

Of course from Tibetan’s point of view, they can’t simply give Wencheng and China all the credit for introducing Buddhism to Tibet but gave partial credit to the beautiful princess from Nepal in influencing the great king to accept Buddhism. After all, the religion originated from Nepal.

All religions take on local flavor in part to ensure more ready acceptance by the indigenous population. It was no different with Buddhism in Tibet where much of the beliefs of Bon was incorporated into the rituals. Bon based on animism was the dominant religion before being supplanted by Buddhism which in Tibet was more commonly referred to as Lamaism to distinguish from other forms of Buddhism elsewhere. “Lama” is the Tibetan term for monk.

Ironically, while Songtsen Gampo, the 33rd king of the Tubo kingdom introduced Buddhism to Tibet, the 42nd and last king wanted to revert to Bon and he was assassinated by a monk. The lesser wife bore the king a son but had to contend with the senior wife who adopted a son to bolster her legitimacy. A bitter squabble ended inconclusively. Thus ended the continuous lineage of Tibetan kings and the kingdom fell into disarray from the 9th to the 11th century.

In the 17th century, the 5th Dalai Lama was invited to the court of the first emperor of the Qing dynasty where he was conferred the official title of Dalai Lama and granted the right to become the titular ruler of Tibet. Up to then, the Dalai Lama was merely the head of the yellow hat sect, which was founded in the 16th century and was a new comer and a minor sect compared to the other three major sects in Tibet at the time. Since then, thanks to the appointment by the emperor in Beijing, the yellow sect has flourished and today makes up perhaps 60% of all the Tibetan followers.


The practice of identifying the reincarnate of the deceased Dalai Lama as the successor and next ruler began with the 4th Dalai Lama who was attributed as the reincarnation of the 3rd. The 1st and 2nd were not part of the cycle and were apparently retrospectively revered for their learnedness and holiness.

With increasing wealth and power, the selection of the successor to the deceased Dalai Lamas became increasing crucial and a bone of contention. In fact the death of the 9th Dalai Lama even before he reached puberty, a suspected victim of poison, may have been because of violent disagreement among members of the “selection committee.”

Typically, the new Dalai Lama was selected at a very young age and then tutored intensively in preparation for the day when he will take over. In the meantime, a regent was appointed to rule in his place until he reached the age of majority at 18. It was undoubtedly tempting for some regents to hold onto the power a little longer by sending the young Dalai Lama on to reincarnation before his time.

Another indication of the risk involved in becoming the Dalai Lama is that while we are at the 14th of Dalai Lama, we are only at the 11th Panchen Lama. Since both exalted holy lamas were accorded their exalted titles at about the same time, the life expectancy of the Panchen Lama appeared to be longer than that of the Dalai lama.

It remained for Qianlong, emperor of Qing dynasty, to settle the dispute among various factions by establishing and formalizing on a procedure for the identification and selection of the reincarnate of the late Dalai Lama. The golden jar used to draw lots to help choose from among the finalists was on display in the Tibet Museum in Lhasa, another said to be Beijing at the Lama Temple. So you see, there is historical precedence for Beijing to take a hand in settling the domestic affairs of Tibet.

A tour of Potala Palace, even when limited by one hour per tour group during the tourist high season, can be quite revealing. We saw many statues and stupas (our guide called them tomb pagodas) made of solid gold. The 5th and the 13th were consider the greatest of the deceased Dalai Lamas. The stupa for the 5th weighed nearly 4 metric tons of solid gold. The 13th was so revered that his stupa was unveiled for public viewing only once every year. We were not there on that lucky day but were told that his stupa was as magnificent as the 5th. Perhaps a coincidence, they were the only two Dalai Lamas that wore a mustache during their time on earth.

By my seat of the pants estimate, there are easily 20 to 30 tons of gold sitting just in the Potala Palace. I felt indelicate to ask as to exactly how much gold there is in Potala but I did ask our guide as to where all that gold came from. We mined for our gold, he said, Tibet is rich in natural resources.

Good thing, I thought, the Spaniards did not hear about the gold of Tibet. They could have sacked Tibet the way they did in Mexico and Peru--which brings up the story of speculation as to why the 13th Dalai Lama is so revered by the Tibetans.

