The Agency of Things

            In the beginning of Jane Bennet’s description of “thing power” she poetically begins with a list of seemingly commonplace objects.

            One large men’s plastic work glove

            One dense mat of oak pollen

            One unblemished dead rat

            One white plastic bottle cap

            One smooth stick of wood

Bennet notices these objects upon chance, when sunlight is reflected upon the surface of the workman’s glove, delineating the “thing” from its seemingly mundane environment. Her eye is then attracted to this peculiar grouping of things that seem to revert back and forth between simple forms of debris and the remnants of human activity. Undoubtedly, their classification as “debris” is simply a product of the surrounding environment, a gritty storm drain, but there is a higher potential to these things, which is continuously ignored by the passerby. These things persist as forms of nature by rotting and decaying, exuding energy and odor and chemical byproducts into the air. Therefore, the things that we often ignore as waste and debris ultimately enclose a potential force to affect our health, behavior, ideals etc. Over the years, the arts and sciences have taken two different approaches to investigating the agency of things over human life. In the arts, a conglomeration of things can inspire us to think of our personal or cultural relationship with the seemingly inanimate. In the sciences, papers are published that force us to consider how we use things or how we waste them. These different approaches force us to regard things as something more than simply the inanimate.

            Bennet’s odd assemblage of things reminded me of the work of Abraham Cruzvillegas, a Mexican sculptor renowned for his use of everyday objects to create visually stimulating installations. Cruzvillegas creates these installations based on the principle of “Autoconstrucción.” Autoconstrucción in Mexican culture refers to the construction of houses made by low-income families who often settle illegally in abandoned territories and build makeshift dwellings from found objects. In turn, these dwellings are constantly begin added to or changed by their inhabitants. Accordingly, Cruzvillegas uses objects that he finds in communities all around the world to reflect the common cultural of those places. However, these sculptures are haphazardly created to form asymmetrical and unstable structures, which leaves the viewer to openly interpret the piece.  In describing his work Cruzvillegas stated, “I wanted to join specific practices from contradictory contexts in order to make an unstable sculpture, both physically and conceptually, as it could be interpreted or watched as a result from a mixture of subjective experiences.”  (Art 21, 2001) Cruzvillegas touches on the universal human desire to relate the aesthetics of things to their own personal history, especially when looking at art. In addition, the artist manipulates these things in such a way that they lose their original purpose or identity and become transformed into an entirely new concept.

            Another body of work that rectified the “thing” were the readymades of Marcel Duchamp. Beginning in the early 1900s, Duchamp began to challenge the idea of “retinal art” or art made only to please the eyes, by extrapolating things from their original environment and putting them in a museum setting. One of Duchamp’s first readymades “Bicycle Wheel” was one of the first kinetic sculptures, creating a kind of non functional machine. The bicycle wheel is mounted on a stool as if it is meant to be the focus of attention, and reflects a sense of motion and energy associated with machinery. Duchamp once stated, “All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives a final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists.”DuChamp, Marcel. ”The Creative Act”. 1957. Here, Duchamp modestly submits his work to the public’s interpretation. The viewer’s acknowledgment of the ‘inner qualification’ of the work is ultimately out of Duchamp’s control, and what determines this qualification is the unique interaction that each person has with the thing or the assemblage of things. Duchamp’s ultimate goal was to revolutionize the definition of art itself by exploiting the power of the ordinary “thing.” Seeing an everyday thing stripped of its use value and put into a different setting invokes a sense of confusion in the viewer. This confusion stems from our desire to place all the non-human entities into categories. For example, animals and things are defined by us as the “other” but only under certain conditions. When they are removed from their usual environments and placed into new ones, we are forced to come up with new explanations for their unfamiliar existence.

            From a more scientific perspective, things in our current technological age such as food, electronics, and general consumer have a continuous power over our behavior and lifestyle. Advertising is specifically targeted to reflect our unique evolutionary biology as humans thus influencing our desire for consumer goods. Between males and females, certain aspects of our evolved psyche are triggered by advertisements to make one believe that they “need” the product. For instance, throughout the evolutionary history of animals and humans, hormonally induced competition among males is crucial in establishing dominant status and consequentially improving their reproductive success by attracting members of the opposite sex.  In accordance, testosterone is theorized to also affect male consumer behavior and financial risk taking because the accumulation of finance is considered a characteristic of high status and male dominance in the modern age. Studies that support this theory show that men’s testosterone levels increase when participating in the finance markets or when buying a luxury item. The advertising industry can utilize this theorized trait in males to associate their products with high status and increased attractiveness to females. For example, the 2012 Fiat scorpion commercial features a man looking at an attractive woman and leans in to kiss her, when suddenly he realizes that it is actually a car. This kind of juxtaposition between the advertised thing and sexual reward is thus common in advertisements for many different products and can be targeted at both men and women based on our generalized desires.           

