tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/tibet-4609/articles
Tibet – The Conversation
2023-12-06T19:44:54Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218223
2023-12-06T19:44:54Z
2023-12-06T19:44:54Z
How to encourage China to become a law-abiding member of the rules-based international order
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<p>Like many nations, <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4322130-how-should-the-west-respond-to-chinas-challenge-to-the-rules-based-international-order/">China’s relationship to the rules-based international order has often featured a selective adherence to those rules</a> and a focus on its own interests, sometimes resulting in violating international laws when they’re at odds with Chinese goals.</p>
<p>But China has the ability and opportunity to transform into a law-abiding member of the rules-based international system, which is founded on relationships among states and through international institutions and frameworks, with shared rules and agreements on behaviour.</p>
<p>The international community can support this transformation by engaging China on global human rights and avoiding what the Chinese government considers interference in internal and territorial affairs.</p>
<p>It’s important that China, now a formidable power, embraces the <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/maintaining-the-rules-based-international-order-is-in-everyones-best-interests/">rules-based order</a> to achieve international harmony, strengthen international relations and tackle universal crises like climate change. China <a href="https://search.issuelab.org/resources/36927/36927.pdf">has criticized</a> the current international order for failing to address the development gap and promoting alliance-based confrontation, preventing peaceful international relations. </p>
<p>It has proposed replacing the current international order with what it calls “<a href="http://gd.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zxhd_1/202309/t20230927_11151010.htm">a global community of shared future</a>,” suggesting the current international order <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/international-system-unfit-to-deal-with-global-crises-annual-report-2022/">isn’t fit</a> to deal with global crises. </p>
<h2>Revising the existing order</h2>
<p>But the Chinese proposal doesn’t genuinely present an alternative vision that can potentially reform the existing order. Chinese authorities <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/10/10/responding-to-china-s-complicated-views-on-international-order-pub-80021">have complex</a> views on international order; they don’t want to dramatically change the existing order because it’s supported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12036">China’s transition</a> to a position of global power. </p>
<p>Instead, China wants to revise the existing order by increasing the role of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27358-2_2">individual nation-states</a> and ensuring human rights standards align with unique national sovereignty priorities.</p>
<p>The Chinese stance provides a window of opportunity for the international community to include China in the international order, transforming it into a law-abiding member by deploying a human rights approach that temporarily prioritizes some rights over others.</p>
<p>If the international community continues to focus on ethnic and Indigenous rights, it’s likely to further alienate China and cause it to disengage from the international order. </p>
<p>Indigenous rights, which extend beyond individual rights, require providing legislative, executive and judicial powers and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/fs9Rev.2.pdf">allowing ethnic minorities to freely</a> pursue their economic, social, cultural and political developments. China claims that it has already provided its minorities with <a href="http://un.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/gyzg/bp/200502/t20050228_8410941.htm">regional autonomy</a>, and argues western demands that it provide additional freedoms is motivated by an interest to erode its territorial interests. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"893304675428163585"}"></div></p>
<h2>Tibet independence</h2>
<p>In response to Tibet’s demand for autonomy, for example, the Chinese government has said Tibetans <a href="http://un.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/gyzg/bp/200405/t20040524_8410940.htm">want independence</a> and nothing else. This suggests the Chinese government considers any focus on Indigenous and ethnic rights as aimed at bringing about territorial disintegration. </p>
<p>That’s why China has often warned the international community not to interfere in its internal affairs and territorial disputes <a href="http://ca.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/zjwl/202106/t20210624_9020447.htm">under the pretext</a> of advocating for human rights. </p>
<p>While some western countries consider sovereignty to be contingent upon a state’s behaviour, the Chinese government considers sovereignty an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137027443_2">absolute, non-negotiable right</a>. Due to this conceptual gap, it is almost impossible to engage China in the area of Indigenous and ethnic rights.</p>
<h2>Universal human rights</h2>
<p>Focusing on universal human rights, however, would allow the international community to negotiate with China and further encourage it to become a law-abiding member of the rules-based international order.</p>
<p>Universal rights are more about individual rights and less about sovereignty rights. China is more comfortable with this approach. It’s issued white papers expressing its commitment to <a href="http://geneva.china-mission.gov.cn/eng/ztjs/aghj12wnew/Whitepaper/202109/t20210927_9594621.htm">human rights</a> and fundamental freedoms both nationally and globally.</p>
<p>Even though its record on individual rights <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/09/05/costs-international-advocacy/chinas-interference-united-nations-human-rights#:%7E:text=It%20is%20a%20member%20of,Periodic%20Review%20(UPR)%20process.">is problematic</a> in many instances — the United Nations and other organizations <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/china-and-tibet">continue to document</a> serious Chinese <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/06/china-must-address-grave-human-rights-concerns-and-enable-credible">human rights abuses</a> — universal human rights still remain an area where China is willing to engage and could provide a window of opportunity towards further progress in the future.</p>
<p>China <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/22338659231175830">has participated</a> in global human rights mechanisms and is trying to promote itself as a good international citizen that respects human rights. </p>
<h2>Ethnic rights advocacy abroad</h2>
<p>China consistently supports ethnic rights outside its national borders. <a href="https://www.iwgia.org/en/china.html">It has adopted</a> the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for example. A focus on universal rights when engaging with China therefore aligns with its approach on advocating for global human rights.</p>
<p>It has chastised some western countries, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/22/china-canada-relations-xinjiang-human-rights">including Canada</a>, about their own human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<p>Inside China, ethnic minorities like Tibetans and Uyghurs have sought international support, largely unsuccessfully — the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2022.2056108">European Union’s</a> response to the Tibetans’ demand is its notable example. Despite passing resolutions on Tibetan autonomy and self-determination, the EU has not made Tibetan nationalism part of its human rights agenda. </p>
<p>In the absence of international support, ethnic minorities have adjusted their demands; <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/3db2fd9a88890415da415050ece17666/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=436384">Tibet’s demand</a> for ethnic rights within a human rights framework is evidence of this. Tibetans are now urging China to <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/human-rights-democracy-and-freedom">recognize their human rights</a> instead of focusing solely on their demand for self-determination. </p>
<p>If the international community eases up for now on Indigenous and ethnic rights within China, it may be able to incentivize China to play by the rules internationally on all fronts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hari Har Jnawali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Global human rights is an area where Chinese officials are willing to engage with the international community and could provide a window of opportunity towards further progress in the future.
Hari Har Jnawali, Instructor, Global Governance, Wilfrid Laurier University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213206
2023-10-31T12:33:18Z
2023-10-31T12:33:18Z
From India and Taiwan to Tibet, the living assist the dead in their passage
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556195/original/file-20231026-27-b64ql7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hindu devotees prepare to scatter ashes of the deceased into the sea as part of Ngaben, a mass cremation ceremony, in Surabaya, Indonesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hindu-devotees-prepare-to-scatter-ashes-of-the-deceased-news-photo/1243611860?adppopup=true">Juni Kriswanto/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people see death as a rite of a passage: a journey to some new place, or a threshold between two kinds of being. Zoroastrians believe that there is <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803133541542">a bridge of judgment</a> that each person who dies must cross; depending on deeds done during life, the bridge takes the deceased to different places. Ancient Greek sources depict the deceased <a href="https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/the-final-journey-crossing-the-styx">crossing the river Styx</a>, overcoming obstacles with the help of coins and food.</p>
<p>But the dead cannot make this transition alone – surviving family or friends play key roles. Ritual actions the living perform on behalf of the dead are said to help the deceased with their journey. At the same time, these actions give the living a chance to grieve and say goodbye. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://miamioh.edu/profiles/cas/liz-wilson.html">a scholar of South Asian religions</a> specializing in death and dying, I have seen how much surviving family depend on these rituals for peace of mind. Traditions vary widely by region and religious tradition, but all of them help mourners feel that they have given one last gift to their loved one.</p>
<h2>Fire, water and food</h2>
<p><a href="https://openfolklore.org/content/make-sesame-rice-please-appetites-dead-hinduism-1">Some Hindu death rituals</a> have roots in ancient Vedic rites as old as 1,500 B.C.E. The survivors’ goal is to ensure that a dead person separates from the realm of the living and makes a safe transition to a blessed afterlife or rebirth.</p>
<p>Death rites <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/28709299">typically use fire, water and food</a> in a sequence of three stages.</p>
<p>Stage one is cremation, the fiery incineration of a corpse on a stack of wood infused with flammable oils. Cremation is considered the dead person’s willing, final gift to the god of fire, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57894855">traditionally officiated by the oldest son</a> of the deceased.</p>
<p>Stage two is the immersion of cremated remains in a flowing body of water, such as the Ganges River. There are many sacred rivers in India where the ashes of a loved one can be immersed, and Hindus <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.119">regard them as goddesses</a> who carry off impurities and sins, assisting the soul on its journey.</p>
<p>Many Hindus believe the ideal place to immerse a loved one’s ashes is in the sacred city of Varanasi, in northern India, where the Ganges flows in a broad stream. Families carry corpses in festive processions to the cremation site, hopeful that their rituals will help loved ones move to another state of existence.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Though the Ganges is considered the holiest river, many rivers are viewed as sacred.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Stage three is entrance into the realm of the ancestors. Ancient Hindu belief depicts relatives who have died living in a realm where they are maintained by offerings given by their living descendants, whom they assist with fertility and wealth.</p>
<p>Hindu beliefs and practices are extremely diverse. In many communities, however, descendants perform rites that offer nourishment to the dead person, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1032342/devdutt-pattanaik-on-the-3000-year-old-hindu-ritual-of-feeding-the-dead">represented in the form of a ball of rice</a>. Through these offerings, which can be performed after the death or during certain holidays and anniversaries, the deceased spirit is said to gradually become an embodied ancestor, reborn thanks to the ritual labor of their offspring. </p>
<h2>Colorful processions</h2>
<p>Buddhist death rituals differ considerably from culture to culture, yet one commonality is the amount of human effort that goes into sending off the dead. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Nine men in black outfits with brightly colored patterns on them hold a huge puppet of a dragon outside a building with Chinese characters on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556237/original/file-20231026-22-sh2stu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dragon dancers perform during a funeral for Taiwanese TV star Chu Ke-liang in New Taipei City on June 20, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dragon-dancers-perform-outside-a-funeral-hall-during-a-news-photo/698172402?adppopup=true">Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In Chinese and Taiwanese culture, it is thought best to send off the deceased with a well-attended funeral procession, full of pageantry for deities and mortals alike. Many people rent “Electric Flower Cars,” trucks that serve as moving stages for performers – even pole dancers are not uncommon. Fifty jeeps with pole-dancing women graced <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38528122">the funeral procession of a Taiwanese politician</a> who died in 2017. </p>
<p>Though pole dancers are a newer phenomenon, Taiwanese funerals and religious processions have long showcased women and young people, including female mourners hired to wail. Scholars such as <a href="https://www.harvard-yenching.org/person/chang-hsun/">anthropologist Chang Hsun</a> suggest that a combination of such traditions <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCRmmSdYwDc">led to the inclusion</a> of women dancing and singing in some modern funeral processions. </p>
<p>By the 1980s, scantily clad women were a fixture of rural Taiwanese funeral culture. In 2011, <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/anthropology/our_people/directory/moskowitz_marc.php">anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz</a> produced a short documentary called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCRmmSdYwDc">Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan</a>” about the phenomenon. </p>
<p>Funeral performances show tremendous freedom and innovation; one sees drummers, marching bands and Taiwanese opera singers. Paper objects in the shape of things the deceased is believed to use in the afterlife are burned, from microwaves to cars. Likewise, specially printed money called “ghost money” is burned to provide the deceased with funds.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a yellow monk's robe and someone wearing black stand behind what looks like a dollhouse, as the monk rings a bell." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556448/original/file-20231029-27-6pbk83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A paper model of a villa, used as an offering for the dead during a ceremony in New Taipei City, Taiwan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-picture-taken-on-march-16-2019-shows-a-relative-news-photo/1134772913?adppopup=true">Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Guiding the dead</h2>
<p>In Tibet, Buddhists believe that the vital energy of a person who has died stays with the body <a href="https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/05/04/tibetan-death-rituals/">for 49 days</a>. During this time, the dead person receives instruction from priests to help them navigate the journey ahead.</p>
<p>This journey toward the next stage of being involves a series of choices that will determine the realm of their rebirth – including rebirth as an animal, a hungry ghost, a deity, a being in hell, another human being or immediate enlightenment. </p>
<p>Priests whisper instructions into the ear of the dead person, who is believed to be capable of hearing so long as they retain their vital energy. Being told what to expect after death allows a person to face death with equanimity.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows a man seated in prayer on top of a mountain, as other people work in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556238/original/file-20231026-25-lx55xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Tibetan Buddhist priest chants prayers and repeats passages from religious scrolls while his helpers make a funeral pyre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lamaist-priest-chants-prayers-and-repeats-passages-from-news-photo/646273502?adppopup=true">Hulton Deutsch/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The instructions given to the dead are described in a sacred text called the “Bardo Thodol,” often translated in English as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead-172962">The Tibetan Book of the Dead</a>.” “Bardo” is the Tibetan term for an intermediate or in-between state; one might think of the bardo of death as a train that stops at various destinations, opening doors and giving the passenger opportunities to depart. </p>
<p>Tibetan Buddhists believe that these instructions allow the deceased to make good choices in the 49-day interim between their death and the next life. Different rebirth realms will appear to the person, taking the form of colored lights. Based on the karma of the deceased, some realms will seem more alluring than others. The person is told to be fearless: to let themselves be drawn toward higher realms, even if they appear frightening.</p>
<p>For several days before burial, the deceased is visited by friends, family and well-wishers – all able to work out their grief while assisting the dead in a postmortem journey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Across cultures, death rituals give mourners a chance to grieve. But they also offer one last opportunity to help the deceased as they transition to the next stage of existence.
Liz Wilson, Professor of Comparative Religion, Miami University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213004
2023-09-08T08:10:57Z
2023-09-08T08:10:57Z
G20: Xi Jinping’s snub of summit the latest in escalation of ambition between two assertive powers
<p>It might be tempting to connect Xi Jinping’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/04/china-signals-xi-jinping-will-not-attend-g20-summit-in-india#:%7E:text=Xi%20Jinping's%20attendance%20at%20the,the%20country's%20premier%2C%20Li%20Qiang.">refusal to attend the G20 summit in India</a> with continuing border tensions. These reached a peak recently when China released an “official map” claiming as its territory several areas that have long been a matter of contention between the two countries. </p>
<p>But, in fact, a more likely explanation is the intense competition between Xi Jinping’s China and Narendra Modi’s India over leadership status when it comes to the global south. </p>
<p>The two countries have had a rocky relationship over the years, as seen in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53062484">sporadic military clashes</a> in border areas. But it is the wider – and more recent – question of which country holds the most influence in the developing world that consumes the two leaders at present. </p>
<p>Sino-Indian relations can be categorised in four phases. The first phase (1949-1962) was a delusional period that assumed mutual bonhomie. India-China relations were dubbed as <em><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/18/the-rise-and-fall-of-hindi-chini-bhai-bhai/">Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai</a></em> (India and China are brothers). This continued even as China decided to <a href="https://www.noemamag.com/all-roads-need-not-lead-to-china/">illegally build a highway</a> connecting Xinjiang province in western China and Tibet through territory claimed by India as part of the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir state. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sino-Indian-War">China invaded India in 1962</a> to protect the territory it had encroached upon. Notably, another more modern highway is now planned on a similar route, which is thought likely to <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/chinas-new-g695-highway-across-aksai-chin-is-a-problem-india-cant-stay-quiet/1068465/">exacerbate tensions</a> even further. </p>
<p>This kicked off a second phase of animosity lasting till the 1980s and was triggered by China supporting Pakistan in the <a href="https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/09/27/chinas-role-in-1965-indo-pak-war/">1965</a> and <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/explained-when-pakistans-ally-us-pushed-china-to-attack-india-during-indo-pak-war-of-1971-625741">1971</a> wars and support to the numerous insurgent groups operating in India’s north-east. </p>
<p>Then, in the mid to late 1980s relations between the two countries improved with talks between Deng Xiaoping, the then premier of China, and the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and a subsequent visit <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ziliao_665539/3602_665543/3604_665547/200011/t20001117_697833.html">by her son Rajiv in 1988</a>, the first visit by an Indian prime minister in 34 years. </p>
<p>More recently though, China has become more confident after decades of strong economic growth – has actively pursued a more <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/02/20/why-has-chinese-foreign-policy-become-more-assertive/">assertive foreign policy</a>. In 2014 Xi described this as “major-power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”. This has brought it into <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2023-06/are-china-and-india-bound-another-deadly-border-clash">confrontation with India</a>, once again over border territory. </p>
<h2>Border dispute</h2>
<p>In May 2020, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/world/asia/india-china-border.html">Indian and Chinese patrols clashed</a> near Pangong Tso (a lake spanning eastern Ladakh and western Tibet) after Indian troops found the Chinese entrenched in what was previously mutually patrolled territory. While some attribute China’s actions to its expansionist strategy through what commentators have criticised as “<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-s-salami-slicing-tactics-displays-disregard-for-india-s-efforts-at-peace/story-ujHFW5zcwTbKiP7j0QghGL.html">salami slicing” tactics</a> (encroaching on small pieces of territory at a time), others believe the growing friendship between India and the US was the trigger for China’s actions. </p>
<p>Another reason speculated was that India’s <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/view-ladakh-will-greatly-benefit-from-governments-decision-to-make-it-into-a-union-territory/articleshow/70577272.cms?from=mdr">reconfiguration of Ladakh as a union territory in 2019</a> and reaffirmation that Aksai Chin (a portion of Ladakh in China’s control since the 1962 war) as an <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pok-aksai-chin-part-of-kashmir-says-amit-shah-in-lok-sabha/article61587371.ece">integral part of India</a> might have provoked China’s border incursions. </p>
<p>At the end of August 2020, Indian troops <a href="https://stratnewsglobal.com/articles/why-kailash-range-operation-was-planned-and-executed/">occupied the Kailash Range</a>. This gave them tactical superiority over China in the region because of its dominating view across the Chinese side of the border. This kickstarted talks between the two sides, which had been dormant for some time. Nevertheless, after 19 rounds of discussions, nothing has been resolved. </p>
<p>In December 2022, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63953400">Indian and Chinese troops clashed</a> in the Yangtse region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. This remains the most serious area of contention between India and China, as demonstrated by the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/10/china-criticises-indian-ministers-visit-to-arunachal-pradesh">fury expressed by the Indian government</a> recently released Chinese maps portraying the entire state as southern Tibet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1421084311839772672"}"></div></p>
<p>Beijing, in turn, criticised a visit by India’s home affairs minister, Amit Shah, to the area, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/10/china-criticises-indian-ministers-visit-to-arunachal-pradesh">saying</a> it “violates China’s territorial sovereignty, and is not conducive to the peace and tranquillity of the border situation”. </p>
<h2>Modi reaches out to the world</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, Modi has pursued an expansive approach to foreign relations in recent years. You only have to look at Modi’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_prime_ministerial_trips_made_by_Narendra_Modi">list of overseas travel since 2020</a> to see that he has engaged with, and been hosted by, a wide range of world leaders. At the same time, hampered by COVID and facing a difficult economy, Xi’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_trips_made_by_Xi_Jinping#">foreign visits have been limited</a>.</p>
<p>This has attracted a certain amount of attention from commentators who are increasingly casting Modi’s diplomacy in terms of India’s rivalry with China. This was evident when the Indian prime minister visited Greece in late August, with the trip billed by some as an attempt to <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/modi-is-first-pm-in-40-years-to-visit-greece-why-this-trip-matters-13035672.html">limit China’s influence in the Mediterranean region</a> </p>
<p>So, contrary to China’s decades-old strategy of <a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/india-and-chinas-rivalry-is-reshaping-south-asia/">containing India in the South Asian region</a>, India has begun to spread its strategic relationships in south-east Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and the US. This has significantly challenged China’s status in the international sphere.</p>
<p>Unable to find viable solutions to China’s faltering economic growth, Xi has instead opted for nationalistic fervour among its people, while cracking down on dissent. His administration has also introduced the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-land-border-law-a-preliminary-assessment/">Land Border Law</a> in 2022 to strengthen its border control and protection, leading to speculation it could be used to <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/china-passes-new-land-border-law-amid-military-standoff-with-india/articleshow/87245014.cms">support a more assertive stance</a> towards what Beijing views as its territory. </p>
<p>The release of China’s most recent map is aimed at fulfilling this objective and prompted speculation about its impact on the G20 summit. However, the true reason for Xi’s unwillingness to visit India stems from the fact that a successful joint communique from the summit would lend credence to <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Comment/China-and-India-battle-for-leadership-of-Global-South">India’s emergence as a leader of the global south</a>.</p>
<p>In a forum representing two-thirds of the global population, India’s objective to build a consensus on several important issues such as debt restructuring – which China opposes but <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/business/india-aims-to-forge-global-consensus-on-tackling-debt-crisis-at-g20-summit/cid/1963505">most developing economies support</a> – is likely to significantly dent China’s international status. </p>
<p>So the effect of Xi’s refusal to attend the New Delhi G20 summit is effectively a statement contesting India’s coveted status as a global leader.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dheeraj Paramesha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Chinese president’s absence at the New Delhi G20 summit sends a message about competition between the two countries.
