r/tibet • u/You_yes_ • 23d ago
Why tibetans online so un-tolerant ?
I have experienced this so many times especially in Instagram.
I would I like to give some situation here and wanted your opinions.
/ I am nepalese.
Incident 1:
Some nepalese were wearing traditional Sherpa dress in cultural program somewhere in europe. They were not from Sherpa community but wanted to wear it to represent ethnic communities in Nepal. I know Sherpas literally mean shar ("east") and pa ("inhabitants"), and originally from tibet region . But Sherpa are considered indigenous people in Nepal and many international organizational do count it. Sherpas here literally gets indigenous benefits. Sherpa indigenous activist people call other outsider. shortly : Sherpa are considered indigenous in Nepal.
tibetan people started attacking her for wearing sherpa dress and participanting in nepalese cultural program. Not just criticism comments were full of racisist things.
Incident 2:
photograph of Boudhanath stupa. One creator posted it showing Nepal's beauty and tradition. tibetans attacked saying why Nepal has to steal our things?. It was photograph of stupa which was in Kathmandu.
Incident 3:
Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.
He literally said he was born in Nepal. There were Sherpas in Nepal before china taking over tibet too. Why can't tibetans accept he was sherpa and was born in Nepal?
Incident 4:
Nepal has tourism only because of tibetan refuge . tibetans are sole region why tourist come to Nepal.
incident 5:
cultural program in Mustang , Nepal. tibetans were attacking that that's not culture of Nepal. people in Mustang were celebrating it for centuries in Mustang , Nepal.
incident 6:
A kind sherpa women was helping tourist. tibetan Commentors were all saying tibetan people are kind and all when nepalese replied she was from Nepal and nepalese people are kind . tibetan commentors attacked there too.
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u/DeepSeaNinja 23d ago
A lot sensitivities at play regarding identity: Tibetan, Sherpa and Nepali all have their own dynamics. If you're woke then it's all to do with how people used to live, then the whole concept of borders and nation states got invented in the West and suddenly everybody's forced to pick sides (until they can't). Fast forward and we see the sensitivies all put together in a pressure cooker, ready to explode.
The case of Tenzin Norgay Sherpa is actually an interesting example. You call him a Nepali because you say he was born in Nepal, even though both his parents are Tibetan and his own son claims that Tenzin Norgay was born in Tibet. Was it advantageous for Tenzin Norgay to proclaim the Nepali identity? Was it advantageous for the Nepali identity to claim Tenzin Norgay? Can he be both Nepali and Tibetan? At the very least it shows that identity is not black and white, and I haven't even touched upon Sherpahood.
Feel like it's also crucial to mention that online tribal behaviour is not unique to this context. What is unique (and perhaps overlooked) is China's involvement in ALL parties, putting a fire under that pressure cooker.
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u/You_yes_ 22d ago
Tenzin Norgay was nepalese/ nepali by place of birth, tibetan by dna, and indian when he died. So, He was nepalese ,tibetan , indian in all way.
" his son claims that tenzing ws born in tibet" source?
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u/learner001 17d ago
According to many later accounts, including a book co-written by his son Jamling Tenzin Norgay, he was born in Tibet,\8])\9]) at Tse Chu in the Kama Valley, and grew up in Thame, Nepal.\10]) He spent his early childhood in Kharta, near the north of the country. Norgay went to Nepal as a child to work for a Sherpa family in Khumbu.
I copy pasted this from Wikipedia. In the Q&A session of Tenzing at TIFF, his son is saying something about Tenzin Norgay shepherding in Tibet.
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u/jimboo_chump 23d ago
There are small sections of people like that in every community, and since it’s the internet, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I mean, when the Nepal youth protests happened, all the violence and vandalism were blamed on Tibetans, and even one politician claimed that “Free Tibet” activists were behind the propaganda encouraging Nepalese youth to rise up and vandalize things, etc.
If you go to any Nepalese subreddit and search for “Tibetan” topics, you’ll see some pretty “colorful” comments and views, including people even calling His Holiness a pedophile. So I’m not saying that what you saw wasn’t real, but it’s the internet, and people are going to say all kinds of things under the cover of anonymity.
You shouldn’t entertain or overanalyze every comment you see on the internet.
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u/learner001 17d ago
I could also write the same title and change Tibetans to Nepali. The thing is, as other commentators have stated, vitriolic comments get the most attention. The cultures between North Nepal and South Tibet blur, as do those between South Nepal and neighboring Indian states. You can see the same comments from Indians.
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u/ReporterFabulous9995 16d ago
I don't think you should assume edgy Tibetans on instagram represent the entire exile community. Most of what you said can just be attributed to general ignorance. It is important to remember that tens of thousands of those in exile might have never even been to Nepal or just went on a short trip.
Some of the things might be just different perspectives, but you did not elaborate much so I don't know.
Like Incident 5, what about Mustang, also it maybe within the borders of Nepal, but that region is culturally Tibetan.
Incident 3, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa is definitely Tibetan. We just do not know if he was born in Tibet or in a Sherpa region of Nepal. His ethnicity is Tibetan though. Calling himself Sherpa was just branding.
But again these commenters are just being edgy and ignorant. Their comments do not reflect the entire exile community online.
Also, you have to be understanding on why some Tibetans are so defensive-- their homeland is occupied and their culture is constantly under attack. While I do not agree with them criticizing other peoples, especially ones so close like the Sherpa, it comes from an existential anxiety and not malice.
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u/TruthandPeace 6h ago
Nepali people are so insecure. Be proud of your self. There are equally ignorant Nepalese people who say worse things to Tibetans and other nepalese people.
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u/You_yes_ 23d ago
One I alomst forget ,, some tibetans online were claming Newar buddhism as tibetan.
Newar Buddhism is a distinct, non-monastic form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the indigenous Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal
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u/Worth_Garbage_4471 23d ago
It's definitely much, much more Tibetan than it is Gorkha buddy. Also, Nepal is a word the Gorkhas stole from the Newars after invading their land and cutting off their noses.
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u/You_yes_ 22d ago
I don't think so,, We call our country Nepal not Gorkha due to legacy of Nepal ( Kathmandu valley surrounding ). Also Capital city is Kathmandu not Gorkha. We have preserved Newari culture till now too.
I myself was from area under malla newar kingdom ( tho I am not newar). My ancestors fought against gorkhas. But if Gorkhas didn't did that we would probably not exist as " a sovereign nation ".
Plus war are brutal everywhere.
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u/butterchalatte 23d ago
As a Tibetan I say this with love: racial insecurity and conservative hypernationalism born from not having a country and constant fear our identity will disappear. Normal people don’t say anything, the most insecure are the types who are always online