            Bennet also discusses the relationship between things and human biology in her chapter “stem cells and the culture of life.” In this chapter, the concept of vitalism is discussed, which is to stay that non living entities are distinct from living organisms because the living contain the “spark of life” or in other words, a soul. The theory of vitalism, although rejected by mainstream science, is essentially still used by some politicians and scientists to establish the moral boundaries of scientific experimentation. On the other hand some other vitalists believe that the study of the non-living will ultimately uncover the ontology of the living. To quote the German biologist and philosopher Hans Driesch:

            There is the material world as the world of chance, but there is also a world of            
             form or order that manifests itself in certain areas of the material world, namely,            
             in the biological individual, and probably, in another way, in phylogeny and            
             history also; there may be formlike constellations in what we call the organic.

            (Vibrant Matter, 83)

I personally agree with this form of vitalism, because I am very interested in the used of model organisms to uncover certain aspects of human biology. Driesch himself experimented with sea urchin development and discovered that sea urchin embryos can display indeterminate cell cleavage, similar to the development of twins in human embryology. Moreover, a shared evolutionary history allows us to examine conserved genetic, metabolic, and disease pathways in a variety of different animals and even microscopic organisms. For instance, our genetic material can be inserted into E. coli bacteria and expressed in their genome to reveal the specific functions of our genes and how they are regulated. Therefore, because all the matter that currently exists on this earth arose from the same evolutionary origin, it is logical that the study of animals and of things would relate to our own biological development. If we were to place ourselves in a higher order, perhaps as closer to god than any other being on planet, than the study of biology would be lacking in essential information.

            I was also very interested in Bennet’s chapter on “Edible Matter” and looking at what we eat as having control over our mood and lifestyle. The problem of obesity in America undoubtedly displays the agency of food and nutrition on human life. Fast food although affordable and easily accessible is also highly addictive due to the increased content of salts, sugars, and fats. Certain studies using rats have actually demonstrated that when their calorie intake was doubled, reward systems in their brains were manipulated so that increased food consumption was needed to satisfy their daily appetite (Time Magazine, “Can Eating Junk Food Really be an Addiction?”). This same kind of manipulation, caused by inhibited neurotransmitter uptake is also seen in drug and alcohol addition.

            Therefore, often people who become addicted to fast food lose agency over what they eat and how they eat. Eating becomes a kind of unconscious activity, and one disassociates with the evolutionary purpose of eating, which is to provide energy. Over the course of our evolutionary history, food became more readily available from the development of agriculture to the mass production of food in factories. These changes in the production of food prompted the risk of not only over-eating, but also eating unhealthy or synthetic foods. As a consequence, the need to survive and be healthy became less of a driving force and we have evolved to do things that we know will negatively affect our health.

            In David Sloan Wilson’s book “Evolution for Everyone” the author compares our desire for fast food to a misguided evolutionary instinct, “Our lust for fat, sugar, and salt makes great sense in an environment where these substances were in perennial short supply, but putting a fast food restaurant on every corner is like lighting up the sky for inland baby sea turtles.” (Evolution for Everyone, 55) The reference to baby sea turtles alludes to the behavior of these animals to be drawn to the sea by moonlight after hatching. However, the unnatural lighting of coastal neighborhoods have caused them to become lost inland. Humans on the other hand, know that there is a problem with the way they consume, but we are simply unable to solve it even with our willpower and higher intelligence. In this sense, our rational mind cannot control the agency that non-living fat, sugar, and salt has over our body. I am not trying to say that I do not experience these unconscious cravings myself, I too have frequently experienced the desire to overeat not necessarily because I am hungry but because I am stressed out, unhappy, or just because I feel unable to stop.

