McLean

One of the great side benefits of getting sick was that I got to spend two full days in the Tibetan village of Nyalam with absolutely nothing to do. It's a small outpost of a town whose main purpose seems to be that it is at a junction of the road to Lhasa and a deep, remote valley with a powerful river flowing out of it. At over 12,000 feet, it's a hard place to sleep on your first night and the blaring music and barking dogs don't help. The town has no running water (all the pipes freeze in the winter), dirt streets and about 10 shops which all seem to sell the same things. There is also no apparent trash collection and as such, the garbage collects in an open pile at a bend in the main street and serves as a focal point for a pack of feral dogs that fight over the tidbits. There is one public restroom that is locked most of the time, not that anyone would use it anyway. Cattle roam down the streets, trucks have the right of way and, although there are plenty of phones to be found, none of them work.

At first glance, you might not want to spend a lot of time here.

What changed my mind about the place was that I got a chance to hang out with some of the locals and find out what life was really like for Tibetans living under Chinese rule. "We are not free peoples," said one, and after a day or so, it became very evident. At one point, there was a two hour mandatory town meeting the topic of which was translated as 'Be nice to the Chinese', which was conducted in a dialect that less than half the attendees understood.

The few temples that survived the cultural revolution had large signs in them to the effect of 'This temple stands by permission of the Chinese Government.' The local temple had the misfortune to be placed at the end of a street and was slated for destruction so the road could be extended — to where I don't know, as it was backed up against a steep slope.

Most of the local Tibetans are understandably reluctant to publicly talk about their situation. Random searches are done for any sort of Dalai Lama artifacts and there are fines and/or imprisonment penalties if they are found. Still, many Tibetan have small hidden shrines or photos tucked away somewhere — one of my favorites was a photo of the Dalai Lama on the backside of a Chinese Business License that was mounted on the wall. The police and military are ever-present in the streets or doing drills in the military compound while the kids watch from nearby hills.

Referred to as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, after 50 years of occupation, there isn't much left to be autonomous about. While the border puts on a display of control, in reality, it very easy for people to escape from Tibet, and unless you have some compelling reason to stay, many Tibetans have left. What remains is an ever-increasing blend of cultures in which it's common to have a Tibetan mother and a Chinese father, or at least some sort of mixed siblings. All of the TV and radio is state run and in a country with three time zones, all time is synchronized to one standard time — Beijing time.

In spite of all of this, it's still easy to identify indigenous Tibetans — they are the friendly, helpful people who always have smiles on their faces. In the midst of such a harsh landscape and oppressive rule, they seem to have an indomitable spirit. As one friend told us, "If I could even afford a passport, they probably wouldn't give me one. But that's all right — I cross over the border all the time anyway. I speak Nepalese going over and Tibetan coming back. I just tell them that I'm dropping off some groceries and then come back three months later."

— Andrew McLean, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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