EVEREST AND BEYOND -- A RARE GLIMPSE INTO WESTERN TIBET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000243

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, DRL, INR, AND G

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/9/2032
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR ECON CH
SUBJECT: EVEREST AND BEYOND -- A RARE GLIMPSE INTO WESTERN TIBET

REF: A) CHENGDU 239 B) CHENGDU 236 C) CHENGDU 235

CHENGDU 00000243 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: The remote western areas of China's Tibetan
Autonomous Region are a mixture of active military facilities,
sensitive religious sites, and vulnerable archeological ruins.
The Everest Base Camp, at which a People's Armed Police station
was recently added, has become a rather squalid tent city
serving tourists as well as mountaineers. A project much
reported on by the international press to pave the road to the
Base Camp, however, has been put on hold until after the
Olympics. Numerous mountain passes apparently give access to
Nepal and India for would-be refugees and those seeking
religious education. Central government political control seems
firm in the region as it ramps up for extensive tourism
development. A mysterious disease has caused significant damage
to local sheep herds. End summary.


2. (SBU) Consul General, Congenoff, and Consulate's ethnic
Tibetan Political Assistant visited the western areas of the
Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) from September 10-19. Other
aspects of the visit have been reported reftels. From what we
were able to turn up in our research and based on the
institutional memory of our long-term Congen personnel, this
long (and very dusty) road trip was apparently the first visit
to the area by U.S. diplomatic representatives since 1950 when
then-Vice Consul Douglas Mackiernan made his ill-fated
evacuation from Xinjiang's Urumqi (known then as Tihwa) in the
wake of the Chinese Civil War. He made it as far as the
southern edge of the Chang Tang wilderness before being shot and
killed by Tibetan border guards at a location roughly at 33
degrees north latitude, 88 degrees east longitude.

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BEYOND SHIGATSE - A RUINED MONASTERY AND THE EVEREST BASE CAMP
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3. (C) Monasteries in the western TAR are almost exclusively
affiliated with the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism,
traditionally linked to the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. A few
hours south of Shigatse we looked into conditions at the 730
year-old Shelkar Choede Monastery, which was once home to 400
monks (current population 35). A relatively long climb at
altitude to the site enabled us at times to (literally) leave
our principal Lhasa Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) handler behind
in the dust. Heavily damaged during the Cultural Revolution,
much of the monastery was in disrepair, and monks there told us
they lacked the funds necessary to build a funeral stupa for
their recently deceased abbot, Kyenrap Jampa, who died in
January of 2007. They also said they believe the numerous dogs
inhabiting the temple are the reincarnated souls of those PLA
soldiers and Red Guards who had attacked the monastery during
the Cultural Revolution, but who had acted under duress.


4. (C) Paved roads ended not long after the Tingri County seat
(population 50,000, elevation 5000 meters or16,500 feet),where
the road to Mount Everest Base Camp One began. Local villagers
there told us the question of paving the road from Tingri to the
Base Camp was a subject of much controversy: some favored paving
the road under the assumption it will raise local incomes due to
increased visitors to the area, but added government officials
had told them the project was postponed until at least after the
Olympics due to "international opposition." However, some local
interlocutors suspected the real reason was opposition from
local travel agencies (managed by Han Chinese and affiliated
with the military) that make considerable profits from renting
four wheel-drive vehicles to tourists and mountaineers.


5. (C) Although unpaved, dusty, and under repair in some areas,
the 110-kilometer (72 miles) road from Tingri to the Everest
Base Camp was in generally good condition, with a fair number of
tourists and a few trucks. As we approached the camp area, we
saw a large and apparently newly constructed hotel, which was
not yet open for business. The camp itself (altitude 5200
meters or about 17,200 feet) was a particularly unprepossessing
collection of about 20 identical black canvas tents reminiscent
of pictures of the Alaska gold rush, and bearing names such as
"Hotel California" and "Disneyland." A few advertised mixed
drinks. Local interlocutors told us many female sex workers
come to the area in the summer to meet the demand of mostly Han

CHENGDU 00000243 002.2 OF 004


Chinese tourists. The interlocutors also told us the sex trade
and other unsavory aspects of the camp had expanded greatly
after the TAR Mountaineering Association assumed management of
the area about two years ago. Garbage and other waste littered
the area. Our initial plan to remain overnight was cancelled by
our FAO handler who told us he could not "guarantee our safety"
there.


