| There are LOT of Tibetans around Xining. I’m noticing this
because I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than a few Tibetans
in my life before now, so it has really made an impression on me. You
can usually pick them out of a crowd of Han and Hui immediately. Their
skin is on average much darker than most here, especially when so many
of the Hui women are so fair-skinned. Also, their clothes are frequently
quite different. Lots of them wear thick robes with extra-long sleeves,
bright sashes  wrapped around their waists, and boots. Their facial features
are a little different, too. Their cheekbones are higher and more pronounced,
their faces are a little wider maybe, their hair is curlier, and noses
a little bit larger, too (both in width and in how far they stick out
from the rest of the face).
To tell the truth, I’m a little stricken by how much their features
resemble Native American Indians. Many of the women braid their hair in
a way fairly common among Native Americans. If some Tibetans went to the
US, I’m sure many people would just assume they were from some local
tribe. There are quite a few of them on the bus I’m riding right
now. I’m on the way to Taersi Temple, which is a Tibetan Buddhist
temple, so it only makes sense.
While on the subject of ethnic minorities, I wan to mention something.
It’s a pattern I’ve been noticing since back at Heavenly Lake.
It’s about the interaction I see between Han Chinese and the various
ethnic minorities. Most of the time, there is little to none. From what
I can see, Han Chinese hang out with each other, and it appears that the
minorities are content to do the same. Of course, this rule isn’t
hard and fast. Schoolchildren frequently mix it up, though some minorities
have special schools they go to because mandarin isn’t their mother
language). In some places, Hans and minorities work at the same job together,
and once or twice, I’ve seen what I thought was a Han eating with
some minority folks. I imagine and hope that as time progresses, instances
such as these will increase, as they’re not very common right now.
The type of interaction I see most is in the form of business transactions:
A few Han buying lunch or dinner at a Uyghur restaurant, Hans buying goods
from a Muslim street merchant, Tibetans buying bus tickets from a Han
ticket-seller behind a glass wall, Hans staying in the Kazak yurts, etc,
etc, etc… Frequently, this kind of interaction goes off with nothing
interesting to note – perhaps no words are even spoken. BUT, sometimes
I am made uncomfortable by the way the way it goes. I don’t know
how to put this more gracefully. Many times I get the undeniable feeling
that Hans bully the minorities. When Hans are the customers, they will
make implications and hints that the establishment’s goods and/or
service is sub-standard, or even horribly incompetent, or that their prices
are the prices a scheming idiot would charge, and pass the insult off
as a joke, which the shopkeeper, waiter, or serviceperson is expected
to laugh at and endure. When the minority is the customer, sometimes I
see Han people reluctant to provide any kind of service.
For example, yesterday I was at the Xining Bus station’s information
desk asking how to get to my next destination, and about lodging here
in Xining. A couple of Tibetan guys came up and had their own questions.
The lady finished answering my questions first (which was only natural),
and then gave a three-word answer to the Tibetan guys while looking at
a newspaper. When they asked further questions, instead of answering these
questions and helping them, she continued talking to me, even though I
already had my answers, and she was just rephrasing the things she had
already said. I nodded and thanked her, trying to end our conversation,
but she persisted, completely ignoring the Tibetan guys. It made me VERY
uncomfortable to be a tool in her discrimination.
I hope that with the continued development of China, both physically
and emotionally, that the Han will also improve the general treatment
of and conditions for the minorities. As it is, I’m concerned that
these people are being pushed into poverty, and eventually, non-existence.
(2003/11/03 - I would like to acknowledge in hindsight, now that I’m
back in Shanghai, that I may have not been seeing the entire picture at
the time of writing this. I think that Chinese people in general treat
service people – waiters, shopkeepers, attendants, etc. –
in ways that sometimes make me uncomfortable, regardless of the serviceperson’s
ethnic origins. It is not as if Han people reserve bad treatment of service
people for minorities, just that the frequency with which I have noticed
and was displeased by it has been much greater when the serviceperson
was a minority.)
 Why does this kind of treatment bother me and make me uncomfortable?
Well, I think the reason is quite personal. Personal enough that I’m
not even completely confident that it belongs in this weblog, but I’ll
take a chance. It’s probably the same reason that other habits of
Han people in China bother me - like spitting, lack of consideration for
others, hygiene, and many other points of personal conduct. What is this
universal reason?
I’m half Han. All my life, I’ve been proud to be half Chinese.
When I see people acting in these ways, it can make me a little less proud.
Of course, I realize this is folly. I am not them, they are not me, nor
do the represent who I am. It makes no sense at all to let their actions
and faults affect how I feel about my own heritage and identity, but sometimes,
to a very small degree, they do. I can’t lie and say I’m a
person who’s completely governed by logic and sense. And it isn’t
as if I end up hating myself every time I see a Han person do something
uncivilized, but 1000 mosquito bites still make an elephant itch.