In 1904, the 13th led the Tibetans against the incursion of the British expeditionary force led by Francis Younghusband outside of Gyantse. The Tibetans had no concept of the destructive powers of modern weapons such as the machine gun. A tragic massacre ensued which gave Younghusband the pretext needed to march on to Lhasa. (Apparently the 13th was not there in person, he had removed himself to outer Mongolia out of harm’s way.)

A typical unequal treaty was the result, but even the British government felt repelled by the one-sided circumstances and the massacre of Tibetans needed for Younghusband to bring back this treaty. London promptly consigned it to the dust bins and never took advantage of any of the terms of the treaty.

It would take more research to understand why the 13th was so revered by the Tibetans, with a stature on par with the 5th. As the leader of the military confrontation with the British, he was an unmitigated disaster. The Tibetans probably looked upon him as the symbol of Tibet’s resistance to British imperialism. The Beijing government has erected a memorial in Gyantse in honor of all the “martyrs” of that historic confrontation.

It will take more scholarly research than represented here to understand why the Brits did not proceed to take over Tibet. Perhaps they were satisfied that then Czarist Russia were not in Tibet contrary to the rumors used to justify the invasion into Tibet. They had no idea of the amount of gold in Tibet nor the immense collection of art objects that could have overflowed the British Museum.

An interesting side note is that the 13th, the immediate predecessor of the current one residing in Dharamsala, eventually fled to Moscow, (USSR being the other player of the “Great Game,”) and died there. It would be interesting to find out exactly how the 14th was selected because there is a chance of history repeating itself when the current one passed on.

Evaluation of Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, has been in office for one year. After his first hundred days, he was criticized for not immediately turning Taiwan's economy around, as he had promised during the presidential campaign.

When Ma orchestrated a warming of cross strait relationship that led to signing a number of economic cooperation including the direct flight from the mainland to bring in tourists, he was immediately criticized for failing to attract 3000 tourists per day to Taiwan. This year, Taiwan is receiving the full daily quota of tourists from the mainland, the local economy is beginning to warm and discussion is now directed toward possible direct investment from the mainland.

Rather than giving any credit for the positive outcome by his administration, extreme pan green supporters are accusing Ma of prosecutorial persecution of Chen Shui Bian. Even though he has steadfastly stayed away from interfering with the judiciary process underway to examine the full extent of Chen's economic crime against the people of Taiwan, Chen's supporters accused him for doing so anyway.

Recently, I attended a conference at Stanford on state of the cross strait relations. The presenters and discussants were uniformedly courteous and genteel. None saw fit to point out Chen's singularly pivotal role in destroying Taiwan's economy during his eight year reign.

"It's the economy, stupid" has been the mantra that governed the success or failure of the last three U.S. president, including the current Obama Administration, but somehow this measure of a leader's effectiveness never applied to Chen.

Since the beginning of 2009, the Taiwan stock market has bounced back by 50%, the strongest recovery in Asia. The Stanford conference took little note and did not even speculate on whether Taiwan's economic recovery and its dependence on cooperation with the mainland will alter the dynamics of the question of independence vs. reunification vs. status quo.

For more information, a recent review of Ma's first year as president published by a major daily in Taiwan and is available in English.

America Remembers Tiananmen with "Humanitarian" Racism

In the West, “June 4” has become a shorthand reminder of the weeks of student-led protests that culminated in the tragic confrontation with China’s People’s Liberation Army ending on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

While the bloody images from the streets of Beijing have seared the minds of America’s TV audience, liusi, June 4 in Mandarin, is a distant memory inside China--so much has happened in the intervening 20 years that transformed China into an economic superpower.

An ironic and curious American reminder of the drama on Tiananmen Square can be found in the little known “The Chinese Student Protection Act” enacted in 1992 and an even more obscure provision in this Act.

Authored by then second-term Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, the legislation was to provide a safe harbor by giving the Chinese students in the U.S., some of whom demonstrated in sympathy with their colleagues in China, the opportunity to apply for immediate permanent residency in America.

America has a long generous tradition toward people being persecuted by their own government by offering them asylum and the opportunity to build new lives in the U.S. Eastern Europeans in the 1950s, Cubans after Castro’s 1959 revolution, and boat people from Southeast Asia and Soviet Jews in the 1970s are among those that come to mind.

Pelosi’s student protection act took three years to get through Congress. The backroom dealings apparently necessitated charging the 55,000 green cards slots needed by the students as an “advance” against future quotas of employment-based green card applications made on behalf of Chinese professionals that American companies wanted to hire.

