1999 Conference Objects

The Babas are Dead: Street Talk and Contemporary Views of Leaders in Tibet

Barnett, Robert

A detailed discussion of the history of Tibetans who were promoted by the CCP to leadership positions in Tibet (or, afer 1965, the Tibet Autonomous Region) from the 1950s to the 1990s. Drawing on popular sayings and jokes in Lhasa about Tibetan leaders in the Party, the paper looks at hints in those comments about the perceived decline in the moral or intellectual quality of more recent leaders, and at implicit popular disdain for increasing clientelism underlying the appointment of Tibetans to leading positions in the Chinese administration in Tibet.

Keywords: Tibet; TAR; China; Chinese Communist Party; CPPCC; leaders; minority nationalities; Baba Phuntsog Wangyal; Raidi; ethnicity; street songs; popular sayings