            In conclusion, my personal relationship with non-living things is principally influenced by the arts and sciences. I was introduced to modern art at a very young age because my mother is an art collector and curator. In my house there are a lot of things that are considered art but could also be ordinary things in a different setting. For example, we have a pair of children’s leather shoes in my living room, which sit on a pedestal. For a while I questioned the artistic value of the shoes but by reading about the agency of things in this class, it has become clearer to me. Sometimes the artist has no major role in how one will interpret their work, and it is really up to the viewer to disregard their own notions of what art is and simply look at the thing as having its own identity and history. As my interests in the sciences started to develop, I also started looking at the thing has having energy and force over human life. I started to look at the relationship between humans and things through an evolutionary lens, and recognized that things do in fact have agency over our every day lives. Therefore, while many people may disagree with me, I think that it is important to keep studying animals and non living things to further our knowledge human diseases and behaviors. If we keep ignoring the agency of things, our environment and health will deteriorate by blind consumption and waste. Thus, it is up to people to recognize the power of even the unnoticeable things, that they might pass by everyday. With that in mind, I will end with my own list of seemingly commonplace objects that I encountered on the sidewalk while walking home:

            One broken pencil

            One adidas sneaker

            One empty beer can

            One crushed potato chip

            One dead radio





An  interesting interview with Abraham Cruzvillegas:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ5Ca9PlgSw




 

Published in the Bird Science Journal of Novel and Highly Experimental Medicine

Becoming Bird: A Novel (and Modest) Approach to Avian Influenza

A. Temporini et al, 2013

Introduction:

            Since its appearance in Asia in 2003, H5N1, the most pathogenic strain of avian influenza, has devastated bird and human populations around the globe (10).  As a pandemic of vast proportions, avian influenza has had an important economic and cultural impact (3).  In addition to its high virulence and mortality rates in birds, because of its high zoonotic potential, avian influenza is a constant threat to humans.  H5N1 has a high mortality rate in humans: approximately 60% of avian influenza cases from the period between 2005 and 2007 led to fatalities (6).  There is evidence that that the Spanish flu, one of the most deadly natural disasters in human history, which wiped out nearly 5% of the world’s population in 1918, originated from a strain of avian influenza that mutated to infect humans (7).  Because of its high mutation rate, and the generally high proximity of birds to humans, avian influenza has an incredibly high chance of becoming infective to humans.  Areas that are at high risk for infection with avian influenza and for increased transmission are areas that are predominantly rural and impoverished.  These areas are normally comprised of households or farms that have high densities of people living alongside many species of bird, including the most conducive to avian influenza infection: poultry.  Rural populations such as these, which typically lack many of the hygiene practices and habits that are common of more urbanized areas, are the most heavily affected by highly virulent pandemic diseases such as this.  Additionally, these populations are often afflicted with many other diseases of high morbidity and mortality, such as parasitic disease, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS (9, 10).  A wave of avian influenza can easily wipe out populations such as these, and ravage high-density urban populations.  In addition to the direct threat to human health, avian influenza also has a large negative impact on bird populations.  This can lead to changes in the biodiversity of ecosystems, which can drastic consequences on ecosystem functionality, and stability (1, 5).  This is important because agriculture can be greatly impacted by surrounding ecosystems (11).

            Currently, the state of control for avian influenza is in its primary stages (10).  While vaccines can be developed for particular strains, predicting which strains will be most likely to jump from bird to human is nearly impossible.  So in this sense preventive measures for avian influenza are much less efficient than they are for human influenza.  Because of this, the main control strategy currently employed is vector control, which aims to reduce transmission and prevalence in the primary vector of avian influenza: birds, particularly poultry.  However, strategies for vector control have been largely ineffective.

            There are many obstacles to efficient and effective control of avian influenza, and the most difficult to overcome is the fact that we cannot manage bird populations to prevent transmission (9).  Unfortunately, we lack the technology and capacity to effectively perceive the world as a bird does or to control all birds enough to micromanage transmission of avian influenza. As Thomas Nagel reminds us, we must resist the urge to “assume that tools of the kind we now have are in principle sufficient to understand the universe as a whole” (8).  However, according to scholars such as Agamben, Deleuze, and Nagel, humans are perhaps not so distinctly different from birds, “everything, living or not, is constituted from elements having a nature that is both physical and nonphysical--that is, capable of combining into mental wholes” (8).  Clearly, humans share similar properties to birds on the most fundamental levels of existence, which creates the possibility for some sort of meaningful connection to animals that may be of use.  Furthermore, Deleuze points out, “the self is only a threshold, a door, a becoming between two multiplicities,” and that this threshold can certainly be traversed (2).  It is this line of thinking that has led to the notable advances in the beginnings of a novel control strategy for avian influenza presented in this study.  Following this line of thought, and noting that “instrumentation and orchestration are permeated by becomings-animal, and above all becomings-bird,” we turned to Deleuze’s most insightful question, “is it not first through the voice that one becomes animal?” (2).

