A Gift to the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Qamdo -On "Qamdo of Tibet: H

LOBSANG JIGMEI

Tibetan studies is concentrated mainly in the U-Tsang and Ngari areas. Only an extremely small number of people venture to study Qamdo, meaning far less written records. Public opinion hails the book as a valuable piece of research to fill in the blanks in Qamdo studies.

At the time when the 500,000 people of Qamdo were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of their area, the book Qamdo of Tibet: History, Tradition and Modernization came off the presses. With Li Guangwen, Yang Song and Geleg as chief editors, the book is Chinas first academic work explaining the history and status quo of the region in a systematic way. The book contains the results of research into the traditional culture and modernization in the Tibetan-inhabited areas of China, a project conducted under the leadership of Geleg. A dozen people from Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou took part in the three years of work that went into the books compilation.

Running to 700,000 words, the book comes in three volumes with 44 chapters. Volume I: Long History (nine chapters). It tells of artifacts unearthed from Karub in Qamdo dating back to the New Stone Age, the later Tubo reign over Qamdo, and Central Government rule over Qamdo during the periods of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the Republic of China; Volume II: Traditional Society and Changes (nine chapters). It tells of the traditional social organization in Qamdo, its economic system, legal system, religious believes, marriage and family customs, and folklore.

Volume III: Qamdo Today (25 chapters). This is the major part of the book, describing changes in the social, political, economic, education, science and technology, cultural, health and other fields over the past 50 years since liberation; achievements made since Chinas introduction of the reform and opening program in 1978; and the strategy for Qamdo to develop further in the 21st century. The authors studied the traditional social structure of Qamdo Prefecture, and the book contains classified explanation of the traditional social organization of the area, which features independent or semi-independent local religious and administrative forces. This is why the ex-Tibetan government had difficulty putting its decrees into practice.

The book also contains a profound study of the suppression of the armed rebellion, the Democratic Reform, the chaotic "cultural revolution" period (1966-76), and the ongoing reform and opening experiments in the Qamdo area. It probes the relations between traditional and modern cultures. The authors conclude that Qamdo, being in a remote region, is economically underdeveloped, and stress the importance of further reform and wider opening. They suggested better use of Central Government policies containing preferential treatment for Qamdo and Tibet at large, and aid from Tianjin, Sichuan and Chongqing. In their view, more money should be invested to improve infrastructure, putting an end to the backward situation of the landlocked area. The book has been published by the Chongqing Publishing House.