The History of Gyalthang Under Chinese Rule: Memory, Identity, and Contested Control in a Tibetan Region of Northwest Yunnan

THE HISTORY OF GYALTHANG UNDER CHINESE RULE: MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND CONTESTED CONTROL IN A TIBETAN REGION OF NORTHWEST YUNNAN Dá!a Pejchar Mortensen A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2016 Approved by: Michael Tsin Michelle T. King Ralph A. Litzinger W. Miles Fletcher Donald M. Reid © 2016 Dá!a Pejchar Mortensen ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii! ! ABSTRACT Dá!a Pejchar Mortensen: The History of Gyalthang Under Chinese Rule: Memory, Identity, and Contested Control in a Tibetan Region of Northwest Yunnan (Under the direction of Michael Tsin) This dissertation analyzes how the Chinese Communist Party attempted to politically, economically, and culturally integrate Gyalthang (Zhongdian/Shangri-la), a predominately ethnically Tibetan county in Yunnan Province, into the People’s Republic of China. Drawing from county and prefectural gazetteers, unpublished Party histories of the area, and interviews conducted with Gyalthang residents, this study argues that Tibetans participated in Communist Party campaigns in Gyalthang in the 1950s and 1960s for a variety of ideological, social, and personal reasons. The ways that Tibetans responded to revolutionary activists’ calls for political action shed light on the difficult decisions they made under particularly complex and coercive conditions. Political calculations, revolutionary ideology, youthful enthusiasm, fear, and mob mentality all played roles in motivating Tibetan participants in Mao-era campaigns. The diversity of these Tibetan experiences and the extent of local involvement in state-sponsored attacks on religious leaders and institutions in Gyalthang during the Cultural Revolution have been largely left out of the historiographical record. This dissertation claims that, over the past two decades, the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to control historical memory, the government’s promotion of ethnic tourism in Gyalthang, and elderly Tibetans’ reluctance to discuss their involvement in past atrocities have contributed to the effacement of these diverse Cultural Revolution narratives. iii! ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During my time in graduate school and in the process of writing this dissertation, many people kindly gave me assistance, advice, support, and encouragement. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Michael Tsin, for his guidance, wisdom, and mentorship at every stage of my graduate career. I would also like to express my gratitude to Michelle King for all of her valuable feedback and encouragement over the years. Her intellectual creativity and devotion to her students is truly inspiring. Ralph Litzinger provided me with crucial guidance when I first started researching ethnic tourism in China during my graduate studies at Duke University. I am very grateful for his continued support as I researched and wrote this dissertation. My other committee members, Miles Fletcher and Don Reid, also gave generously of their time and their insightful comments added considerable depth to this project. I would like to thank the many librarians, researchers, and professors at Yunnan University, Yunnan Nationalities University, and the Yunnan Provincial Library who assisted me in obtaining articles, books, and documents, and opened my mind to new ways of thinking about the Cultural Revolution. Likewise, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to those who so generously shared their fascinating life histories, unpublished manuscripts, photo albums, and private libraries with me during my time in Gyalthang. Many friends in Gyalthang also kindly provided me with introductions to their elderly relatives and acquaintances and helped me translate Tibetan texts. Although I regret that due to political reasons I cannot directly name any of these people here, I trust that they realize that they have my deep appreciation. iv! ! I have been extremely fortunate to have benefitted from the guidance and support of many other scholars, librarians, teachers, and colleagues across the world, including Hsi-chu Bolick, Yudru Tsomu, David Atwill, Zhihong Chen, Ellen Bartee, Ben Hillman, Robbie Barnett, Charlene Makley, Benno Weiner, Chris Lee, Lisa Lindsay, and Zach Smith. I would like to thank Jason Lees, Bai Wenrui, Amy Wright, and Lu Yuan for taking such good care of my family and providing us with lodging and wonderful companionship over the course of many years in Yunnan. I am extremely grateful to the Jacob K. Javits Foundation for funding my graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and for making it possible for me to carry out lengthy dissertation research in China. Funding