Methods:

            This study was designed to test the outer limits of the anthropological machine and the boundaries between human and animal.  By devising a method to essentially transform human to bird, we have developed a vehicle for the meaningful trans-species transfer of information.  The aim of this study was to delineate a preliminary technique utilizing the threshold between human and animal that is the voice.  Sound, an inherent character of force and vibration, can be readily manipulated.  By slowing down the songs of several birds, we have discovered a template for communicating with birds.  To test this hypothesis, we slowed down the songs of birds, had humans imitate the slowed down recordings, and then sped up the human imitations, effectively generating a bird song from human voice.

            Several species of birds were selected for recording based on the distinct patterns discernible by the human ear in their songs.  Several individuals within each species were then recorded singing in their natural habitats.  The clearest audio samples were then selected for the audio modification process.  The chosen species were the Wood-Thrush, Pine-Warbler, and Canyon-Wren.

            The audio modification process consisted primarily of cleaning up the audio (removing background noise and amplifying desired song), and greatly slowing down the audio.  Selected songs were slowed down to 30% of the original speed.  Additionally, the pitch of the slowed down recordings was lowered, to make it easier for the human ear to interpret, and for the human voice to imitate.  Human imitations were recorded.  In order to do this, the slowed down bird audio was transferred to a portable device so that participants could listen to the bird recording in one headphone while imitating the sound into the recording device.  The human recordings were then modified by increasing the pitch to the original bird levels and by speeding up the sound to 16 times the original speed.  All audio modifications were performed using GarageBand and VideoLan Client (VLC) media player.

            To ensure that the newly created human bird songs were indeed of any use, recordings were played for birds in their natural habitats, and their responses were recorded.  An assigned-value-response-index (AVRI) was used to categorize and quantify bird response to human bird songs.  Responses were observed for a total of three minutes (one minute before recording played, one minute during recording play, and one minute after recording was played).  Points were assigned to various responses (fly away, tweet back, nod, do nothing, flap wings) and then tallied and averaged for a linearized response value, which was then situated in the AVRI.

            Statistical analysis was performed to determine variance in response and significance of response using a one-way univariate analysis of bird-variance test (TweETest). As is standard, significance was determined with tweet-values less than or equal to 0.05.

Results:

            Bird responses to human bird song recordings were objectively measured and recorded.  As shown in Figure 1, birds had a clear, significant (tweet-value < 0.05, R² = 17.81), and recognizable response to human recordings.  No negative responses were observed.  Responses post-exposure to human recording were significantly different from those pre-exposure, demonstrating a noticeable recognition and response to human voice recordings.

Figure 1. Average response value on the assigned-value-response-index. Responses were measured pre-exposure to recording, during exposure to recording, and post-exposure to recording. Clear significant differences were observed in response after birds listened to recordings.

Discussion:

            The results indicate a significant recognition and response behavior to human generated bird songs.  These results provide hope that perhaps this novel technique can be incorporated into existing control strategies in the near future.  As this method if further developed and studied, we can begin to encode meaningful information into human generated bird songs.  This will allow us to at once warn birds of the dangers of avian influenza, record symptoms, control and prevent transmission of current and future strains of the virus, and to learn much more about our fellow winged brothers and sisters.  As communication with birds becomes increasingly possible and relevant to human heath, we hope that other means of connecting with birds and other species will be further explored so as to expand the reaches of the human condition.  With this novel approach to a devastating problem, we welcome birds into the protective folds of the anthropological machine.

References

 
1.     David Tilman, Peter B. Reich, Johannes M. H. Knops. (2006) Biodiversity and ecosystem stability in a decade-long grassland experiment. Nature 441:7093, 629-632.
 
2.     Deleuze, G. Thousand Plateaus, 1980.
 
3.     Djunaidi, H., and C.M. Djunaidi. ‘‘The Economic Impacts of Avian Influenza on World Poultry Trade and the U.S. Poultry Industry: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis.’’ Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 39,2(2007):313–323.
 
4.     Dugan VG, Chen R, Spiro DJ, et al. The evolutionary genetics and emergence of avian influenza viruses in wild birds. PLoS Pathog, 2008.
 
5.     Giller, P.S., Hillebrand, H., Berninger, U.G., Gessner, M.O., Hawkins, S., Inchausti, P. et al. (2004). Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic environments. Oikos, 104, 423–436.
 
6.     J. H. Beigel et al., Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Infection in Humans, N. Engl. J. Med. 353, 1374 (2005).
 
