TIBET INFORMATION NETWORK - 188-196 Old Street LONDON EC1V 9FR UK TIN UK - ph: +44 (0)171 814 9011 fax: +44 (0)171 814 9015 email: tin@tibetinfo.net TIN USA - ph:+1 (0)307 733 4670 fax: +1 (0)307 739-2501 email: tinusa@wyoming.com Website: http://www.tibetinfo.net Extract from Leaders in Tibet: A Directory, Tibet Information Network, London, 1997 Historical Introduction Tsering Shakya This Directory draws together the names of some of the leading officials in Tibetan- inhabited areas in China. The names are selected from lists of leading officials in the government, as well as from the membership list of the three main institutions in China: the Communist Party, the People's Congress and the Chinese Peoples' Political Consultative Conference. The list includes leading Chinese and Tibetan officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and prominent Tibetan cadres and officials from Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan. The present elite in Tibet is composed of three main groups of people. The first consists of Chinese cadres who entered the region in 1950 or later, and the second group consists of those Tibetans who rose through the ranks of the Party during the early 1950s and 1960s, reaching maturity during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). A third group, which emerged during the period of liberalisation after 1979, consists of a sizeable number of persons recruited from the ranks of the traditional Tibetan aristocracy and from among high ranking lamas. This nexus of Chinese cadres, Tibetan cadres and traditional aristocrats and lamas makes up the main body of the elite. The members of this elite often hold positions as either government or party cadres. The term cadre is applied to officials both in the government and the Party, and although there is no strict rule that all cadres must also be members of the Party, in practice the leading personnel in the government are almost always party members as well. One notable exception is that group of senior officials who are lamas: these people, mostly confined to the CPPCC, cannot be enrolled in the Party unless they have renounced all religious belief, since atheism is a basic requirement of Party membership. Year 1986