China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet)

[Ray]

[QUOTE]

The exile community, especially those who fled w/the Dalai Lama in 1959, obviously contains a disproportionate number from the landowning and educated classes targeted by the Communists, especially during the Cultural Revolution and post-invasion periods. I'd say on average they had quite a higher degree of social and economic capital than the average Tibetan peasant or nomad, especially since Tibetan society was so stratified in pre-invasion times.

What is the authenticity to this contention?

The Tibetan who sell woollen clothes every winter in Indian cities do not give the impression that they are educated or the landed class.

Obviously as well a Chinese-directed technology or infrastructure project will often require spoken or written literacy in Mandarin Chinese, a key stumbling block for any linguistic minority given the difficulty of the language and the inherently colonial imposition of having to learn the occupiers' language in order to gain employment.

In other words, the Tibetans have not benefited!