Dheeraj Paramesha, Lecturer in Intelligence, Security and Policing, School of Criminology, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209311
2023-08-04T12:27:54Z
2023-08-04T12:27:54Z
Shaligrams, the sacred fossils that have been worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists for over 2,000 years, are becoming rarer because of climate change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536833/original/file-20230711-29-xz2dcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C5%2C877%2C592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Shaligram on top of a bed of small rocks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 2,000 years, Hinduism, Buddhism and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195154146.001.0001">shamanic Himalayan religion of Bon</a> have venerated <a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligrams</a> – ancient fossils of ammonites, a class of extinct sea creatures related to modern squids.</p>
<p>Originating from a single remote region in northern Nepal – the Kali Gandaki River Valley of Mustang – Shaligram stones are viewed primarily as manifestations of the Hindu god Vishnu. Because they are not human-made, but <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/12027">created by the landscape</a>, they are believed to have an intrinsic consciousness of their own. As a result, Shaligrams are kept in homes and in temples, where they are treated as both living gods and active community members.</p>
<p>I went on my first Shaligram pilgrimage in 2015. After arriving at the village of Jomsom in Mustang, I, along with a group of Indian and Nepali pilgrims, started the five-day trek northeast from there to the temple of Muktinath, where the journey culminates. </p>
<p>Making our way through the winding river passage, between 26,000-foot (8,000-meter) mountain peaks, we carefully looked for Shaligrams in the fast-moving water and gathered up any we could reach.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/anthropology/faculty/hollywalters">as an anthropologist</a>, I have documented a wide variety of Shaligram practices while working with devotees in Nepal and in India. In 2020 I wrote the first ethnographic account, “<a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463721721/shaligram-pilgrimage-in-the-nepal-himalayas">Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas</a>,” which demonstrates how popular and important the pilgrimage is among South Asian and the wider global Hindu diasporas.</p>
<p>However, my ongoing work focuses more on how climate change and gravel mining are altering the course of the river, which is endangering the pilgrimage by making it harder to find Shaligrams.</p>
<h2>Living fossils</h2>
<p>The mythology of Shaligrams is associated with two legends. The first is told in a series of three Hindu scriptures, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Purana">Varaha, Padma and Brahmavaivarta Puranas</a>. </p>
<p>In each version of this story, the Hindu god Vishnu, believed to be the supreme creator, is cursed by the goddess Tulsi, who is also called Brinda, because he compromises her chastity. As the story is told, Vishnu disguised himself as her husband Jalandhar so that the god Shiva could kill the demon in a fight. This was because Jalandhar, born from Shiva’s third eye, had previously won a boon from the god Brahma that his wife’s chastity would keep him invincible in any battle. </p>
<p>Angry at the deception, Tulsi <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/%C5%9A%C4%81lagr%C4%81ma_kosha.html?id=32XXAAAAMAAJ">transformed herself into a river</a> – the Kali Gandaki – and turned Vishnu into a river stone, a Shaligram. In this way, Vishnu would be continuously born from her, like a child, in repayment for the karmic debt of killing her husband and making her a widow. The landscape of Mustang thus represents the bodies of Tulsi and Vishnu, producing Shaligram stones as divine manifestations from the waters of the Kali Gandaki. </p>
<p>The second legend is told in the Skanda Purana, which explains that Shaligrams are physically created by a type of celestial worm called the vajra-kita – translated as thunderbolt or adamantine worm – which is responsible for carving out the holes and coiled spiral formations that appear on the stones. </p>
<p>As a result, the beliefs around the mythological formation of Shaligrams involve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048550142.007%5BOpens%20in%20a%20new%20window%5D">both legends</a>. As part of the first legend, Vishnu takes up residence within a sacred stone that appears in the Kali Gandaki River of Nepal. The story of the second legend is expressed in the carving of that stone by the vajra-kita to give it its uniquely smooth, rounded shape and the characteristic spirals both inside and on the surface. </p>
<h2>Rivers and roads</h2>
<p>Shaligram pilgrimage takes place high in the Himalayas, usually between April and June and again between late August and November. This helps avoid both the worst of the July monsoon rains and the December snows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Snow-capped mountain peaks near a flowing river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540226/original/file-20230731-3774-9xstra.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mount Nilgiri seen from the bed of the Kali Gandaki River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mustang, however, is <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:130645682">currently divided</a> into the upper or the northern region and the lower or the southern region. In 1950, both Upper and Lower Mustang were <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/92e748bdfc52a6614ab21387b145eb95/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y">closed to travel</a> following China’s annexation of Tibet. But though Lower Mustang was reopened to pilgrimage and trekking in 1992, Upper Mustang remains highly restricted. </p>
<p>This means that the current Shaligram pilgrimage route does not include visiting the Damodar Kund – the glacial lake that produces Shaligrams from the high-altitude fossil beds – because pilgrims are still not allowed to freely cross into Upper Mustang.</p>
<p>The village of Kagbeni marks the principal boundary between the two divisions and is also one of the main stops on the Shaligram pilgrimage route. The village sits directly on the banks of the Kali Gandaki and is one of the few areas where pilgrims can reliably find significant numbers of Shaligrams by wading through the river themselves and by watching the river bed for any signs of a black spiral emerging from the sand.</p>
<p>The last destination on the pilgrimage route, at roughly 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), is the temple site of Muktinath, which contains <a href="https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132107729">multiple sacred areas of worship</a> for Hindus, Buddhists and followers of Bon. As a place of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3673473">Hindu worship</a>, Muktinath offers a central shrine to the deity Vishnu as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14789.78561">108 water spouts under which pilgrims must pass</a>. The water spouts themselves are hammered directly into the mountain side, which contains a natural aquifer, and provide one last opportunity for practitioners to bathe themselves and their Shaligrams in the waters of Mustang.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004443723_002">Bon sanctuary</a>, Muktinath is home to the “Jwala Mai,” or the mother flame, a natural gas vent that produces a continuous flame that burns next to the constant flow of water from the mountain aquifer. Along with the high winds of the Himalayas, representing the element of air, and Shaligrams, representing the element of stone, Jwala Mai contributes to Bon practitioners’ view of Muktinath as a rare place where all of the sacred elements of their religion come together.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://hal.science/hal-03112094/document">Buddhist complex</a>, Muktinath is more commonly referred to as “Chumig-Gyatsa,” or the Hundred Waters, and the icon that is worshipped by Hindus as Vishnu is venerated by Buddhists as Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. In 2016, Muktinath also became home to the <a href="https://nepalnews.com/s/travel-and-tourism/35-feet-tall-buddha-statue-on-mustang">largest statue of the Buddha</a> ever built in Nepal.</p>
<h2>Climate change and Shaligrams</h2>
<p>These traditions then come together to provide a place to ritually welcome all of the new Shaligrams that have just been taken from the water into the lives of the people who venerate them. But Shaligrams are becoming rarer.</p>
<p>Climate change, faster glacial melting, and <a href="https://cot.unhas.ac.id/journals/index.php/ialt_lti/article/view/888">gravel mining in the Kali Gandaki</a> are changing the course of the river, which means fewer Shaligrams are appearing each year. This is mainly because the Kali Gandaki is fed by meltwater from the Southern Tibetan Plateau. But with the glacier disappearing, the river is becoming smaller and shifting away from the fossil beds that contain the ammonites needed to become Shaligrams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A snow capped mountain with blue clouds in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540228/original/file-20230731-23-hm04z7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kali Gandaki riverbed near the village of Kagbeni.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Holly Walters</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the moment, though, the majority of pilgrims are still able to find at least a few Shaligrams every time they travel to Mustang, but it’s getting harder. Even so, once the new Shaligrams are introduced to worship at Muktinath, it is time for pilgrims to leave Mustang and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/717110">return home</a>. </p>
<p>For many, this is a bittersweet moment that marks the birth of their new household deities into the family but also means that they will be leaving the beauty of the high Himalayas and the place where deities come to Earth. </p>
<p>But all the pilgrims, me included, look forward to the days when we can return to walk the pilgrimage paths again, hopeful that Shaligrams will still appear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Walters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many Hindus, Buddhists and people who follow the shamanic religion of Bon undertake a pilgrimage each year to northern Nepal to look for Shaligrams, believed to be a manifestation of Lord Vishnu.
Holly Walters, Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202353
2023-06-11T20:51:47Z
2023-06-11T20:51:47Z
Succession on the Tibetan plateau: what’s at stake in the battle over the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530775/original/file-20230608-27-rjefga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C16%2C3108%2C2379&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ashwini Bhatia/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In China, a group of atheists (the Chinese Communist Party) has long dictated how the country’s religious groups <a href="https://theasiadialogue.com/2019/10/17/chinas-religion-problem-why-the-chinese-communist-party-views-religious-belief-as-a-threat/">should practise their faiths</a>. </p>
<p>Chinese Christians are told to reject salvation by faith and the Resurrection; their core beliefs should be <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/uscirf-charges-chinas-authorized-religious-bodies-as-communist-party-accomplices/">patriotism and love of the party</a>. The party has also <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2017/battle-chinas-spirit">published several pamphlets</a> detailing appropriate beliefs and practices for Buddhists and ordered them to adjust their thoughts accordingly. </p>
<p>Communist officials are particularly concerned with one politically sensitive element of Buddhism: the succession of the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, whose reincarnation lineage began in the 16th century. He will be 88 years old in July and has reportedly experienced <a href="https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/dalai-lama-reported-to-be-in-stable-condition-after-being-admitted-to-hospital-in-new-delhi/">health problems</a>, though he claims he is in <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/news/2021/our-happiness-our-health-our-future">good health</a>.</p>
<p>In official news outlets like the Global Times, the party maintains the Chinese government is the <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202302/1285980.shtml">sole legitimate arbiter</a> for all reincarnations of Buddhist lamas, regardless of where they are born or their traditional regions of influence. </p>
<p>The Chinese state is deeply suspicious of religious believers and the potentially persuasive power of rival ideologies, which is why it insists on appointing and educating all prominent religious figures. They learn the propaganda of Chinese patriotism and become adept at parroting the party line, but they generally have little knowledge of their purported religion. True believers recognise this. </p>
<p>The Dalai Lama highlighted the absurdity of the party’s stance earlier this year when he recognised an eight-year-old Mongolian boy as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/new-dalai-lama-mongolia-boy-tibet-b2308510.html">the tenth Jetsun Dampa</a>, the most influential reincarnation lineage in Mongolia.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dalai-lama-identifies-the-reincarnation-of-mongolias-spiritual-leader-a-preview-of-tensions-around-finding-his-own-replacement-202888">Dalai Lama identifies the reincarnation of Mongolia's spiritual leader – a preview of tensions around finding his own replacement</a>
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<hr>
<p>The move angered Chinese officials because it demonstrated the Dalai Lama’s continuing authority among Buddhists in the region. It also showed that despite decades of persistent claims the Communist Party exercises sole authority in these matters, it is merely an official fabrication. </p>
<p>In 1995, the Dalai Lama issued a proclamation that a Tibetan boy named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedhun_Choekyi_Nyima">Gendün Chökyi Nyima</a> was the Panchen Lama, the second-most prominent reincarnate lama in his order, the Geluk. The party responded by arresting the boy, then six years old, along with his family. They have not been seen <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/15/25-years-after-disappearing-tibetan-panchen-lama-china-no-nearer-its-goal">since</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530781/original/file-20230608-27-cnp98t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tibetan Buddhists hold portraits of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gendün Chökyi Nyima, during a protest in India last month demanding his release.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Altaf Qadri/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Golden Urn</h2>
<p>Tibetan Buddhists believe that after death a person’s consciousness transmigrates to a new body. For most people, this happens involuntarily, but advanced masters can choose their life situations. These are referred to as “tulkus” (“emanation bodies”). Traditionally, tulkus have exercised ultimate authority over their own successions. Many lamas issue predictions regarding the circumstances of their rebirths, including place and timing.</p>
<p>The Dalai Lama, hoping to counter Communist Party plans to name his successor, has declared he will not take rebirth in any region under Chinese control. He argues the main task of a new tulku is to <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/reincarnation">carry on the unfinished work</a> of their predecessor, and this would be impossible in occupied Tibet.</p>
<p>The party cites precedents, mostly invented or exaggerated, that it claims give it a historically determined right to adjudicate all matters of tulku succession. </p>
<p>Many of these hinge on the “<a href="https://tricycle.org/article/treasury-lives-controversy-golden-urn/">Golden Urn</a>”, which was sent to Tibet in 1792 by the <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/a-golden-age-of-china-qianlong-emperor/">Qianlong Emperor</a>, along with instructions on its use. The names of prospective tulkus were to be inscribed on lots and placed in the urn. The officiating lama would then choose one at random as the successor tulku. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1628075775458185216"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite claims by party officials that the urn has been used in all tulku selections since it was delivered to Tibet, historical sources indicate <a href="https://www.pixstory.com/story/the-golden-urn-and-the-succession-of-dalai-lamas/188979">it was only used sporadically</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, I have not seen any Tibetan document that presents the urn as the sole factor for determining tulku succession. In every case I’ve examined, traditional tests were administered first. </p>
<p>For instance, a prospective child was presented with two sets of items – one belonged to the predecessor, the other did not but appeared similar. The real successor should be able to correctly identify the ones owned by his predecessor. </p>
<p>Lots were then drawn from the Golden Urn as one of a series of measures to ensure the correct candidate was selected – or to placate Chinese officials. </p>
<p>The Dalai Lama has indicated he is open to a process that <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/the-golden-urn-does-the-ccp-believe-in-reincarnation/">includes lots drawn from the urn</a>, but also insists on the standard succession methods developed under Tibetan Buddhism.</p>
<h2>Clashes over philosophy</h2>
<p>Most public discussions of succession focus on historically based claims and counterclaims, but the underlying logic of both sides is seldom mentioned. </p>
<p>Tibetan Buddhism holds that as death approaches, the coarser levels of consciousness drop away. At the moment of death, the most subtle one, the “mind of clear light,” manifests. After this, one enters the “intermediate state” (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bardo-Thodol">bardo</a>) and is reborn in another body.</p>
<p>The main basis for rebirth is consciousness, which is compared to a river. It flows from moment to moment, with each moment conditioned by those that preceded it. It is not like a soul or self because it is impermanent and changing. </p>
<p>Most Buddhists believe that rebirth is determined by their past karma, but tulkus can consciously choose their next life situations.</p>
<p>One of the core absurdities of the Communist Party’s claims to authority over this process is its members adhere to a Marxist philosophy of <a href="https://www.marxist.com/what-is-dialectical-materialism.htm">dialectical materialism</a>, which rejects the idea of rebirth or consciousness being transferred between bodies. </p>
<p>So, when the party designates someone as “Dalai Lama,” it is similar to naming a postmaster: it is a position overseen by the government, and it can be conferred on anyone.</p>
<p>Tibetan Buddhists, however, believe that the recognition of a Dalai Lama is much more than this. It is the end result of a series of rigorous tests designed to determine one unique person, whose consciousness is the continuation of his predecessor’s.</p>
<h2>What’s at stake for Tibetan Buddhism?</h2>
<p>After the disappearance of Gendün Chökyi Nyima in 1995, the government held a ceremony to anoint another boy as Panchen Lama. Panchen Lamas have often played key roles in the recognition of Dalai Lamas, and the party has declared it plans to use its Panchen Lama to choose a Dalai Lama who will be under its control. </p>
<p>The Dalai Lama has declared on a number of occasions the Tibetan people <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/international/explained-tibetan-buddhists-fears-of-chinese-interferance-in-dalai-lama-succession-how-is-dalai-lama-selected-news-250848">will reject China’s choice</a>. And Tibetan exiles plan to employ traditional methods to identify Tenzin Gyatso’s successor. </p>
<p>Inevitably, other countries will be drawn into this arcane conflict, based on centuries-old religious precedents, which few will understand.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-religious-revival-going-on-in-china-under-the-constant-watch-of-the-communist-party-164211">There's a religious revival going on in China -- under the constant watch of the Communist Party</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So, after both sides have announced their respective Dalai Lamas, what effect will this have on Tibetan Buddhists in Tibet and their religious practices? </p>
<p>Probably very little. The party’s Panchen Lama is viewed by Tibetans as a high-ranking government official and is treated with the appropriate respect. But he has no authority as a religious teacher. </p>
<p>And despite government attempts to promote him as one, he lacks the training, knowledge and charisma that would be required for him to function as a tulku. He rarely visits Tibet, and has shown no aptitude for the religious aspects of his role. </p>
<p>The future Dalai Lama born in exile will receive traditional training from the most esteemed figures in Tibetan Buddhism, while his or her Communist Party rival will be trained in a government-run school and become a mouthpiece of the party. </p>
<p>The former will probably follow in the footsteps of Tenzin Gyatso and become an internationally prominent Buddhist spokesperson. The latter will emulate the party’s Panchen Lama and repeat whatever messages his overlords command him to deliver to Tibetan Buddhists.</p>
<p>The question of Tibetan Buddhism’s future survival is by no means assured. Tibetans overwhelmingly identify as Buddhists, and most deeply revere the Dalai Lama despite decades of propaganda demonising him. </p>
<p>The government is increasingly imposing restrictions on religious practice. There are also economic disincentives for those who want to retain their traditional religious commitments. This struggle between tradition and Communist Party control is likely to play out over the course of the next few decades, and the future looks increasingly grim for those who want to resist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Powers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tibetan Buddhists may face a future of duelling Dalai Lamas: one born in exile who will receive traditional religious training, the other a mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
John Powers, Lecturer In Buddhism Studies, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196826
2023-01-09T16:22:19Z
2023-01-09T16:22:19Z
Women work harder than men – our anthropological study reveals why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501930/original/file-20221219-20-f1s7be.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C39%2C3205%2C2404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women working in rural China close to the Tibetan border.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yuan Chen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most people around the world, physical work takes up a great amount of time and energy every day. But what determines whether it is men or women who are working harder in households? In most hunter-gatherer societies, men are the hunters and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/prehistoric-female-hunter-discovery-upends-gender-role-assumptions">women are the gatherers</a> – with men seemingly walking the furthest. But what’s the labour breakdown in other societies?</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/women-work-harder-than-men-our-anthropological-study-reveals-why-196826&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>We carried out a study of farming and herding groups in the Tibetan borderlands in rural China – an area with huge cultural diversity – to uncover which factors actually determine who works the hardest in a household, and why. Our results, <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01963-7">published in Current Biology</a>, shed light on the gender division of work across many different kinds of society.</p>
<p>The majority of adults across the world <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/marriages-and-divorces">are married</a>. Marriage is a contract, so one might expect roughly equal costs and benefits from the union for both parties. But unequal bargaining power in a household – such as one person threatening divorce – can lead to unequal contributions to the partnership. </p>
<h2>Leaving home</h2>
<p>We decided to test the hypothesis that leaving your natal area after heterosexual marriage to live with your spouse’s family may contribute to a higher level of workload. In such marriages, the new person typically isn’t related to, and doesn’t share a history with, anyone in their new household. Without blood relatives around them, they might therefore be at a disadvantage when it comes to bargaining power.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Image of a girl carrying grass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501928/original/file-20221219-26-rahmat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men have more leisure time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yuan Chen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/ethnographic-atlas-a-summary/oclc/611025990">common form of marriage</a> around the world is where women are the “dispersers”, leaving their native home, while men stay with their families in their natal area. This is known as patrilocality. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10693971221120496">Neolocality</a> – in which both sexes disperse at marriage, and the couple lives in a new place away from both their families – is another common practice in many parts of the world. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3629311#metadata_info_tab_contents">Matrilocality </a> – where women stay in the natal family and men move to live with the wife and her family – is quite rare. And <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1968.70.2.02a00070">duolocality</a> – where neither sex leaves home and husband and wife live apart – is very rarely seen. </p>
<p>Luckily, in the diverse Tibetan borderlands, all four of these different dispersal patterns can be found across various different ethnic groups.</p>
<p>Our study focused on rural villages from six different ethnic cultures. With our collaborators from Lanzhou University in China, we interviewed more than 500 people about their dispersal status after marriage, and invited them to wear an activity tracker (like a fitbit) to assess their workloads.</p>
<h2>Women work harder</h2>
<p>Our first finding was that women worked much harder than men, and contributed most of the fruits of this labour to their families. This was evidenced both by their own reports of how much they worked and by their activity trackers. </p>
<p>Women walked on average just over 12,000 steps per day, while men walked just over 9,000 steps. So men also worked hard, but less so than women. They spent more time in leisure or social activities, or just hanging around and resting.</p>
<p>This may be partly because women are, on average, physically weaker than men, and may thus have reduced bargaining power. But we also found that individuals (be they male or female) who disperse at marriage to live away from their kin have higher workloads than those who stay with their natal families. </p>
<p>So if you are female and move away from home at marriage (as most women do throughout the world), you suffer not just in terms of missing your own family but also in terms of workload. When both sexes disperse and no one lives with their natal families, both sexes work hard (as there is little help from kin) – but the woman still works harder. According to our study, perfect sex equality in workload only occurs in instances where men disperse and women do not. </p>
<p>These results help us to understand why women globally disperse, but men generally do not. Dispersal is especially bad for men – adding about 2,000 more steps per day to their step count, but only adding about 1,000 steps per day for women. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of men going out to work." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501933/original/file-20221219-16-ykj0bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men work slightly less hard than women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yuan Chen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Time and energy spent on farming, herding and housework competes with free time. So substantial labour contribution to households in these rural areas can result in less time spent on rest. From an evolutionary view, giving up rest isn’t favourable unless it contributes to higher fitness – such as enhancing offspring survival.</p>
<p>We don’t actually know whether it is favourable in this case, as it hasn’t been researched much. It may be true in poor and rural areas around the world, but less so in wealthier settings.</p>
<p>In most urban areas, for example, an inactive lifestyle is becoming more pervasive. And research has shown that sedentary lifestyles in such areas among white-collar workers <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(18)30357-7/fulltext">are becoming a significant public health issue</a>. They are linked to many chronic health conditions such as obesity, infertility, and several mental health disorders. </p>
<p>Sex inequality in workload persists both in the home and outside. Now our study has given an evolutionary perspective on why women are more likely than men to be bearing a heavy work burden. </p>
<p>But things are slowly changing. As women are increasingly starting families away from both their partner’s and their own family, their bargaining power is increasing. This is further boosted by their increasing levels of self-generated wealth, education and autonomy. Ultimately, these changes are leading men to take on an increasing workload in many urban, industrial or post-industrial societies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yuan Chen receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC grant EvoBias), and previously was funded by Lanzhou University, the International Society of Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, and the HRAF institute affiliated with Yale University supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF 2022).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Mace receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC grant EvoBias). She is Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Human Sciences (a Cambridge University Press open-access journal). She has previously been affiliated with The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University. Ruth Mace is currently a visitor at the Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
</span></em></p>
Men in rural China spend more time in leisure or social activities, or just hanging around and resting.
