Tibetans say culture depends on Dalai Lama

TONGREN, China — In China, the Dalai Lama is officially a dangerous separatist and a “criminal,’’ and his supporters are prohibited from discussing him or displaying his picture.

But here in the ethnic Tibetan areas of Qinghai province, nominally autonomous while under strict Chinese control, the exiled spiritual leader remains a ubiquitous presence despite his long physical absence.

The Dalai Lama’s beaming visage gazes down from the temple altars of Buddhist monasteries. His likeness adorns a popular artist’s workshop and a small convenience store selling soft drinks, beer, and snacks.

And everywhere, it seems, the fervent wish is that the Dalai Lama might return soon to help save Tibet’s language and culture, which many say are threatened by China’s ethnic Han majority.

Even the Tibetans’ centuries-old tradition of herding yak, cattle, and sheep across the Tibetan plateau’s grasslands appears threatened as Chinese officials move increasing numbers of semi-nomadic herdsmen into “resettlement towns,’’ where jobs are scarce.

“We long for the Dalai Lama to come back, to solve the issue of religious freedom and to help Tibetan culture come back,’’ said Gen Ga, 24, a monk at a monastery in the nearby village of Wutong. “If we look ahead 10 or 20 years, if the Dalai Lama fails to come back, I do think Tibetan culture will die.’’

Asked to comment on the calls for the Dalai Lama’s return, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, said in an e-mail: “We’ve been dealing with the Dalai Lama for decades, and we know him well. His personal future depends on whether he will abandon his separatist positions on Tibet-related issues in real earnest, as this is a matter bearing on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’’

The main repositories of Tibetan Buddhist culture are the monasteries — which were also the source of rioting in March 2008 — and the government has since attempted to increase its control over them, setting up “management committees’’ to ensure that the senior monks toe the correct political line.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.