6. (C) A few hundred meters south of the camp was a new post
manned by People's Armed Police (PAP) officers, who required all
travelers to identify themselves. A little beyond that spot was
a large stone mound, which marked the farthest spot allowed to
non-mountaineering visitors, and was a popular spot for Han
tourists to pose. (Note: The mound was the site of the April
2007 incident involving the unfurling of a banner by several
American citizens calling for Tibetan independence. End note.)
Interestingly, on the ground not too far from the mound lay a
large rock with a Tibetan inscription calling for "complete
independence for Tibet."

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DUST, DIRT, FLIES - AND HOLY LAKES AND MOUNTAINS
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7. (C) Road conditions and accommodations deteriorated
dramatically west of Tingri and the Everest Base Camp, as we
crossed Saga County (population 10,000, elevation 4600 meters or
about 15,200 feet) and Drong Pa County (Ch: Zhongba, population
15,000, elevation 5000 meters or about 16,500 feet). In the
Drong Pa County seat, the three of us spent the night sharing a
single room huddled around a yak dung stove; toilet facilities
were an unlit dirt courtyard patrolled by Tibetan mastiffs that
fortunately did not mind sharing their territory with Congen
personnel. We also encountered several hardy independent
travelers, including Canadian bicyclists from Thailand and a
neuro-surgeon from Denmark who said she had traveled by bus from
Islamabad through western Xinjiang. (Note: The presence of
these independent foreign travelers would appear to contradict
official announcements that such non-group travel would no
longer be permitted following the Everest banner incident. End
note.)


8. (C) In Saga and Drong Pa Counties, we passed several road
crews consisting of PLA soldiers in uniform. Some local
interlocutors indicated that side roads in the area branched off
toward mountain passes garrisoned by the PAP and PLA, where
Tibetans make occasional attempts to cross into Nepal. The
interlocutors also noted that, while China recognized five
official "ports" or border crossings between the TAR and India
and Nepal, they believe more than 300 passes actually exist.
Some of these passes are admittedly quite difficult and
dangerous, but nevertheless serve as informal exit routes for
refugees and those seeking religious education.


9. (C) Leaving Shigatse Prefecture at its western border with
Ngari (Ch: Ali) Prefecture on September 13, we left the Chengdu
Military District and entered the Lanzhou Military District, the
same district that includes Xinjiang. This change was reflected
in the license plates of military trucks that passed us on the
dirt highway, many carrying soldiers and unmarked crates.


10. (SBU) Lake Manasorva and Mount Kailash, lying not far from
the Indian border in the southern part of Ngari Prefecture, are
said to be sacred to four religions - Hinduism, Jainism, Tibetan
Buddhism, and Bon (the pre-Buddhist native religion of Tibet).
As such, they are extremely popular destinations for religious
pilgrims, despite their remoteness. Local residents and
officials told us that each year, more and more Indian and
Nepalese Hindus make the pilgrimage, some of the richest
traveling by chartered helicopter to a border point, and then
renting four-wheel drive vehicles for the Chinese portion of the
trip. Over 10,000 Indian tourists visited the area in 2007.
As bathing in Lake Manasorva is considered sacrilegious by
Tibetans, the ritual ablutions performed in it by an
ever-growing number of Hindus has proved to be a source of some
local tension (see paragraph 13).

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FAR WESTERN TIBET - A POTENTIALLY WORLD-CLASS TOURIST SITE
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11. (C) Western Ngari's Tsamda (Ch: Zhada) County (population

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10,000, elevation 4000 meters or about 13,200 feet) is home to
the spectacular ruins of the ancient Guge Kingdom, set in what
can be described as a Tibetan version of Utah's Monument Valley.
Built into the side of a mountain, the main castle complex
rises several hundred feet above the valley floor. But even
this remote site saw extensive damage during the Cultural
Revolution. Our guide (who was a local artist involved in
restoring the palace's religious murals) showed us the shattered
remains of several statues of the Buddha, as well as a pile of
sacred texts still lying loose and unprotected on a dirt floor.
When asked about government efforts to protect the site, he made
a cynical expression and said the government had "announced"
that 80 million RMB (USD 10.5 million) was already spent on
restoration. One of our ethnic Tibetan FAO handlers noted to
our FSN that the money may have "disappeared."