7.     Morens DM, Taubenberger JK, Fauci AS. The persistent legacy of the 1918 influenza virus. N Engl J Med 2009; 361: 225-229
 
8.     Nagel, T. Mind and Cosmos, 2012.
 
9.     Olsen B., Munster V.J., Wallensten A., Waldenström J., Osterhaus A.D.M.E., Fouchier R.A.M., Global patterns of influenza A virus in wild birds, Science (2006) 312:384-388
 
10.  Peiris JSM, de Jong MD, Guan Y (2007) Avian Influenza Virus (H5N1): a Threat to Human Health. Clin Microbiol Rev 20: 243–267.
 
11.  Sandra Díaz, Joseph Fargione, F. Stuart Chapin, David Tilman. (2006) Biodiversity Loss Threatens Human Well-Being. PLoS Biology 4:8, e277.

Recordings:
Original Bird, Slow Bird, Human Sped Up

Nation and Nationality:Cultures, traditions and Languages

Nation and Nationality: Cultures, Traditions and Language

What is human without cultures, traditions and language? It would be hard to imagine a human society without it. Somehow, human behavior and characters are shaped by the society that they grow up in and learn. It is the instinct or human nature to belong in a group to thrive in this world, because humans are social animal. Cultures, traditions and languages give a person a group or community to belong to and feel comfortably. At the same time, to be able to be in a society with similar mental status of way they think. It is the society that is going to teach him about life and survival. Because cultures, traditions and languages are important in human society, we hung onto it tight. One good example to explain the importance of  culture, traditions and languages would be the situation between Tibet and China. As Tibetan, I grew up in a refugee society India but I was born in Tibet. My mother ran away from Tibet crossing the mountains to preserve Tibetan cultures, traditions and languages since Chinese government is trying destroy them to eliminate an entire race that is defined by their Cultures, traditions and languages.

Tibet is known as “the roof of the world”.  Tibet is now under the rule of modern China. In 1949, after the end of long civil war in China, Mao Zedong, Chairman and founding father of the People’s Republic of China, won hearts of millions of Chinese people that lead to the victory of communist’s revolution. Mao’s ambitious goal is to unite China and transform it into modern world. Fighting against the old rule, he wanted to develop China. Communist Chinese government ordered it’s so called the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to march into Tibet. The PLA is faced by the Tibetans in eastern region, Khampas and amdowas. As stated in the book, Tibet: A History, by the author Sam Van Schaik:

If any army could accomplish this feat, it was the well-disciplined, highly ideological People’s Liberation Army. As early as September 1949, a Pekeng Radio broadcast had stated that Tibet was an indivisible part of China, and anyone who failed to recognise this would ‘crack his skull against the mailed fist of the PLA. In January 1950, Mao, Sitting with Joseph Stalin in Moscow, casually mentioned his plan to conquer Tibet. Staline agreed, saying, “It’s good that you are preparing to attack. The Tibetans need to be subdued” He assured Mao that he would consider giving military assistance to the project.

In simple, In order to invade Tibet he is going to use disciplined and trained People’s Liberation Army.  In early September 1949, a Peking radio broadcast that anyone who denies Tibet as part of China will be killed. In January 1950, Mao was with Joseph Stalin in Moscow, Mao talked about his plan to conquer Tibet and Stalin agreed to Mao’s plan and also offered his assistance in the project to conquer Tibet. Even though people of Kham and Amdo fought against the Chinese army to protect their mother land, due to lack of proper organization and strategy, they lost the battle against the huge number of trained Chinese soldiers. The Chinese soldiers have already taken over the eastern region and now marching towards Lhasa. Many Tibetan commanders have surrendered to resist against the Chinese soldier. As written in the novel Seven years in Tibet by the author Heinrich Harrer:

In the meantime, the Chinese troops had penetrated hundreds of miles into Tibet. A few Tibetan commanders had already surrendered, and others had ceased to resist, seeing no future in a fight against overwhelming force. The governor of the principal town in East Tibet has sent a wireless message to Lhasa asking for permission to surrender as resistance was useless.

In different words, after the enthronement of young Dalai Lama, the Chinese troops had travelled hundreds of miles into Tibet. Few Tibetan commanders have to surrender the resistance against the Chinese army. The governor of the East Tibet sends a wireless message to Lhasa to give him permission to surrender the resistance against China.  In 1950 China negotiated the Seventeen Point agreement with the newly enthroned 14the Dalai lama, Tenzin Gyatso’s government officials to give up their land to the People’s Republic of China. Even Though, Tibetan officials have signed the seventeen point agreement, PRC still face high resistance from the Tibetan People in the heart of the country Lhasa. As written in Indo-Tibet-China Conflict written by author Dinesh Lal:

