Contents page Hergé Biography 2
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- Hergé and Tibet
4. TIBETTibetan Geography Tibet is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the world's highest region. With an average elevation of 4,900m (16,000ft), it is often called the Roof of the World. Most of the Himalaya mountain range lies within Tibet. Its most famous peak, Mount Everest, is on Tibet's border with Nepal. The atmosphere is severely dry nine months of the year. Western mountain passes receive small amounts of fresh snow each year but remain traversable year round. Low temperatures are prevalent throughout these western regions, where bleak desolation is unrelieved by any vegetation beyond the size of low bushes, and where wind sweeps unchecked across vast expanses of arid plain. The Indian monsoon exerts some influence on eastern Tibet, whilst northern Tibet is subject to high temperatures in summer and intense cold in winter. In order to create an accurate depiction of Tibet’s landscape, Hergé kept a special file of photographs. Filled with clippings largely from National Geographic Magazine (to which Hergé was a keen subscriber), this collection of photographs, dubbed by the artist his ‘Alpinisme’ file, became the touchstone for his authentic renderings of the Tibetan terrain. Political Turmoil Tibet is currently part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In 1950 the People's Liberation Army entered Tibet, exercising by force China’s long held claim of sovereignty over the region. The Chinese crushed the largely ceremonial Tibetan army and destroyed as many as 6,000 Tibetan temples. In 1951 the Plan for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet - a treaty signed under Chinese pressure by representatives of the Bhuddist religious leaders the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama - provided for rule by a joint Chinese-Tibetan authority. In 1956 an uprising that started in the provinces of Kham and Amdo in response to communist land reforms spread across the region, reaching Tibet’s capital city, Lhasa. The rebellion, supported by the American CIA, was crushed by 1959. During this campaign tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed. The 14th Dalai Lama (the tradition head of the government) and other government principals fled to exile in India, but isolated resistance continued in Tibet until 1969. Although he remained a virtual prisoner, the Chinese presented the Panchen Lama as a figurehead in Lhasa, claiming that he headed the legitimate Government of Tibet in the absence of the Dalai Lama. In 1965, the area that had been under the control of the Dalai Lama's government from the 1910s to 1959 (U-Tsang and western Kham) was set up as an Autonomous Region. The monastic estates were broken up and secular education introduced. During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards across the country (whose ranks included some ethnic Tibetans), inflicted a campaign of organized vandalism against cultural sites, including Tibet's Buddhist heritage. Of the several thousand monasteries in Tibet, only a handful remained without major damage, and thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns were killed or imprisoned. The number of military and civilian Tibetans that have died in the communists’ so-called Great Leap Forward since 1950 is often quoted as between 400,000 and 1.2 million, figures which the Chinese Communist Party vehemently denies. It is reported that when Hu Yaobang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Lhasa in 1980 he cried in shame when he viewed the misery and described the situation as "colonialism pure and simple". Reforms were instituted, and since then Chinese policy in Tibet has veered between tolerance and repression. Most religious freedoms have been officially restored, but monks and nuns are still sometimes imprisoned, and thousands of Tibetans continue to flee Tibet yearly. The government of Tibet in Exile claims that millions of Chinese immigrants to the Tibet Autonomous Region are diluting the Tibetans both culturally and through intermarriage. Exiled activitists say that despite recent attempts to restore the appearance of original Tibetan culture to attract tourism, the traditional Tibetan way of life is now irrevocably changed. The government of China rejects these claims, pointing to rights enjoyed by the Tibetan language in education and in courts, as well as public infrastructure projects aimed at improving the lives of Tibetans, and say that the standard of life is far higher compared to the Dalai Lama's rule before 1950. Many Tibetan exile groups vigorously contest these claims and to this day remain politically active in raising awareness about the political struggle and cultural heritage of the Tibetan people. Hergé and TibetHergé completed Tintin in Tibet, his boy reporter’s 20th adventure, in 1959, three years after the suppression of the anti-PRC uprising, and nine months after the Dalai Lama’s dramatic escape. This was no coincidence. Despite then fantastical nature of some of Tintin’s adventures, Hergé drew much of his inspiration from the real world around him. The character Chang, the raison d’etre of Tintin’s mission, is in fact based on a real person, whilst the Belgian artist’s choice of Tibet for the adventure was in part a response to the political turmoil there in the preceding years. Hergé’s political watershed came with The Blue Lotus, the fifth Tintin adventure. At the close of the previous Tintin strip, Cigars of the Pharaoh, he had mentioned that Tintin's next adventure would bring him to China. Father Gosset, the chaplain to the Chinese students at the University of Leuven, wrote to Hergé urging him to be sensitive in what he wrote about China. Hergé agreed, and in the spring of 1934 Gosset introduced him to Chang Chong-jen, a young sculpture student at the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts. The two young artists quickly became close friends, and Chang introduced Hergé to Chinese history, culture, and the techniques of Chinese art. As a result of this experience, Hergé would strive in The Blue Lotus, and in subsequent Tintin adventures, to be meticulously accurate in depicting the places which Tintin visited. As a token of appreciation, he added a fictional Chong-chen Chang to The Blue Lotus, a young Chinese boy who befriends Tintin. As another result of his friendship with Chang, Hergé became increasingly aware of the problems of colonialism, in particular the Japanese Empire's advances into China. The Blue Lotus carries a bold anti-imperialist message, contrary to the prevailing view in the West (which was sympathetic to Japan and the colonial enterprise). As a result, it drew sharp criticism from various parties, including a protest by Japanese diplomats to the Belgian Foreign Ministry. Years later in 1958, Hergé returned to his happy encounter with Chang for inspiration. Chang had since returned to China to complete his studies and the Belgian had lost track of him during the upheaval of Japan’s invasion of China, World War Two and the subsequent communist revolution. Hergé’s nostalgia was a key influence on Tintin in Tibet. Tintin’s committed friendship to a long lost friend, thousands of miles away being a direct expression of Hergé’s affection for Chang. In a further parallel with the book’s narrative Hergé tried to resume contact with his Chinese friend at this time, although without success. Years later however, in 1975, Chang was traced. In 1981 he returned to Brussels for an emotional encounter with his old friend Hergé, before finally settling in Paris. But Hergé’s story, although deeply personal, is not without political content. Hergé had observed the brutal subjugation of Tibet by the PRC. His detailed and sympathetic evocation of Tibetan culture was created at a time when the PRC had done much to destroy Tibet’s indigenous culture. Ironically the nation he had signalled his support for in The Blue Lotus was now the aggressive oppressor. Again Hergé was on top of current affairs. And as so often with his choice of subjects, the topic has endured. In recent years – particularly after the fall of communism in Europe and the Soviet Union – politicians and human rights activists have turned their attention to highlighting the plight of Tibet. Directory: sites -> default -> files -> documents -> Resource packs Resource packs -> In the Red and Brown Water documents -> - documents -> Cbp and Trade Automated Interface Requirements Appendix: pga december 22, 2015 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> The south australian government gazette documents -> All public acts appearing in this gazette are to be considered official, and obeyed as such documents -> Union interparlementaire inter-parliamentary union Download 341.78 Kb. Share with your friends:
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