(TibetanReview.net, Feb15’24) – Inter-ethnic marriage has long been encouraged with a slew of preferential policies by the Party-state of China as a way to Sinicize the ethnic minority regions, all the more so under President Xi Jinping’s current imperative drive to foster a “sense of community for the Chinese nation”. As a result, there are now in Tibet’s capital Lhasa alone over 100 so-called multicultural residential compounds, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency Feb 15.
A Tibetan-style residential compound named Ngangpa Kangchung in downtown Lhasa is home to some 70 residents from Han, Tibetan, Hui and other ethnic groups. As the first rays of sunlight bathed the ancient city of Lhasa on Feb 10, the compound was filled with traditional new year greetings in different languages – “Chunjie Kuaile” (meaning “Happy Spring Festival” in Mandarin) and “Losar Tashi Delek” (meaning “Happy New Year” in Tibetan), the report said.
This was because the Tibetan New Year coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, the report noted.
“Neighbours from various ethnic groups of the compound have integrated deeply, just like butter and tea leaves in buttered tea,” Sun Jianxue, 62, who lives in the compound with his Tibetan wife Sonam Badran, has said. The couple was stated to have treated their visiting neighbours with “chema,” a wooden box filled with colourful grains and barley flour, symbolizing good luck and prosperity in Tibetan culture.
The report said Sun, a Han retired road construction worker from Gansu Province, married his Tibetan wife 34 years ago when he worked in “Xizang”, the term China now uses while avoiding calling the Tibetan homeland “Tibet”.
The report said “Xizang” has long had a fine tradition of exchanges, communication, and integration among ethnic groups since ancient times. “In the seventh century, Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo married Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), starting a new chapter of building ties among different ethnic groups,” it said.
Now, about 88% of the region’s population of 3.65 million are from Tibetan and other ethnic minority groups, the report said, referring to China’s officially reported census figures.
In Lhasa alone, there are over 100 such multicultural compounds like Ngangpa Kangchung, the report said.
“A close neighbour is better than a brother far off,” Sun was quoted as saying, referring to help he receives with ready enthusiasm from his over 20-year-long Hui ethnic neighbour Ma Chenghu, including in changing his and his wife’s gas cylinder.