'Beijing planning to swamp Tibet with 1 mn ethnic Chinese'
The Dalai Lama has said China is contemplating to swamp Tibet with 1 million ethnic Chinese people after the Olympics in an effort to dilute Tibetan culture and identity.
By PTI |
LONDON: The Dalai Lama has said China is contemplating to swamp Tibet with 1 million ethnic Chinese people after the Olympics in an effort to dilute Tibetan culture and identity.
"We have received information that after the Olympics 1 million Chinese are going to settle in the autonomous region of Tibet", the Dalai Lama said in an interview published in the 'Guardian' today.
He said: "there is every danger of Tibet becoming a truly Han Chinese land and Tibetans becoming an insignificant minority. Then the very basis of the idea of autonomy becomes meaningless."
The Tibetan spiritual leader has been pressing for religious autonomy in Tibet within the sovereignty of China.
He said there has been an increasing influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet in recent years as transport has improved, but the exact figures are a matter of dispute.
A 2000 census indicated there were 2.4 million Tibetans in the region and 159,000 Han Chinese who are in majority in Lhasa, the regional capital.
However, China has denied carrying out any deliberate settlement policy aimed at the dilution of Tibetan culture and points instead to the benefits brought to the region by economic development and investment.
The 72-year-old monk said, over-settlement and over-exploitation of Tibet was threatening the quality and flow of rivers flowing out of the Tibetan highlands, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Indus, the Mekong and the Ganges.
"We have received information that after the Olympics 1 million Chinese are going to settle in the autonomous region of Tibet", the Dalai Lama said in an interview published in the 'Guardian' today.
He said: "there is every danger of Tibet becoming a truly Han Chinese land and Tibetans becoming an insignificant minority. Then the very basis of the idea of autonomy becomes meaningless."
The Tibetan spiritual leader has been pressing for religious autonomy in Tibet within the sovereignty of China.
He said there has been an increasing influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet in recent years as transport has improved, but the exact figures are a matter of dispute.
A 2000 census indicated there were 2.4 million Tibetans in the region and 159,000 Han Chinese who are in majority in Lhasa, the regional capital.
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However, China has denied carrying out any deliberate settlement policy aimed at the dilution of Tibetan culture and points instead to the benefits brought to the region by economic development and investment.
The 72-year-old monk said, over-settlement and over-exploitation of Tibet was threatening the quality and flow of rivers flowing out of the Tibetan highlands, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Indus, the Mekong and the Ganges.
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