By 1957 a large number of volunteer defenders from various parts of the eastern region of Tibet had gathered around Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The Khampas felt the need to form a united organization to confront the Communist Chinese aggression. But by that time, the Chinese had started to exert pressure and our government’s position was rather helpless. Meanwhile the Khampa volunteer leaders were having secret meetings, busy in laying out future plans and strategies. As a result of their common efforts it was finally and unanimously decided to form a united resistance organization against the common enemy, the communist Chinese aggression. The leaders then signed a statement pledging their commitment to risk everything to resist the Communist Chinese. (Dinesh Lal, 144)

In other words, by 1958, a large group of volunteer army from the eastern region of Tibet has grouped around Lhasa to defend against the Chinese army marching. Tibetan people from the east, known as Khampas felt the need to unite in order to fight against their common enemy (PLA). During that time India was helpless to help the Tibetan because the Chinese had already started their invasion and had concurred eastern region. Khampa volunteer leaders have secret meetings to plan out the future and strategy. Their effort brought more Tibetans to join the resistance against the Chinese aggression. The leaders are committed to give up anything to resist against the Chinese. In addition, In 1959, due to constant pressures and threat from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), over 300,000 Tibetan’s surrounded Dalai Lama’s palace to protect him from being removed or taken. In order to preserve Tibetan culture and nation he ran away with few hundred Tibetans to exile in India. It seems that humans are defined and characterized by their traditions, cultures and languages. Similarly, humans are strongly attached to it.  The citizens of Tibetans formed their own volunteer army to protect their traditions and cultures as their job at the same time.

Human society is not just the changes in the dynamic of society but it is also changes in cultures and traditions. From centuries and centuries of evolution of cultures and tradition build strong bond between human and their culture and traditions. As humans learn and explore, more and more changes occur in cultures.  After the Chinese occupation of Tibet, there have been many changes. Thousands of Tibetan ran away to India and Thousands are still inside Tibet. Many Tibetans migrate to India from 1959 till the present. Many Tibetan parents send their kids to India to get education and also to be able to preserve their cultures. Mao’s ideas run through the society to bring to forward towards the modern world. He convinced the people to destroy the four old: Old customs, old cultures, old habits and old ideology. As written in the book The making of Modern Tibet by author, A. Tom Grunfeld:

By August 1966, only days after the Red Guards had rallied in Beijing, “the Great Proletarian Cultural revolution had spread to Lhasa, uprooting in its tide the poisonous weeds of the old society and touched the roof of the world,” A campaign was immediately launched to eliminate the “four olds” (Ideology, customs, culture, and habits) and replace them with the “four new” (also ideology, customs, culture and habits). Street names were changed to reflect revolutionary themes, tens of thousands of copies of the volume of Mao’s quotations were distributed, Mao’s portrait began appearing all over Lhasa, compulsory study groups were organized to read and discuss Mao’s writing, and illiterate peasants were encouraged and praised for memorizing Mao’s exact words. More ominously, the Jokhang Cathedral was attacked by the most militant Red Guards and many religious objects were destroyed. (183)

In other words, by 1966, The Red Guards had spread in the capital Lhasa, whose goal is to destroy old traditions and culture and adapt to modern society. The campaign is to destroy the four olds (ideology, customs and culture and habits) and replace it by new fours. Streets are named after revolutionary themes and Mao’s quotations are distributed in the Tibetan society, encouraging them to study and discuss, especially encouraging and praising uneducated ones to memorize Mao’s quote. Moreover, the Jokhang temple was attacked by the Red Guards and many religious objects were destroyed. In addition, in the same book it stated that:

The damage caused by the wanton destruction and the fighting was awesome. Contrary to the propaganda claims that the Tibetans were “jubilantly” welcoming the Cultural Revolution, the reality was far more cruel. even if we discount stories of thousands of Tibetans killed ( government officials claim fewer than one hundred people died during the GPCR) and of monks and nuns being forced to copulate with each other in public, to smash icons and kill flies, verifiable activities of the Red Guards are terrifying enough. There were killings and people hounded into suicide. People were physically attacked in the streets for wearing Tibetan dress or having non-Han hair styles. An attempt was made to destroy every single religious item. All but a handful of monasteries and temples (the figures range from 2000 to 6500) were destroyed, many taken down brick by brick until no a trace was left. (185)