Yuan Chen, PhD Candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology, UCL
Ruth Mace, Professor of Anthropology, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192366
2022-11-07T17:26:42Z
2022-11-07T17:26:42Z
1962’s Sino-Indian border war lasted four weeks – internment of India’s Chinese community lasted years
<p>As the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis">Cuban missile crisis</a> gripped the world’s attention 60 years ago, a less remembered conflict broke out high in the mountain passes of the Himalayas. Tensions had been mounting for months on the border between India and China and on October 20 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army attacked Indian forces on disputed territory and started the <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/71/sino-indian-border-war-1962">1962 Sino-Indian war</a>.</p>
<p>The origins of the conflict lay in two areas. First was the shifting, disputed frontier of colonial India, which ran across mountain peaks and glaciers. And second was the uncertain status of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-17046222">Tibet</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The disputed Aksai Chin region." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493864/original/file-20221107-23-98s8gs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Aksai Chin region, the disputed territory at the centre of the Sino-Indian conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aksai_Chin_Sino-Indian_border_map.png#/media/File:Aksai_Chin_Sino-Indian_border_map.png">The Discoverer / WIkipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mao_zedong.shtml">Mao Zedong</a>, China had <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/far_east/7969245.stm">“liberated” Tibet</a>, and in 1951 Tibetan leaders were forced to sign a treaty allowing the establishment of Chinese rule. After a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2009/mar/09/tibet-dalailama">popular uprising</a> in 1959, the <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography">Dalai Lama</a> – the country’s spiritual leader – sought refuge in India, further straining Sino-Indian relations. </p>
<p>In four weeks of fighting across difficult high-altitude terrain, the better-resourced Chinese forces were eventually victorious, and China announced a ceasefire on November 21. Although Chinese forces withdrew from most of the captured territory, China retained control, contentiously, of 38,000km² of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Aksai-Chin">Aksai Chin region in Kashmir</a> which is an extension of the Tibetan plateau. </p>
<p>The geopolitical legacies of the 1962 war still trouble the two Asian superpowers. Further clashes occurred in 1967, and violence erupted again more recently in May and June 2020, when Indian and Chinese troops engaged in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-53076781">hand-to-hand fighting</a> in Ladakh’s Galwan valley. </p>
<p>The Sino-Indian war is now remembered by political historians mainly for the reputational damage it caused India’s first prime minister, <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/jawaharlal-nehru">Jawaharlal Nehru</a>. An admirer of China, Nehru dreamed of a great Indo-Chinese alliance. </p>
<p>He formulated <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/191_panchsheel.pdf">Panchsheel</a> (five principles of peaceful co-existence between the two countries) as a bilateral diplomatic code and endorsed popular slogans of Chinese and Indian brotherhood. India’s unexpected defeat in the 1962 war was a humiliation from which Nehru never quite recovered. His health declined, and he died just 18 months later. </p>
<p>While it soured Sino-Indian relations and overshadowed Nehru’s final years, the war had tragic longer-lasting consequences for members of the Chinese community in India, who suddenly found themselves transformed into enemy aliens in their adopted homeland.</p>
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<h2>A long-established Chinese community</h2>
<p>Chinese travellers had visited India since antiquity. But it was not until <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj">British colonial rule</a> and <a href="https://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/moderneurope/tao-he/">increasing trade across south-east Asia</a>
in the late 1700s that Chinese people began to settle in the port areas of Calcutta and Madras (now Kolkata and Chennai). By the 1830s <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3111713/chinese-touch-behind-indian-tea-documentary-shows">Chinese indentured labourers</a> were also being recruited to work on tea plantations.</p>
<p>The Chinese community really became established in India in the early 1900s when a small number of Hakka Chinese immigrants arrived in Kolkata. In the segregated caste-specific occupations of the colonial city they found an economic niche in leather tanning and shoemaking, but ran shops and restaurants as well. Kolkata also became a home to Cantonese immigrants from Guangdong who operated joinery and furniture businesses, and incomers from Hubei who set up as dentists.</p>
<p>Historians estimate that at its height during the second world war, Kolkata’s Chinese community – which had its own schools, hostels, newspapers and temple “churches” in Bowbazar and then the eastern suburb of Tangra – numbered around 40,000. Today the community has <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0376983619856540">barely 3,000</a> residents.</p>
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<p>As tensions mounted prior to the 1962 war this long-established community was increasingly threatened. At the war’s outbreak the Indian government proclaimed the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Defence_of_India_Act_1962_and_Rules.html?id=_jgOAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Defence of India Act</a> which allowed the arrest and detention of anyone considered to be “of hostile origin” and targeted ethnic Chinese residents in India.</p>
<p>In the major cities, suspected Chinese Communist sympathisers were jailed. Peng Wenlan, who was born into the Chinese community in Kolkata, remembers her father, a respected school headmaster, describing how he was followed daily by the police. Worse was to come: in Kolkata and northeastern border towns in Darjeeling, Shillong and Assam, approximately 3,000 people were rounded up by the authorities and deported across the country in a special train to a former POW camp in the remote Rajasthan desert town of Deoli. </p>
<p>Oral history research by Kwai-Yun Li has <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/29477/3/Li_Kwai_Y_20116_MA_thesis.pdf">recorded the experiences</a> of the Chinese Indian civilians imprisoned at Deoli. The internees arrived after the November ceasefire and were confined in what Li describes as a concentration camp for years – the last internees were released in 1967.</p>
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<p>They had been there so long that some children, including Joy Ma, co-author of the most recent history of the Deoli internment, <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/joy-ma/the-deoliwallahs/9781529048865">The Deoliwallahs</a>,
were born at the camp, while others tragically lost parents and family members there.</p>
<p>The experience of Deoli was profoundly destructive to the community because some were separated from close family at the start of their internment. For those who later tried to return to the north-east, a common experience was the complete dispossession of family businesses and property. In other instances, detainees were repatriated to China, even though they had lived in India for generations and sometimes did not speak a Chinese language.</p>
<p>There is now widespread recognition of communities made stateless by the shifting politics of decolonisation, such as <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/outreach/projects/ugandan-asians-40-years-on/">Uganda’s Asian community</a> which was expelled in 1972, but the history of the Chinese community in India and its diaspora is largely overlooked. Peng Wenlan’s family escaped before the deportations and arrived in Liverpool in the early 1960s, where her mother, a doctor, worked in the NHS.</p>
<p>Many more Chinese families emigrated to Canada. Former Deoli internees there have petitioned the Indian High Commission for some recognition of the historical wrong done to their community, but still await an official apology. </p>
<p>In Kolkata’s former Chinatown, remaining residents try to remain resilient, but continuing <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/other-sports/story/boycott-beijing-olympics-tibetans-in-india-protest-against-winter-olympics-2022-1908859-2022-02-04">mistrust of China</a> and the divisive experience of the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to dispossess this small community even further.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Tickell is the curator of the ‘Chinese and British’ Exhibition,
Paccar 2 Gallery, The British Library, London.
18th November 2022 - 23rd April 2023 . He would like to thank Peng Wenlan for her help in researching this article.</span></em></p>
Overnight, Chinese people found themselves classed as “aliens” in India, which for some was the only country they’d ever known. But worse, many were detained for up to five years.
Alex Tickell, Senior Lecturer in English and Literary Historian, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189366
2022-10-07T12:19:55Z
2022-10-07T12:19:55Z
What is a bodhisattva? A scholar of Buddhism explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488147/original/file-20221004-12-gom54a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2114%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Boddhisatva Avalokiteśvara, considered to be a compassionate protector, is believed to regularly visit Earth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bust-of-god-avalokiteshvara-singapore-royalty-free-image/1200705559?phrase=Avalokiteshvara&adppopup=true">taikrixel/ via iStock Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Bodhisattva” is a key idea in Buddhism. The word is constructed from the Sanskrit root bodhi, meaning “awakening” or “enlightenment,” and sattva, meaning “being.” The core meaning of the word is “a being who is on the way to becoming enlightened.” </p>
<p>As I explain in my book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691081/buddhish-by-c-pierce-salguero/">Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical</a>,” the word bodhisattva is understood in divergent ways by different groups of Buddhists. </p>
<h2>Who is a bodhisattva?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Theravada-Buddhism-A-Social-History-from-Ancient-Benares-to-Modern-Colombo/Gombrich/p/book/9780415365093">Theravāda Buddhism</a>, which is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, the term is exclusively used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama, as the Buddha was known before he became enlightened. In this school of thought, the word bodhisattva can also refer to Gautama in one of his previous rebirths as he worked toward enlightenment through numerous lifetimes as animals, people or other types of beings.</p>
<p>According to legend, Gautama was born as the crown prince of a kingdom in far northeastern India, but he gave up his throne and all of his riches in order to pursue enlightenment. Eventually, he fulfilled his destiny and transitioned from a being who is on the way to becoming awakened to a fully enlightened person – in other words, a Buddha. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Mahayana-Buddhism-The-Doctrinal-Foundations/Williams/p/book/9780415356534">Mahāyāna Buddhism</a>, practiced widely in East and Central Asia, the term bodhisattva can be used in a similar way. However, this form of Buddhism says that there are many more than just one Buddha; indeed, the ultimate goal of all true believers of Mahāyāna is to become a Buddha themselves. Most serious followers of this path take the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bodhisattva-Vow-Geshe-Sonam-Rinchen/dp/1559391502/">bodhisattva vow</a> to become recognized as bodhisattvas. </p>
<p>Additionally, in Mahāyāna belief, there are certain highly evolved bodhisattvas who have been practicing Buddhism for so many lifetimes that they have become <a href="https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/B/Bodhisattva-Doctrine-in-Buddhism2">superhuman divine beings</a>. These so-called “celestial bodhisattvas” are said to have accrued immense merits and powers. However, they have intentionally chosen to delay becoming Buddhas in order to dedicate themselves to compassionately helping others. </p>
<h2>Why do bodhisattvas matter?</h2>
<p>Some of the most famous advanced bodhisattvas, such as Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra and Vajrapāṇi, are regularly prayed to and given offerings. Texts and mantras associated with most of them are regularly chanted in temples around the world. Devotees hope that the bodhisattvas, in their infinite compassion, will hear these calls and respond by sending <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966">blessings of health</a>, good fortune and happiness.</p>
<p>Buddhists believe that celestial bodhisattvas reside in heavenly realms called <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-pure-land-buddhism-a-look-at-how-east-asian-buddhists-chant-and-strive-for-buddhahood-149140">Pure Lands</a> located in faraway dimensions of the cosmos. The bodhisattva Maitreya, for example, is said to currently live in the Tuṣita Heaven, where he is awaiting rebirth as the next Buddha of our world. </p>
<p>Because they can manifest in different bodies simultaneously, bodhisattvas can also appear on Earth disguised as humans, animals, or other types of beings. For example, Tibetan Buddhists believe that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-choosing-the-next-dalai-lama-will-be-a-religious-as-well-as-a-political-issue-162796">Dalai Lama</a> is a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, called Chenrezig in Tibetan, who regularly comes to earth to spread his message of compassion among humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierce Salguero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Buddhists believe that bodhisattvas reside in heavenly realms but can also appear on Earth disguised as humans, animals or other types of beings.
Pierce Salguero, Associate Professor of Asian History & Religious Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184967
2022-06-22T09:36:37Z
2022-06-22T09:36:37Z
Celibacy: its surprising evolutionary advantages – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468435/original/file-20220613-99573-xreudt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C21%2C1189%2C709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nature wants us to reproduce, so how come celibacy evolved?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carsten ten Brink/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why would someone join an institution that removed the option of family life and required them to be celibate? Reproduction, after all, is at the very heart of the evolution that shaped us. Yet many religious institutions around the world require exactly this. The practice has led anthropologists to wonder how celibacy could have evolved in the first place.</p>
<p>Some have suggested that practices that are costly to individuals, such as never having children, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau5141">can still emerge</a> when people blindly conform to norms that benefit a group – since cooperation is another cornerstone of human evolution. Others <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evan.21909">have argued</a> that people ultimately create religious (or other) institutions because it serves their own selfish or family interest, and reject those who do not get involved.</p>
<p>Now our new study, <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0965">published in Royal Society Proceedings B</a> and conducted in Western China, tackles this fundamental question by studying lifelong religious celibacy in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.</p>
<p>Until recently, it was common for some Tibetan families to send one of their young sons to the local monastery to become a lifelong, celibate monk. Historically, up to one in seven boys became monks. Families typically cited religious motives for having a monk in the family. But were economic and reproductive considerations also involved?</p>
<p>With our collaborators from Lanzhou University in China, we interviewed 530 households in 21 villages in the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau, in Gansu province. We reconstructed family genealogies, gathering information about each person’s family history and whether any of their family members were monks.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468438/original/file-20220613-24154-2zdc8m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting of a monk in a Buddhist monastery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>These villages are inhabited by patriarchal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40466880">Amdo Tibetans</a> who raise herds of yaks and goats, and farm small plots of land. Wealth is generally passed down the male line in these communities.</p>
<p>We found that men with a brother who was a monk were wealthier, owning more yaks. But there was little or no benefit for sisters of monks. That’s likely because brothers are in competition over parental resources, land and livestock. As monks cannot own property, by sending one of their sons to the monastery, parents put an end to this fraternal conflict. Firstborn sons generally inherit the parental household, whereas monks are usually second or later born sons.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, we also found that men with a monk brother had more children than men with non-celibate brothers; and their wives tended to have children at an earlier age. Grandparents with a monk son also had more grandchildren, as their non-celibate sons faced less or no competition with their brothers. The practice of sending a son to the monastery, far from being costly to a parent, is therefore in line with a parent’s reproductive interests.</p>
<h2>A mathematical model of celibacy</h2>
<p>This hints that celibacy can evolve by natural selection. To find out more about the details of how this happens, we built a mathematical model of the evolution of celibacy, where we studied the consequences of becoming a monk on a man’s evolutionary fitness, that of his brothers and of other members of the village. We modelled both the case where the decision to send a boy to a monastery is made by parents, as seems to be the case in our field study, and where a boy makes his own decision.</p>
<p>Monks remaining single means there are fewer men competing for marriage to women in the village. But while all the men in the village might benefit if one of them becomes a monk, the monk’s decision does not further his own genetic fitness. Therefore, celibacy shouldn’t evolve.</p>
<p>That situation changes, however, if having a brother who is a monk makes men wealthier and therefore more competitive on the marriage market. Religious celibacy can now evolve by natural selection because, while the monk is not having any children, he is helping his brothers to have more. But importantly, if the choice to become a monk is down to the boy himself, it is likely to remain rare – from an individual’s perspective, it isn’t very advantageous.</p>
<p>In the model, we show that celibacy becomes much more common only if it is the parents who decide it should happen. Parents gain fitness from all their children, so they will send one to the monastery as long as there is a benefit for the others. The fact that boys were sent to the monastery at a young age, with much celebration, and faced dishonour if they later abandoned their role, suggests a cultural practice shaped by parental interests. </p>
<p>This model could potentially also clarify the evolution of other kinds of parental favouritism in other cultural contexts – even infanticide. And a similar framework might explain why female celibates (nuns) are rare in patriarchal societies such as Tibet, but might be more common in societies where women are in greater competition with each other – for example, where they have more inheritance rights (such as in parts of Europe).</p>
<p>We are currently developing new research to understand why the frequency of monks and nuns varies in different religions and parts of the world.</p>
<p>It is often suggested that the spread of new ideas – even irrational ones – can result in the creation of new institutions as people conform to a new standard. But it may be that institutions can also be shaped by people’s reproductive and economic decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Mace receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC grant EvoBias).
She is Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Human Sciences (a Cambridge University Press open access journal).
She has previously been affiliated with The Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University.
Ruth Mace is currently a visitor at the Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alberto Micheletti receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC grant EvoBias) and has previously received funding from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (under the Investissement d’Avenir programme, ANR 17-EURE-0010).</span></em></p>
Reproduction is at the very heart of evolution. So why has celibacy persisted for so long?
