TA'ER TOURIST TRAP: TIBETAN CONTACTS LAMENT

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 002719

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2029
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KIFR CH IN
SUBJECT: TA'ER TOURIST TRAP: TIBETAN CONTACTS LAMENT
DECLINE OF ONCE-GREAT KUMBUM MONASTERY

REF: A. BEIJING 2595

B. BEIJING 2573

C. BEIJING 726

D. 08 BEIJING 1351

E. CHENGDU 181

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson.
Reasons 1.4 (b),(d).


1. (S) Summary: Tibetan contacts in Qinghai Province
expressed dismay at the impact unregulated tourism is having
on Kumbum (Ta'er) Monastery, one of the most important
religious sites in Tibetan Buddhism. A monk at Kumbum told
PolOff that roughly half of the 800 monks have been
"corrupted" by the wealth generated by entrance ticket sales
and donations and have given up serious study of Buddhism.
Monks responsible for key temples in Kumbum can skim up to
RMB 1 million (USD 150,000) per year in donations, he said.
Our source relayed that a monk was nearly killed in late 2008
after being attacked in his sleep by a rival seeking control
over a lucrative shrine. A professor of Tibetan language
based in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, said Kumbum's academic
reputation has suffered greatly as a result of the
monastery's focus on tourism. A Tibetan hotel owner in
Yushu, Qinghai Province, meanwhile, said that for Tibetans in
the travel industry, Kumbum stands as a negative example of
how unregulated tourism can damage Tibetan culture. Yushu,
he said, is trying to avoid the pitfalls of Kumbum, but he
noted that doing so will be difficult now that a new airport
promises to dramatically increase the number of visitors to
Yushu. End Summary.


2. (S) On August 18, PolOff visited Kumbum Monastery ("Ta'er
Si" in Chinese) near Xining, Qinghai Province, and discussed
with 39-year-old monk Tenzin Lopsang Gyaltsen (strictly
protect),aka "Jensen," conditions in Kumbum and the impact
of tourism on the monastery. Kumbum Monastery was founded in
1583 at the site where Tsong Kha-pa (1357-1419),the founder
of the Gelug ("Yellow Hat") School of Tibetan Buddhism, was
born. Kumbum is also close to the birthplace of the 14th
Dalai Lama and Qinghai Lake (Lake Kokonor),which is also
revered by Tibetans. The monastery is one of the six centers
of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism.

Most Monks Focused on Tourism, Not Buddhism
--------------


3. (S) Jensen bemoaned the changes the monastery had
experienced in the past decade with the dramatic increase in
tourism to the site. Kumbum is a 40-minute drive from
Qinghai Province capital city Xining, which has a population
of two million people. A four-lane toll highway runs from
Xining to Kumbum, which, during busy periods, can receive
6000 tourist visits a day. Tourists pay RMB 80 (USD 11) to
enter Kumbum, though entrance is free for Tibetans. Jensen
claimed that little of the entrance fee money went to
supporting academic study at the monastery and most went
toward paying the salaries of monks and local officials.
(Note: Another Kumbum monk with whom PolOff spoke in
February 2008 made similar comments about the damage tourism
was causing, see ref D.)


4. (S) Jensen said Kumbum currently housed 800 monks: 400
registered with the local Religious Affairs Bureau and 400
unregistered. (Note: Many monasteries in Tibetan regions
accept monks without officially informing local religious
affairs authorities.) Jensen said that of the 800, only
about 200 were seriously pursuing the study of Tibetan
Buddhism. Approximately half of the Kumbum monks, including
those who participate in monastery's Democratic Management
Committee (DMC) and cooperate with the Chinese authorities,
were primarily focused on the tourism industry. (Note:
While theoretically a body through which monks directly
control the management of their monasteries, in reality DMCs
act to represent government interests and enforce government
policies.) The remaining 200 were seeking to pursue a
monastic life yet often found it hard to resist the allure of
tourism-related income, Jensen said.

Informants
--------------


5. (S) Jensen noted that a number of monks at Kumbum were
paid by the Public Security Bureau to act as the eyes and
ears of the police inside the monastery and were provided
free cell phones to facilitate their efforts. Jensen said
that although these informants were nominally Tibetan monks,
they were very poorly educated and often lacked even the most
basic knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism. Ostracized even by the
corrupt monks, informants were unable to provide much useful
information to local police. "Everyone knows exactly who the

BEIJING 00002719 002 OF 003


informants are," Jensen said.

Commercialism at Kumbum
--------------


6. (S) Jensen complained to PolOff that at Kumbum, Tibetan
Buddhism was being exploited for profit. Outside the gates,
visitors were assaulted by throngs of tour guides (mostly
non-Tibetan) charging fees of up to RMB 60 (USD 9). These
guides, Jensen complained, knew very little about Buddhism or
Tibetan culture and simply "spout nonsense" to unsuspecting
sightseers. Tourist shops outside the gates hawked souvenirs
for astronomical prices by fraudulently claiming the trinkets
had been touched and blessed by all 800 Kumbum monks. Some
monks, in collusion with tour guides, posed as "living
Buddhas" and provided "blessings" to Han Chinese tourists in
return for hefty "donations," which the monks and guides
split and pocketed.