from the Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in the form of a Wadell Fellowship, a Clifford Fellowship, and a Mowry and Clein Fellowship, made it financially feasible for me to carry out successive summers of pre-dissertation and dissertation research in Yunnan Province. I am also very appreciative of the Center for Global Intitiatives and the Phillips Ambassador Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for funding my pre-dissertation research in libraries and universities in Kunming. The American Historical Association and the China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies provided additional research funding. I would also like to thank the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation for generously funding my final year of dissertation writing. I do not know where to begin thanking my family for their unwavering support of my studies, my desire to travel and live abroad, and my goal of completing this dissertation project. My parents, Jan and Linda, have always offered their love and encouragement, and my sister, Liba, has been the best lifelong friend one could ever hope for. No one, however, has suffered v! ! the trials and tribulations of this dissertation more selflessly than my partner, Eric, who has supported and encouraged me through every step of my graduate career. He has been my loyal friend, intellectual companion, and partner-in-parenting all at the same time, and without him this project simply would not have been possible. Our beautiful son, Søren, was born into this world shortly before I embarked on my studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and eight years later his energy, laughter, creativity, and love continue to magically affect all those around him. Of all of the people who have contributed to this project, I owe my deepest and most profound gratitude to Eric and Søren. I dedicate this dissertation to them. vi! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………………….ix INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: THE ROLE OF LOCALITY, RELIGION, AND ETHNICITY IN IDENTITY FORMATION IN GYALTHANG........................................................................31 CHAPTER TWO: FROM THE LONG MARCH TO THE SOCIALIST EDUCATION MOVEMENT: THE CONSOLIDATION OF COMMUNIST PARTY RULE IN GYALTHANG (1936-1965)………………………………………………...54 CHAPTER THREE: REVOLUTIONARY ENTHUSIASM OR POLITICAL COERCION? TIBETAN PARTICIPATION IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN GYALTHANG………..……………………………………………………….....................120 CHAPTER FOUR: ETHNIC POLITICS, HISTORICAL AMNESIA, AND THE REFRAMING OF GYALTHANG HISTORY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY...........143 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………193 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................205 vii! ! LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DXZ Deqin xianzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 德钦县志编纂委员会 [Deqin County Gazetteer Compilation Committee], ed. Deqin xian zhi 德钦县志 [Deqin County Gazetteer]. Kunming: Yunnan minzu chubanshe, 1997. DZWZX1 Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi, Yunnan sheng Diqing zangzu zizhizhou weiyuanhui, wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui 中国人民政治协商会议, 云南省迪庆藏族自治州委员会，文史资料研究委员会 [Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, The Committee of Diqing Precture in Yunnan Province, The Literary and Historical Materials Research Committee], ed. Diqing zhou wenshi ziliao xuanji, di yi ji 迪庆州文史资料选辑. 第一辑 [An Anthology of Literary and Historical Materials from Diqing Prefecture, Volume 1.] Kunming: Yunnan minzu yinshua chang, 1987. DZWZX3 Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi, Yunnan sheng Diqing zangzu zizhizhou weiyuanhui, wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui 中国人民政治协商会议, 云南省迪庆藏族自治州委员会，文史资料研究委员会 [Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, The Committee of Diqing Precture in Yunnan Province, The Literary and Historical Materials Research Committee], ed. Diqing zhou wenshi ziliao xuanji, di san ji 迪庆州文史资料选辑. 第三辑 [An Anthology of Literary and Historical Materials from Diqing Prefecture, Volume 3]. Kunming: Xizhan caiyinchang, 1990. DZWZX6 Diqing zangzu zizhizhou zhengxie wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui 迪庆藏族自治州政协文史资料委员会 [The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, The Literary and Historical Materials Committee], ed. Diqing zhou wenshi ziliao xuanji, di liu ji 迪庆州文史资料选辑, 第六辑 [An Anthology of Literary and Historical Materials from Diqing Prefecture, Volume 6]. Kunming: Xizhan caiyinchang, 1998. DZZZ Diqing zhouzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 迪庆州志编纂委员会 [Diqing Prefecture Gazetteer Compilation Committee], ed. Diqing zangzu

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