In simple, the propaganda claims that the Tibetans have welcomed the Cultural Revolution; in fact the reality is crueler. Government claimed that the deaths of Tibetan are fewer than one hundred but the fact is that thousands of Tibetan people died. Red Guards actions were cruel, forcing monks and nun to engage in sexual intercourse in public and smash icons and kill flies because in doing so will destroy their vows of taking the oath to follow the path of Buddha. Many people suicide because they are terrified with the treatment of Red Guards. Any sign of traditional activities are punished and destroyed. Tibetans wearing Tibetan cloths were beaten and people with no Han hairstyles were also beaten.  The Red guards attempted to destroy every religious object, they have destroyed from 2000 to 6500 and now there are only few surviving monasteries that survived the destruction. Furthermore, Since Dalai Lama escaped, CCP put the second highest Lama Panchen Lama as the acting chairman of TAR. He is an educated person who is an expert in both Marxism and Buddhism ideology. He later on wrote 70,000-Character Petition to express his concerns about the results of suppression of the revolt. The title of the petition is “A report on the sufferings of the Masses in Tibet and Other Tibetan Regions and Suggestions for Future Work to the Central Authorities through the Respected Premier Zhou”. Panchen Lama wrote the petition in a most respectful language and his only wish is to convey some mistakes by lower-level cadres that left bad results for Tibet and Tibetans and that the mistakes can be fixed. He also mentioned that Tibetan Buddhism and national Identity were threatened and it might cause the loyalty of Tibetan towards CCP. The report is divided into eight sections of problems with his critique and suggestions: Suppression of the Tibetan Rebellion (death of 10,000 Tibetans, Harsh treatment of those who surrendered), Democratic reform in Tibet (innocent Tibetan accused of rebel activities are punished), Decline of agricultural production in Tibet (many Tibetan’s are starving to death), The United Front (to help the people in despair), Democratic centralism, Dictatorship in Tibet (dictatorship can be used as tool, conveys all the abuse by the CCP on innocent Tibetans) , Religion in Tibet (violation of religious freedom and the destruction of monasteries), and Tibetan nationality (preservation of Tibetan language, costumes, and customs). In addition, there are many Han moving into Tibet and government encourages Chinese to migrate to Tibet. Tibet has developed greatly in economy since the occupation of China, but not merely because Tibetans are having better economy, but numbers of Chinese business man and women are increasing. Many schools and colleges are built in Tibet, due to that reason; number of literate people has increased a lot. On the other hand, Tibetans are losing their language and culture since there are many Han Chinese coming in Tibet. As written in the book Language Policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and Practice by Minglang Zhou and Hongkai Sun:

Tibetans have more contacts with the Han or more Han migrants. For instance, in some areas in Tibetan communities in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan where the majority of the population is the Han, tens of thousands of Tibetans have now shifted to Chinese. Language use by the Tibetans in Tianzhu, Gansu province, best illustrates this language shift situation. In Tianzhu, since 1949, the number of the Han people has increased rapidly to about 70% of the local population. The dominance of the Han population has changed the status of language use: Tibetans in urban and agricultural areas where they are a minority in number have given up or have begun to give up their native language. I have observed in my own community in Ganna that nowadays fewer and fewer Tibetan teenagers speak Tibetan. (225)

In simple, there are more Tibetans who have contacts with more Han migrants in Tibet. Some areas of Tibet, there are more Han than the native Tibetans living there. Due to that reason, many Tibetans have shifted into Chinese. Since 1949, the number of Chinese in Tianzhu has increased to 70% of the local population. The language use in the society has changed, especially in urban and agricultural areas. Change of population dynamic force Tibetan to give up their native language. More and more Tibetan teenagers don’t speak Tibetan because of the dynamic of the society. The change in society force native countries to lose their culture and it is possible that it will go instinct if it continues to grow in that manner. Due to that reason, many Tibetans in Tibet send their kids to India to study Tibetan and preserve their culture. Changes forced by the society after the Chinese invasion brought many Tibetan to their sense of preserving their traditions, cultures and language. Need to change ones cultures and traditions to destroy the trace of one race are possible, if they completely destroys ones cultures, traditions and languages. Due to that reason humans hold tight onto it.

