今天，我们坐在一起，主要探讨中國領導層交接，對中國和西藏以及其他國家的影響。其实，我要谈的是我对图伯特的认知。不过，在开始之前，我想略谈一下我对这个问题的观点。如果用一句话概括，我认为，习近平上台后，西藏问题只能更加恶化。
首先，从他个人历史看，他一直都是维护专制的官僚，正像不久前一位来自英国的中国知识分子邵江先生说的那样，江泽民和胡锦涛时代的所有的反人类罪行，他都参与并执行了。他直接对浙江民主党和异议人士进行了迫害，对浙江民营经济和地下经济进行了摧毁，并且，在福建，他也有腐败丑闻。
其次，中共内部已经制定了一个关于对西藏的框架， 一个庞大的利益集团，正在不断地从这个框架里得到好处，所以，一般来说，任何人上台，都不会变动这个框架。
再次，像习近平这批在位的太子党，接受的完全是中国共产党的权贵教育，崇尚利益、崇尚暴力，迷恋权力和等级，而且十分贪婪，因此，他们自己不会主动改变。唯一的变化只能依靠藏人自己的努力，以及中国民间的反省。
现在，我再谈另一个问题，也就是今天我要谈的主要内容，即，我是怎样走近西藏问题的？换句话说，我是怎样认知图伯特的？
小时候，老师常告诉我们，西藏是一个非常黑暗、落后的地方，那里的人们，还挣扎在野蛮的农奴制社会。当时，我们的教课书，按照马列主义的社会形态学说，不容置疑地把人类社会由低到高定为五个单线发展阶段，即原始社会——奴隶制社会——封建社会——资本主义社会——社会主义社会（共产主义社会）。照这个逻辑，西藏该是处在奴隶社会和封建社会之间的，比中国落后多了。毛泽东说：“落后就要挨打”，所以，当老师说到我们解放了西藏，让农奴们过上了幸福的新生活时，学生们的脸上都有了笑容，仿佛我们也在解放西藏中，贡献了一份力量。
有一天，老师领着我们参加了一个忆苦思甜大会。这是中国七十年代前后，最平常的公众活动：请一些年龄大的人，讲旧社会的“苦”和新社会的“甜”。这天的讲演人是一位从西藏的“农奴”，叫巴桑。到现在我还记得，当时会场上的横幅标语写着：“巴桑讲家史”。巴桑回忆了农奴主（领主）的狠毒和野蛮，剥人皮剔人骨等等，说得会场上，一阵阵传来哭声。
到了八十年代，书店里出现了一些关于西藏的书，大多为汉人作家的作品，写下了西藏的自然风景和人文风景之独特，作家们不约而同地感叹西藏是神秘的。因为，西藏超出了他们的思维极限，在他们的经验之外，是用汉人的伦理和哲学解释不了的。但是，这些作者有一个共性，就是随意地解释他们并不了解的事儿和人，带着汉人的傲慢。
于是，我开始寻找外国人写的关于西藏的书。就找到了古伯察的《鞑鞑西藏行》，大卫妮尔的《一个巴黎女子在拉萨》，斯文赫定的《亚洲腹地旅行记》、哈勒的《西藏七年》等等。从这些书里，我看到了西藏人的真正特征：善良，尊重生命，哪怕是一个小小的虫子，都不忍弄死的。佛教中的“如母有情”，就是对所有的生命的关爱，已成为他们的呼吸。
就这样，阅读中，西藏渐渐地具体了，具体成了一个磁场。无论我干什么，都在想着西藏，即使卖一双鞋子，一件衣服，都会想，西藏用得着吗？
1997年，我踏上了西藏之旅。那时，我一点也没有想到，这是不归之路。不归，并不是说后来我没有再回到我的家乡，而是从此，我的心，留在了西藏。首先，西藏吸引我的是自然风景，高高的大山，矮矮的绿草，排山倒海似的白云，湍急的河流，数不完的温泉、热泉、冷泉…..我终于理解，为什么英國小說家詹姆斯·希爾頓（James Hilton ）在《消失的地平線》里，把西藏看做一种理想。
虽然这时我已到过中国的大多数地方，还有周边的几个国家。具体地说，从黑龙江的边陲小镇黑河到海参崴，从大连北京上海普陀山西安昆明大理西双版纳瑞丽又到缅甸等等，但是，都无法与西藏相比，西藏的自然风景极为独特。
而人文风景更独特：建筑，语言、宗教、服装、音乐，连帕廓街上的那些项链戒指手镯，都与中国的不同，那是一种与世俗无关的纯美，我买了这个买那个，同时，我开始写西藏。说起来，我到西藏以前，已发表过一些小说散文，还出版过诗集，但是，总感到自己过份地拘泥于文字技巧，缺少丰满而深刻的内涵，可又无从改进。
写西藏时，我的心是完全开放的，不再追求形式，想到哪儿就写到哪儿。很快地，中国的一些主要杂志，如《人民文学》的散文精萃，《十月》，《中国作家》等，都刊出了我的作品。 后来，天津百花文艺出版还出版了我的散文集《撩开神秘的面纱》。我的作品可以在中国发表和出版，是因为那时，我的文字只局限在表层的西藏自然风景和人文风景之间。
作为一个汉人，或者说中国人，能够深层地看到西藏曾经的繁荣和今天的破碎是不容易的，这是一个战胜惯性的过程，至少需要完成两个阶段，第一，走出中共的洗脑，第二，走出几千年中国皇权文化的束缚。
当然，我也不是一点都没有看到西藏的苦难。比如，我直观地发现，那些越来越多的中国式建筑，轻佻而喧闹，完全是对西藏人文风景的破坏。而西藏的老房子，都在摇摇欲坠，甚至当时还有一个“以房养房”的政策，鼓励拆毁那些老房子。我于是开始调查，发现仅在帕廓街一带，这种对研究西藏文化有着不可估量价值的老房子，就有500多座，而当时，上个世纪九十年代末，我在拉萨工作时，只剩下了93座，当然，现在肯定都已消失殆尽了。有的藏人悄悄地告诉我，中国当局是想彻底毁掉西藏文化赖以存在的大背景。
“香港回归”时，我亲眼看到，一位西藏人在祖拉康前喊口号时，立刻上来两个便衣，不由分说地把他拖到了帕廓派出所，后来我问一位僧人朋友，那个人喊的是什么，“西藏独立！”他说。
我还看到，在萨嘎达瓦节期间，林廓路两边，尽是警察，简直黑压压一片。为什么中国当局如此看守藏人呢？他们不是给了藏人幸福的新生活吗？不是拯救了西藏，由落后变为先进了吗？
