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US CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE CHINA'S THEFT OF TIBETAN ART A United States Congressman has announced that he will investigate China's theft of art objects from Tibetan monasteries and individual Tibetans after the 1959 revolt. The investigation will attempt to determine the extent of China's theft of Tibetan art, the responsibility for it, and what happened to the artworks stolen from Tibet. The investigation is intended to lead to a Congressional hearing at which the evidence will be presented. The goal of the investigation is not only to determine the circumstances of China's theft of Tibetan art but also to force the current Chinese Government to respond to the evidence. Ultimately it is hoped that the Chinese Government will make some explanation about its theft of Tibetan art and will attempt to make amends in some way, by means of compensation to Tibetans or the return of any still existing works of art. The US Congressional investigation is based upon the well-known fact that shortly after the 1959 Tibetan revolt the Chinese Government systematically looted almost all Tibetan monasteries. The process of looting the monasteries lasted several years. By the time of the Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966, most monasteries were little more than empty shells. During the Cultural Revolution the monastic buildings were destroyed, but their contents had disappeared long before. Individual Tibetans also had their possessions, which included Buddhist artworks in household shrines and all personal jewelry, confiscated during the so-called democratic reforms that were imposed after the revolt. Until 1959 the Chinese Government was forced to cooperate with the Tibetan Government and the Tibetan Government was forced to cooperate with the Chinese by the terms of the 17-Point Agreement. However, after the 1959 revolt the Chinese were finally in full control in Tibet and they were unrestrained by any need to cooperate with an established Tibetan governmental authority. Once the revolt was crushed the Chinese were free to implement what they called democratic reforms. Democratic reforms involved the repression of all rebels and class enemies and the redistribution of wealth to the Tibetan serfs. Redistribution of wealth meant that the lands and possessions of the wealthy landowners was confiscated and redistributed to the poor serfs. Serfs were given title to the land in elaborate ceremonies, only to have their land confiscated by the government a few years later during communization. The personal property of the wealthy was also redistributed, but Tibetans report that the Chinese usually took the best of everything for themselves. Another part of the democratic reforms campaign was the confiscation of the wealth of Tibetan monasteries. Monastic lands were redistributed to the serfs but were then reconfiscated during communization. Monasteries were depopulated of their monks during democratic reforms due to the Chinese Communist belief that monks were parasites on the people. Many monasteries had participated in or supported the revolt and many monks had already fled. Many high lamas were persecuted during democratic reforms. Once the monasteries were essentially emptied of their monk population the Chinese began a systematic survey of the contents of each monastery. The most precious artworks and the most valuable statues of gold and silver were taken away. Shortly thereafter, trucks of the PLA were sent to take away the remaining statues of brass and copper and the less valuable thankas. Over a period of several years almost all Tibetan monasteries were emptied of their contents. Many Tibetans report seeing convoys of PLA trucks headed to China with the contents of Tibetan monasteries. The wealth of individual Tibetans was also confiscated, but reportedly much of this found its way into the hands of Chinese officials in Lhasa and other Tibetan cities and towns. The Chinese justified the looting of Tibetan monasteries as a part of the redistribution of wealth of the democratic reform campaign. Tibetans were told that they had been exploited by the monasteries and that now the wealth of the monasteries would be redistributed to all the people. By all the people the Chinese meant all the Chinese people, not just the Tibetans. Since the Chinese Communist Party claimed to represent all the people it felt justified in confiscating Tibet's wealth for its own purposes. Tibetan wealth was redistributed by being sold on the international art market or melted down, all for the benefit of the Chinese state. Some Tibetan wealth found its way into the hands of individual Chinese, but the systematic looting of the wealth of Tibet was done by the Chinese Communist Party for the benefit of the Chinese state. No doubt the Chinese Communists saw themselves not as stealing Tibetan wealth from its rightful owners but as giving back to the people, the Chinese people, the wealth unjustly collected by the monastic exploiters of the people in Tibet. Some Chinese might even have imagined that the wealth in Tibetan monasteries belonged to China in any case since many objects had been given to Tibetan lamas from Chinese patrons in the past. Many years later the fate of most Tibetan art is unknown. Many of the most valuable statues and thankas were sold on the international art market. Many of the gold and silver statues were undoubtedly melted down. Most of the statues of brass and copper were melted down. Many thousands of thankas were reportedly burned. One Tibetan lama, Rinbur Tulku, was able to recover the upper half of the Jowo Rinpoche statue from a foundry in Beijing in 1982. This foundry, one of several that had melted down Tibetan statues, had melted 600 tons (about 280,000 kg). Rinbur Tulku was able to recover some 26 tons (about 12,000 kg) which consisted of more than 13,000 statues. One can see from these figures that the total number of statues taken from Tibetan monasteries was many hundreds of thousands. The US Congressional investigation will attempt to ascertain how much wealth was taken from Tibet and what happened to it. The investigation will attempt to force China to provide information about the confiscation of the wealth of Tibet and some explanation about the fate of the artistic heritage and material wealth of Tibet. 06/17/05