Abstract
The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet serves as an important religious symbol and an embodiment of Tibetan culture. Ever since Chinese troops invaded Tibet in the 1950s, the Chinese government has attempted to control Tibet, including converting the Potala Palace and its rich material culture into a secular institution on display for tourists. Now void of the Dalai Lama and most of its contents, the Potala has become a façade for public consumption of Chinese state-led narratives and a symbol of cultural oppression. Through their approaches to heritage management and tourism, and with the aid of the Potala’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage site, China is capitalizing on Tibet’s cultural heritage, undermining the Tibetan people and their culture, and controlling the narrative of Tibetan history to alter the collective memory of Tibetans.
Highlights
Decades of oppression, centuries of existenceTo understand the present day Potala Palace, one must first understand its history
Will the memories of new generations of Tibetans be the real, lived, difficult history of their ancestors, or the narratives the Chinese government has communicated through the Potala and the city of Lhasa? The fear is that when the current Dalai Lama passes away, China will choose the one, going against the Buddhist beliefs of reincarnatory lineage and sealing away the entire history of the Lamas’ rule in a beautiful yet empty monument to its obsolescence (Baculinao & Cumming, 2018; The Guardian, 2002; Harris, 2013)
China has intentionally leveraged the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Potala Palace and its heritage management strategies to construct and erase memories, manipulating perceptions of events and contributing to the oppression of the Tibetan people
Summary
Abstract : The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet serves as an important religious symbol and an embodiment of Tibetan culture. Ever since Chinese troops invaded Tibet in the 1950s and the Dalai Lama, the religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled to India, the Chinese government has controlled Tibet, attempting to assimilate the region and turning the Potala into a museum and World Heritage site (Baculinao & Cumming, 2018; New World Encyclopedia (NWE), 2019; Perryer, 2019) In this way, the Potala is a symbol of cultural oppression and the Tibetan struggle for independence, and a façade for public consumption of Chinese state-led narratives. This report examines the influencing factors in the portrayal of Tibet’s difficult history through the Potala Palace, and the resultant impact on Tibetan society
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