Ruth Mace, Professor of Anthropology, UCL
Alberto Micheletti, Research Fellow, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176222
2022-04-20T12:16:26Z
2022-04-20T12:16:26Z
Biology with Tibetan Buddhist monks: What I’m taking back to my college classroom from teaching at a monastery
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456456/original/file-20220405-12-t3iafr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C613%2C459&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tibetan monks at Sera Jey Monastery in Mysore, India, experience using microscopes for the first time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Dan Pierce</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It would be quite appropriate for a college professor to assume students know that a tree is alive and a rock is not.</p>
<p>Or would it?</p>
<p>For several summers, I have had the pleasure of teaching biology to Tibetan Buddhist monks <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tibet-india/tibetans-in-exile-struggle-to-see-beyond-dalai-lama-idUSKCN1R80ZP">exiled in India</a>. This program, called the <a href="https://tibet.emory.edu/">ETSI (Emory-Tibet Science Initiative)</a>, was sparked by discussions <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-75-years-the-dalai-lama-is-more-important-than-ever-37499">the Dalai Lama</a> had with Emory University researchers in the 1990s and has blossomed into a way for monks of all ages to learn about science in the decades since.</p>
<p>The differences between modern biology and traditional Buddhist <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-007-7747-7_8481">understandings of nature</a> can seem significant – even in their definitions of what is “living.” Biologists’ understanding of life incorporates animals, plants and bacteria. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/E/bo44307351.html">Traditional Tibetan monastic teachings</a>, on the other hand, base life on the idea of consciousness. Bacteria and animals, including humans, are recognized as having consciousness, and therefore are considered “living” beings. Plants, according to these traditional teachings, do not have consciousness and are thus “nonliving.”</p>
<p>But differences like these have led me to understand what I take for granted in <a href="https://biology.richmond.edu/faculty/bpierce/">my teaching at the University of Richmond</a> and how much richer learning can be when we step back to explore the most basic – yet biggest – questions together. Thinking about how I would present various topics to the monks has given me <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.731497/full#B14">concrete lessons</a> to take back to my classroom in Virginia.</p>
<h2>Looking at life up close</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201500334">I study the relationship between bacteria and plants</a>. In most introductory biology courses, college students bring an intuitive sense for what science defines as “life,” one they have built since kindergarten. But what if educators don’t assume that students “know” what defines a living thing – or, better yet, what if we used assumptions to spark inquiry? </p>
<p>Developing a definition of a “living thing” can be an effective way to introduce scientific inquiry. Through an activity in which students place something in “living/nonliving/once-living” categories, students can explore questions at the edges. For instance, <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/viruses-alive-coronavirus-definition">is a virus a living thing</a>? How about <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-bot-not-beast-scientists-create-first-ever-living-programmable-organism-129980">artificial intelligence</a>? How would we decide when we discovered <a href="https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/research/life-detection/about/#:%7E:text=The%20NASA%20definition%20of%20life,life%20we%20know%20%E2%80%94Terran%20life.">extraterrestrial life</a>? These philosophical discussions about life spark interesting discussions across both cultures.</p>
<p>In both educational settings, we can use students’ observations of pond water under a microscope to discuss how scientists have built their <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-wmopen-biology1/chapter/the-characteristics-of-life/">concept of life, based on the following characteristics</a>: something that is made of cells, has the capacity to reproduce, grows and develops, has evolved, uses energy, responds to stimuli and <a href="https://www.livescience.com/65938-homeostasis.html">maintains homeostasis</a> – a way to maintain an appropriate level of all sorts of chemicals and large molecules.</p>
<p>Different biologists will include or exclude some of these properties, and discussing whether to include them in our classroom’s definition can be an exciting process for students. In addition, we often extend this conversation to discuss how the definition of life has changed throughout human history and consider what questions biology may not be able to field, such as the notion of a soul or the Tibetan Buddhist <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/vijnana-449563">concept of consciousness</a>.</p>
<h2>Asking questions</h2>
<p>There are seeming contradictions between scientists’ and monks’ perspectives on other topics, as well. For example, traditional Buddhist teachings affirm <a href="https://www2.nau.edu/gaud/bio301/content/spngen.htm">spontaneous generation</a> – the idea that life can arise from nonlife – which biologists rejected in the 19th century, based on experiments by Louis Pasteur and others.</p>
<p>According to Tibetan Buddhist perspectives, some life, like worms and bacteria, <a href="http://tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Four_forms_of_birth">can be created through “dampness</a>.” In the monks’ view, too, all animals <a href="https://speakingofresearch.com/2019/08/26/what-is-sentience/">are sentient</a>, meaning that they have consciousness, as opposed to plants, which do not. This has traditionally been how Tibetan Buddhism forms a definition of life.</p>
<p>To explain the biologists’ view, we ask ourselves: How can biologists truly show what makes something “living”?</p>
<p>The key is <a href="https://www.livescience.com/20896-science-scientific-method.html">the scientific method</a>, based on testing and analysis. At the monastery, science instructors approach questions about spontaneous generation or sentience through the method’s series of questions: What experiments could you perform that could test your hypothesis that life arises from nonlife? What controls would you include to be confident in your results? How do you increase your confidence in the conclusions? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Monks in red robes sit in a classroom as two teachers talk at the front of the room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456459/original/file-20220405-12-lhnm5k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Instructors and interpreters conduct a class with Tibetan monks at Sera Jey Monastery as part of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Dan Pierce</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These conversations highlight that the foundation of modern science, this scientific method, is extremely compatible with the Buddhism the monks practice.</p>
<p>In part, this is because <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-020-01338-1">debate</a> is central to their monasticism. Like the scientific method, debate requires that the participants approach ideas with skepticism and request “proof.” Tibetan Buddhists <a href="https://texts.mandala.library.virginia.edu/thl/drepung/monastic-education">practice debate</a> for hours daily. As one monk challenges another, they volley a religious idea back and forth to develop a deeper understanding of the concept.</p>
<p>While scientists don’t practice formal debate, we exercise similar muscles when we try to build a deeper understanding of the processes of life through theory, experimentation and challenging one another’s ideas.</p>
<h2>Where science and religion meet</h2>
<p>As we go further in any kind of classroom – at the monastery, or at a university – teachers and students sometimes find questions for which biology does not have especially satisfying answers: What are the origins of life? What is the purpose of sleep? </p>
<p>As teachers, we can use those to spark students’ curiosity, along with additional questions about how religion and biology intersect. Though some may bristle at the idea of theological questions entering a biology course, <a href="https://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/15/my-take-the-scientific-case-for-teaching-religion-and-ethics-in-science-class/comment-page-27/">raising them can engage students</a> by integrating science with deep questions they may have about their lives. What does biology have to say about <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315111995">the evolution of religions</a>? How does what we learn in biology influence the concept of a soul? If we believe in the idea of souls, what organisms have them? </p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p>
<p>For the monks, this last question is critical, as Buddhism teaches that all life is <a href="https://www.eubios.info/EJ144/ej144f.htm#:%7E:text=In%20Buddhist%20thought%20animal%20life,central%20position%20in%20the%20universe.">sentient and sacred</a>. When working with the monks, visiting teachers are very careful not to dispose of the microorganisms we inspect using a microscope as I would at the University of Richmond. Out of respect for their views, we simply pour the microorganisms outside in the grass. The monks have given me a new perspective on experimentation, including reconsidering the necessity of using certain organisms in research and teaching.</p>
<p>Scientific inquiry truly crosses cultures. And when we engage our differences head-on, with openness and compassion, it can prompt more meaningful learning for teachers and students alike.</p>
<p><em>I would like to thank Geshe Sangpo la for insights into Tibetan Buddhism that helped guide this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Religious beliefs and modern biology sometimes seem to collide. But exploring those ideas with compassion and an open mind can lead to deeper learning across cultures.
Daniel Pierce, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Richmond
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162796
2021-06-24T12:10:36Z
2021-06-24T12:10:36Z
Why choosing the next dalai lama will be a religious – as well as a political – issue
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408009/original/file-20210623-13-1r7t0j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C24%2C3493%2C2655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The current dalai lama was enthroned when he was about 4 years old.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ItalyDalaiLama/05ada4c0157246f185c2955b6d4f5151/photo?Query=Tenzin%20AND%20Gyatso&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=67&currentItemNo=37">AP Photo/Antonio Calanni</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on March 30, 2023. <a href="https://theconversation.com/dalai-lama-identifies-the-reincarnation-of-mongolias-spiritual-leader-a-preview-of-tensions-around-finding-his-own-replacement-202888">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p>The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual leader of Tibet, is <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography">turning 86 on July 6, 2021</a>. With his advancing age, the question of who will succeed him has become more pressing. </p>
<p>One of the most recognizable faces of Buddhism, the dalai lama is an important figure bringing <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/books/p3">Buddhist teachings</a> to the international community. </p>
<p>The successor to the dalai lama is traditionally identified by senior monastic disciples, based on spiritual signs and visions. In 2011, however, the Chinese foreign ministry declared that only the <a href="https://boingboing.net/2014/10/24/the-dalai-lama-will-not-return.html">government in Beijing can appoint the next dalai lama</a>, and no recognition should be given to any other <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/reincarnation">candidate</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://books.google.co.th/books?id=rBk1DQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=oxford+handbook+of+contemporary+buddhism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFmtHR-pPjAhUg8HMBHa3gCSQQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=oxford%20handbook%20of%20contemporary%20buddhism&f=false">scholar of transnational Buddhism</a>, I have studied Buddhism and its refashioning in the context of globalization. The dalai lama is a highly influential figure, and choosing a successor is not just a religious issue, but a political one as well. </p>
<h2>The dalai lamas in Tibetan Buddhism</h2>
<p>All dalai lamas are thought to be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zmAnq9yiE6oC&dq=Secret+Lives+of+the+Dalai+Lama-+Alexander+Norman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJs--Vm5viAhWJAHwKHYa1B0kQ6AEIKjAA">manifestations of the bodhisattva</a> of compassion, Avalokitesvara. Bodhisattvas are beings who <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bodhicary%C4%81vat%C4%81ra/m-ifbE8kyGIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=bodhisattva">work solely for the benefit of others</a>. </p>
<p>For Buddhists, the ultimate goal is enlightenment, or “nirvana” – a liberation from the cycle of birth and death. East Asian and Tibetan Buddhists, as part of the Mahayana sect, believe bodhisattvas have reached this highest realization.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Mahayana Buddhists believe bodhisattvas choose to be reborn, to experience the pain and suffering of the world, to help other beings attain enlightenment.</p>
<p>Tibetan Buddhism has developed this idea of the bodhisattva further into identified lineages of rebirths called “tulkus.” Any person who is believed to be a reborn teacher, master or leader is <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LnOmGAAACAAJ&dq=geoffrey+samuels+introducing+tibetan+buddhism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp_qDciJviAhUQR6wKHfiNBRgQ6AEIKjAA">considered a tulku</a>. Tibetan Buddhism has hundreds if not thousands of such lineages, but the most respected and well-known is the dalai lama. The 14 generations of dalai lamas, spanning six centuries, are linked through their acts of compassion and their wish to benefit all living beings. </p>
<h2>Locating the 14th dalai lama</h2>
<p>The current Dalai Lama was enthroned when he was about 4 years old and was renamed Tenzin Gyatso.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The future Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, Lhamo Dhondrub, who was later renamed Tenzin Gyatso." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408008/original/file-20210623-13-12l04ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An undated photo of the future Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, born Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935, in the small village of Takster in northeastern Tibet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DALAILAMA/894bafdfdde6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=Tenzin%20AND%20Gyatso&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=67&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The search for him began soon after the 13th Dalai Lama died. Disciples <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=h3yHMz8v1OsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+land+and+my+people+the+original+autobiography&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOxfSNjZviAhUNDKwKHdXHAakQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20land%20and%20my%20people%20the%20original%20autobiography&f=false">closest to the Dalai Lama set about to identify signs</a> indicating the location of his rebirth. </p>
<p>There are usually predictions about where and when a dalai lama will be reborn, but further tests and signs are required to ensure the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cy980CH84mEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+powers+introduction+to+tibetan+buddhism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidvqHnkpviAhXry1QKHX92B3IQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=john%20powers%20introduction%20to%20tibetan%20buddhism&f=false">proper child is found</a>. </p>
<p>In the case of the 13th Dalai Lama, after his death his <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=h3yHMz8v1OsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+land+and+my+people+the+original+autobiography&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOxfSNjZviAhUNDKwKHdXHAakQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20land%20and%20my%20people%20the%20original%20autobiography&f=false">body lay facing south</a>. However, after a few days his head had tilted to the east and a fungus, viewed as unusual, appeared on the northeastern side of the shrine, where his body was kept. This was interpreted to mean that the next dalai lama could have been born somewhere in the northeastern part of Tibet. </p>
<p>Disciples also checked Lhamoi Latso, a lake that is traditionally used to see visions of the location of the dalai lama’s rebirth.</p>
<p>The district of Dokham, which is in the northeast of Tibet, matched all of these signs. A 2-year-old boy named Lhamo Dhondup was just the right age for a reincarnation of the 13th dalai lama, based on the time of his death. </p>
<p>When the search party consisting of the 13th dalai lama’s closest monastic attendants arrived at his house, they believed they recognized signs that confirmed that they had reached the right place.</p>
<h2>Dalai lama memoirs</h2>
<p>The 14th Dalai Lama recounts in <a href="https://books.google.co.th/books?id=ZYgTHQAACAAJ&dq=Dalai+Lama+memoir&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijsMGm0I3jAhXFsY8KHUSoD3IQ6AEIKjAA">his memoirs about his early life</a> that he remembered recognizing one of the monks in the search party, even though he was dressed as a servant. To prevent any manipulation of the process, members of the search party had not shown villagers who they were. </p>
<p>The Dalai Lama remembered as a little boy asking for the rosary beads that monk had worn around his neck. These beads were previously owned by the 13th Dalai Lama. After this meeting, the search party came back again to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=h3yHMz8v1OsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+land+and+my+people+the+original+autobiography&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOxfSNjZviAhUNDKwKHdXHAakQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20land%20and%20my%20people%20the%20original%20autobiography&f=false">test the young boy</a> with further objects of the previous Dalai Lama. He was able to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=h3yHMz8v1OsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+land+and+my+people+the+original+autobiography&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOxfSNjZviAhUNDKwKHdXHAakQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20land%20and%20my%20people%20the%20original%20autobiography&f=false">correctly choose all items</a>, including a drum used for rituals and a walking stick. </p>
<h2>China and dalai lama</h2>
<p>Today the selection process for the next dalai lama remains uncertain. In 1950 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3024669?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">China’s communist government invaded Tibet</a>, which it insists <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/tibet-china-elections-cta-dalai-lama.html">has always belonged to China</a>. The Dalai Lama fled in 1959 and set up a government in exile. The <a href="https://freetibet.org/about/dalai-lama">Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetan people</a>, who have maintained their devotion over the past 70 years of Chinese rule. </p>
<p>In 1995 the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32771242">Chinese government</a> detained the Dalai Lama’s choice for the successor of the 10th Panchen Lama, named Gendun Choeki Nyima, when he was 6 years old. Since then <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/15/25-years-after-disappearing-tibetan-panchen-lama-china-no-nearer-its-goal#">China has refused to give details of his whereabouts</a>. Panchen lama is the second most important tulku lineage in Tibetan Buddhism.</p>
<p>The Tibetan people revolted when the newly selected 11th Panchen Lama was detained. The Chinese government responded by <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2074674/china-appointed-panchen-lama-praises-nations-religious">appointing its own Panchen Lama</a>, the son of a Chinese security officer. The panchen lamas and dalai lamas have <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Spacious_Minds/ro6PDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=spacious+minds&printsec=frontcoverhttps://www.google.com/books/edition/Spacious_Minds/ro6PDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=spacious+minds&printsec=frontcover">historically played major roles</a> in recognizing each other’s next incarnations. </p>
<p>China also wants to appoint its own dalai lama. But it is important to Tibetan Buddhists that they are in charge of the selection process.</p>
<h2>Future options</h2>
<p>Because of the threat from China, the 14th Dalai Lama has made a number of statements that would make it difficult for a Chinese-appointed 15th dalai lama to be seen as legitimate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Students interact with the Dalai Lama during a visit to Chandigarh University at Mohali, in northern India." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408011/original/file-20210623-19-1qd7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dalai Lama with students in India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-dalai-lama-interacts-with-people-at-chandigarh-news-photo/1176011239?adppopup=true">Keshav Singh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, he has stated that the institution of the dalai lama might not be needed anymore. However, he has also said it is up to the people if they want to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OLs7BjSGGTsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+spiritual+journey+the+dalai+lama&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw-b77lpviAhV4JzQIHcAnBYoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20spiritual%20journey%20the%20dalai%20lama&f=false">preserve</a> this aspect of Tibetan Buddhism and continue the dalai lama lineage. The Dalai Lama <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/tibet-china-elections-cta-dalai-lama.html">has indicated</a> that he will decide, on turning 90 in four years’ time, whether he will be reborn.</p>
<p>Another option the Dalai Lama has proposed is announcing his next reincarnation before he dies. In this scenario, the Dalai Lama would <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OLs7BjSGGTsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+spiritual+journey+the+dalai+lama&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw-b77lpviAhV4JzQIHcAnBYoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20spiritual%20journey%20the%20dalai%20lama&f=false">transfer his spiritual realization</a> to the successor. A third alternative Tenzin Gyatso has <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OLs7BjSGGTsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=my+spiritual+journey+the+dalai+lama&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw-b77lpviAhV4JzQIHcAnBYoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=my%20spiritual%20journey%20the%20dalai%20lama&f=false">articulated</a> is that if he dies outside of Tibet, and the Panchen Lama remains missing, his reincarnation would be located abroad, most likely in India. Experts believe the Chinese government’s search, however, would take place in Tibet, led by the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/asia/dalai-lama-china-death-reincarnation-dst-intl-hnk/index.html">Chinese-appointed panchen lama</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, he has mentioned the possibility of being reborn as a woman – but he added in interviews in 2015 and 2019 that he would have to be a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/23/the-dalai-lama-thinks-a-female-dalai-lama-would-have-to-be-very-very-attractive/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f4af665f572a">very beautiful woman</a>. After this comment received widespread criticism in 2019, his office <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/world/dalai-lama-female-successor-scli/index.html">released a statement of apology</a> and regret for the hurt he had caused.</p>
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<p>The Dalai Lama is confident that <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2019/03/beijing-dalai-lamas-reincarnation-must-comply-with-chinese-laws/?allpages=yes&print=yes">no one would trust</a> the Chinese government’s choice. The Tibetan people, as he has said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/asia/dalai-lama-china-death-reincarnation-dst-intl-hnk/index.html">would never accept</a> a Chinese-appointed dalai lama.</p>
<p>The U.S. government has expressed support for the Dalai Lama. In December 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/risch-rubio-cardin-feinstein-welcome-passage-of-their-bipartisan-bill-in-support-of-tibet">Tibetan Policy and Support Act</a>, which recognizes the autonomy of the Tibetan people. The Biden administration reiterated in March 2021 that the Chinese government <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/chinese-govt-should-have-no-role-in-succession-process-of-dalai-lama-us-101615343510279.html">should have no role</a> in the Dalai Lama’s succession. </p>
<p>No matter the outcome, I believe the process of finding the 15th dalai lama will certainly be different. It will likely take place outside of Tibet and under the watch of international media and a global Tibetan diaspora – with much at stake.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/114351/edit">piece published on July 3, 2019</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brooke Schedneck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For Tibetan Buddhists it is important that they are in charge of the selection process for the next dalai lama, but China wants to appoint its own.
Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161822
2021-06-02T20:08:30Z
2021-06-02T20:08:30Z
World-first artefact dating method shows humans have lived in the shadow of the Himalayas for more than 5,000 years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403933/original/file-20210602-23-1y78va9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C38%2C4223%2C2805&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Aldenderfer</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few parts of the world would seem as inhospitable to humans as the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau, near the Himalayas. Archaeologists have long wondered when, where and how our ancestors began to explore and occupy these landscapes.</p>
<p>But evidence of early human presence on the plateau has been scarce — and dating the few remaining traces has proven an ongoing challenge.</p>
<p>Using a recently developed dating technique, our research team has now produced the first solid evidence for human presence on the central-southern Tibetan Plateau more than 5,000 years ago. Our findings are <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/23/eabb3424">published</a> today in Science Advances.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403941/original/file-20210602-25-al7lli.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lithic surface artefacts occur at the site of Su-re.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luke Gliganic</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The challenge of dating surface artefact scatter</h2>
<p>The dry highlands of Tibet are considered to be among the last areas on Earth to have been settled by humans. The high altitude of the region, in the shadow of Himalayan peaks more than eight kilometres high, makes for extreme conditions.</p>
<p>The question of where and when the peopling of this remote region occurred has been debated among archaeologists. Many studies have come from research conducted at open-air locations, with abundant evidence of stone tool use or manufacture, such as rock flakes found on the ground. </p>
<p>These sites are referred to as “lithic artefact scatters”. They are among the most commonly preserved archaeological sites in the world, and hold potential to reconstruct human settlement patterns and explore various aspects of past human behaviour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Su-re site at Tibetan Plateau" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403932/original/file-20210602-13-1nwgbj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panoramic view towards the southwest from the Su-re archaeological site. Note the large boulders in foreground that bear signs of quarrying by early Tibetans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jan-Hendrik May</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet it has been extremely difficult to interpret the archaeological significance and ages of these sites unambiguously. Most artefacts are made from stone, which makes it difficult to determine when the tools were manufactured, or if they were moved after being discarded.</p>
<p>Artefacts on the surface are prone to erosion, and movement by wind and water, over hundreds or even thousands of years since humans first produced them. Consequently, they’re often found “out of context”, so a clear relationship can’t be drawn between them and their immediate surroundings.</p>
<h2>Developing new techniques</h2>
<p>To overcome this limitation, our team spent the past several years in the Innsbruck OSL (optically-stimulated luminescence) dating laboratory in Austria led by Michael Meyer at the University of Innsbruck, developing a new technique suitable for dating ancient stone tools. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stone tools taken from the Tibetan plateau" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403929/original/file-20210602-19-s5nui2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stone tools found among Su-re lithic artefact scatter, some of which could be dated to more than 5,000 years in the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Aldenderfer</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>OSL dating has become one of the main dating methods in archaeology and the earth sciences. It’s based on the accumulation of energy in the crystal structure of sand grains. </p>
<p>When grains are shielded from daylight, such as when they’re buried, their crystal accumulates energy due to low-level radiation from surrounding rocks and sediment.</p>
<p>This can then be measured in the laboratory, through controlled exposure to blue and green light, which releases the energy as a “luminescence signal”. The longer the grains have been buried, the more luminescence we will measure from them.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x7hZ5aBmg6g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In this 2017 video, our team leader Michael Meyer explains how OSL dating is carried out at the University of Innsbruck laboratory.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead of looking at sand for our research, we used an approach called “rock surface burial dating”. It’s the first ever approach to focus on the signal stored beneath the surface of rock artefacts at a scatter site.</p>
<p>The luminescence signal built up within a rock is almost infinitely high, due to the extremely long time that has passed since the rock was formed by geological processes.</p>
<p>However, once a rock surface is exposed to daylight, such as when an artefact is first produced and used, the luminescence signal is erased at the surface and just beneath (but not at the centre). The erasure of the signal is strongest at the surface and tapers off towards the centre of the artefact. </p>
<p>When the artefact is thrown away and becomes shielded from daylight — either from beneath, or from being covered by sediment — the signal starts to build again. </p>
<p>This leads to varying levels of signal intensity found at different depths beneath the artefact’s surface. We can measure this signal distribution to determine the overall age and history of a stone artefact.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403939/original/file-20210602-27-e48tsl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Field work and sampling of surface artefacts at Su-re, southern Tibet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Meyer</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5,000 years in the shadow of Mount Everest</h2>
<p>The large potential of this new way of using OSL had been shown in previous <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871101415300571">archaeological</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871101410000397">geological</a> contexts, but hadn’t been rigorously tested on artefact scatter sites.</p>
<p>Accompanied by experienced high-altitude archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer from the University of California at Merced, and supported by mineralogist Peter Tropper from Innsbruck, we set out to test the suitability of this promising method at the lithic artefact scatter site of Su-re, in southern Tibet. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403928/original/file-20210602-21-1d7ya1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View over the lithic surface scatter site into the Su-re valley, with large quartzite boulders that have been partly quarried (middle of image).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">M. C. Meyer</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At an elevation of 4,450 metres, in a large valley descending from the highest peaks in the world – Mount Everest and Cho’Oyu — Su-re had been known for decades for its dense accumulation of diverse surface artefacts. This suggested a long history of site use by humans. But how long?</p>
<p>Using our dating approach, we dated the oldest artefacts found at the Su-re site as being between 5,200 and 5,500 years old. These tools were likely related to quarrying activities at the site.</p>
<p>While some older sites have been discovered in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6418/1049">central</a> and <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6320/64.abstract">southeastern</a> Tibet, our dataset has made Su-re the oldest <em>securely</em> dated site in the central-southern Tibetan Plateau near the high Himalaya. </p>
<p>This finding is particularly exciting considering the proximity of Su-re to the “Nangpa La” mountain pass. This pass has historically connected local Tibetans in the highlands with Nepali Sherpas in the Himalayan valleys and lowlands.</p>
<p>Our new approach to analysing surface artefacts can be considered the beginning of a road to new archaeological perspectives. In the future it could help uncover the secrets of lithic artefact sites around the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-midnight-digs-at-a-holy-tibetan-cave-opened-a-window-to-prehistoric-humans-living-on-the-roof-of-the-world-148927">How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan-Hendrik May receives funding from ARC (Australian Research Council). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Gliganic received funding and support from the FWF (M2121-G25 and 24924-G19) while working at the University of Innsbruck.</span></em></p>
The Su-re site has provided a historical connection between local Tibetans in the highlands with Nepali Sherpas in the Himalayan lowlands.
Jan-Hendrik May, Senior Lecturer, School of Geography, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne
Luke Gliganic, Research Fellow, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences (SEALS), University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148927
2020-11-08T19:06:12Z
2020-11-08T19:06:12Z
How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367394/original/file-20201104-15-194bmdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C73%2C1435%2C1004&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Han Yuanyuan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A mountainside cave now used as a Tibetan Buddhist sanctuary was home to prehistoric humans known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/fresh-clues-to-the-life-and-times-of-the-denisovans-a-little-known-ancient-group-of-humans-110504">Denisovans</a> for tens of millennia. </p>
<p>Our painstaking efforts there are helping unravel the story of how early humans adapted to live in one of the world’s most remote and mountainous places. </p>
<p>Our research, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6516/584">published in Science</a>, provides a better understanding of the little-known prehistoric humans who lived tens of thousands of years ago on the roof of the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fresh-clues-to-the-life-and-times-of-the-denisovans-a-little-known-ancient-group-of-humans-110504">Fresh clues to the life and times of the Denisovans, a little-known ancient group of humans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Mountain retreat</h2>
<p>In 1980, half of a fossilised jawbone was found by a monk in the Baishiya Karst Cave in China’s Gansu province, in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The jawbone’s long-deceased owner was dubbed “Xiahe Man”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of jawbone fossil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367397/original/file-20201104-13-oedj8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This jawbone fragment represents the only known remains of the mysterious Xiahe Man.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1139-x">Analysis</a> showed the mandible was actually the 160,000-year-old remains of a Denisovan. This group of mysterious prehistoric humans was originally discovered in the Denisova Cave in Siberia, Russia. </p>
<p>So this fossil was not only the earliest evidence of human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau, but also the first Denisovan fossil to be found outside of Denisova Cave — and the largest to ever be found. </p>
<p>However, without other archaeological evidence to put the solitary jawbone in context, this single fossil gave us little convincing evidence to piece together the full story of the mysterious Denisovans living on the roof of the world. </p>
<p>For this, we needed to properly excavate the Baishiya Karst Cave and see what we could find. After dozens of visits to the cave and others nearby, in 2016 we finally found the first indisputable stone artefacts (probably made by Denisovans) on the cave floor. </p>
<p>With this, we became further convinced the cave was a treasure trove of archaeological deposits that could help tell the story of the Denisovans. But, as it’s also a Buddhist holy cave, we weren’t allowed to dig inside it — not even one scrape of a trowel.</p>
<h2>Midnight digging in the depths of winter</h2>
<p>After two years of wrangling with authorities and extended negotiations with the temple’s Buddhist caretakers, we finally got permission to excavate a limited area within the cave. This was on the condition we worked late at night during the cold of winter, when no monks or tourists were visiting.</p>
<p>So every night, for three weeks, we inched our way across a frozen river, trudged up the mountainside through prickly branches and thick snow to reach the cave 3,280 metres above sea level. We slept during the day and excavated at night. </p>
<p>Despite the bone-chilling wind and darkness punctuated only by weak lamplight, it was exciting work. And our efforts were rewarded. </p>
<p>The archaeological remains we uncovered were richer and even more beautiful than we’d expected, including stone artefacts and animal bones buried throughout the sediments.</p>
<p>In 2019, a fresh permit allowed us to work during the day, too, albeit still in December (the coldest month of the Tibetan winter). We found yet more archaeological riches, including stone artefacts, animal bones and the remains of fires — crucial evidence of people living in the cave.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Archaeologists dig in cave walls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367380/original/file-20201104-13-11jnjfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers sampling the Baishiya Karst Cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Han Yuanyuan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crucial questions</h2>
<p>Our discoveries have raised several questions. Who lived in the cave and made these artefacts, and when? Were they Denisovans like the original Xiahe Man from 160,000 years ago, or modern humans? Or perhaps a genetic combination of both?</p>
<p>The “when” question was tackled using two techniques. By radiocarbon-dating the animal bones, we worked out when they were brought into the cave — either as food for human occupants, or simply animals sheltering alongside humans.</p>
<p>Our dating techniques, similar to those used previously at <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0843-2">Denisova Cave</a>, revealed the oldest stone artefacts in the Baishiya Karst Cave were buried more than 190,000 years ago. Since then, sediments and stone artefacts accumulated over time until at least 45,000 years ago, or perhaps more recently still. </p>
<h2>DNA identification</h2>
<p>But who were the people who lived there? To answer that question without any fresh human fossils besides the original jawbone, we needed to examine <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6338/605">human DNA in the sediment samples</a>.</p>
<p>We focused on identifying sequences of “<a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/mtdna-and-mitochondrial-diseases-903/">mitochondrial DNA</a>”, as cells contain many more copies of this than they do nuclear DNA. Thus, mitochondrial DNA is easier to obtain and analyse for research.</p>
<p>We found mitochondrial DNA matching Denisovans in cave sediments between 100,000–60,000 years old. What’s more, we found the newer samples were more closely related to those from Denisova Cave than older ones, indicating Denisovans were indeed more widespread than originally thought. </p>
<p>It’s possible they could have even contributed significantly to modern human DNA. For example, they may have helped today’s Tibetan Plateau dwellers on their evolutionary journey of adapting to high-altitude mountain life. </p>
<p>To confirm this, we’ll need to find out how long the Denisovans lived in the region around the Baishiya Karst Cave, and crucially, whether they survived long enough to intermingle with the modern humans who <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6418/1049">arrived on the Tibetan Plateau</a> between 40,000–30,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Although, even if Denisovans and modern humans did come face to face, they would have actually had to interbreed for Denisovans to be able to share their high-altitude evolutionary adaptations. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-mitochondria-and-how-did-we-come-to-have-them-83106">Explainer: what are mitochondria and how did we come to have them?</a>
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<p>It’s difficult to know whether this happened by only analysing mitochondrial DNA, since this only carries information about the maternal lineage.</p>
<p>This means it doesn’t always reflect the complete population history of a specimen. Future attempts to extract nuclear DNA from the Baishiya Karst Cave may finally provide the tools needed to explore these questions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bo Li receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dongju Zhang receives funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Qiaomei Fu receives funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zenobia Jacobs receives funding from Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Early humans called Denisovans lived in a remote mountain cave between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, and possibly longer still, raising intriguing questions about their relationship to modern humans.
Bo Li, Associate professor, University of Wollongong
Dongju Zhang, Associate Professor, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qiaomei Fu, Professor, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zenobia Jacobs, Professor, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148703
2020-10-29T14:55:49Z
2020-10-29T14:55:49Z
Central Asia risks becoming a hyperarid desert in the near future
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366451/original/file-20201029-15-fi2ie7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jakub Czajkowski / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around 34 million years ago, sudden climate change caused ecological breakdown in Central Asia. This ancient event, triggered by rapid drops in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide, permanently affected biological diversity in the region. Large areas of Mongolia, (geographic) Tibet and north-western China suddenly became hyperarid deserts with little vegetation cover – and stayed that way for almost 20 million years.</p>
<p>This was a surprising finding of <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/41/eabb8227">new research</a> I carried out with colleagues from across Europe and China, in which we reconstructed the past 43 million years of evolutionary history for the steppe, semi-desert and desert ecosystems of Central Asia (the biogeographical and political conceptions of “Central Asia” differ and we use the former: our research area is shown below). </p>
<p>Many scientists had <a href="https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/4/153/2008/">previously thought</a> that this region was forested for much of that time and only grew drier later on, culminating today in massive, exceptionally arid Asian deserts such as the Gobi and Taklimakan.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="image showing a map, some plants and a cross section of some mountains and a desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366386/original/file-20201029-15-1gs6mtx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The modern Central Asian steppe-desert (A), characteristic plant families (B), and an altitudinal profile illustrating vegetation belts of the steppe subtypes (C).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Advances 2020; 6: eabb8227</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that fossil pollen combined with mammal fossils, geological and climatic evidence – all preserved inside ancient rocks – told a different tale. Ancient “wet” steppe-deserts that received enough precipitation to maintain high biodiversity already existed during the late Eocene (40 to 34 million years ago), but suddenly became much colder and drier over an event called the Eocene‒Oligocene Transition (EOT). </p>
<p>Scientists already knew that global climate cooling in this period caused the formation of a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08447?platform=hootsuite">permanent Antarctic ice-sheet</a>, but what happened on different continents is less clear. Our new study found that the lowlands of Central Asia became hyperarid deserts with little vegetation cover. The lack of food resources meant that larger animals were mainly replaced by small mammals like rodents, rabbits and hares. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three bits of fossilised pollen viewed under a microscope" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366235/original/file-20201028-15-1q38yll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of fossil pollen used to reconstruct the ancient ecosystems of Central Asia. Scale bars represent 5 micrometres (0.005 mm).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carina Hoorn and Fang Han</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This hyperaridity lasted for millions of years afterwards, and plants only recovered when the climate became temporarily wetter around 15 million years ago. But now, the major species were small, non-woody herbs, not the salt and drought- tolerant shrubs that had dominated before the ecological collapse. Despite large parts of Central Asia being very dry today, these shrubs (<em>Nitraria</em> and <em>Ephedra</em>) never again recovered their position of ecological prominence. We still don’t fully understand why, but it shows that populations can be permanently altered by sudden environmental changes even if widespread extinctions don’t occur. </p>
<p>This finding is particularly relevant today, because atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and climate are again changing rapidly. Given what we now know about the Asian steppe-desert’s climatic and ecological history, it is unlikely that these ecosystems will ever recover their present biological diversity if forced into a new state.</p>
<h2>History repeats itself</h2>
<p>The modern steppe-desert is the largest ecoregion of its kind in the world, hosting a lot more biodiversity than you might expect. Dry-adapted grasses and herbs support an array of wildlife, many of which are endemics (native to, and living only in, that region). These unique flora and fauna have evolved partly as a result of immense geological and climatic diversity: today Central Asia is home to some of the oldest deserts known, as well as the highest mountains outside of the Himalayas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Flat grassy land with snowy mountains in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C6252%2C3809&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366212/original/file-20201028-17-1hw5ipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meadow steppes in the Qilian Mountains of northern China, surrounded by alpine steppe and tundra. Topographic growth in the Tibetan region over many millions of years has created new high-elevation ecosystems for cold-tolerant biota to thrive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Xiaoming Wang / imaggeo.egu.eu</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ancient climate change and geological forces have shaped the steppe-desert through time. The collision of India with Asia, formation of the Tibetan Plateau and uplift of the Himalaya, Altai and Hangay mountain ranges created extreme altitudinal variation, as well as distinct <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/rain-shadow/">rain shadows</a> of dry land on the downwind side. This generated a mosaic of habitats, and in turn, an astonishing number of species who call the region home.</p>
<p>But now the steppe-desert’s biodiversity is under severe threat from human-induced climate change and land degradation. Growing seas of sand are claiming native steppes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/24/world/asia/living-in-chinas-expanding-deserts.html">imposing desertification</a> at unprecedented rates. Evidence from the past shows us that this is a sign of impending ecosystem breakdown – and it will cause irreversible changes and loss of biodiversity if allowed to continue.</p>
<h2>Claimed by the desert</h2>
<p>Desertification in Asia has major implications for humans too. It now threatens almost half a billion people, many of whom are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in communities dominated by agriculture. Crops are ravaged by drought, livestock are losing grazing pastures, and deserts are growing towards the cities. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Large sand dunes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366251/original/file-20201028-23-aiirbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sand sea of the Taklimakan Desert. Similarly hyperarid deserts may have spread across Central Asia in the past as a result of rapid climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthias Alberti / imaggeo.egu.eu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Model predictions from the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap24_FINAL.pdf">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)</a> and recent climate records show that interior Asia is fast becoming one of the hottest and driest places on the planet. Major predicted changes include highly reduced vegetation cover and rapid, severe species losses, along with more unreliable rainfall and high dust emissions generated by widespread desertification and erosion. </p>
<p>This new hyperarid desert ecosystem phase would resemble the inhospitable, barren landscapes that spread 34 million years ago. Lessons from the past make it clear that current human-induced global changes must be urgently halted in order to preserve the Asian steppe, which has now become one of the world’s most endangered habitats.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Barbolini receives funding from the European Research Council (grant MAGIC 649081), the Swedish Research Council (grant VR 2017-03985), and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research (grant RA6_2019_12). </span></em></p>
We found evidence of irreversible ecological breakdown millions of years ago – this time round, we should heed the warning signs.
Natasha Barbolini, Senior postdoctoral fellow in palaeoecology, Stockholm University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142313
2020-07-13T11:49:57Z
2020-07-13T11:49:57Z
China is becoming increasingly assertive – security law in Hong Kong is just the latest example
<p>China’s enforcement of a new security law in Hong Kong marks the de facto end of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-why-the-one-country-two-systems-model-is-on-its-last-legs-118960">“one country, two systems” model</a> that came into effect following the British handover in 1997. This has repercussions that go far beyond Hong Kong. </p>
<p>The Sino-British <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8616/CBP-8616.pdf">Joint Declaration</a>, signed by both China and the UK in 1984, paved the way for the handover. It states clearly that the territory shall enjoy “basic rights and freedom” and “a high degree of autonomy” for 50 years – until 2047. The treaty was lodged with the UN and so any breach of it is a breach of international law. </p>
<p>Arguing that the new security law prematurely removed Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, the UK proposed a pathway for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53246899">an estimated 3 million Hong Kongers</a> to gain British citizenship. China was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/02/china-could-prevent-hongkongers-moving-to-uk-says-dominic-raab">quick to assert</a> that this decision breached the terms of its agreements with the UK.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-does-british-offer-of-citizenship-to-hongkongers-violate-thatchers-deal-with-china-139413">Hong Kong: does British offer of citizenship to Hongkongers violate Thatcher's deal with China?</a>
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<p>The Chinese government has made no secret of its contempt for the joint declaration in the past, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-anniversary-china-idUSKBN19L1J1">deriding it</a> as nothing more than a simple historical document. However, a number of China’s other territorial claims could equally be brought into question using the very same logic. China’s sovereignty over Tibet, for example, is rooted in international law governing the <a href="https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/3_2_1978.pdf">succession of states</a>, which China claims makes it the successor state to the Qing government that signed the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090912002742/http://www.tibetjustice.org/materials/treaties/treaties11.html">Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1906</a>.</p>
<p>Claims by China that Taiwan should be “reunified” with the mainland rest partially on its interpretation of the <a href="http://www.taiwandocuments.org/sanfrancisco01.htm">1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty</a>, which stipulates that Japan is to renounce all right, title and claim to Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores (Penghu). China’s claims over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea – which are disputed between Japan, Taiwan and China – are <a href="https://www.spf.org/islandstudies/readings/b00008r.html#anc3">also based on</a> the 1943 Cairo and 1945 Potsdam declarations, which declared that Japan should return all of its occupied territory at the end of the war. </p>
<p>All this means that China should be careful its neighbours don’t take such a dismissive approach to these historical treaties as it has done with the joint declaration.</p>
<h2>Flexing muscles</h2>
<p>But something more nuanced is happening in China’s foreign policy towards both friends and rivals than just a rejection of a historical agreement. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/16/asia/china-india-border-clash-intl-hnk/index.html">Recent deadly clashes</a> along the border with India in the Himalayas, attempts to shift the parameters of the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute with a <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13465411">near-continuous presence</a> around the islands, and continuing moves to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/14/south-china-sea-dispute-accelerated-by-coronavirus/">strengthen its control</a> of the South China Sea all point to a conscious shift in China’s behaviour. </p>
<p>What really matters, it would seem, is China’s relative power in the international system – both against its neighbours in the region, and the wider world. It’s likely that Chinese officials see this as a chance to shift the parameters of operations in a number of areas while the US is distracted domestically by COVID-19 and led by a non-internationalist president.</p>
<h2>Extradition disagreements</h2>
<p>Since the new security law makes secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign intervention illegal in Hong Kong, it has certain spill-over effects. Not least is the issue of extradition, which is a controversial issue in Hong Kong. A proposed new extradition bill sparked mass protests in Hong Kong in June 2019 in which <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-48656471">nearly 2 million people</a> took to the streets, over fears people could be extradited to China. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-protests-against-extradition-bill-spurred-by-fears-about-long-arm-of-china-118539">Hong Kong protests against extradition bill spurred by fears about long arm of China</a>
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<p>The period of terror that is enveloping the island would mean that those commenting on issues of independence for Hong Kong run the risk of breaching the new security law <a href="https://www.axios.com/china-hong-kong-law-global-activism-ff1ea6d1-0589-4a71-a462-eda5bea3f78f.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosworld&stream=world">outside of Hong Kong’s territory</a>. It’s possible that even this article might fall foul of it. </p>
<p>This brings into question the other <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-china-hong-kong-extradition-pacts/">extradition agreements</a> that Hong Kong has with 30 countries, most of whom do not have similar arrangements with mainland China. Canada was the first to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/04/canada-suspends-extradition-treaty-with-hong-kong-eyes-immigration-boost.html">suspend its extradition treaty</a> with Hong Kong in early July 2020 and Australia <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-09/australia-suspends-extradition-agreement-with-hong-kong">followed suit</a> a few days later. These countries are right to respond to such a danger to their citizens and residents. </p>
<p>Others with such agreements include the US, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia and India. It’s likely only a matter of time before others make similar decisions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/playing-hardball-with-china-works-the-west-is-right-to-move-to-a-constrainment-strategy-140283">Playing hardball with China works – the west is right to move to a 'constrainment' strategy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>China’s actions in Hong Kong are symptomatic of its changing outlook and attitude to its neighbours. The days of <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2014/08/chinese-foreign-policy-needs-major-reform/"><em>taoguang yanghui</em></a> – the approach taken to foreign policy under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and 1980s that is frequently translated as “keeping a low profile” – are already long gone. However, a clear willingness to disregard international treaties in this way shows that China now has the confidence and courage to challenge the status quo of the international system. </p>
<p>The global reaction indicates that this will not be left unanswered, laying the groundwork for an increasingly difficult relationship between China and other world powers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
China is shifting the parameters on a number of territorial disputes with its neighbours.