这些疑问，后来，都写进了我的小说。我和以往的中国作家不同的是，我对自己无力解释的东西，给予了应有的尊重。所以，肖复兴先生，他是中国比较著名的作家，在一次发言中，特别谈到了我的作品，说：“原来在东北、现在在《西藏文学》的朱瑞，没有现代作家的浮躁，在很多西藏作家都往内地跑的时候，他却选择了西藏，他的所有的作品，都反应了西藏民族和汉民族的文化冲突。”肖复兴说这些的时候，还误以为我是个男性作者呢。
在《西藏文学》工作期间，我的同事中，有的就是过去的西藏贵族，也就是中共宣传的野蛮而狠毒的农奴主（领主）。但是，走近他们时，我才发现，佛教的利他精神，早已融入了他们的血液，我是眼看着那些“农奴们”，在被“翻身解放”了几十年后，如何看望“农奴主”的，如何像一家人似的在一起唱歌跳舞的。听说，西藏的那些贵族家门前，从前都要为路人放着水罐，甚至糌粑罐的，当然我不是说所有的贵族都是善良的，但，这是一种普遍的存在。
那时，我每天上下班，都要经过拉鲁庄园，这是八世和十二世达赖喇嘛的家族居住过的地方。这里，曾经是一片水草丰裕的沼泽，湖泊相连，被称为拉萨的肺，有调节空气的作用，使拉萨冬暖夏凉。但是，在上个世纪九十年代末期，我每次经过时，脸上都会落上一层尘沙。因为，自从中共占领西藏后，军队放走了那里的地下水， 使水草不再生长，沙化日益严重。
我还看到了著名的修行地德中温泉，被热地之子廉价承包了四十年。虽说旅馆的住宿条件没啥改变，但是，宿费成倍上涨，这些人还随意地射杀那里的保护动物。著名西藏作家唯色女士在她的《记一次杀生之行》中，就描绘了那些人射杀黄鸭的场面。
我还常在拉萨的大街上，看到那些中国四川来的妓女们，硬是拽住过路的僧人不放，看到了被野蛮拆毁的千年修行地扎耶巴，看到了仅剩下残垣断壁的甘丹寺，看到的藏人家里偷偷地供奉着的达赖喇嘛尊者的照片和那不灭的酥油灯……
渐渐地，我看到了中国解放西藏的本质，就是让一个民族陷入一种无法自拔的政治和经济压迫之中，看到了一个被中国霸占的和平而美丽如画的佛国，正在消失的可怕现实。于是，我开始写作长篇历史小说《拉萨好时光》，为了让人们看到被中国占领以前的真实的西藏，这是少有人描绘的，因为，早已被深深地埋在中国的谎言和炮火之下。同时，我也开始深入采访，写下了《西藏问题之一》，并交给了唯色，发表在王力雄先生的《递进民主》网站。然而，正在我调查写作《西藏问题之二》的时候，我的家人办理了移民加拿大的手续，我也不得不跟着启程。
2008年西藏全民起义爆发，唯色在她的博客上发表了我的《西藏问题之一》，改标题为《藏人为什么抗议——也谈西藏问题》，并被多家网络转载。接下来，我开始写作在西藏没有写完的我的长篇历史小说《拉萨好时光》。同时，走访了位于印度的流亡藏人聚居地，并发表了一些有关西藏问题的政论文。
How I Came to Know Tibet
Today we have gathered to discuss the leadership transition
in China and its implications for Chinese, Tibetans and others. But my topic is
about my conceptulization of Tibet. First of all, let me make a brief
introduction about my ideas regarding this issue.
In a nutshell, I think the situation in Tibet will become
worse after Xi Jinping comes to power.
First, from his personal history, Xi Jinping has always been
a bureaucrat to defend the interests of the authoritarians. Mr. Shao Jiang, a
Chinese intellectual from the United Kingdom who came to visit not long ago, rightly
pointed out that Xi participated in and executed all crimes against humanity
committed during the era of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. He directly persecuted
members of the Democratic Party and dissidents in Zhejiang, destroyed the civil
and private economy therein and, in Fujian, also was involved in corruption
scandals.
Second, within the Communist Party they have developed a
framework for the Tibetan issue, from which innumerous interest groups are
continuously gaining enormous benefits. As a result, generally speaking, anyone
