Sedentarisation – a temporary measure?

Currently, the Chinese government claims that participation in all currently active environmental and socioeconomic projects that concern Tibetan pastoralists is voluntary, and the households choose to become involved of their own free will. However, the pastoralists apply on the basis of inaccurate information and insufficient understanding of the full measure of relevant facts.

The strong authority of the government and the justifiable fear of Tibetan pastoralists regarding future consequences if they decide not to follow the suggestions of the governmental representatives play a far from unimportant role. These circumstances result in the high numbers of applicants, figures that are then used by the government to legitimate the implementation of sedentarisation policy. Once a household has become involved in a resettlement or settlement or similar project and left the centre of their living on the grassland, it is not easy to return. The resettlement project guidelines include a note that relocation back to the original grassland, usually after ten years, will be possible. Nevertheless, the return of the Tibetan pastoralists to their pastures and the continuation of a pastoralist way of life seem not to be of any significant interest to the Chinese government, as the implementing offices pay attention neither to the pastoralists, whose experience it is that after a period of nine to ten years the structure of grassland vegetation changes too much to be able to serve as pastureland for livestock, nor to the reports of local Animal Husbandry Stations, whose research confirms the statements of the

pastoralists. Even if the government does not design any subsequent grassland preservation projects and intends that parts of the grassland should remain suitable for herding livestock, after a period of ten years not many households who have lived primarily on governmental subsidies during their resettlement period will be able to afford to buy sufficient animals to assure their living, due to the high rates of inflation currently present in China. Another worry of the pastoralists is that after such a period of time, a new generation will grow up in the urban resettlements and settlements, with no experience of pastoralism and therefore unable to lead a life based on animal husbandry back in the grassland.

However, considering the possibility of return, the pastoralists participating in resettlement projects understand the relocation situation as being temporary and do not see any need to restructure the pastoralist basis of their lives. They either keep part of their livestock on the grassland to supply them with dairy and other products, or simply plan to bridge the period of living in the resettlement somehow, with help from the government subsidy, their savings or collecting caterpillar fungus in the majority of the examined cases. Most of the resettled households do not make any significant effort to find a new long-term occupation that could secure their income in the future. At this point, there seems to be another misunderstanding between the attitude of the pastoralists and the government. The available official documents make it clear that the government hopes that the pastoralist households will use the relocation period to find a new occupation and shift the centre of their life into the urban areas, and not necessarily return back to their pasturelands later.

7.3.1. New income sources in the new urban villages

There are plans for new occupation opportunities for resettled pastoralists, but these proposals remain mostly on paper and are not converted into reality. In some areas, there is also governmental vocational training that offers, for example, the craft of shoemaker or motorcycle repair for resettled and poor pastoralist households, but these are only short-term training courses usually lasting only one month. The trainees therefore have no self-confidence in exercising these skills after such a short period of time, and do not build their new life base on the profession they have learned. Currently, there is definitely

not enough assistance for the resettled and settled pastoralists to find new occupations or obtain new qualifications²⁸⁶. In Zeku County, there are also places like Heri Township, where the sedentarisation really seems to benefit the local pastoralists. Heri is a place where a handicraft tradition exists, and the pastoralists who master these skills do really profit from relocation into an urban area, where they can more easily market their products. However, in the majority of resettlements and settlements, the pastoralists do not have such a possibility and merely wait for what the future or the government will bring.

7.3.2. Facilities in the new urban villages

In terms of the quality of the new houses and villages constructed by the government, we can also find numerous failures. According to the stated policy, the new houses should possess elements of Tibetan style architecture.

Figure 49: Settlement site in Wangjia Township, Zeku County, November 2011

286 Cai, Hou, Zhang 2005: 37-59.

In Zeku County, where the house construction is supervised by the government, such parts are made of poor-quality material and are only glued to the top of the facade. After only one year, these elements are falling off, exposing plain brick and concrete walls.

The facilities on site such as streets, water and electricity supply are rarely complete. In Zeku County, it is normal to have to carry water from open streams as before, and certain resettlement and settlement sites have wires brought to the new village but not distributed to each house, so that solar panels are still needed to supply electricity for lighting (see figure 49). Many resettlement and settlement sites do not even possess a public toilet nearby, and there is no waste disposal, so that the hygiene conditions around the courtyards are quite poor (see figure 50).

Figure 50: Settlement in Duofudun Township, Zeku County, November 2011

It is obviously not enough to construct a new village: it is also necessary to assure necessary maintenance. This issue, however, is lacking not only in the new villages, but also in the majority of township and county seats in the grassland areas of Qinghai Province.