Recent reports from Tibet indicate that an increasing number of Tibetan women from rural areas, particularly in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), are working as prostitutes. Though the fast growing sex trade is still dominated by Chinese sex workers, the number of Tibetan prostitutes, still marginal only a few years ago, has lately been on the rise. Observers unanimously link this change to the widening economic gap between urban and rural areas, itself a direct side effect of the current Western Development Drive. Whereas economists express serious doubts about the sustainability of the economic growth in Tibet, which is artificially fuelled by heavy subsidy from Beijing, there is little doubt that it has generated higher levels of disposable income in a few urban centres while leaving the vast majority of Tibetans who live in rural areas in a state of stagnating poverty. At the same time, the aggressive consumerism propagated in rural areas by the increasing penetration of the state controlled media has raised expectations impossible to fulfil locally. Rural Tibetans are not only poorer, their extremely low level of education makes their chances of getting a steady and lucrative job in the cities as good as nonexistent. This discrepancy between high expectations and the sheer impossibility of fulfilling them appears to lead young female Tibetan migrants into prostitution, the only realistic quick route to a better standard of living. Thus in Tibet, prostitution is not just a symptom of poverty, but is triggered also by the growing prosperity of the few. Although there are real prospects for Tibetan prostitutes to better their material lot, they benefit less from prostitution than Chinese sex workers in Tibet, and they face more social difficulties.
Since the early 1990s prostitution has expanded exponentially in the TAR. Though it is still officially illegal in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in the major urban centres much of the commercial sex trade is carried out in sites owned or leased by the government, the Communist Party or the military. Apart from numerous brothels near military bases, prostitution in the TAR is widespread in the cities and county towns, with a stronger concentration along the main highways, reflecting an increasing mobility of goods and people. In the smaller county towns, prostitutes work from small restaurants with back rooms. Despite the increase in Tibetan prostitutes, the majority of prostitutes in the TAR are still Chinese, and 60% of all sex workers in the TAR are said to originate from the Chinese parts of Sichuan alone. Others, out of which there are reportedly many Chinese Muslims (Hui), come from Shanxi and the other poor provinces of the PRC. There are now also expensive east European ‘blond prostitutes’ working in Lhasa on the Thieves Island complex. All observers agree that lately prostitutes of Tibetan ethnicity have been the fastest growing group in absolute numbers, though their exact percentile share is uncertain.
Virtually all Tibetan prostitutes come to the cities from villages or remote nomadic areas; in Central Tibet, a sizeable number also come from Kham and Amdo. They come into contact with prostitution while visiting entertainment establishments and turn to it themselves when other work possibilities do not materialise. The Nangma bars (a very popular Tibetan style of music venue) and karaoke clubs are the most common contact with prostitution, but many Tibetan sex workers also move to prostitution after working in beauty parlours. A small but growing number of young women come to the cities with the intention of becoming sex workers. They come with at least the implicit knowledge of their family. Some are already married and work to gather a certain sum of money for a defined goal, for instance constructing a house or getting together the capital needed to open a shop. This happens particularly in very poor regions like Nagchu. On their return home they enjoy great prestige for their contribution to the family’s rise in living standards, but they also live in fear of people from the village uncovering their past as sex workers in the city. Tibetan women asked by TIN about their reasons to enter prostitution cited increasing their income as their primary motivation. Indeed, prostitution gives them an opportunity to earn, according to local standards, a reasonable amount within a short time, while other work is hard to find, especially because they are not educated and do not speak or read and write Chinese. The vast majority of them are illiterate in Tibetan as well. On average, Tibetan sex workers are in their early 20s with some being as young as 18 years. Tibetan prostitutes below 18 years are very rare.
The strong Tibetan preference to socialise and work with people of the same regional origin is also apparent in prostitution. Women working together in the same place or the same establishment will often come from the same region or even the same village or township. Tibetan sex workers may also contact friends back home and discreetly encourage them to join them, thus further propagating prostitution as a shortcut to wealth. They generally keep a strong link to their homes, with many returning to their villages for three months during winter. Those who are working more independently, and often earning better, may instead move to more lucrative areas during the winter break. A prostitute working in one of the better bars in a town in south Tibet mentioned to TIN that every year, before the roads become blocked by snow, she travels south to work “in a beauty parlour” in Kathmandu or as a call girl in Delhi.