from this group coming to power will not change this framework.
Third, the princelings in power, including Xi Jinping, have entirely
accepted the Chinese Communist style of bigwig education, so they advocate personal
interests and violence, and they are obsessed with power and social hierarchy.
They are very greedy as well, so they do not take the initiative to change. The
only change comes from the efforts of Tibetans, as well as the introspection of
grassroots Chinese.
Now, I’ll talk about another issue, which is my main topic
today – how I have approached the issue of Tibet? In other words, how I came to
know Tibet?
As a child, I was told by my teacher that Tibet is a very
dark and backward place, where people lived in a savage serfdom society. At
that time, our textbooks said undeniably that in accordance with the
Marxist-Leninist social morphology human society can be divided, from low to
high, into five singlet development stages that comprise, 1) primitive society,
2) slavery society, 3) feudal society, 4) capitalism society, and 5) a socialist
society (communist society). According to this logic, Tibet is currently in the
stage between the slave and feudal society stages, still much more backward
than the stage China is. Mao Zedong said: those who are backward should be "bullied",
so when the teacher said we had made the liberation of Tibet where those who
were former serfs now live a happy new life, smiles appeared on the faces of
all the students and all of us felt that we too had done our own bit to facilitate
the liberation.
One day, the teacher led us to participate in a meeting to
recall the past sufferings and think about the present happiness, a kind of
public activity very common in the seventies in China when older people were
invited to talk about the "suffering" of the old society and the "happiness"
of the new. The Communist rule is a dividing line, before which is the old
society and after which is the new. A lecturer who came to speak to us on that
day emphasized that even more clearly. She was a serf from Tibet by the name Basang,
a woman. The banners at the meeting hall read: "Basang talks about her
family history," and so on. Basang recalled the vicious and barbaric serf
owners (lords) who had stripped human skin from their serfs and took their bones.
The story brought waves of crying across the meeting hall.