Temple Keeper Violence
--------------


7. (S) Jensen said that among the corrupt monks, the position
of temple keeper (monks charged with maintaining important
temples by keeping lamps burning, sweeping floors, etc.) was
highly sought after because of the opportunities to skim
donations. While most temples at Kumbum contained locked
donation boxes, many Tibetan pilgrims and tourists placed
bills directly before statues and pictures. Many of these
loose bills, Jensen claimed, ended up in the pockets of the
temple keepers. At some high-traffic shrines inside Kumbum,
temple keepers could skim annual incomes of up to RMB 1
million (USD 150,000),Jensen claimed. This generated fierce
competition for control over temples. Jensen told PolOff of
an incident in late 2008 in which a sleeping Kumbum monk had
been attacked with a knife by a rival temple keeper. The
monk barely survived the attack, which monastery leaders
covered up.

Ethnic Tensions Remain
--------------


8. (S) Unlike many Tibetan monasteries, Kumbum did not
experience significant protests in March 2008. (Note:
According to Jensen, 13 Kumbum monks were arrested in the
wake of the March 2008 riots -- and several were subject to
beatings at a nearby police station -- but have all since
been released.) However, as a result of the events of March
2008, many Han Chinese, Jensen observed, had a false
impression of Tibetan monks as violent and quick to anger.
Jensen said that because of this fear, Han tourists rarely
approached him to ask directions or to take photos. In early
August, Jensen said, a Kumbum monk accidentally drove his car
into a group of Han tourists, injuring several. The monk was
immediately arrested, and local police began investigating
whether the monk had purposely "attacked" the Han visitors.
Jensen said the incident, which resulted from the monk's poor
driving skills and was not politically motivated, showed the
kind of Han-Tibetan tensions that continue to linger over
Kumbum.

Kumbum Moves Down in Buddhist College Rankings
-------------- -


9. (S) Duola (strictly protect),a professor of Tibetan
language at Northwest University for Nationalities in
Lanzhou, Gansu Province, told PolOff August 15 that
unrestricted tourism had largely destroyed Kumbum's
reputation as an institution of Buddhist learning. Like
Jensen, Duola said that most Kumbum monks had been seduced by
the tourism industry and had given up monastic life in all
but name. Duola contrasted Kumbum to Gansu Province's
Labrang Monastery, which has also become a major tourist
site. Duola said that the senior monks at Labrang had so far
succeeded in maintaining the monastery's focus on academic
study despite the growth in tourism and tremendous political
pressure in the wake of the March 2008 unrest. Jensen
agreed, noting that whereas Kumbum was swarming with
incompetent tour guides, at Labrang the monks had maintained
more control over tourism and conducted most tours
themselves. (Note: Labrang also enjoys more geographic
isolation as it is a five-hour drive from Lanzhou, the
nearest major city. Gansu officials, however, are currently
building a new highway that will shorten the drive time.)

Sustainable Tibetan Tourism?
--------------


10. (S) PolOff spoke August 21 with Nima Jiangcai (strictly
protect),a Tibetan who recently opened a bar and guest house
in Yushu, a majority Tibetan city in southern Qinghai

BEIJING 00002719 003 OF 003


Province. A frequent visitor to Xining, Nima Jiangcai was,
like our other contacts, highly critical of tourism at
Kumbum. For Tibetans engaged in the travel business, he
said, Kumbum stood as a cautionary tale for how tourism could
weaken and even destroy Tibetan culture. Nima Jiangcai said
Tibetans in Yushu had been both excited and apprehensive
about the opening of the town's new airport (the first
commercial flight landed in Yushu August 1),which promised
to dramatically increase the number of foreign and Han
tourists. (Note: Before August, the only way to get to
Yushu was via a 15-hour car or bus ride from Xining, much of
it over poor roads and at an altitude above 13,000 feet.)
Nima Jiangcai told PolOff that maintaining Tibetan control
over the local tourism industry in Yushu was essential for
avoiding the pitfalls of Kumbum. Doing so, he admitted,
would be difficult given the preferences of Han tourists who,
unlike Western tourists, did not necessarily favor Tibetan
businesses. Nima Jiangcai worried that Han hotel and tour
operators would begin to move into Yushu in force and
displace Tibetan business owners once Yushu's tourism
industry took off.

Bio Note
--------------


11. (S) Jensen spent four years in the 1990s living at a
Tibetan monastery in northern India. During his stay in
India, Jensen met the Dalai Lama twice in Dharamsala. In
1999, Jensen received a scholarship from an overseas
foundation to study for two years at Utah Valley State
College in Provo. While in Utah, Jensen had an audience with
the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan spiritual leader's 2001
visit to the state. Upon Jensen's return to Kumbum Monastery
in 2002, authorities confiscated his passport. Jensen said
local officials and the monastery leadership view him with
suspicion because of his extended stays in India and the
United States. Jensen said he listens regularly to
Tibetan-language newscasts by Radio Free Asia, Voice of
America, and other overseas broadcasters via his computer.
He also regularly reads articles on websites affiliated with
Tibetan exile groups.
HUNTSMAN