For a long time, China's snacking in the Beyul was finished
by four Tibetan migrants rather than officials. They were from Lagyab, a town 4
miles north of the Bhutan border, and their family had brushed in the Beyul in
the summers before China annexed Tibet in the 1950s. From that point on, their
life, education, and monetary opportunities were not settled by the Chinese
state, and in 1995, they agreed when asked by their town chief to devote
themselves to the country: they were to continue to live year-round in the
Beyul. They walked through the mountains with 62 yaks and set up shop at
Mabjathang on the northern bank of the Jakarlung, one of the Beyul's two
important valleys. Hundreds of stories, meetings, and images have subsequently
appeared in the Chinese news, praising the four wanderers' dedication to
reclaiming what "has been the hallowed location renowned for our country
since ancient times." They were to remain in the Beyul for the next 25 years,
as China failed to persuade Bhutan to accept the border agreement.
Throughout the summers, many herders accompanied them to
carry line markers to the peaks and to paint the Chinese public banner, the
sled, and sickle, or "China" in Chinese, on visible rocks within the
Beyul. In 1999, 62 of the herders gathered and drove 400 yaks to the far south
of the Beyul to bolster China's claim to the territory. These actions were the
foundation of China's underlying pressure on Bhutan to accept its proposal for
a package deal.
China dispatched a party to conduct the primary
investigation of land and assets in the Beyul in 2012. "Since
history," the assessors wrote in a report for China's State Forestry
Administration on their arrival in the Beyul, "nobody knows the situation with
its assets; it has been shrouded in a shroud of secrecy." After seven
days, when the review was completed, they announced that the Beyul was "no
longer a strange spot," and the settlement of the Beyul would begin.
Tibet and parts of China to begin creating the roadway that,
by mid-2016, would turn into the main recognized example of growth over
Bhutan's northern border and the first street to penetrate the Beyul. The
29-mile route, which linked Lagyab and Mabjathang, passed the Namgung La, a
15,700-foot-high mountain pass into Bhutan. According to the Tibet Daily, it
took two years to complete and cost 98 million yuan ($15 million), but it
reduced the journey time from nine hours on foot or horseback to two hours by
car or truck. In 2016, a corresponding base station was installed beneath
Mabjathang.
That same year, construction of buildings began 1.2 miles
upriver from Mabjathang and 2.5 miles south of Bhutan's border with Tibet. The
place was given the Chinese name Jieluobu by the authorities. They appeared to
be unsure what it should be called in Tibetan, formulating its name as
Gyalaphug in some cases and Jiliphug in others. By 2017, the major residences
in Gyalaphug had been completed. Luo Zhaohui, China's then-diplomat to India,
paid a visit to Thimphu in January 2017.
The community was formally launched in October 2018, and
four additional residents arrived, bringing the total to 20. By January 2021,
four more squares had been completed for residents, each having five identical
dwellings and 1,200 square feet for each family. Another 24 families were
scheduled to relocate in 2020. Gyalaphug was one of more than 600 new towns
being built as part of a 2017 agreement of "off-line town
development" in Tibet, but to the best of our knowledge, the others are
only inside China's borders. Officially, their people are required to make
"each town a post and each household a watch post" and are referred
to as "troopers without garbs" - their primary mission is to monitor
China's borders.
Satellite images and media images reveal Gyalaphug is
overrun by two well-publicized organization buildings, the largest of which has
been purpose-built for Communist Party rallies and town assemblies, following a
mandated plan across the Tibetan Plateau. The one in Gyalaphug features a
rooftop billboard with a yellow hammer and sickle and the words "The Party
and Serve-the-Masses Center" in Chinese and, in a much smaller font,
Tibetan. A huge mural of China's public banner covers one structure's end wall;
a flagpole, about 40 feet high, remains at the town's focal point; and an
enormous red pennant proclaims, "Maintain General Secretary Xi Jinping's
central position tenaciously! Maintain the power of the Party Central
Committee, which has been integrated and brought together authority!"
Because of transitory residents, the real population of the
town is higher than shown inaccurate data. They are scheduled to include 50
development workers, expert counselors, and security forces, most of whom are
Chinese rather than Tibetan. A distinct policy organization unit commanding
lines is located in or around the town. One officer stationed on the western
Tibetan border informed a Chinese news outlet that the major mission of this
police officer is to apprehend "unlawful foreigners," referring to
Tibetans seeking to flee to India or Nepal. The residents of the town are
expected to form a collective protection force, likely in collaboration with
the line security police, to keep an eye on the neighboring mountains. A
town-based unit resides in the town, with units stationed there for a year or
more at a time, "direction" to the town board of trustees and the
Communist Party's local branch. The unit teaches the townsfolk about politics
and helps them with practical needs, such as devising new ways for growing
mushrooms and vegetables in local nurseries.
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