However, in the 1980's, a number of books on Tibet appeared
in China’s bookstores, all of which, of course, were written by Han Chinese
writers. They wrote down the unique natural scenery and cultural landscape and
invariably lamented that Tibet is mysterious, because Tibet is beyond the
limits of their thinking, and stands beyond their experience, and it cannot be explained
with the ethics and philosophy of the Han. These authors, however, have one thing
in common, that is to explain the things and people with which and for whom
they do not really understand. Their explanation, as casual, comes with the
arrogance of the Han Chinese. Writers of this period include Ma Lihua, Liao
Dongfan etc.
So, I started looking for books on Tibet written by foreigners,
such as Travels in Tartary, Thibet and
China by Régis-Evariste Huc, A Paris
lady’s Adventure to Lhasa by Alexandra David-Néel, Scientific results of a journey in Central-Asia by Sven Hedin and Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrier.
From those books, I saw the real characteristics of the Tibetans – kind and respectful
for life. They would not bear to kill even a small insect. In Buddhism there is
a doctrine that man should behave “like a passionate mother" to all other
beings; and this doctrine has become the norm of the Tibetans’ day-to-day
behavior.
Therefore, through reading, Tibet gradually became my life's
magnetic field -- no matter what I am doing I’d think about Tibet. For example,
even if I went to the street to buy a pair of shoes or a piece of clothing, I’d
wonder “Will this be useful in Tibet?”
In 1997, I embarked on a trip to Tibet. At that time, I never thought this would be a road of
no return. This does not mean that I
never returned to my hometown
ever since; it simply means that I left my heart to the land of Tibet. First, Tibet attracts me with its natural scenery -- high mountains, level stretches of green grass, avalanche-like grey clouds, turbulent rivers, countless
hot springs and cold springs... I finally understood why James
Hilton (James Hilton), novelist
of the United Kingdom, considered Tibet as an ideal for his novel "Lost
Horizon".
Although at that
time I had been to most parts of China, plus several neighboring countries -- specifically,
from the border town of Heihe in Heilongjiang to Vladivostok in Russia, from
Dalian, Beijing, Shanghai, Putuo Mountain, Xi'an, Kunming, Dali, Xishuangbanna,
Ruili to Myanmar, but none can be compared with Tibet. Tibet's natural scenery
is extremely unique.
The cultural
landscape is more unique: architecture, language, religion, clothing, music,
even necklaces, rings and bracelets on the Barkhor street are different from
those of China. It is a secular and independent beauty. I bought one after another. Meanwhile, I began
to write about Tibet. In fact, I had published some fiction and prose, and also
published collections of poetry before I went to Tibet, but I always felt that
I had been too excessively stuck to writing skills, so the writings themselves
were in lack of fullness and profound connotation. I knew that clearly, but I
could not find a way for improvement.
When I write about Tibet,
my heart is completely open, no longer pursuing the form. My pen went in the
wake of my thought. Very soon, some of
China's major magazines, such as "People's Literature",
"October", "Chinese Writers" began to publish my work.
Later, Tianjin Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House also published a
collection of my essays, entitled "Put aside the Veil of Mystery". My
work could be published in China at that time, just because then my writing was
confined between the surface of natural scenery and cultural landscape of
Tibet.
As a Han Chinese, it
is not easy to see Tibet's former prosperity and today’s disintegration. One
must go through the process of inertia, and there are two steps you need to
complete – first, overcoming CCP's brainwashing, and second, doing away with of
the thousands of years of Chinese imperial cultural binds.
Of course, I was
not at all ignorant to the suffering of the Tibetans. For example, I
intuitively found that Chinese-style architectural that sprung up day by day
were frivolous and glaring, a sheer destruction of Tibet's cultural landscape,
while the Tibetan style old houses were crumbling. At that time there was even
a policy to encourage the demolition of the old houses. I began to investigate,
and found only in the Barkhor Street area there had been more than 500 old
buildings which had immeasurable value for studying Tibetan culture, but at the
late 1990’s when I worked in Lhasa, there were only 93 buildings left. Of
course, now none of them may have the luck to not be demolished. Some Tibetans secretly told me that the
Chinese authorities want to completely destroy the foundation on which Tibetan
culture is built.
