China marks 50 years since exile of Dalai Lama

Young Tibetan students wearing traditional Tibetan costumes attend a ceremony marking the newly created "Serf Liberation Day" in Beijing, China, Friday, March 27, 2009. China's communist government applauded itself Friday for overturning Tibet's feudal hierarchy 50 years ago and bringing economic development to the remote Himalayan region, marking a newly created anniversary that has added to tensions in Chinese-controlled Tibetan areas. (AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel)

"The celebrations are secret. We're not even sure what they are," said Chen Xuan, an editor for the Web site of the government's Tibet Daily newspaper.

A year ago Tibetan communities erupted in violent protests against Chinese rule, drawing a swift clamp down by paramilitary a force that has remained in place. Security has been tightened in recent weeks because March is often a flash point a time when Tibetans mourn and rise up in protest over the failed 1959 revolt that sent their revered Dalai Lama into exile.

"The period since March-April 2008 has seen a hardening of attitudes against Tibetans, which draw on long standing attitudes that view them as primitive and 'ungrateful' natives who are predisposed to violence," Tsering Shakya, an expert on modern Tibet at the University of British Columbia, wrote in a recent article.

March 28 marks the date when Beijing ended the revolt and placed Tibet under its direct rule for the first time in history. The idea of celebrating it gained momentum among retired Communist cadres after last year's riots and raucous, anti-China demonstrations that followed the Beijing Olympic torch relay in the West.

In China's official version of events, Tibet in mid-century was a remote medieval backwater, where most of the population lived in servitude to the Buddhist theocracy and nobility until the communist government stepped in.

Chinese rule has brought economic development, higher living standards and infrastructure to the remote Himalayan plateau where people traditionally eked out a living by farming and herding. But Tibetans say they have lost religious and cultural freedoms and become marginalized in their homeland.

The intensity of this year's campaign and the effort to win international acceptance for its point of view was a new step for a more confident Chinese leadership. As part of the effort, five legislators from Tibet went on a 13-day public relations campaign to the U.S. and Canada, drawing rather mixed reviews from the experts and politicians they met.

"There's nothing new, but the fact is, sending Tibetan members of National People's Congress is an indication that they certainly want to try very hard to change China's bad image," said Cheng Li, a China expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington who met with the delegation.

During the kickoff ceremony Friday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, a half-dozen speakers reflected on the improvements in Tibet in the last 50 years and the crucial role of the Communist government.

Special emphasis was given to the serfs and slaves who once served Tibet's Buddhist monasteries and nobility but who then benefited from land reform and the purging of the traditional elite.

"I began doing adult's work when I was 10 years old; sometimes I was so tired I couldn't even get up," 73-year-old former serf Yixi Luozhui said in Chinese. These days, he said, food is abundant and modern conveniences like cars, televisions and cell phones are common in ordinary Tibetans' homes.

"The people say 'the Communist Party's policies are like the sun on a clear day in Lhasa.' It's so good. You are rich even if you don't want to be rich," he said.

The Dalai Lama, in exile in India for 50 years but still revered by many Tibetans, was vilified during the meeting by government leaders for inciting separatism.

The Panchen Lama, a high ranking Buddhist cleric who was enthroned by Beijing and scorned by many Tibetans, did so without naming the Dalai Lama.

"I sincerely thank the party for giving me these bright eyes to allow me to tell right from wrong, to recognize who really loves the Tibetan people and who is willing to take any measures to destroy the peace and stability in Tibet for their own purposes," he said.