ラサの心痛む状況

この春から外国人の入境制限が緩和されていると聞いていたチベット、
でも、前門のプロジェクトと鼓楼のプロジェクトで目にした悪夢が、今、ラサで展開されようとしているようです。

チベットの建築文化の保護に取り組んでこられたＴＨＦの平子さんからの情報によれば、

「ラサのジョカン寺の前にバルコルタイムススクエアーなるショッピングセンターが進行中で地下には１２００台分の駐車場ができるとか。地下駐車場の工事のために、地下水をくみ上げた結果、地盤沈下をおこし、建物にヒビが入るなどの現象が起きてるとのこと」。

私のＰＣからは確認できないのですが、
以下は、ラジオ・フリー・アジアの記事らしいです。

Lhasa's ‘Old Town’ Rebuild Sparks Outrage

2013-05-17

A project to modernize an historic area of Tibet’s capital Lhasa has ignited a storm of protest online and among international Tibetan support groups, with some calling the move an attempt to destroy Tibetans’ “living connection” to their past.

Tibet’s India-based government in exile, or Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), said in a May 16 statement it was “deeply concerned” about the project’s impact, saying it is transforming Lhasa’s central Jokhang temple and the Barkhor, or Old City, around it into a “superficial tourist spot.”

Meanwhile, an online petition launched on Wednesday and signed by over 200 Tibet scholars in countries around the world voiced “grave concern over the rapidly progressing destruction of much of the traditional architectural heritage of the Old City of Lhasa and its environs.”

“This destruction is not simply a matter of aesthetics,” said the petition, addressed to China’s president Xi Jinping and to UNESCO director-general Irina Bukova.

“It is depriving Tibetans and scholars of Tibet alike of a living connection to the Tibetan past,” the petition said.

“It is bringing in its wake the forced displacement of large numbers of Tibetans from their own homes, effectively diminishing the Tibetan presence in one of the most important Tibetan cultural sites,” the petition added.

UNESCO, which lists as World Heritage Sites Lhasa's Potala Palace, Jokhang temple, and Norbulinkga, has previously raised concerns about a need to protect the the cityscape.

In December, the city government launched a seven-month, 1.2 billion yuan (U.S. $196 million) project begun to revamp the Barkhor area, including upgrading water and electrical infrastructure.

Moved out from the Barkhor

Tibetan shopkeepers and traders have already been moved from the Barkhor, a traditional gathering place for Lhasa residents and Tibetan pilgrims for hundreds of years, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service last week.

“On the pretext of modernizing the Barkhor, Chinese authorities have relocated Tibetan traders to the area of [Lhasa’s] Yuthok bridge, where they can barely survive on what they earn,” the man said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The Chinese are planning to turn the Barkhor into a tourist attraction for commercial benefit with total disregard for the area’s traditional architectural heritage,” he said.

Speaking to RFA, Columbia University Tibet scholar Robbie Barnett noted “a lack of transparency in the [project’s] decision-making process, a lack of communication, and uninvolvement with the public and with experts on what is truly an issue of great importance in terms of world heritage.”

Some of the protests voiced online and in blogs, including concerns that the Jokhang temple itself may be damaged or destroyed, appear to have been “overstated,” though, Barnett said.

“For example, there seems to be no evidence to suggest that there is any threat to the Jokhang.”

What China should consider now is whether it wants to turn Lhasa into a venue for mass tourism “where large numbers of tourists will come and leave a hugely damaging footprint,” Barnett said.

“Standardization of all the street frontages will look pretty, but after a few years people will stop paying money to go there.”

The Jokhang temple has been a symbolic center of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in Tibet and the Barkhor was a center of Tibetan unrest in 2008 that left at least a dozen people dead.

Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tseten Namygal. Written in English with additional reporting by Richard Finney.

こちらは、同じ問題に関心を持っておられるらしき方からの署名を求めるメールです。（我がＰＣからでは開けないのですが）

Dear All, In the light of the destruction of the Old City of Lhasa
currently underway, a number of us feel that the Tibetan Studies
community should express its concern. To that end a petition has been
prepared, addressed to president Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of
China and Mme. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. The petition is
available for signing at:

http://www.petitions24.com/tibetan_scholars_appeal_to_halt_the_destruction_of_old_lhasa

Thank you to forward it to all the colleagues you know
Best Katia