Appendices continues....

We always stress the importance of Mandarin. Indeed Chinese is

important and it’s our national official language. But in Lhasa and

many Tibetan ethnic regions, there is a popular saying that goes,

‘Tibetan is a formality but Mandarin is the rice bowl.’ That’s exactly as I

see it. Many Tibetan students work hard on Mandarin for their future,

and, as a result, many forget their own language. Of course there are a

lot of reasons for this, for example some schools don’t have Tibetan

language curriculum at all, and classes of mainland students are not

allowed to speak Tibetan, etc. Language is the root of an ethnic group

and to a great extent is a symbol that distinguishes one race from

another. Without a language, an ethnic culture will also die along with

it. On the other hand how many Han people understand Tibetan

language and script? Which makes us feel deeply ashamed and sorry.

I don’t know whether I should be happy or sad about this, but I feel there’s a

serious lack of understanding between the two ethnic groups.

Han people have their own holidays and customs, so do the

Tibetans. In Lhasa, along with more contact with other ethnic groups,

many Tibetans started to celebrate Han holidays, such as dragon boat

festival and tomb sweeping festival, etc. But few spend Tibetan holidays

with Tibetans. Some say Han culture is so tolerant and so influential.



But have you ever thought about that when a dead body is incinerated it perishes and when it gets buried it becomes part

of the soil, while heavenly burial benefits other animals and alleviates

their hunger, thus protecting them. What a noble burial and selfless

funeral is this. But it is regarded as barbarian, primitive, cruel. So when

you talk about this please read up a little and understand more about it!

Many still stubbornly believe that rice is the best staple food. But

when told that Tibetans eat Tsangba [roasted barley], their facial

expression reflects shock, contempt, dismissal. It’s ridiculous and stupid

and ignorant because tsangba is actually a pure and unpolluted natural

food.