Niki JP Alsford, Professor in Asia Pacific Studies, Director of the Asia Pacific Studies Institutes, University of Central Lancashire
Ed Griffith, Principal Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies, University of Central Lancashire
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131744
2020-05-28T12:16:39Z
2020-05-28T12:16:39Z
Why do people die by suicide? Mental illness isn’t the only cause – social factors like loneliness, financial ruin and shame can be triggers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323069/original/file-20200325-168922-gv61is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1920%2C1267&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suicide is on the rise for multiple reasons.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/death-funeral-coffin-mourning-2421820/">carolynabooth/Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. suicide rate has been increasing for decades. In 1999, the rate was about <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide">10 suicides per 100,000</a> people. In 2017, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, it was just over <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/03/trends-suicide">14 per 100,000</a> – a rise of 40% in only 18 years. </p>
<p>And the problem is not evenly distributed across the country. The increase has been especially severe in rural areas, some of which have seen their suicide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.10936">rates jump by over 30%</a> in just the past decade. </p>
<p>That rates can change from one decade to another, and vary so much across regions, suggests that suicide is shaped by social conditions. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most obvious of these is access to mental health services – psychiatrists, therapists and prescription antidepressants. Indeed, the most conventional way of talking about suicide in the modern world is in terms of mental health. </p>
<p>This view is not incorrect: Clinical depression increases the risk of suicide, and so therapies that treat depression can help prevent it. But as a <a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5253">sociologist who studies suicide</a>, I think the medical model of suicide is incomplete. My <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bTcdNKAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">research</a> shows there are additional causes.</p>
<h2>Suicide in response to an event</h2>
<p>Not all who kill themselves do so after a long struggle with depression – from Cato to Hitler, many famous figures of history have taken their own lives after sudden reversals, such as military defeats. </p>
<p>Those who already suffer depression can be pushed over the edge by “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” It is likely no coincidence that poet Sylvia Plath, with her long history of depression, killed herself shortly after being abandoned by her husband. The human mind does not exist in a vacuum. </p>
<p>Thanks to the current pandemic, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is reporting a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/04/mental-health-coronavirus/">nine-fold increase in calls</a> compared to this time last year.</p>
<h2>Financial causes</h2>
<p>Loss of material wealth – reduced income, mounting debts and other financial disasters – can certainly provoke suicide. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910.28.2.95">Numerous</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291799002925">studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.301.6749.407">document</a> that the unemployed have higher suicide rates than the employed. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2010.300010">Others show</a> that rates rise during economic downturns. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0904491106">Suicide rates spiked</a> during the Great Depression of the 1930s and were more prevalent in areas where <a href="http://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2010.121376">banks folded</a>, taking their customers’ savings with them. </p>
<p>Suicide rates – in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61910-2">U.S.</a> and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f5239">other</a> countries – also rose during the Great Recession of 2008. Some argue, in many parts of the U.S., the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/the-neverending-foreclosure/547181/">recession</a> never ended, which may help explain the rise in rural suicide. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323023/original/file-20200325-168918-tpwr6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amber Dykshorn holds a photo of her late husband, Chris, who died by suicide in 2019 – leaving her with three kids and over $300,000 worth of debt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/chris-dykshorn?family=editorial&phrase=Chris%20Dykshorn&sort=mostpopular#license">Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/09/im-gonna-lose-everything/">South Dakota farmer Chris Dykshorn</a> texted, “I seriously don’t know how we r gonna make it. I am failing and feel like I’m gonna lose everything I’ve worked for,” before killing himself in 2019. His case is <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200305/farmer-suicide-deaths-alarm-rural-communities">hardly unique</a>. </p>
<p>Along with high rates of suicide go high rates of drug overdose. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish an intentional overdose from an accidental one, and some researchers lump them together as “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/casetextsp17bpea.pdf">deaths of despair</a>.”</p>
<h2>Shame</h2>
<p>Reputation and good name are extremely important to most people, so all manner of shame and humiliation can cause suicide. For instance, in South Korea, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/23/roh.dead/">former president killed himself</a> after a corruption investigation in 2009. In 2017, a Kentucky <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/14/kentucky-lawmaker-dan-johnson-autopsy/951377001/">state legislator killed himself</a> after allegations of sexual misconduct. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-102801-5.50016-9">Gossip and scandal</a> are powerful sanctions in small towns and villages. The growth of social media has made people vulnerable to public shaming on a mass scale. Not surprisingly, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/internet-shaming-when-mob-justice-goes-virtual/">social media shaming</a> also provokes suicide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323032/original/file-20200325-168907-1yxvpmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cyberbullying can cause severe emotional distress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-desperate-sad-tears-cry-1006100/">Ulrike Mai /Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Broken relationships</h2>
<p>In addition to the loss of stature, people also might kill themselves over the loss of social ties. Sociologists have known for over a century that people with more and stronger social connections have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150058">lower rates of suicide</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.11.033">Marriage</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291704002600">parenthood</a> and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/228544">sources</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M13-1291">social integration</a> provide a protective effect. </p>
<p>Suicide victims are <a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M13-1291">more likely than others to live alone</a>, tend to have fewer friends and are less involved in organizations. America’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62965-7_12">long-term decline in civic and religious organizations</a> – or even voluntary groups such as bowling leagues – likely exacerbates other issues that might encourage suicide.</p>
<p>If lacking social ties is bad, the sudden shock of losing them is worse. Breakups and divorces are a common reason for suicide: One study of over 400,000 Americans found that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.54.4.254">being divorced more than doubled the risk</a> of suicide. The same is true in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.009">other countries</a>, and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X13494824">risk is greatest</a> immediately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2008.11.007">after the loss</a>.</p>
<h2>Strife</h2>
<p>People also kill themselves in reaction to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/moral-time-9780199737147?q=Moral%20time&lang=en&cc=us">social conflict</a>. Depending on the nature of the conflict, suicide might be a kind of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2011.01308.x">protest, punishment or escape</a>. </p>
<p>Hundreds of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation_protests_by_Tibetans_in_China">Tibetans</a>, for instance, have burned themselves in protest of Chinese rule. </p>
<p>In places such as rural <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801208330434">Iran</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07399330490503159">Afghanistan</a>, large numbers of women burn themselves to protest and escape from domestic abuse. </p>
<p>In modern America, people sometimes kill themselves to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2015.05.002">inflict guilt</a> on someone who has hurt them. In other cases, suicide can be a response to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2010.494133">bullying and abuse</a> by one or more people. </p>
<h2>Rethinking suicide prevention</h2>
<p>These realities suggest that suicide prevention involves much more than increasing the availability of therapists and prescriptions. It requires providing economic development and <a href="https://www.newsday.com/business/for-suicidal-japanese-help-is-finally-at-hand-1.1660342">financial assistance</a> to those in distress. People can help by strengthening communities and building social ties. Additionally, they can provide moral support, alternative means of conflict resolution and escape routes from abusive relationships. </p>
<p>To combat suicide, it’s important to account for all its causes.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131744/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Manning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The U.S. suicide rate has been increasing for decades. According to a sociologist who studies suicide, depression is just one factor among many implicated social conditions.
Jason Manning, Associate Professor of Sociology, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97173
2018-06-17T18:53:58Z
2018-06-17T18:53:58Z
China and India’s border dispute is a slow-moving environmental disaster
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223302/original/file-20180615-32307-1p57oni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Development is peaking in the high country between India and China.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India-china_border_and_nathula_peak.jpg">Vinay Vaars/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chinese and Indian competition on their shared Himalayan border is more likely to create a slow-moving environmental catastrophe than a quick military or nuclear disaster. </p>
<p>The Himalayan plateau plays a crucial role in Asia. It generates the monsoonal rains and seasonal ice-melts that feed rivers and deliver nutrients to South, Southeast and East Asia. Almost <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/07/map-more-than-half-of-humanity-lives-within-this-circle/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ab1ac6b83208">half the world’s population</a> and <a href="http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf">20% of its economy</a> depend on these rivers, and they are already threatened by <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/double-threat-for-tibet-1.15738">climate change</a>. China and India’s competition for their headwaters increases this threat. </p>
<p>Until the mid-20th century, the Himalaya’s high altitude prevented its large-scale development and conserved its environment. But after the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China were created in the late 1940s, these two new states began competing for high ground in the western and eastern Himalayas. They fought a <a href="https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/forgotten-war-himalayas">war over their unresolved border in 1962</a>, and have scuffled ever since. The most recent clash was in 2017, when China built a road into <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-the-doklam-pass-how-little-bhutan-faced-down-china-over-a-border-dispute-84158">Doklam</a>, an area claimed by Bhutan and protected by India. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-the-doklam-pass-how-little-bhutan-faced-down-china-over-a-border-dispute-84158">Lessons from the Doklam Pass: how little Bhutan faced down China over a border dispute</a>
</strong>
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<p>Tensions rose again last week when China unveiled a new mine in Lhunze, near the de facto border with India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, east of Bhutan. The mine sits on a <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2146296/how-chinese-mining-himalayas-may-create-new-military-flashpoint">deposit of gold, silver and other precious metals worth up to US$60 billion</a>. </p>
<p>Most analysis of the Sino-Indian border dispute has focused on the potential for <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/asias-cold-peace-china-and-indias-delicate-diplomatic-dance/">another war between these two nuclear-armed neighbours</a>. The environmental impacts of their continued entrenchment are rarely mentioned, despite the fact that they are significant and growing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223305/original/file-20180615-32316-14um4ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The various tracts of the disputed Sino-Indian border are host to many new development projects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of this development along the border is built on the world’s third-largest ice-pack or in biodiversity hotspots. The region was militarised during the 1962 war, and has since been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09584930903108911?journalCode=ccsa20">inundated by troops, roads, airports, barracks and hospitals</a>. These have caused deforestation, landslides, and – if a <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1659/0276-4741(2002)022%5B0316:ASPPTS%5D2.0.CO%3B2">study on troop movements on other glaciers</a> is any guide – possibly even glacial retreat. </p>
<p>The buildup of troops on the border has displaced local ethnic groups, and they have been encouraged to give up their land to make way for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248903596_Agriculture_in_central_Tibet_an_assessment_of_climate_farming_systems_and_strategies_to_boost_production">intensive farming</a>. Animal habitats have decreased and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjhs-themes/article/studying-the-snow-leopard-reconceptualizing-conservation-across-the-chinaindia-border/992F367FE853AA276EB4B229FE71A716">clashes with tigers and snow leopards have increased</a>. Population transfers and agricultural intensification have even heightened the risk that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-antibiotic-pollution-of-waterways-creates-superbugs-38046">antibiotic-resistant superbugs and other toxic pollutants</a> will seep into the world’s most diffused watershed.</p>
<p>During the past 20 years, first China and then India have increased this degradation by building large-scale mines and hydroelectric dams in this sensitive region. These projects have <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4509-Tibet-s-mining-menace-">not been profitable or environmentally sound</a>, but they have solidified state control by entrenching populations, upgrading transport networks, and integrating these fringes into national economies. The tightening of state control along the border has been further complicated by calls from the Tibetans and other ethnic groups for greater autonomy.</p>
<p>Many of the projects have been developed within the transnational Brahmaputra River basin. This river’s headwaters are in China, but most of its catchment is in Arunachal Pradesh, which is controlled by India but claimed by China. It then flows through Assam and Bangladesh, where it joins the Ganges River. Some 630 million people live in the Ganges-Brahmaputra River catchment.</p>
<p>China and India’s geopolitical resources rush threatens the safety of this entire river system. The new Lhunze mine’s position among the Brahmaputra’s headwaters is so precarious that its owner, Hua Yu Mining, was only allowed to mine there under strict environmental conditions. To its credit, Hua Yu has agreed to be a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=EeBprffFbic">“green” miner, limiting emissions, water use and minimising “grassland disturbance”</a>. But even if the company does not inadvertently leak acid and arsenic into the environment like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/tibetans-in-anguish-as-chinese-mines-pollute-their-sacred-grasslands/2016/12/25/bb6aad06-63bc-11e6-b4d8-33e931b5a26d_story.html?utm_term=.d260cc80defa">other mines in Tibet</a>, the mine is still liable to be damaged by the region’s frequent earthquakes. Any toxic leak from Lhunze will flow straight into the Brahmaputra and then into the lower Ganges.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-growing-footprint-on-the-globe-threatens-to-trample-the-natural-world-88312">China’s growing footprint on the globe threatens to trample the natural world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On its side of the border, India has concentrated on dams rather than mines. Between 2000 and 2016, the Arunachal Pradesh government approved the <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2016/02/25/private-dam-builders-back-out-of-brahmaputra-dams/">construction of 153 dams</a>, before realising that it had overextended itself. </p>
<p>So far only one dam is complete, and all the other projects have stalled. One of these stalled dams is on the Subansiri River, the same river from which the Lhunze mine draws water. India is racing to build these dams <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-and-indias-race-to-dam-the-brahmaputra-river-puts-the-himalayas-at-risk-65496">without community consultation or environmental studies</a> because it sees itself as competing with China for the region’s water. China has already built four dams in the upper Brahmaputra River basin. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4799-Fighting-India-s-mega-dams">Indian strategists argue</a> that they can stop China building more dams by building hydroelectric projects whose need for water will be recognised under international law. Given China’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/china-damns-international-court-after-south-china-sea-slapdown">dismissal of previous rulings by the International Court of Justice</a>, and its <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/05/17/china-resumes-sharing-brahmaputra-water-flow-data-with-india/">recent refusal to share water-flow data</a> with India after the Doklam incident (data that India needs to plan flood controls), this strategy seems unlikely to succeed. </p>
<p>Even if it does, it is hard to see how building large hydropower projects in an earthquake-probne region will ultimately help India. It won’t stop China developing the borderland, and it could cause more problems than it solves. </p>
<p>To keep Asia’s major rivers flowing and relatively non-toxic, both nations need to stop competing and start collaborating. Their leaders understand that neither nation would win a nuclear war. Now they need to realise that no one will benefit from destroying a shared watershed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Gamble does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For decades, China and India have clashed over their disputed Himalayan border. This clash is also playing out via a development boom that threatens the health of one of the world’s biggest river catchments.
Ruth Gamble, David Myers Research Fellow, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98104
2018-06-11T15:59:12Z
2018-06-11T15:59:12Z
CONIFA: how the ‘other World Cup’ is helping unrecognised nations through football
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222590/original/file-20180611-191978-zmire0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C3259%2C1871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tibet take on Northern Cyrus in Enfield, London.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Rookwood</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The FIFA World Cup commences in Russia this week, with events on and off the pitch at the 32-team tournament set to dominate global media coverage for the next month.</p>
<p>But the World Cup is not this summer’s only festival of international football. For regions and communities that FIFA has not or will not offer membership to, CONIFA is an alternative confederation, which also organises “international” competitions. This weekend the final of the third CONIFA World Football Cup took place in England, the culmination of a ten-day tournament.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1005596004379430912"}"></div></p>
<p>Karpatalja – a Hungarian-speaking minority from western Ukraine – was <a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/2018/06/09/wfc2018-final/">crowned champions</a> on Saturday after defeating Northern Cyprus in the final on penalties at Enfield Town’s Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, one of ten venues across London to host matches. The breakaway Turkish Republic also lost the final of the European equivalent in similar circumstances on home soil last year.</p>
<p>CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) was established in 2013 and fills a significant void for some of those entities FIFA neglects. The competition has been described as defiantly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/fifa-karpatalja-wins-alternative-football-world-cup-180609215407026.html">subversive of the geopolitical norm</a>. Critics may question its relevance, yet the confederation is developing rapidly.</p>
<h2>Building bridges</h2>
<p>CONIFA professes to gather 166m people from 47 member entities, a mix of “nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports-isolated territories”. It’s a non-profit organisation that <a href="http://www.conifa.org/about-CONIFA">aims to</a> “build bridges between people, nations, minorities and isolated regions all over the world through friendship, culture and the joy of playing football”.</p>
<p>International sporting organisations typically frame their agendas and impact in these positive terms, of course. But, for a football researcher like me, such mission statements are useful as they can then be subject to scholarly scrutiny, particularly in the case of larger confederations <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17430437.2013.856590">such as FIFA</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222598/original/file-20180611-191951-11iixjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Preparing to represent Matabeleland, the western part of Zimbabwe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Rookwood</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Academics can also look at the tournaments themselves. Recent research on sporting “mega events” has looked at whether hosting a tournament does actually <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23750472.2015.1010278">promote physical activity</a>, whether it helps the host acquire soft power (or even leads to “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19406940.2016.1150868">soft disempowerment</a>”), and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2017.1332129?journalCode=gpas20">behaviour and treatment of supporters</a> during tournaments.</p>
<p>CONIFA is relatively new, and currently operates in the margins – scaled somewhere between “mega” and “minor”. Consequently, though the journalist Steve Menary has outlined the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Outcasts-Lands-That-FIFA-Forgot/dp/1905449313">history of organised football for unrecognised countries</a>, recent events have not yet been subject to significant scholarly scrutiny. </p>
<p>Though academic research specifically on CONIFA is limited, two geographers at Portland State University in Oregon have looked at the Cascadia region (the US states of Oregon and Washington, and the Canadian province of British Columbia). Their work examines how football has mobilised a shared <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14660970.2015.1067790">regional narrative</a> either side of the Canada–US border. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1003661010748805130"}"></div></p>
<p>My own academic writing on the CONIFA tournament is in press, but a documentary I made <a href="https://vimeo.com/196444880">The other World Cup: Football Across Borders</a> was released last year and shown at the inaugural <a href="https://footballcollective.org.uk/2016/09/21/closing-film-announced-for-future-football-conference/">Football Collective conference</a>. The film culminates in the 2016 World Football Cup, hosted and won by Abkhazia, a self-declared independent territory, considered by the UN to be a part of Georgia. It examines football, statehood, identity and conflict within the fractured Georgian-Abkhazian context. Despite CONIFA’s claim and objective to “<a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/about-us/faq/">leave all politics behind</a>” therefore, its events and those involved can prove relatively political.</p>
<h2>Appeals to football romantics</h2>
<p>The 2018 CONIFA tournament was much bigger than previous editions. For the first time, it was hosted in a global metropolitan city and was supported by lucrative sponsorship from bookmakers Paddy Power. Matches were shown live on Facebook, record attendances were set, and the mainstream global media paid attention. </p>
<p>There were some governance issues, most notably the mid-competition withdrawal of Ellan Vannin (the Manx name for the Isle of Man) in a <a href="http://www.conifa.org/en/2018/06/06/conifa-statement-regarding-ellan-vannin-7-june/">dispute over an unregistered player</a>. Further political and governance challenges are likely in the future as CONIFA continues to develop and grow. But its expansion reflects and shapes the interests of the football community in this unique format of “international” football.</p>
<p>It also appeals to football romantics: for instance <a href="https://vimeo.com/273366083">Matabeleland</a> featured 60-year-old former Liverpool goalkeeper and Zimbabwe international Bruce Grobbelaar. As the behaviour of many players and supporters demonstrates however, CONIFA events also provide substantial opportunities to <a href="https://vimeo.com/273177982">shape and express collective identities</a> through football. The “other World Cup” is here to stay.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Check out the author’s short videos of <a href="https://vimeo.com/273177982">Tibet</a> and Matabeleland fans:</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/273366083" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Matabeleland fans enjoy their game vs Tuvalu (video: CONIFA / Joel Rookwood)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-teams-who-sing-their-national-anthem-with-passion-are-more-likely-to-win-96765?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why football teams who sing their national anthem with passion are more likely to win</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mohamed-salah-effect-is-real-my-research-shows-how-he-inspires-egyptian-youth-97220?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">The ‘Mohamed Salah Effect’ is real – my research shows how he inspires Egyptian youth</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Rookwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The tournament featured teams from Tibet, North Cyprus, the Isle of Man and many more.
