When will China let us share the culture of Tibet?

THE Irish Examiner of March 31 carried a very appealing picture of a small Chinese girl in a red hat accompanied by an announcement that the Government is to spend €3m on a cultural exchange with China.

Such openness by China, once so isolated and threatening to the rest of the world, is excellent news.

It is reassuring also that the Chinese people have managed to retain their ancient traditions of music and drama after decades of cultural 'cleansing' of the old ways.

China, of course, is now a great world power and a valued trading partner. However, it seems to me that a huge region Tibet with an immense, diverse, unique and ancient culture is being forgotten.

I am sure that Tibetan traditions of music, dance, opera, song and drama will not be represented in the cultural exchange, even though, following forcible annexation of the region in the 1950s, the Chinese government considers Tibet part of China.

Since annexation and the flight of the Dalai Lama to India, the Tibetan plateau, once the domain of nomadic tribesmen living in harmony with nature, has seen massive migration of Chinese into the area, industrialisation, damming of rivers, draining of sacred lakes, road-building, deforestation and the stripping of mineral resources.

Successive Chinese administrations in the region effectively crushed religious activity by destroying ancient monasteries, with nuns and monks persecuted, tortured, imprisoned or murdered. Ordinary people were forbidden their Buddhist religion, their language marginalised in favour of Chinese.

Even pictures of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' God on Earth are still banned, even within private homes.

Fifty years after annexation, indigenous Tibetans living in Tibet are among the poorest people in the world and are rarely able to speak their national language.

This story of repression surely must strike a chord with the Irish people.

We in Ireland are unlikely ever to experience the 'music of wisdom and enjoyment' that gives voice to Tibetan history and culture, unless the Government makes overtures to China. Without deliberate attempts to understand the position of Tibet, it will become history and eventually its culture will be lost.

By way of showing at least some moral responsibility, perhaps our national newspapers and RTÉ should send reporters to Liverpool next month where the Dalai Lama will speak at John Moore's University. I'm going.

A whole nation in exile lives by his word it is all they have to sustain them in their struggle.

Brenda Duncan,

Ballinskelligs,

Co Kerry