[CPProt.net] Tibet's treasures plundered

[Ellie Bruggeman]

Tibet's treasures plundered

Tibet-already subject to strict controls from Beijing-is suffering 
irreparable cultural losses amid increasing burglaries, looting and 
illegal trade in treasures from its tombs, monasteries and temples, 
scholars and local residents say.

The growing trade in stolen Tibetan artifacts has in part been fuelled 
by a rising tide of commercialism which seeks to exploit the region‘s 
cultural relics, often with the help of corrupt local officials, a 
recent investigative report by RFA‘s Mandarin service has found.

“The chief of the local precinct started digging in the very beginning,“ 
said one resident of the Tibetan-inhabited county of Dulan in China‘s 
northwestern Qinghai province, which is home to a large, and frequently 
robbed, complex of Tibetan tombs.

“They arrested and sentenced many people at that time. However, up until 
now, the tomb robbery situation has not improved. They captured over 200 
non-Tibetan farmers last year. Most of them belonged to the Hui [Muslim] 
nationality, but there were Hans as well,“ the Tibetan man said.

The tombs in question are in the Haixi Mongolian-Tibetan Nationalities 
Autonomous Prefecture, an ancient Silk Road town, and the birthplace of 
Nuomuhong culture. Excavations have revealed gold coins from the eastern 
Roman empire, silver Persian coins and many Tibetan cultural relics.

The State Cultural Relics Bureau of China listed them as one of the top 
10 archeological discoveries of 1996. But that status has done little to 
protect them or their contents.

[IMGL 1167] Migrant workers from elsewhere in the region often pursued 
tomb robbery as a lucrative sideline to their jobs as construction 
workers, and the armed guards stationed at some of the tombs could not 
prevent them all, the Dulan county resident said.

“They started implementing some anti-theft measures a few years ago,“ he 
told RFA‘s Investigative Report. “Nevertheless, these measures are not 
effective because the tombs are scattered relatively far apart along the 
slopes and most of them have been robbed empty.“

An officer at the Dulan county police station said police were committed 
to tackling the issue. “They have a specialized relic police precinct,“ 
the officer said.

“They will definitely arrest any tomb robber.“ But local relics 
specialists lack resources to manage the treasures, which are rapidly 
slipping away under their very eyes.

“They cannot do anything,“ Haixi Prefecture Nationality Museum official 
Daba told RFA. “The road is rugged. It is about money, financial 
problems. Let‘s say you were the public security. You learn that someone 
is burgling the tomb and you go there but cannot find anybody. What can 
you do?“

“For us, it is mainly a financial problem. We do not have money to 
manage the relics,“ he said.

But the problem isn‘t only caused by criminal organizations.

Government departments, academic institutions and private individuals 
both within China and overseas have contributed to the plunder over the 
past few decades, Tibetan scholars and Buddhist leaders told RFA.

Beijing-based Han Chinese scholar Wang Lixiong, who has written several 
works on Tibetan issues, including the Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet, 
says that the large-scale losses to Tibetan culture began with the 
state-sponsored destruction of the Cultural Revolution.

“During the Mao era, they considered the artifacts dross and destroyed 
them. Now, they see them as merchandise and sell them. Speaking overall, 
either way, it is an abuse,“ Wang said.

Living Buddha Arjia Rinpoche, the original Abbot of the Taer Temple in 
Qinghai Region, now manages the Tibetan Center for Compassion and Wisdom 
in California.

He said, “A serious case happened to the Taer Temple while I was the 
Abbot there. I think it was on August 25, 1987.

“The famous Wudan lamps made of pure gold were stolen…After that, the 
artifacts of the temple were burglarized one after another.“

Many overseas scholars worry that Tibetan culture is gradually becoming 
extinct.

Pema Wangyal, Professor of Tibetan Buddhism at Western University in Los 
Angeles, said there was widespread theft of and trafficking in Tibetan 
artifacts from Buddhist temples and monasteries, in which government 
officials frequently colluded with the traders and thieves.

He said. “For instance, seven precious gold bowls that served as the 
sacrificial lamps for the Buddha at the Taer Temple were stolen in the 
1980s. I believe they were artifacts from the Ming Dynasty. The matter 
was shelved by the authorities.“

According to Pema Wangyal there is a huge collection of precious Tibetan 
artifacts in the U.S., in Washington D.C., in some U.S. museums, in 
schools of East Asian Study, c at many U.S. universities, and in some 
personal collections.

During my term as Abbot, I went out on business one time and eight 
invaluable artifacts in our museum, including an ivory ball, were also 
stolen,“ he said.

Taer Temple monk Monk Qirap, who works in the temple security office, 
said there were established networks for the illegal trade in Tibetan 
treasures.

“The trafficking of stolen artifacts does exist,“ Qirap said. “Usually, 
they are transported to China by vehicle and shipped overseas through 
Guangzhou and Guangdong.“

More thefts in recent years Qirap confirmed an increase in the illegal 
art trade in recent years.

“They mainly steal items such as statues of Buddha; ancient items that 
are valuable now. For example, statues of Buddha made of sulphonium and 
jade,“ he told RFA.

Other observers point to the politics at work in Tibet, which was 
occupied by Chinese troops from 1949–1951, and has seen a major influx 
of ethnic Han Chinese who reap most of the benefits of the recent 
economic growth of recent years.

Rinchin Tashi, a U.S.-based Tibetan scholar, believes that the Chinese 
government only wants control of Tibet, but does not treat the requests 
of the Tibetans for the return of their relics and personal properties 
seriously.

“Even the higher levels of government seem not to care too much once you 
talk about personal property, human rights, and personal rights,“ 
Rinchin Tashi said.

“Laws and policies are required for the better protection of Tibetan 
property. You can see that there isn‘t in fact much autonomy in the 
Tibetan Autonomous Region.“

“If they give the Tibetans a certain degree of autonomy and establish 
the rule of law across the country, then China will become a democratic 
country under the rule of law.

Then, all the people living in the People‘s Republic of China, whether 
they are Tibetans or Hans, will be able to protect their personal 
property,” he told RFA.

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/634.html