Joel Rookwood, Senior Lecturer in Sport Business Management, University of Central Lancashire
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94950
2018-04-15T19:58:25Z
2018-04-15T19:58:25Z
Why China should have chosen honesty in its U.S. trade war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214610/original/file-20180412-560-17sp9vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this November 2017 photo, U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The brewing China-U.S. trade conflict features two leaders who have expressed friendship but are equally determined to pursue their nation's interests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andy Wong)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China has launched a new charm offensive to rally support for its growing trade war with the United States. </p>
<p>Opinion pieces being <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-china-will-not-back-down-in-a-trade-fight-with-the-us/">placed in newspapers</a> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/04/05/open-cooperation-can-protect-intellectual-property-rights/">around the world</a>, under the byline of the local Chinese ambassador, insist that Beijing strictly follows the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) rules-based international trade regime.</p>
<p>They also claim China is adamant about protecting intellectual property rights, always releases honest and accurate reporting of economic statistics and engages in no discriminatory measures in procurement and market access.</p>
<p>As we know, Washington has been slapping tariffs on Chinese imports because of:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/china-us-trump-tariffs-ip-theft/index.html">The relentless thefts of billions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>The flaunting of WTO rules by imposing <a href="http://www.icpartners.it/en/non-tariff-barriers-chinese-market/">non-tariff barriers</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/is-china-really-opening-its-doors-to-foreign-investment/">Unfulfilled promises to open parts of the Chinese economy to foreign investment</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://tradecommissioner.gc.ca/china-chine/market-facts-faits-sur-le-marche/125684.aspx?lang=eng">Imposing arbitrary fees and taxes</a> to inhibit foreign access to the Chinese markets.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In their newspaper articles, the Chinese ambassadors say all four of these reasons are baseless. Clearly these diplomats grossly underestimate the intelligence of Western newspaper readers.</p>
<p>The fact is, representatives of the People’s Republic are just not very good at public diplomacy in the West. Who can forget Lu Shumin, former Chinese ambassador to Canada, responding to a brutal crackdown in Tibet by comparing pre-1959 Tibet with Nazi Germany, and calling the Dalai Lama a dishonest separatist who has been “lying for decades?”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214617/original/file-20180412-560-2qcqkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lu Shumin, China’s onetime ambassador to Canada, compared the Dalai Lama to Adolf Hitler. It didn’t go over so well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/ Jonathan Hayward)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lu <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chinese-ambassador-rejects-criticisms-on-tibet/article669600/">told the</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chinese-ambassador-rejects-criticisms-on-tibet/article669600/">Globe and Mail</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/chinese-ambassador-rejects-criticisms-on-tibet/article669600/"></a>that “any remarks made accusing China of so-called human-rights suppression or things in that direction, I would consider that as irresponsible and inappropriate.” </p>
<p>That went over like a lead balloon. Lu remarkably couldn’t comprehend that nobody would buy the idea of the Dalai Lama being in the same league as Adolf Hitler. People were incensed.</p>
<p>China’s full court press to counter American trade sanctions is much more than a tit-for-tat, “you taxed me so I’ll tax you harder” play. It’s just a sideshow to the real issue, which is this: No matter how the trade war ends, the West is no longer prepared to tolerate China’s dissembling and dishonesty in international interactions. </p>
<p>This means not just the terms of trade and investment, but cyber-espionage, subversion of Western democratic processes through covert agents and corrupt policy-makers, North Korea, and any number of murky transactions in developing nations around the world.</p>
<h2>My years studying in China</h2>
<p>Just over 40 years ago, I became the first foreign student to be enrolled in the History of Ancient Chinese Thought Program, taught in the Department of Philosophy at Shanghai’s Fudan University. (That same exchange program brought future ambassador Lu Shumin to study at university in Canada.) </p>
<p>During my three years there, I was intensively guided through the essence of China’s deep traditions by generous, kind and highly learned senior Chinese scholars.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214627/original/file-20180412-577-1slkjo7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author with a Chinese scholar in Beijing in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author provided)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was a great privilege for me. My respected teachers, all educated in liberal institutions prior to the Chinese Communist Party’s assumption of power in 1949, had been made to suffer considerably during China’s Cultural Revolution. </p>
<p>But they were remarkably free of bitterness about their fate. These gentlemen — now long gone, but alive in the hearts and minds of all the students they touched, including this Canadian — possessed great qualities of high-mindedness. </p>
<p>They taught me well that the Confucian ethic is one of open honesty and broad-mindedness. Seeking petty advantage through deception comes at the cost of universal harmony and the common good.</p>
<p>Far be it from me to advise Beijing’s propagandists on how to understand what China’s cultural tradition means in the contemporary context of fractious international relations conundrums and Presidential Twitter.</p>
<p>But there is a lot to be said for the <a href="http://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/ancient-literature/entries/SIM-300143;jsessionid=5423C44AABDDD4303C799D9CD66CC025">Han Dynasty doctrine</a> of “seek the truth from facts” (later championed by both <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch23.htm">Chairman Mao</a> and <a href="http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1260.html">Deng Xiaoping</a> to serve their own political purposes).</p>
<p>While “honesty is the best policy” may not be a hallmark of the Trump régime, a more honest, less selective and less manipulative adherence to the international norms of the United Nations and WTO would definitely serve China’s interests — and those of global justice, peace and prosperity — a lot better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Burton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
“Honesty is the best policy” is hardly a hallmark of the Trump régime, so China would have been smart to pursue a more honest, less manipulative path in its simmering trade war with the U.S.
Charles Burton, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brock University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/79468
2017-07-11T10:24:19Z
2017-07-11T10:24:19Z
How to gauge China’s development in its ethnic minority regions? Watch it light up from space
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177109/original/file-20170706-31685-1q1uz7t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=615%2C142%2C1525%2C992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compared to China's highly developed cities, the western regions are still dark at night.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>China’s ethnic “problems” get a lot of attention from the outside world. Whatever their political leanings, Westerners can find something interesting to read about China’s treatment of its ethnic minorities, whether on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/tibet-monks-selfimmolation-china">plight of the Tibetans</a> or rising tensions between the Chinese state and the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-39460538">Uighurs of Xinjiang</a>. China is increasingly being talked about as part of the global “war” against <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/01/the-islamic-state-pledged-to-attack-china-next-heres-why/">Islamist extremism</a>, or as an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20131215-how-china-portrays-its-minorities">anti-multicultural regime</a> that mistreats its ethnic minorities. </p>
<p>Faced with this criticism and pressure, the Chinese government generally claims to be developing and bringing economic prosperity to its supposedly “backward” regions, which have large ethnic minority populations. Since the 2000s, Beijing has been pushing a grand national strategy known as the <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Asia/1009pp_chinasgrowth.pdf">Western Development Programme</a>. Its primary stated aim is to integrate peripheral regions with the rest of the country, using infrastructure development to help facilitate better movement of goods and people between China’s less developed western regions and its more developed and densely populated eastern “core”.</p>
<p>But while it’s ostensibly focused on creating a more equal development model, this programme is also a nation-building mission. While it aims both to better integrate groups outside the <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21710264-worlds-rising-superpower-has-particular-vision-ethnicity-and-nationhood-has">ethnic Han majority</a> into China’s mainstream politics, economy and culture, it also aims to encourage more Han Chinese to migrate to areas heavily populated by ethnic minorities. So some 16 years after it was introduced, how has the programme played out, and how has it affected China’s ethnic question?</p>
<h2>As seen from above</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X16305745">recent paper</a>, Christopher Paik and I tackled these questions by looking at Chinese census data from 2000 and 2010 alongside night-time satellite images of streetlight illumination. Because the Chinese state enjoys a monopoly on electricity provision, the electric light visible at night is a good indicator of how much development different areas have seen.</p>
<p>By comparing provinces’ demographic changes with the change in their luminosity at night over ten years, we were able to establish that in Western China, the ethnic dimension of development is most salient in the five so-called <a href="http://chinadictionary.net/five-autonomous-regions-of-china/">autonomous regions</a>, areas host to many of China’s 100m-plus ethnic minority people (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20131108022004/http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/newsandcomingevents/t20110428_402722244.htm">about 8.5%</a> of China’s population).</p>
<p>In these areas – Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi and Ningxia – what seems to matter most is how integrated a particular ethnic minority area is with the rest of China. If the Chinese central government considers an area better integrated, the minority populations who live there experience more development; in areas less integrated with the rest of China, the central government is more likely to channel development efforts towards the west’s Han Chinese populations in hopes of connecting them more closely with the rest of the country.</p>
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<p>So whereas increases in ethnic minority concentration are generally associated with increases in development in the western provinces, this relationship does not hold in the autonomous provinces, which have benefited less from the Western Development Programme. Still predominantly inhabited by ethnic minorities, they remain less integrated with the rest of China than other western areas.</p>
<p>We also found that the overall relationship between development and the concentration of minorities isn’t consistent among the different autonomous provinces. In Tibet, the correlation is negative: counties whose Tibetan population is outpacing the Han population have experienced less development. But the opposite is true in Inner Mongolia, where counties whose ethnic Mongol population is growing have benefited from more economic development, not less.</p>
<p>Why the inconsistency? One explanation is that <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/china/21722853-chinese-mongolians-are-still-asserting-their-identity-inner-mongolia-has-become-chinas-model">Inner Mongolia</a> was China’s first official ethnic minority region, established in 1947; thanks to a steady influx of Han Chinese, ethnic Mongolians now make up less than than 20% of its population. The Chinese government considers the region much better integrated than Tibet, which was only established as an autonomous region in 1965, and where Han Chinese still make up less than 10% of the population. </p>
<p>What this all suggests is that in an authoritarian system such as China, economic development is deeply shot through with the imperative to exert political control. The Chinese government doesn’t treat all its ethnic minority groups in the same way: the more “loyal” a group is to the Chinese state and the more integrated it is into the culture and economy, the better its members will be treated. This does not bode well for the rebellious Tibetans or Uighurs, who continue to challenge the Chinese government’s plans for their homelands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enze Han receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust Research Grant.</span></em></p>
For China’s ethnic minorities, the state’s development programme is a matter of political control.
Enze Han, Senior Lecturer in the International Security of East Asia, SOAS, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50483
2015-11-19T05:16:27Z
2015-11-19T05:16:27Z
The Dalai Lama’s secret temple goes to London
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102059/original/image-20151116-4961-1qbhnab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Magical movements (trul khor) Lukhang mural detail, Tibet, 17th century.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Thomas Laird</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most secret sacred spaces in the world is now open for public perusal – in the middle of London. The Wellcome Collection has opened its doors to <a href="http://wellcomecollection.org/secrettemple">Tibet’s Secret Temple</a>, an exhibition that features reconstructions of the intricate murals of the Dalai Lamas’ private meditation temple in Lhasa, the Lukhang, or “Temple of the Water Spirits”.</p>
<p>The exhibition is accompanied by a series of events, principle among which is one on “mindfulness”. And the timing is spot on: mindfulness is going through something of a boom at the moment. Promoted in the boardroom, staff training sessions, away-day weekends and as smartphone apps, mindfulness is trending. The <a href="https://www.headspace.com/">Headspace</a> app, for example, reportedly has over <a href="https://www.headspace.com/signup?origintoken=google-b&gclid=CI2qq7GylckCFcsBwwod7vcAiw">3 million</a> “happy users”, and mindfulness courses sell out within hours.</p>
<p>Faced by the rise of stress-related mental illness in the UK, the <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/pages/mindfulness.aspx">NHS</a> has promoted mindfulness as an antidote to the “tunnel-vision” that results from modern living: a simple means of stopping a couple of times a day to reconnect with ourselves. For the NHS, mindfulness is a means to deal with a wide sourcepool of agitation and discontentment in the populace, hopefully before it peaks in psychiatrists’ waiting rooms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102065/original/image-20151116-4947-r3kwlk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lukhang Temple with Potala Palace in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Critics of mindfulness are not far behind, though, concerned that such simple training can act as a stand-in for proper counselling for deep mental anguish and illness. They’re almost certainly right. Mindfulness comes out of the Buddhist <em>vipasanna</em> traditions of “watching the mind”, and stands as one – and only one – of many meditation techniques taught in a lifelong relationship with a trained guru or lama.</p>
<p>By far the most complex are the tantric traditions of Tibet. These are disciplines not just intended to calm personal anxieties, but to invoke divine power as part of the goal of attaining enlightenment. These traditions connect the meditator not just to their mind, body and emotions, but to the very land that they inhabit.</p>
<p>Now the Wellcome puts these ideas on display in their most secret and esoteric form. Hopefully the show should increase understanding of the complexity of the ideas behind the rudimentary do-it-yourself of the mindfulness movement.</p>
<h2>Tibet’s secret temple</h2>
<p>The intricate murals that adorn the walls of the Lukhang Temple have been recreated by photographer Thomas Laird as “spectacular life-sized digital artworks” and form the heart of the Wellcome’s exhibition.</p>
<p>These reproductions are a world away from their originals. Located amidst willow trees on a small island in the middle of a lake in the northern shadow of the Potala Palace, the Lukhang temple and the island on which it stands was founded in the 17th century as a meditation sanctuary for the Dalai Lamas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102320/original/image-20151118-14222-1psz8ag.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 5th Dalai Lama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Wellcome Collection, James T. Murray</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The initial island is supposed to have been constructed by the 5th Dalai Lama, who built the mudbrick Potala Palace on the crags of Marpori Hill. The legend goes that, in order to build his vast fortress-palace, mud was brought from the marsh directly to the north of the hill, leaving a large water-filled excavation. </p>
<p>Things did not go easily and the construction was dogged by difficulties and delays. One night, the sleeping Dalai Lama was visited in a dream by the queen of the water spirits, or <em>lu</em>, who owned the marsh. She complained bitterly about this disruption of her territory, and demanded recompense, so he promised a temple dedicated to the <em>lu</em> in the midst of the lake; only then did the building of the Potala continue unobstructed.</p>
<p>In time, a temple was built on the island, its walls painted with the murals. These depict the means by which the Dalai Lamas could gain mastery of their bodies. This inner mastery was not simply essential to attain Buddhist enlightenment, but also to give the meditator power over the world of gods and spirits, a power held by the Buddha himself.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102062/original/image-20151116-4936-192homk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Padmasambhava taming a lu (naga) Lukhang mural detail, Tibet, 17th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Thomas Laird</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>For the European mind, the worlds of philosophy and meditation seem long divorced from concern with gods, spirits and demons. But for Tibetans, they are one and the same, fingers of the same hand. In 1791, the Eighth Dalai Lama enlarged the temple, placing a shrine to the water spirit <em>Lhachen Dripdzong Tsenpa</em> in the main sanctuary, surrounded by statues of eight peaceful spirits and several “treasure vases”. Ten years later, he performed the “<em>lu</em> vase realisation ritual”. It is recorded how, on this occasion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rain fell and so they offered <em>lu</em> vases to the water spirits, went round the lake on wooden boats, rode elephants, and strolled about. The metaphysicians from Sera and Drepung [monasteries] also set up a debating class there on the ‘Great Classics’, and the two lamas gave them a feast.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the centuries that followed, Tibetans celebrated in the park surrounding the Lukhang to mark <em>Sakadawa</em>, the birth and enlightenment day of the Buddha, in order to “promote timely rains”. <em>Lu</em> vases were made and hidden by members of the Tibetan government within the lake as a means to ensure the prosperity of the kingdom. </p>
<p>Like many things in Tibet, the Lukhang was always the most public of all secrets, and that secret is this: mindfulness is to be mindful not just of our inner selves, but of the world around us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Mills works for the University of Aberdeen, consults for the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet and is a member of the Westminster All-Parliamentary Group on Tibet. He is also a member of the International Association for Tibetan Studies.</span></em></p>
The Wellcome’s show looks into complexity of the ideas behind the do-it-yourself of the mindfulness movement.
Martin Mills, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Aberdeen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/38880
2015-04-22T10:03:59Z
2015-04-22T10:03:59Z
Could this Dalai Lama be the last?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78808/original/image-20150421-9032-pqvmjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Dalai Lama has been coy about his successor.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6113/6356529765_da0ae5244a_b.jpg">Sergio Carvalho/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For Buddhists who follow his teachings, or to those who are simply drawn to his public message of kindness (“My religion is kindness,” the <a href="http://bornagainpagan.com/photos/031-my-religion-is-kindness.jpg">popular bumper sticker</a> reads), the Dalai Lama has approached sainthood. He instantly sells out public appearances, and he’s featured on the “Top ten influential figures” lists (or some form thereof) which regularly appear in periodicals or websites.</p>
<p>He represents a triple threat rarely seen in contemporary culture: spiritual guru, head of the Tibetan government in exile and international ambassador. Today, the plight of his people is known around the world: the Tibetan flag, often accompanied by the slogan “Free Tibet” has become one of the iconic symbols of our time.</p>
<p>While at age 79 he shows little sign of slowing down, the Dalai Lama won’t live forever. The 14th in a line of head monks chosen through an elaborate combination of divination, examination and coronation, the Dalai Lama’s successor is a topic that’s been increasingly broached. </p>
<p>Yet the competing forces of politics, ethnicity and culture have muddled the process; there are even arguments over <em>how</em> the 15th Dalai Lama will be chosen.</p>
<p>Together it raises the very real question: could he be the last in this long lineage?</p>
<h2>Saint or splittist?</h2>
<p>The Dalai Lama has his detractors. “Saints,” George Orwell <a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/gandhi/english/e_gandhi">wrote</a>, “should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.” </p>
<p>Among Tibetan Buddhists – particularly Western Tibetan Buddhists – there is a group of practitioners who propitiate the fierce protector-deity known as <a href="http://www.dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/his-holiness-advice">Shugden</a>. This particular practice has been discouraged by the Dalai Lama, who believes the practice runs counter to the principles of compassion and nonviolence. Shugden practitioners routinely <a href="http://info-buddhism.com/Western_Shugden_Society_unlocked.html">protest</a> when the Dalai Lama delivers public teachings in the West because they feel that his prohibition of Shugden violates their fundamental religious freedom.</p>
<p>The Dalai Lama’s most visible detractor, however, has been the Chinese government, which has been working full-time to prove the Dalai Lama guilty of a host of crimes against their country. </p>
<p>As all political organizations do, the Communist Party of China has created a list of epithets to describe him in an unflattering light: he is “a wolf in monk’s robes” and “<a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/chandigarh/splittist-remark-against-dalai-lama-a-miscalculation-on-part-of-chinese-govt/article1-1273657.aspx">a splittist</a>,” whose main goal is to divide the Chinese against themselves. Or they characterize him the leader of the “<a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2013-03/08/content_16290252.htm">Dalai Lama clique</a>,” a group of insurrectionists living largely in exile and dedicated to spreading false rumors about the Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people.</p>
<h2>To China, a problem that won’t die</h2>
<p>But why is the Chinese government so concerned about a “simple Buddhist monk” (as the Dalai Lama often describes himself)? And why has the issue of his successor – the reincarnation of the sitting Dalai Lama – <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/03/12/china_and_dalai_lama_spar_over_reincarnation.html">been in the news recently</a>?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78829/original/image-20150421-9032-r3idox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dalai Lama, technically, never dies. Pictured is the Second Dalai Lama (1476-1542).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Second_Dalai_Lama.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having been so successful in bringing the world’s attention to the suffering of his people, the Dalai Lama and his reincarnation represent an enormous hurdle for China: how do they deal with a problem that, simply put, won’t die?</p>
<p>The Chinese government has adopted a very practical solution. They have decided that <em>they</em> will locate the 15th Dalai Lama. Their choice would, of course, be sympathetic with China’s goals regarding Tibet and the Tibetan people, a selection who would articulate China’s idea of Tibet as simply another ethnic region of China, subject to its laws and its domestic policy. </p>
<p>Within the world of <em>realpolitik</em>, China’s decision makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>But Tibetans feel that the Chinese are uniquely unqualified to undertake the process.</p>
<p>Choosing the Dalai Lama is an elaborate process that can seem otherworldly to Westerners. It involves consulting oracles, interpreting visions, reading signs and performing astrological calculations. </p>
<p>Once the the highest lamas in the Dalai Lama’s inner circle locate the reincarnated Dalai Lama (a process that takes two to three years), they administer a series of tests. </p>
<p>For example, they asked the current Dalai Lama, at age two, to identify various items that had belonged to his previous incarnation, the 13th Dalai Lama. From several walking sticks, he was asked to choose “his” walking stick. They gave the same test for his glasses and his prayer beads. In each case, the young 14th – without hesitation – chose the items that had belonged to him in his previous lifetime.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78812/original/image-20150421-9032-1sf6xti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As a young boy, the 14th Dalai Lama (pictured on the left) underwent a series of tests whereby he identified possessions of his previous incarnation, Thubten Gyatso (pictured right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dalai_Lama_boy.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Playing coy</h2>
<p>The Dalai Lama himself has muddled things further by hinting (somewhat light-heartedly) that he might reappear anywhere, in any number of human incarnations, in any number of countries – and that he might reappear as a woman. Indeed, he’s even suggested that perhaps he will not reincarnate at all.</p>
<p>Zhu Weiqun, head of an ethnic-and-religious-affairs committee in the Chinese government, has pounced on the Dalai Lama’s posturing, <a href="http://time.com/3743742/dalai-lama-china-reincarnation-tibet-buddhism/">arguing</a> that he hasn’t shown “a serious or respectful attitude on this issue.” </p>
<p>But most Tibetans place very little stock in the Dalai Lama’s pronouncement. They recognize it as yet another move in the chess game His Holiness is playing with the Chinese. Tibetans also remember the speech he gave in 2011, when he <a href="http://www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet/10th-march-archive/2011">announced</a> that he was stepping down from his role as political leader of the Tibetan people. </p>
<p>In the speech, the Dalai Lama reminded his audience that he had always claimed that Tibetans in exile should be governed by a democratically elected leader, and that he needed to become less politically active in order to encourage democracy among his people. </p>
<h2>Tempering expectations</h2>
<p>Clearly, there is more to this than meets the eye. The Dalai Lama’s wavering about his reincarnation and his role in the everyday lives of his people have been made in order to instill in Tibetans more and more independence in the face of a continuing and inevitable Chinese oppression. </p>
<p>When the Chinese do make their selection, the Tibetan people will likely ignore it – perhaps even good-heartedly ridicule it. </p>
<p>But the question still persists, largely in Western circles: Do the Tibetan people need another Dalai Lama? </p>
<p>Surely, the Tibetan people will argue that they do. However, when this Dalai Lama dies, perhaps it will be advantageous for the Central Tibetan Administration in India to develop a mixture of politically innovative guidelines and traditional methods for finding the new one. This would be partly a political decision, and the Tibetan government, in consultation with the monks, could make it.</p>
<p>The 14th Dalai Lama has always supported modernization, both in Tibetan spiritual practice and in the Tibetan educational curriculum that has been installed in India. It’s apparent the Dalai Lama’s deliberate ambiguity about whether or not Tibetans even need a 15th is a calculated move; he wants to leave that decision entirely up to his people, further solidifying their democratic rule in exile.</p>
<p>As a difficult, uncertain Tibetan future unfolds, it’s intended to insure that no expectations precede the arrival of his successor. </p>
<p>After all – as all Buddhists warn – expectations are often unreliable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sidney Burris is co-director of The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture in exile. Their website is here: <a href="http://artibet.com">http://artibet.com</a></span></em></p>
An elaborate and lengthy selection process is in danger of being co-opted by the Chinese government.