The purpose of employment-based green cards is to allow American companies to hold onto foreign professional talent and keep them in the U.S. This provision is motivated by national self-interest and has nothing to do with humanitarian action. Indeed, the success of Silicon Valley has been due to the foreign talent we have been able to attract and keep as they start new companies and create jobs.

There was no logical reason or justification to tie a humanitarian act to our ability to employ skilled immigrants from the same country. The case involving students from China was unique.

Every year the U.S. grants a maximum of 140,000 green cards to highly skilled foreign professional workers, not more than 9800 from any one country. In fact, the 9800 slots from any one country of origin are rarely all given away except for China and India; in these cases, there are always more highly qualified applicants waiting to get their green cards than available slots. Chinese professionals being sponsored for green cards typically earned advanced degrees from American universities in the sciences, medicine and engineering.

America’s biggest sources of highly trained talent, needed to keep our companies on the leading edge, naturally come from the two countries with the largest population. (One can, of course, argue whether it makes sense to use the same fixed quota for China and India as for other much smaller countries.)

In the case with China, the quota is made even more restrictive because the Student Protection Act took away 1000 slots from China every year until all 55,000 have been offset. It will be another 14 years before the green cards for students have been “paid back.”

Consequently, there is a log jam of Chinese with advanced degrees waiting for permanent residency in the US. Because of the offset, the average wait for a Chinese applying for a green card is over three years longer than for any other nationality.

Does it make any sense to make it harder for the professionals we want to keep, to stay in America? China’s economy is on the ascendancy while ours is heading in the opposite direction. Why are we encouraging them to consider taking their talents back to China—or even Canada?

Chinese immigrants have had to face a history of exclusionary discrimination in order to live in America. This obscure provision of the Student Protection Act, which came to light only recently, seems rooted in the same racist mindset.

A group of Chinese professionals in America waiting for their green cards has formed the Legal Immigrant Association to ask Congress to repeal this discriminatory provision of the Chinese Student Protection Act. They are also seeking support from Chinese American communities.

With two prominent Chinese Americans serving in President Obama’s cabinet, it should not be necessary to remind the people of America and members of Congress of the many contributions Chinese Americans have made in America.

This should be the right time to strike another racially discriminatory statute against the Chinese from our laws.

Touring Provence by boat

Paris in this spring time was greener and cleaner than I remembered the city from 15 years ago--greener because I didn’t have to focus all my attention on the treachery of a sidewalk mined with random deposits of dog doo. In the past, the Parisian sidewalks
were marked with curbside signs
pointing to troughs where the dog
poo should be deposited. Since
most Parisian dogs were not literate, the signs were ignored. Today, the Parisians use the ubiquitous plastic bags (a new meaning to “doggie bags”), available at nearly every street corner, to pick up after their pets, and thus gave me a sense of
security that allowed me to look around. I noticed that most streets in the cities of France were lined with canopies of trees adding to the aesthetics appearances of these streets and boulevards, not to mention shade for the many sidewalk cafes.

France is slightly smaller than Texas with more than 2.5 times population. Nonetheless the cruise down the Saone and then the Rhone River saw no signs of a dense population but only leafy banks and green rolling hills, occasionally dotted by a ruined fortress on top of some particularly jagged hilltop. If one were expecting Disneyland-like castles beckoning from the shore, one would be disappointed. Without a good book to read, or a card playing companion, quite possibly one would find the cruise too sedate for most tastes. Monet’s magical garden & pond at Giverny

Rhone is described as a rushing torrent from the Swiss Alps crashing eastward to Provence. Alas by the time the river merges with the Saone, the wildness has been tamed by a series of dams and locks. The wild Rhone, at one time washed away more than half of the bridge at Avignon, leaving the rest for posterity as a tourist landmark. Now, we might as well have been drifting on a lake. These dams, we were told, were built after World War II, but well before there were any requirements for environmental impact statements.
15th century hospital for indigents, Beaune

Actually, France along with other countries in Europe has a more advanced and balanced environmental policy than the U.S. Aside from flood control, the dams provide hydro power and the locks regulate the flow to facilitate shipping. Along the river, we noticed at least two nuclear power plants as well as wind farms. There seemed to be a balance between energy demands and protecting the environment. As one significant indicator, plastic bags were not in wide spread use and reflected in the absence of plastic bags and bottles as flotsam at the locks.
Nuclear and wind power by the Rhone River

Historically, Provence is as important and interesting part of France as Paris. It was a region of France first occupied by the Romans and incorporated as a province of the Roman Empire. Later, from 1309 to 1404, Avignon became the seat of seven successive Popes when Rome was regarded as too unstable and then two anti-Popes when the Church decided to go back to the Vatican but the anti-Popes did not. The Papal palace remains the star tourist attraction today.