Need of preserving cultures and traditions of the nation have never occurred more often than modern days. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Dalai Lama fled to India to preserve Tibetan culture as well as running away from the cruel Chinese rule. Many Tibetans either run away or send their kid to India to preserve Tibetan traditions and culture because China is trying to eliminate Tibetan cultures and traditions in any possible way. Now, Tibetans have started their new refugee community in India and has rebuilt their lives. As written in the book Exile as Challenge: The Tibetan Diaspora by Dagmar Bernstorff and Hubertuson Welck:

Today, after more than four decades in exile, the Tibetan refugee community has managed to rebuild their lives in a completely alien environment with about 130,000 refugees worldwide achieving almost total economic self-reliance. The majority of the refugees in South Asia are settled in 46 settlements, comprising of 24 agricultural, 16 agro-industrial and 10 handicraft units. Almost all the settlements are provided with primary and secondary schools, primary health care centers and cooperative societies. In addition, most settlements have clinics to provide traditional Tibetan holistic health care services. There are also monasteries, nunneries and temples to fulfill the spiritual needs of the people. (125)

In different words, Tibetan refugees were able to strive in alien land. There are about 130,000 refugees living worldwide. In South Asia there are settled in 46 settlements, with 24 agricultural and 16 agro-industrial and 10 handicraft units. Most of the settlements are provided with secondary and primary schools, primary health centers and traditional healers. There are also temples, monasteries and nunneries for spiritual practice and needs of the peoples. In school, they teach Tibetan as the main language, English as second language, Math, science and Social Studies. Math, science and social studies are taught in Tibetan until fifth grade, after fifth grade everything is taught in British English except for Tibetan to prepare them for Indian universities and college since Tibetans don’t have their own college and university. Majority of the students live in the boarding school because they don't have their parents with them or their parents are in financial crisis. Students speak new kind of Tibetan where all different dialogs of Tibetan languages are mixed. Traditions and cultural celebrations are celebrated and cultural shows to preserve Tibetan cultures. Moreover, the book Exile as Challenge: The Tibetan Diaspora by Dagmar Bernstorff and Hubertuson Welck has written:

For the organization of the refugee community, and more importantly to guide the Tibetan struggle for national self-rule, the Tibetan Government-in-Exile with the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) have set up their headquarters in  Dharamsala, 500 kilometres north-west of New Delhi in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The government and CTA have over the years served as a rallying point around which the suffering but determined refugees can rebuild their lives and future. The Tibetans, both inside and outside Tibet, recognise the CTA as their sole and legitimate government. It is also increasingly recognised as the legitimate government and true representative of the Tibetan people by parliaments around the worlds. (126)

In other words, Tibetan Government in Exile with the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is settled in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. CTA helps to organize refugee community and guide Tibetans in struggle. Tibetans, from both inside and outside Tibet, look up to CTA as their legitimate government. CTA is also recognized by many other parliaments in other countries as legitimate government representing Tibetan people. The success of Tibetan refugee community is from their hard work. Their spirit of independence one day, kept them going. With the help and guidance of Dalai Lama’s guidance in Tibetan government and Tibetan society, Tibetans were able to thrive in an alien land. With the acceptance by Indian people and the government has helped Tibetans to prosper. From the beginning of the Exile society, Dalai Lama has guided Tibetan refugees and builds CTA to preserve Tibetan cultures, at the same time modernize and democratize Tibetan society. After Dalai Lama was confident enough to let Tibetans to run their own government, he retired from politics and made Tibetans to vote for their new prime minister. Now, Tibetan government in Exile is run by Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, who graduated from Harvard University. Many analysts said that Dalai Lama aims to make sure that even though Chinese try to elect the next Dalai Lama, in non-traditional way or religious way, or even try to elect fake Dalai Lama like they did with second highest monk in Tibet Panchen Lama, Tibetan can depend on their own and be able to elect their own government officials which is out of Chinese control. The fear of losing identity in the modern world is a disaster and it takes really hard work and preservative community to save their cultures, traditions and languages that represent their nation and their nationality.

Nationality is a fiction that exists in society to create boundaries and limit to something that cannot be owned. It is the pressure of the changes in process of the modern world that brought the idea of nation. Due to changes from the modern world, people are thinking in a way that they group with similar traditions, cultures and languages. Then the fear of losing their identity in the modern world is a disaster and it takes really hard work and preservative community to save their cultures, traditions and languages that represent their nation and their nationality. To be able to be herd in the world.  As stated by John Powers:

The strongest cause for the feeling of nationality . . . is identity of

political antecedents; the possession of a national history, and consequent community of recollections; collective pride and humiliation,

pleasure and regret, connected with the same incidents in the past. (Powers 73)

In other word, nationality is identity of people to have power over their country, their identity, political events and community to share their similar history and pride (Similar culture, traditions and languages) Idea of nation and nationality had forced humans to hold on tighter to their traditions, cultures and languages. In modern days, you judge someone from where they from and many have pride from where they came from. That feeling of belonging to a society or a group is what humans are attached to. Humans are social animal and in order to survive, we go in a group. It seems impossible to see humans separated from cultures, traditions and languages.