When I was living in the United States, I wasn’t surrounded by
your average Chinese person every day. The Chinese people who I was around
were those that had immigrated to the United States, and had the luxury
of enjoying the advantages there. And to tell the truth, I was surrounded
mostly by people of completely different cultures and backgrounds. My
being half Chinese was always something that gave me individuality and
distinction. It was easy for me to sort of exaggerate the greatness of
the Chinese people and culture (within my mind), thus adding to my personal
pride and puffing up my ego a bit. When the real world and its rough edges
manage to taint that fantasy image of the people I am half descended from,
it is ever so slightly disappointing. It forces me to give up a bit of
the ideal that was doing its part to boost my sense of self-worth. I know
it’s ridiculous that this is the case, and I am actually somewhat
embarrassed to reveal it. But it *is* the truth, so I might as well acknowledge
it as such. Otherwise, I’m never going to get over it.
October 24th - 12:30 pm
On a local bus coming back from Taersi Temple
My trip to Taersi Temple was fairly interesting. It began by getting
off the bus, walking through an entrance gate past a group of dolled-up
women in brightly colored traditional-looking clothing who were all staring
at me. By the eager look in their eyes, I thought for sure that they were
going to try to sell me something, but they just watched me pass. I figured
that they must be there for some kind of activity, or they wouldn’t
be so dressed up, wearing makeup, and have their hair done in tiny braids.
After walking about 50 meters, I was approached by a girl who was wearing
very normal clothing and not done-up at all. She spoke in Mandarin to
me, and said, “Hello, sir, would you like a guide to the monastery?
The fee is 50 RMB. Without a guide you might not understand a lot of things,
and miss some important spots here.” She had a guide badge hanging
from her neck, so I figured she was legitimate. At this point, ALL of
the other girls I previously mentioned came dashing over, waving their
guide badges at me. About 5 of them got directly in my face, less than
half a meter away, edging the first girl out of the way, literally YELLING
at me why I should choose them for my guide. “…I am a Chinese
ethnic minority…” “… I have been guiding for 2
years …” “… I am the best guide…”
and so on. The arrival of these competitors had now forced the first girl
to act in kind, pushing back at the others and saying, “Sir, I was
the first to approach you…” I was actually speechless. These
girls were pushing and shoving and yelling so aggressively that it left
me with no words to say. It was all I could do just to watch and be fascinated
by them for a few moments. It wasn’t like watching people at all,
but more like watching newborn piglets crawl over each other, fighting
for a chance to suckle at their mother’s teat.
Finally, when my fascination turned to disgust, I stopped them, and
told the first girl that I would go with her. I told the other girls that
I thought there was little respect in the way they acted, trying to steal
business in such an aggressive manner, pushing each other and yelling
at me. I realized that they had let me pass before because they didn’t
think I could speak Mandarin. When the first girl was brave enough to
give me a chance, and was successful, they all rushed in like hyenas to
try and steal the downed prey. As you can probably tell, the whole incident
really left an impression on me. I guess it’s pretty silly of me,
but I think I had expected that in a place of such religious significance,
that people would have more respect, and find a more civil way to do business.
My guide, who told me to call her Zhuanma, apologized for the incident,
and I told her it wasn’t her fault at all. She said other patrons
had complained about this in the past, so maybe in time, after enough
people complain, things will get organized.
 Things went pretty well after that. Because my Mandarin (as it relates
to Buddhism) isn’t superb, I had to ask Zhuanma to explain things
more simply sometimes, but how do you explain things like levels of enlightenment
and Nirvana more simply? In the end I think I understood about 75% of
what she told me. I’m lucky I have at least SOME exposure to talking
about Buddhism in Chinese.
The monastery is over 500 years old, with various parts built during
the years since. It is composed of a number of temples (used for various
different purposes), which are sort of scattered amongst living quarters
for monks. There are temples for visitors, for storing sutra scrolls,
for training and education, for prayer (many of these don’t allow
visitors), and for housing a couple of their more precious items. It is
one of the 6 most important temples for the Gelugpa, or yellow hat sect
of Tibetan Buddhism (which I believe is also the largest and most powerful
in the world). Its special significance lies in that Tsong Khapa, the
founder of the Gelugpa sect, is said to have been born on this spot. Many
Tibetans make religious pilgrimages here for this very reason.
Zhuanma said that Taersi Temple has 3 important types of art: wall painting,
pile-embroidery (something I don’t really understand even after
seeing it, and which is a lost art, even within the monastery), and the
most interesting of all, Yak Butter sculptures. This is not a joke. I
realize that the words “Yak” and “Butter” have
their own humor qualities all on their own, and when combined with the
word “sculpture”, it makes for great comedy potential, but
this is totally legitimate, and the monks are quite serious about it.
Yak butter is used here for a number of things. It is used as candle wax
in huge brass candle bowls (which pilgrims add to with their own yak butter,
and which produces a very unique smell), it is spread over certain rocks
and stone tablets so that donation money will stick to them, and most
importantly, for sculptures.
|