Sidney Burris, Professor of English, Director of Fulbright College Honors Studies , University of Arkansas
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/37499
2015-02-24T06:31:19Z
2015-02-24T06:31:19Z
After 75 years, the Dalai Lama is more important than ever
<p>It is three quarters of a century since the Dalai Lama’s coronation as the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet. He is now almost 80-years-old and still presents a dilemma for Western leaders, who routinely come under pressure from Beijing not to meet him whenever he visits their countries. </p>
<p>His <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/05/dalai-lama-obama-avoid-direct-meeting-prayer-breakfast">appearance with Barack Obama</a> at the US’s National Prayer Breakfast on February 5 2015 was a perfect example. The media coverage and <a href="http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/whats-case-heads-state-meeting-dalai-lama">scholarly exchanges</a> that swirled around the event focused on whether the White House should receive the Dalai Lama at all – and what the costs of a presidential meeting with the Tibetan leader might ultimately be. </p>
<p>There was also naturally a reassessment of the Dalai Lama’s goals and achievements, and the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/03/31/holy-man">same old criticisms</a> of him surfaced once again.</p>
<h2>Under attack</h2>
<p>The Dalai Lama’s critics principally point to his failure to change Chinese policies on Tibet. This is superficially accurate: even after two drawn-out dialogue processes (1979-1986 and 2002-2009) and an international campaign run by Tibetan exiles since 1987, Beijing has not let go of its demand that the Dalai Lama simply accept the status quo. The only flexibility was on whether he could live in Beijing or Lhasa, as opposed to his current exile in <a href="http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1723964,00.html">Dharamshala</a>, in India.</p>
<p>But blaming him for the lack of a breakthrough is also intellectually lazy. If we were being honest, we would lay the blame primarily at China, with its the colonialist hardline stance, and hypocritical Western “champions” of freedom and human rights who do all too little to protect them.</p>
<p>And while a breakthrough with Beijing has eluded the Dalai Lama, he has done nothing to make some future reconciliation less likely. His positions have been anything but uncompromising: since <a href="http://www.dalailama.com/messages/middle-way-approach">discarding independence as a goal</a> in the late 1970s, he has three times redefined his vision of autonomy for Tibet (a Hong Kong-style “One Country, Two System” status) in the early 1980s, <a href="http://www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet/strasbourg-proposal-1988">1988</a> and <a href="http://tibet.net/important-issues/sino-tibetan-dialogue/memorandum-on-geniune-autonomy-for-the-tibetan-people/">2008</a>. Each time, it was the Dalai Lama who climbed down on the scope of autonomy, and converged more and more with existing Chinese constitutional provisions. </p>
<p>He also has not alienated the Chinese mainstream by presiding over a bloody intifada against them, and has so forcefully counselled non-violence to the Tibetans that many inside Tibet now promote it as an essential norm of being Tibetan.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the Dalai Lama will leave the Tibetans as a nation in a far better place than they were when he took the helm. He has also behind a less poisoned politics for future generations, and the full impact of his legacy will be felt if ever a less conservative regime comes to power in Beijing – a big ask, obviously, but hardly inconceivable. </p>
<h2>Fear not</h2>
<p>There are those who believe that the Dalai Lama’s meetings with foreign leaders encourage naive Tibetans to carry out self-defeating protests, provoking China into hardening its policies. But there is no hard causal evidence for this, outside of weak correlations and unconvincing anecdotes. And while these meetings do hold symbolic political value for the Tibetans, they are only a part of the Dalai Lama’s agenda. </p>
<p>He has all manner of cultural, economic, social, educational projects underway, including <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/exiled-tibetans-start-move-to-canada-under-resettlement-plan-1.2445180">resettlement</a> and <a href="http://www.dalailamatrust.org/scholarship">scholarships</a> for Tibetan refugees and financial assistance for their cultural, educational, health and social projects. These are all the more important since as things stand, any top-level political rapprochement is clearly a long way off.</p>
<p>The combination of economic troubles at home and China’s greater assertiveness, backed up by its fantastically deep pockets, has led a number of Western leaders, including even <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30455187">the Pope</a>, to avoid contact with the Dalai Lama altogether. </p>
<p>But the evidence shows that their fears of Chinese retaliation are mostly unfounded. Recent academic studies of the “<a href="http://journals.rienner.com/doi/abs/10.5555/0258-9184-39.1.101">Dalai Lama effect</a>” have found that the economic penalty for meeting the Dalai Lama is small and fleeting or non-existent – and that there is no dividend for compliance with Beijing either.</p>
<p>Given the costs are minimal, there is no real reason why Western leaders should defy China and meet with the Dalai Lama. And there are a number of pressing reasons why they should.</p>
<h2>Stand up and be counted</h2>
<p>Beijing’s realpolitik is based on a bet that whichever party buckles first will find itself under diplomatic pressure on a broader range of issues. This explains why weaker and divided European states have come under more pressure for hosting the Dalai Lama than the US and India have: China simply sees them as easier diplomatic marks.</p>
<p>But for the many European nations jealously guarding their sovereignty against what they see as the excesses of the EU, it makes no sense to let Beijing’s preferences dictate who they can or cannot meet.</p>
<p>These meetings and other types of support also give Western governments some leverage over the political goals and strategies of the Tibetans, which in turn provides another check against Chinese-Tibetan relations descending into open conflict. As the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/14/tibet.china1">eruptions of 2008</a> showed, these third parties could find themselves on the horns of a far deadlier dilemma than the current one, forced to pick sides in a dispute marked by out-and-out violence.</p>
<p>But the biggest reason of all to keep engaging with the Dalai Lama is that the liberal values he defends are under attack almost everywhere. </p>
<p>Putin’s Russia is perverting democracy at home and rampaging across the former Soviet world, while China unabashedly boasts about the supposed superiority and dynamism of its authoritarian model. Much of Asia has spent two decades deploying different versions of the nebulous concept of “<a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/sen.htm">Asian values</a>” to reject or deform liberal principles. The “Arab Spring” has turned into a nightmare.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, many Western leaders are using their own rights and freedoms to trample those of others, cheering on dictators elsewhere and restricting liberties at home. </p>
<p>Given this onslaught, Western leaders have to stand by the Dalai Lama. By unabashedly promoting the universal application of human rights and democracy, he is a rarity among not just Asian leaders but in the world at large. It is vital to support such rare people, even if only symbolically. And Western governments should either show some backbone when it matters or give up the entire charade of protecting fundamental rights altogether.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tsering Topgyal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Liberal values are under siege around the world. Their most dogged defender must not be left out in the cold.
Tsering Topgyal, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32125
2014-09-26T09:56:52Z
2014-09-26T09:56:52Z
China and India’s border dispute rises to dangerous new heights
<p>On September 19 the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, concluded a three-day trip to India. As he set off to meet Narendra Modi, Xi <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/towards-an-asian-century-of-prosperity/article6417277.ece">wrote in The Hindu</a> that China and India “need to become co-operation partners.” </p>
<p>This does not explain why his soldiers entered Indian territory without authorisation on the first day of his visit. </p>
<p>As Xi landed in Gujarat, Indian media was abuzz with reports of a <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/chinese-civilians-intrude-into-ladakh-area/article1-1264293.aspx">Chinese intrusion into Indian territory</a> in Ladakh, with 130 Indian troops facing down 230 Chinese troops. Both sides publicly downplayed the face-off – but it was apparently serious enough for Modi to raise it twice with Xi. </p>
<p>Whatever he said did nothing to relieve the tension, which is still high: <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/24/india-china-modi-chumar-army-ladakh-idINKCN0HJ2FU20140924">around 1,000 soldiers from each side</a> have now been stationed in Ladakh and the dispute is playing out through a seemingly endless series of rushed tit-for-tat construction of military huts and roads.</p>
<p>Clearly, the latest increase in tension is not just an everyday mishap; thanks to constant mistakes, misperception and mistrust, it risks escalating into a more intense conflict. </p>
<h2>Crossing the line</h2>
<p>Chinese-Indian border incursions are nothing new: according to the Indian government, 334 “encroachments” <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/chinas-president-xi-jinping-arrives-in-delhi-as-troops-face-off-at-india-china-border-1410968062">have already happened in 2014</a> (with 411, 426 and 213 incidents in 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively).</p>
<p>Disputed since China <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/02/tibet-through-chinese-eyes/306395/">annexed all of Tibet</a> in 1950, the border still eludes clarification. India claims about 15,000 square miles of Chinese-controlled territory in <a href="http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/sino-indian-relations-the-geopolitics-of-aksai-chin-4822/">Aksai Chin</a>, while China claims Indian <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-09-23/news/54239588_1_pm-modi-incursions-gujarat-additional-chief-secretary">Arunachal Pradesh</a> (about 34,000 square miles) as “Southern Tibet”.</p>
<p>The failure to clearly demarcate the China-India border has led to overlapping perceptions of where the so-called <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/lac-line-of-actual-control-chinese-incursion-ladakk-pla/1/269640.html">Line of Actual Control</a> (LAC) lies, guaranteeing that rival border patrols will run into each other and force the issue. </p>
<p>It’s possible that troops stationed high up in the Himalayas are just horribly out of touch with international politics. Alternatively, the People’s Liberation Army could be airing its own foreign policy views in opposition to the civilian leadership. </p>
<p>Then again, this could also be a co-ordinated strategy on the part of the Chinese: talking peace and dangling economic incentives while implementing hard-nosed security policies, just as Beijing is doing in the East and South China Seas. </p>
<p>But whatever is behind the latest dial-up in tensions, it has taken emotions to a height unseen in years.</p>
<h2>Making a scene</h2>
<p>Territorial issues haunt Indian-Chinese relations even at the best of times – and so it went during Xi’s visit. India had mixed success keeping Tibetan protests out of the Chinese president’s path: to safeguard the atmosphere before his arrival in Ahmedabad, 52 Tibetan students were pre-emptively detained, and north-east Indian staff in Xi’s hotel were banned from their workplace. </p>
<p>But still, Tibetan girls <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/tibetans-breach-xis-security-in-new-delhi/article6425604.ece">descended onto Hyderabad House</a>, site of the Delhi meeting, shouting anti-Chinese slogans. Other activists scaled scaffolding outside Xi’s hotel and unfurled pro-Tibetan banners.</p>
<p>Some Indians speculated that the authorities deliberately allowed the protesters to reach Hyderabad House in retaliation for the border incursion. If true, beating up the protesters and bundling them away within minutes is a strange and feckless way to send a message to China. </p>
<p>In any case, ahead of Xi’s arrival, it had been predicted that he would pressure New Delhi to help curtail the Dalai Lama’s activities and shut down the Tibetan “government-in-exile”. New Delhi reportedly rejected these demands – but in a signal that the incursions had introduced a <em>froideur</em> into proceedings, it also refused to resurrect its expression of support for “One China Principle” in the customary joint declaration.</p>
<p>All this might sound like it calls for a reasonable sort of detente – but the problem is, New Delhi and Beijing need far more from each other than that. </p>
<h2>Forced co-operation</h2>
<p>The economic case for co-operation is obvious. China and India are currently trading only at the volume of US$66.4 billion, although India suffers a trade deficit of around US$35 billion. The 16 deals signed during Xi’s visit will bequeath a Chinese investment of US$20 billion in Indian power equipment, automobiles, infrastructure development and airlines.</p>
<p>For India, securing foreign investment is a crucial priority. China has plenty of capital to invest, and if Modi is serious about <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-bank-watch-out-the-brics-bank-is-a-game-changer-29437">co-operating in global institutions with the other BRICS</a>, he will have to defrost New Delhi’s relations with Beijing. </p>
<p>But for China, embroiled in various sharp territorial disputes with neighbours on its eastern Pacific front, improving relations with India is a point of paramount security importance. </p>
<p>With Modi <a href="https://theconversation.com/modi-takes-manhattan-in-bid-to-bolster-strategic-partnership-with-obama-32178">headed to the US</a> with an imperative to repair relations with Washington, this just weeks after he <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-02/visiting-japan-indias-modi-pokes-at-china">implicitly decried Chinese “expansionism”</a> in Tokyo, hopes that the world’s two largest countries will manage to improve their relationship may be premature at best.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tsering Topgyal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
On September 19 the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, concluded a three-day trip to India. As he set off to meet Narendra Modi, Xi wrote in The Hindu that China and India “need to become co-operation partners…
Tsering Topgyal, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/20398
2013-11-22T06:13:36Z
2013-11-22T06:13:36Z
Prehistoric world’s missing big cats revealed in fossil finds
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35817/original/gf4xc5vb-1385072624.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C229%2C2048%2C1569&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">I've put on a bit of weight in the last 4 million years, obviously.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mr Mo-Fo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fossil record of early humans is punctuated by gaps, voids in our understanding of all the transitions from the common ancestor of humans and other apes to modern day <em>Homo sapiens</em>. While working in the Tibetian Plateau of central Asia, we made an important discovery to fill in a similar void – but one that shed light on the evolution of cats.</p>
<p>The fossils, dating from the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, 4-6m years ago, represent at least three individuals of a previously unknown cat species. In our study <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1774/20132686">published</a> in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this species has now been identified as the oldest known member of the “big cats”, whose living relatives include lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards. The new fossil species is named <em>Panthera blytheae</em> or <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1774/20132686.abstract">Blythe’s Panther</a>.</p>
<p>This discovery of a nearly complete skull of the new fossilised big cat came as a surprise. Our team of Chinese and American paleontologists has been exploring the western reaches of the Tibetan Plateau since 2006. We’d already made several important discoveries in the region known as Zanda Basin, including a skull of the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6047/1285.abstract">earliest woolly rhino</a>, and a partial skeleton of an <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/19/7374.full.pdf">extinct three-toed horse</a> that provided an important indicator that modern day open plains are an ancient landscape that already rolled beneath the Himalayan foothills millions of years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35806/original/n6bkw9dt-1385052420.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reconstruction of the skull of <em>Panthera blytheae</em>, the oldest known fossil big cat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mauricio Antón</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In August 2010, we arrived in the Zanda Basin ready for another season of prospecting and survey of unexplored cliffs and valleys. Even before lunch on the first day, palaeontology PhD student (and my wife) <a href="http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/?Page=7663">Juan Liu</a> had discovered a hillside strewn with fossil fragments. Under the experienced supervision of Gary Takeuchi from <a href="http://www.tarpits.org/our-story/staff">Rancho La Brea Tar Pits</a>, we excavated the crushed but relatively complete skull of this new fossil cat. Our fossil collection mostly comprised limb bones and horn cores of extinct antelopes, horses and rhinos, so the discovery of a carnivore’s skull was a pleasant surprise that boosted our confidence. There was obviously more scientific potential still buried in the barren lands of the Tibetan Plateau.</p>
<p>This finding is important because the relatively ancient geologic age of the fossils fill the gap in the existing fossil record of big cats, which is extremely fragmentary. Examining the family tree of living big cats and several extinct species indicates that <em>Panthera blytheae</em> is a sister to the snow leopard, two species that constitute a lineage of high altitude big cats that survived in the Himalayas for millions of years. Based on anatomical information, DNA samples and geographical distribution of big cat species, we found evidence that supported the idea that big cats originated in Asia.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35802/original/xxjddmgb-1385045355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gary Takeuchi (in blue) works carefully to extract the rock containing the fossil cat skull from the ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Tseng</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the existing species of big cats, we know relatively little about their early evolutionary history. And they are not the only species that present a scientific conundrum due to missing fossils. Other mammals such as <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/eutheria/chirofr.html">bats</a> and lineages of certain apes (including <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/326.abstract">anatomically modern humans</a>) also have significant gaps in the fossil record that prevent a fuller understanding of exactly how they evolved.</p>
<p>One carnivore family dear to my heart, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmUmvjqnafg">the hyenas</a>, also presents some special issues for understanding living species. Three of the four living hyena species are specialised bone crushers, but the fourth species, aardwolf (<em>Proteles cristata</em>), is a specialised termite feeder with no functioning teeth for bone crushing or for pretty much any kind of chewing. The fossil record of aardwolves <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16503281">is essentially nonexistent</a>, so there is much debate as to when and how these peculiar hyenas evolved.</p>
<p>Big cats receive extra attention partly because several living species are seriously endangered, and all are on the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a> of threatened species. They are also the earliest-branching lineage among all living cats. Unlike the evolutionary dead-ends elsewhere in the cat family, for example the sabre-toothed cats that roamed the world until the Ice Age brought their demise, feline and pantherine cats diversified sometime in the later Miocene epoch, and successfully dispersed throughout the world into modern times. A more complete understanding of how all living cats came to be so diverse, widespread, and intertwined with human civilisation will come from understanding how the various species first diversified.</p>
<p>Big cats fit in that early place in the evolution of living cats, and continued fossil discoveries will no doubt enlighten us to the history of the earliest of feline predators. As for our research team, we intend to return to the Zanda Basin to continue our search for fossil clues on the “Roof of the World” – the Tibetan Plateau, which rose to its present height within the evolutionary time frame of many living mammals – hopefully to reveal not only more about these early big cats, but also the connection between environmental change over time and its effects on the extinct ecosystems found there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/20398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Z. Jack Tseng receives funding from the National Science Foundation (U.S.) and American Museum of Natural History. </span></em></p>
The fossil record of early humans is punctuated by gaps, voids in our understanding of all the transitions from the common ancestor of humans and other apes to modern day Homo sapiens. While working in…
Z Jack Tseng, Postdoctoral Fellow in Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History
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