When "Hong
Kong returned to China”, I saw with my
own eyes a Tibetan was shouting slogans before the Jokhang Temple when two
plainclothes police dragged him away without any explanation to the Barkhor
police station. Later, I asked a monk friend what that person was shouting
about. "Independence for Tibet!"
he said.
I have also seen, during
the Sagadawa Festival, crowds of policemen standing along the Lin Kuo Road. I
could not help asking “why Chinese authorities so closely watch over the
Tibetans? Didn’t they give the Tibetans a happy new life? Didn’t they save
Tibet and bring it from backwardness into an advanced society?”
I wrote all these
questions into my novel. An important difference between other Chinese writers
of the past and myself is that I give due respect to those that I cannot
explain. Mr. Xiao Fuxing, a relatively well-known Chinese writer, once talked
about me and my work in particular. He said: "Zhu Rui, who previously
lived in the Northeast, now working for Tibet Literature, is quite different
from many modern writers. He does not have the impetuousness as the others do.
While even the Tibetan writers are running to the Mainland, he has chosen to go
to Tibet. All of his works are the reflection
of the cultural conflicts between Tibetans and Han Chinese.” When he said this,
he did not know that I am a woman.
When I worked for
the “Tibetan Literary”, I found some of my colleagues were the decedents of the
Tibetan nobilities who, according to the communist propaganda were brutal and
vicious serf owners (lords). However, when I approached them, I found the
altruistic spirit of Buddhism which had been a part of their life. I saw with my own eyes how those
"serfs", after being “emancipated" for decades, went to visit
those “serf owners”, how they sang and danced together as if they were of one
family. I was told that Tibetan aristocratic families usually put in front of
the doors jars of water for the passers-by, some even put cans of tsampa. Of
course, I'm not saying all the aristocrats were kind, but kindness is a universal
existence.
At that time, on my
daily commute between home and office, I would pass by the Lalu manor, the
residence of the 8th and 12th Dalai Lama's families. There
was once a cluster of marshes, with abundant water and lush plants. This is
called the lungs of Lhasa, playing the role of regulating air and temperature,
so Lhasa is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. However, in the late nineties
of the last century, every time I passed by, my face would be covered with a
layer of dust or sand. Since Communist China's occupation of Tibet, the army
let go the underground water, so plants could no longer grow, and desertification
worsens day by day.
I also saw the
famous hermitage of Dezong Hot Springs, which was rented by the son of Raidi on
a very cheap contract for forty years. Although the hotel accommodation has little
changed, the price of lodging has doubled, and the customers are free to shoot
protected animals. The famous Tibetan writer Woeser depicts her trip in a short
essay “A Travel to Kill”, in which she tells how those people shot and killed the
wild ducks.
I also saw the prostitutes
from Sichuan, who just grabbed the passing-by monks and would not let them go,
the barbaric demolition of the thousand-year old ashram Drakyerpa Monastery, the ruins of Ganden Monastery, and the Tibetans
who secretly enshrine at home the photographs of the Dalai Lama and the unquenchable
butter lamps ...
Gradually, I saw
the essence of China's liberation of Tibet – it is to throw a nation into an
inextricable political and economic oppression. I also saw the horrifying
reality that a peaceful and picturesque Buddhist country occupied by China is
disappearing into history. So, I started writing a historic novel “The Good Old
Days of Lhasa”, in hope that people could see the real Tibet before China’s
occupation, which is rarely depicted by other writers, because it had long been
buried deep in China’s lies and gunfire. At the same time, I also started
in-depth interviews, on the basis of which, I wrote the first piece of a series
of articles on Tibet issues and sent it to Woeser, and published in the online
magazine “Progressive Democracy" edited by Mr. Wang Lixiong. However, while
I was working on the second piece of the series, my family completed the
application for immigration to Canada, so I had to follow them to go abroad.
The year 2008 saw
the outbreak of the popular uprising in Tibet, Woeser reposted my article on the
Tibet issue on her blog and changed the title into “Why Tibetans Protest – my
point of view of the problems in Tibet". The article was reposted by a
number of magazines. Following this, I started writing the historical novel “The Good
Old Days of Lhasa” which I did not finish when I was in Tibet. At the same
time, I visited the settlements of Tibetans
in-exile in India, and published a number of political essays on Tibet.
（此文为今天在达兰萨拉召开的国际西藏问题研讨会上的发言）