12. (C) Approaching Ngari Prefecture's capital city of Gar
(Chinese also Ali) (population 70,000, elevation 4500 meters or
about 15,000 feet) on September 15, we passed the site of the
city's future airport, where the tarmac had already been laid.
Local officials told us that following completion of the airport
in 2010 and asphalting of the area's major highways (to be
completed in 2008),the area expects to receive 570,000 tourists
by 2020, up from 60,000 in 2006. According to the officials,
Boeing representatives have recently visited Gar to examine how
best to retool aircraft engines to handle the high altitude take
offs and landings that will be necessary.


13. (C) In Gar, we were received by a Prefecture Vice Governor
Wang Jun, a "Help Tibet Cadre" (yuanzang ganbu) who said she had
served in Ngari since 1982. Over a long and surprisingly
sumptuous banquet, she was not shy about emphasizing her
pioneering spirit and dedication to the people of the area.
However, we were told later by local contacts she and her family
have profited greatly from her work in the region. She
reportedly drives a high-end (and very impractical for Gar)
convertible BMW, and has substantial interests in several local
businesses. (Note: During the same banquet, our FAO handlers
(both ethnic Tibetan and Han) and Vice Governor Wang took turns
complaining about the personal habits of Indians, as well as
their concern at what they termed the "disgusting" custom of
Hindu pilgrims washing their bodies in Lake Manasorva. They
bruited the idea of building something like a "giant fishbowl"
along the side of the lake in order to accommodate the Hindus.
End note.)


14. (C) The next two days of travel took us over Routes S301 and
S206, two heavily potholed, unpaved high-altitude highways
through Getse (Ch: Gaize),Ngamring (Ch: Anran),and Tsochen
(Ch: Cuoqing) Counties. There was little evident military
activity along these routes, and road maintenance crews
consisted of local Tibetan men and women. Towns were squalid
and dirty, and foreign travelers almost nonexistent. Despite
the miserable conditions and grinding poverty, Tsochen County
Governor Xiong Wenzhi claimed that local per capita government
assistance exceeded 6000 RMB (USD 789) in 2006, an astronomical
sum by rural Tibetan standards. Asked about family sizes in the
county, Xiong went on for some length about the proclivity of
Tibetans to have multiple children, claiming that some families
have as many as 15.

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A MYSTERIOUS SHEEP DISEASE, AND EMPTY BUILDINGS
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15. (C) When we first entered the TAR, local contacts told us a
disease they referred to as "Mystery Sheep Disease" (Yang X
Bing) had recently attacked herds on the plateau, resulting in
the death of over 200,000 animals. Beginning in Ngari
Prefecture, our cars were regularly stopped by roadside
checkpoints, where our vehicles' tires and undercarriages were
sprayed with a disinfectant. Although our FAO handler at first
refused to tie the disinfection stations to the sheep disease,
in Tsamda County we later noticed a poster in Mandarin warning
residents about a serious bovine disease called "sheep
cud-chewing animal epidemic" (Chinese yang xiao fanchushou
jiqing) and officials there confirmed that 200,000 sheep had
either been culled or had died from the disease. Although they
were unable to describe the symptoms of the disease, they
claimed it had come into the TAR from Nepal within the last few
months.


16. (C) An obvious feature of the Tibetan landscape was the
number of newly constructed buildings - schools, government and

CHENGDU 00000243 004.2 OF 004


police facilities, and hotels - along the highways. However,
most of those buildings appeared to be only partly occupied, or
even completely empty. A few hotels looked as if they had been
used for a brief period and then abandoned. One rooming house
we stayed in bore a plaque stating it had been constructed in
2000, but it was shockingly dilapidated (quite literally): light
switches consisted of bare wires; guests were expected to turn
the lights on and off by twisting the bare wires together with
their fingers.

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COMMENT
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17. (C) Although we were able to have brief conversations with
ethnic Tibetans, close monitoring by our FAO handler and other
security officials was aimed at keeping such discussions to a
minimum. Having an ethnic Tibetan FSN with a broad range of
local contacts, however, certainly helped us expand beyond
officially approved and prepped local interlocutors. At one
banquet we attended in a local restaurant near Guge, an ethnic
Tibetan officer in a military delegation actually broke away
from his group in a neighboring function room to greet briefly a
former classmate sitting at our table - our FSN. The strategic
and economic potential of the area is obvious, as is the
potential for ethnic tension as improvements in the
transportation infrastructure of the region bring greater
numbers of non-Tibetan migrants. We also came away with an
overall impression of great environmental and cultural
fragility. We were fortunate to see the area at a time when its
remoteness ensures it still receives relatively few visitors.
Rapid expansion of paved roads and airports is likely to change
that situation very soon.
BOUGHNER