The Rail Line to Tibet…

Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph also had an article on the newly opened railway line to Lhasa, “Feeling low on the roof of the world”

The article reinforced some of the fears that I had expressed in one of my earlier posts on this topic.

It talked about how the massive influx of Han Chinese – who comprise the majority of the 1800 passengers that arrive EVERY DAY in Lhasa (expected to increase to 3000 a day from next year when two extra daily services are launched)  – is not only ruining indigenous Tibetan culture but also altering the demographic profile of the region.

The article quotes UNESCO as saying how this influx is “demolishing Lhasa’s urban tissue” and goes on to quote a local monk who says, “Tibetans are the minority here now…we are losing. Next year, this train will finish us“.

Are we listening?

I have yet to see a response from India on the railway line and what it means to our strategic geo-political interests in the region…and I doubt if there is a policy (or a response) in place to deal with these developments….I presume the government is too busy dealing with other “important” things such as what to do with the “evidence” of a “foreign hand” in the blasts in Mumbai.