Breaking the mould of poverty in Tibet
With China’s poverty alleviation initiative, the Tibetan Autonomous Region has flourished
THERE is a tendency by the international media, including in South Africa, to report and address the Tibetan Autonomous Region (Tar) as a locus of a struggle.
The struggle narrative focuses on post-1959 Tibet and ignores the last bastion of the feudal system that fed itself on enslaving the almost 90% of its population through serfdom.
The majority of global media outlets ignore this dark history then use feudal Tibet to punch holes in the present success story of rapid economic development framed within premises of “people-centred developmental model”.
Such tendencies by most global media outlets has positioned Tar as a victim of a top-down form of governance from the Beijing central government.
Contrary to this, what one encounters in the region is a vibrant people that have adapted to extreme geographical and weather conditions.
Religion, especially Tibetan Buddhism, forms the primary coping mechanism and a way of life that reflects success in several aspects of the UN’s Sustainable Developments Goals.
A combination of ecological, environmental, cultural, religious and technological developments are representative of success beyond the Human Development Index and transcend to reflect on the Human Happiness Index.
The Tar in the Republic of China lies at an altitude of 5 600m and is dominated by harsh terrain and weather conditions.
It’s known as the “roof of the world” because of its altitude and as the “third pole” in reference to conditions encountered in relation to distance to either the north or south pole. Vast grasslands that cover the rugged eastern part of the Himalayan mountain range are a home to at least 3 million Tibetans who are dominantly farmers and nomadic animal herders.
Tibetan Buddhism has for more than a 1 000 years become a companion of the Tibetan people.
The slow pace and humility observed in the way the people carry out their daily lives seems to be a prerequisite for survival in the high-altitude mountainous region.
However, the tough conditions of the region have not deterred locals from being part of the fast economic and technological development in the Republic of China.
Since 1959 the Tibetan population has grown from 1.2 million to 3.18million. The average life expectancy has doubled from 35 to 79 years from 1959 to last year. Tourism has grown from 6m in 1988 to 49m last year.
This reflects in unprecedented growth that surpasses all other regions of China.
Such growth tends to go unmentioned by the international media. Empirical evidence from scholars and individuals reflects that the population of the region are beneficiaries of laws that favour minorities in China.
In the country, the implementation of projects such as poverty alleviation and development programmes are left at the hands of local regional government and its respective entities. Above all, the Tar is the beneficiary of sister province projects, an initiative where a wealthy and established town or city helps an upcoming one.
On a recent visit the writer, who was part of an entourage of South African academics and journalists, experienced first-hand projects that are beneficiaries of the developmental model in the Tar.
These include animal husbandry, where yak meat farming co-operatives are mentored and incubated by remote hydro-farming companies in a sister city or province, which aims at increasing the yield of yak meat production, the main subsistence for the people of Tar.
In the case of the Tar, there seems to be an unspoken notion that society is primarily a lived space, contrary to the Western notion that it as a market space.
Although the region enjoys facets of technological leapfrogging it persists with the logic that development of technology should not jeopardise the environmental, ecological, social, cultural and religious values.
One primary vehicle that ascertains that development and modernity succumbs to local traditions and values is language. Each step of development is first announced in public through all sectors of society using local Tibetan language prior to implementation.
A second vehicle in place ensures that every step taken towards development and modernity does not infringe, impede or disrespect the local Tibetan cultures and religion.
A third step in the quest of development and modernity is to ensure unity of the entire society with emphasis on collective memory, collective goal, collective strategy and a collective implementation.
One successful project that is still ongoing in Tibet, as is in the rest of China, with the support of central government and which centres around the notion of the “collectives”, is poverty alleviation.
In ensuring success of the poverty alleviation, the Tar government had to leave market factors behind and focus on ensuring each home had the means of subsistence.
One last aspect is that the region enjoys huge support of the central government to ensure that no child goes hungry or is left behind without education.
China has legislation in place that favours all minority groups and the Tar has greatly benefited from such policies. Children enjoy 15 years of basic education, while those of the majority Han group, which comprise about 95% the population, only have a right to nine years of basic education.
These are just a few strategies and programmes being carried out by the Tar with the help of the central government in ensuring that development converges around the notion of serving the people instead of markets.
Developments in the Tar have demonstrated that it’s possible to break the mould of poverty.
Global media houses and journalists, especially those in developing nations, have an ethical duty to find and report on people-centred developmental models for growth.