China forces 250,000 Tibetans to resettle to "socialist villages"

Snip from an account by Tim Johnson, at McClatchy:

In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans - nearly one-tenth of the population - from scattered rural hamlets to new "socialist villages," ordering them to build new housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.

The government calls the year-old project the "comfortable housing program," and its stated aim is to present a more modern face for this ancient region, which China has controlled since 1950.

It claims that the new housing on main roads, sometimes only a mile from previous homes, will enable small farmers and herders to have access to schools and jobs, as well as better health care and hygiene.

But the broader aim seems to be remaking Tibet - a region with its own culture, language and religious traditions - in order to have firmer political control over its population. It comes as China prepares for an influx of millions of tourists in the run-up to next year's Summer Olympic Games.

Link. Image: monk at Sera monastery, near Lhasa. Bernardo De Niz/MCT. (thanks, Mike Outmesguine, Laird, and many others)

Previously on BoingBoing:

Google, China, and genocide: web censorship and Tibet

"Hacking the Himalayas": Xeni's 5-part radio series on Tibet for NPR.