Conditions of work and income diverge significantly in different places. In Lhasa, a large number of Tibetan prostitutes work from higher-class entertainment venues and bars or as call girls, while the average sex trade is more in the hands of Chinese prostitutes. However, this distinction is much less pronounced outside Lhasa. Tibetan prostitutes in Lhasa charge on average 100 yuan (£6.79/9.65€/12 US$), out of which they have to give 50% to the bar they work in. They also pay around 180 yuan (£12.22/17.36€/21.74US$) per month in tax, which includes a health and a commercial tax. In south Tibet, they charge between 50 and 80 yuan (£3.40-5.43/4.82-7.72€/6-9.67 US$) per client, or 100 yuan if they spend the whole night with the man at his home or in a hotel. In another case in the same region, clients pay 40 to 50 yuan (£2.72-3.40/3.86-4.82€/4.84-6US$) to the bar owner and the prostitute gets a set wage of 300 yuan (£20.19/28.95€/36US$) per month plus food and accommodation and a percentage of about 40% of the money paid by clients. Under this system, and if an average of three clients a day is maintained, the sex worker can make 100 yuan a day in addition to her basic wage. In many bars prostitutes act first as hostesses, encouraging men to spend time and money in the bar and receiving a percentage from the beer, cigarettes and food a client orders before retiring with him in a room or cubicle or following him to some other place. Particularly outside Lhasa, prostitutes also undertake cleaning work in the bars they work at.
The conditions of prostitution in Tibet are reported to be better than in other places of the PRC. The high and still not fully satiated demand for commercial sex keeps the prices relatively high and allows the sex workers a certain freedom in the choice of clients. Prostitutes from Nepal are found as far as Shigatse in southern Tibet. One of them mentioned in the Kathmandu Post of 25 April 2003 that they come to Tibet because the conditions of work are far better than in India and the business more lucrative. Abuse is also known to be generally rare, but does occur among Tibetan prostitutes, mostly in the form of being beaten by bar owners for trying to run away. There is a rapid turnover of ownership of the establishments and it is common for bar owners to buy sex workers from each other, for which they may pay 2000 yuan (£135.78/192.89€/241.54US$). In such cases, sex workers often do not get paid until the owner has recouped his money. Since the owners have good relations with the police, prostitutes cannot go and complain about such exploitation or physical abuse. Outside Lhasa, the ability to move to different establishments appears to be an important difference between Tibetan and Chinese prostitutes. Chinese prostitutes are freer to go and work where they like than the Tibetans because most of the Tibetans enter prostitution on a financially weaker basis.
Tibetan prostitutes are generally younger than their Chinese counterparts, and in many regards their status and their circumstances appear much more ambiguous. While Chinese prostitutes wear more fashionable and revealing clothes like mini skirts and tights, Tibetans mostly wear more simple and casual clothing like jeans, which makes them appear more provincial than the Chinese. However, in rural Tibetan society even this attire is considered bold. Tibetan prostitutes normally work for Tibetan bar owners, men and women, and their customers are more likely to be local Tibetans. But for bar owners who earn a percentage of the prostitutes’ wages, it is less advantageous to employ Tibetan sex workers since they charge less than the Chinese. Tibetan customers, mostly married men, have a mixed perception of Tibetan prostitutes. On one hand it is considered a status symbol to go with Chinese prostitutes since they are more expensive, and when asked whether they would prefer Tibetan or Chinese sex workers, Tibetan men mostly express preference for Chinese because “they are more wild” and will “do more” than the Tibetans. However, on the other hand, they also mention being cautious with Chinese prostitutes saying that they are more likely to carry sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This, however, is a mere prejudice, since whereas the knowledge about STDs and the use of condoms is known to be low amongst Chinese sex workers, it is even lower amongst Tibetans. There is indeed a high incidence of STDs, and health workers see a high risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic developing in the TAR, but the participation of Tibetan prostitutes in STDs prevention campaigns in Tibet is much lower, since much more than the Chinese sex workers, they fear public ‘outing’ and following ostracism.