Walled city of Avignon and the broken bridge

Avignon is also surrounded by one of the few remaining city walls completely intact in Europe. It was possible to walk from the lookout point behind the Papal palace to the wall and from the wall to the photogenic remains the bridge washed away by some monstrous flood in the days of old—except the gate on the tower of the wall was locked to deny access to the bridge without paying another ticket. (France, by the way, is world’s most popular tourist destination and the country takes full advantage by charging admission everywhere they can.)

From Avignon, it is possible to take a short side trip to Pont du Gard, the spectacular remains of a Roman aqueduct that used to run some 30 miles from the source of spring to the important Roman city of Nimes, a city that still stands today. We learned from the museum at Pont du Gard that Romans built aqueducts all over their empire not just to keep their public baths and fountains operating but as a unifying symbol of their might and presence.

Roman aqua duct at Pont du Gard

Taking the side trip to Pont du Gard meant spending less time wandering around Avignon. For those of us that enjoyed walking around old medieval towns, this was a regrettable trade-off inherent to most river cruises. Other examples of trade-offs include taking a tour of the Beaujolais wine country that included a walking tour of Oingt, a medieval city constructed out of gold colored stones, but that meant not walking around Trevoux where the ship docked.

Same thing happened at Arles. The optional tour was to Les Baux, a medieval town at the foot of a fortress sitting on top of a rugged and rocky outcrop. We then went to a multi-sensory presentation of Picasso in a nearby converted quarry called Cathedral of Images.

Picasso’s art projected with surround sound

Certainly a worthwhile side trip but it meant missing the opportunity to wander around Arles. Arles has a nearly intact Roman arena and an old church with a stone façade. The carvings of the facade escaped defacing during the French Revolution because they were in relief rather than free standing which would have facilitated the separation of the heads from the statures. (With a little reflection, one can see that the French Revolution rebelling against the monarchy and the church was a forerunner to China’s Great Cultural Revolution.)
The Roman arena in Arles

The only stop where I felt we had enough time was Lyon, the city at the confluence of the two rivers. Our ship pulled in one night and stayed for another, thus giving us time to meander around the many bridges of Lyon. Lyon, one time silk capital of Europe, was a wealthy city and it showed. Reflections on the Rhone in Lyon

Nice was another city where by taking an extension, we had a four-night stay to get to know the city and its restaurants. Nice even allowed free admission to its Matisse Museum. Matisse lived to a ripe old age and spent the second half of his life in Nice, so perhaps the city was proud of its adopted son and wanted the tourists to know about the artist. Nice is at about the middle of the French Riviera that stretches from Monaco to Cannes. It was hard to appreciate the appeal of the sandless beaches where people flock to be seen, lying on beds of pebbles and rocks.


Pebbly beach at Nice

Would I visit France again? Of course I would, France is an expensive tourist destination but has so much to see and to do. Two of the women on our cruise, picked up a rental car at the end of the cruise and drove back from Nice to Paris. Next time, that’s what I would do: drive. The reputation that French waiters are rude to tourists not able to speak French is not confirmed. We met only pleasant and accommodating service and that’s another reason for wanting to return.Another morning reflection on the Rhone in Lyon

Some other images of France

On our way to Giverny, we passed a charming village but we could not stop because of the lack of parking for a big bus. Instead, we paused across the river and had a view of the toll house on a defunct bridge.






In Beaune, while the highlight was Hotel Deux, the hospital, the local guide also took us to a 11th Century Romanesque church.


Our cruise started at Macon where the ship was waiting for us. Eric told us that there weren’t much to see on the other side of the bridge. But there weren’t much on this side either.




In Paris we noticed that there were specially marked bicycles that anyone can rent. The idea was actually started in Lyon.


We toured the Beaujolais wine country for wine tasting after a side tour of the medieval town of Oingt, built from gold colored stones.



The side tour from Arles was to Les Baux in a very rocky part of Provence.

Nice, part of the French Riviera, is a pretty city. One can easily see the wealth in this part of France from the expensive cars to ornate buildings and yacht harbors.


The difference between Nice and Monaco, it seems, is that there is more substance to Nice, more diversity and real people.



There is, for example, a thriving population of Russian émigrés living in Nice.





It’s possible to get a nice panoramic view of the promenade of Nice from the bluff, a short hike from old quarters of Nice.









Monaco is just a short drive, around 10 miles, from Nice and the drive along the coast is almost as picturesque as Italy’s Amalfi Coast.






Monaco is one of the places to visit once to say “I’ve been there,” and mingle with the rich and famous.


From Monaco’s palace, it’s possible to see the Monte Carlo casino in the distance and the Grand Prix viewing stands directly below, apparently in preparation of the racing event to take place a few weeks after our visit.









People Watching in Nice

Let's Talk About Tibet (II)

In recent issues of World Journal (世界日报), there was an interesting comparison of “two Lhasa’s,” written by three co-authors, Messrs Yin, Fei and Yu from the Bay Area. The two Lhasa’s in question were the Lhasa in Tibet and the “little Lhasa” established by the Dalai Lama in upper Dharamsala upon his exile from Tibet in 1959. In the interest of introducing the results of their research to a broader English reading public, I have loosely translated some of their major findings and observations in this blog.

When Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, the Lhasa he left behind had a population of 29,000. Of this total, 14,000 were monks and nuns that did not contribute to the economy and 4,000 were homeless beggars, all were supported by a working population of 11,000. By way of comparison, in America for every 10,000 population, the average is 24 in the clergy and 2 homeless. Obviously the economic burden of the working class in the Lhasa Dalai Lama left behind was unimaginably onerous to say the least.

On the other hand, the little Lhasa in Dharmsala had all the advantages of a roaring new beginning. The followers of Dalai Lama were the elites of Tibet. They were educated, skilled and wealthy. They knew what it would take to set up an exile government. Furthermore, Dalai Lama and his cohort had the explicit support of the CIA and the State Department, to the tune of $2-3 million in annual subsidy. Lastly, Dalai Lama took his personal wealth with him to India. Just the antiquities he took with him were judged to be worth $200 million in today’s dollars. He also owned approximately 8 tons of gold and 4,750 tons of silver, worth $8.7 billion in today’s dollars. In other words, Dalai Lama had plenty of assets to establish a new Lhasa in style.

So, after 50 years, how do the old Lhasa in Tibet compare to the little Lhasa in India?

The population of Lhasa has increased from the original 29,000 to 300,000 Tibetans, while the population of little Lhasa remained static at 30,000 of which about 5000 are Tibetans.

In Tibet’s Lhasa, there used to be a total of 4 automobiles, bought by the 13th Dalai Lama, the predecessor to the current Dalai Lama. Today, there are 16,000 vehicles in Lhasa. In little Lhasa, only the Dalai Lama and senior government officials have cars, none of the regular Tibetans own cars.

In 2007, Lhasa replaced all plastics shopping bags with textile bags, and the practice has now spread to all of Tibet. Little Lhasa continues to be littered with plastics bags fluttering in the wind. There are 110 public toilets in Lhasa, none in little Lhasa.

There are two public reading facilities (书楼) in Lhasa and 17 book stores, of which 16 sell books in Tibetan language and 4 sell sutras and Buddhist scriptures. In little Lhasa, there is not one bookstore that specialize in Tibetan books.

In Lhasa, by 2007 Tibetan language was taught for the first nine years of school but has now expanded to 12 years of school. In little Lhasa, Tibetan language is taught up through first 5 years of school and everything is then taught in English from the sixth grade on.

In the 50 years of existence, Dalai Lama received $150 million of financial support from the U.S. government—generous by American standards of foreign aid but pale by the amount Beijing has invested in Tibet, a total closer to $15.4 billion.

During the Cultural Revolution, many of the temples and historic structures were damaged or destroyed by the “Red Guards,” many of whom were ethnic Tibetans. Beijing has since allocated the necessary funds to restore and repair these structures and publicly apologized to the people of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has never apologized for the crimes against humanity committed by the religious government under his rule before his exile.