In early April, several satellite images were sent to Southern Weekly; the pictures suggested that the fatal landslide in a Tibetan mining site on March 29 — labeled a “natural disaster” — might be related to inappropriate and illegal operations. However, Southern Weekly did not pursue the matter further, believing that the evidence was “still not strong enough” for them to address such a sensitive topic, although several Chinese and international experts believed otherwise.

[…] While foreign media and NGOs are virtually banned from entering Tibet, domestic media and NGOs are also aware that they should stay out, or at least keep quiet even on environmental challenges in Tibet.

“Different parties, including both the Chinese government and overseas ‘human rights’ activists, always politicalize problems in Tibet, making real environmental challenges untouchable,” said Gao, an environmental NGO worker in western China.

Also see “Landslide Draws Attention to Toll of Mining on Tibet” for more information on mining operations in the area.

It is not only Tibet’s natural environment that is at risk from development. At South China Morning Post, Amy Li describes writer Woeser’s shock at changes to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa after a visit to her mother last year:

Once home, Woeser said she was astonished by both the scale and the nature of commercial developments going on in the ancient part of the Tibetan capital.

“Lhasa is being destroyed by excessive commercial development,” she wrote in the headline of a petition on Saturday that was quickly censored after it went viral on Weibo. […]

[…] “I therefore plead to Unesco and other international organisations, Tibetan scholars and experts, and all of you, please stop this horrible modernisation from committing unforgettable crimes to Lhasa’s old town environment, culture and architecture,” she wrote.

Woeser’s letter received thousands of comments and reposts from supporters on Weibo before it was taken down by censors on Monday.

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Post tags: environmental degradation, environmental regulation, Hydropower, lhasa, mining industry, Tibet, Tibet Dialogue, Tibet environment, Woeser
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Although Wang Lixiong’s banned publications are not available at bookstores and online in China, many Chinese readers are avid readers of these banned books. Their pirated versions were widely circulated. Many Chinese readers got to understand issues about Tibet and Xinjiang and their history, current situation and importance through his work. I actually got to meet him from reading Sky Burial.

It is encouraging to see banned books on the internet–a contribution of internet technology to mankind. The reason internet is so great is that it broke various kinds of boundaries, like a soaring bird, or a blooming flower. Intellectual thinking should not comply to authoritarianism. Symbols of technological advancement such as Apple should not yield to the Chinese Communist Party.

Unfortunately, through incidents like Wang Lixiong’s books being banned, we realized Apple had surrendered itself, like the old Chinese saying, ‘If you have money, you can make the devil push the millstone for you.’ I heard there is an English expression similar to that–Money makes the world go around.

See more on Woeser via CDT.

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Post tags: Apple, apple store, censorship, Internet censorship, Wang Lixiong, Woeser
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In a period marked by increasing self-immolations and protests in Tibetan areas of China, Tsering Woeser has emerged as the most prominent Mainland activist speaking out publicly about human rights conditions for China’s Tibetan citizens. Born in Lhasa, Tsering Woeser’s website, Invisible Tibet, together with her poetry and non-fiction and her embrace of social media platforms like Twitter, have given voice to millions of ethnic Tibetans who are prevented from expressing themselves to the outside world due to government efforts to curtail the flow of information. Despite the constant surveillance of security agents and routinely being placed under house arrest during periods deemed to be politically sensitive, Tsering Woeser bravely persists in documenting the situation for Tibetans, noting that “to bear witness is to give voice to,” and asserting that “the more than 100 Tibetans who have expressed their desire to resist the forces of oppression by bathing their bodies in fire are the reason why I will not give up, and why I will not compromise.”

Woeser has dedicated her award to the Tibetan self-immolators, and expressed disappointment that she will be unable to travel to the United States to accept it personally. From Dharamsala-based Phayul.com:

“I am grateful to the US State Department for granting me the International Women’s Courage Award,” Woeser told Phayul. “I would like to think this goes to show their concern over the self-immolations on the Tibetan plateau.”

“I want to dedicate this award to the more than one hundred people, who have bathed their bodies in fire and their families,” the Tibetan writer added.

[…] “Unfortunately, I can not accept the award in person. In fact, at the moment, I will not only fail to accept the award, but I have been put under house arrest,” the fearless writer said.

[…] This is not the first time that Woeser will be barred from receiving her award in person. Last year, she was barred from collecting the Prince Claus Award, presented annually by the Netherlands-based Prince Claus Fund for outstanding achievements in the field of culture and development. She also couldn’t receive the Norwegian Author’s Union’s 2007 Freedom of Expression Prize in Oslo and the International Women’s Media foundation’s 2010 ‘Courage in Journalism award’ in New York.

Woeser tweets as @degewa, and her writing is regularly translated into English at High Peaks Pure Earth. See more about and by her via CDT.

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Post tags: house arrest, self-immolations, Tibet, Woeser, writers
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Wang Lixiong, a Chinese writer who is married to prominent Tibetan writer Woeser, analyses the final words of many of the self-immolators to try to understand their motivations. He comes up with several motives, which he weights according to how many of the self-immolators referenced them. His essay is translated on Woeser’s blog, Invisible Tibet:

* Self-immolations are actually not out of desperation
Commonly interpreted – including the officials of the Tibetan government-in-exile – that the self-immolations are desperate acts caused by the unbearable conditions, we cannot deny this claim, but it’s only 19%, the weightage falls in the lower part in the seven classifications.

* The self-immolators inside Tibet are not invoking support of the international community
Another widespread view is that the self-immolations are acts of appealing for the attention of the international community. However, except writer Godrup, none of the last-words mentioned this and so this has the least weightage in the list. This reveals that the Tibetans inside Tibet do not actually rely on the international community as people think for granted. In fact, it is the self-immolators outside Tibet (not included in the table above) who seek international support, Jamphel Yeshi mentioned it twice in his last-words and Sherab Tsedor called for international attention for the Tibet crisis. To seek the support of international community has actually always been the main objective of the Tibetans outside Tibet; it is where they focus even today. This is the major difference between the Tibetans in and out of Tibet.

* Protests and demands in the self-immolations are known
19% of the last-words express protests and demands, but while self-immolating, those who shouted slogans like “Let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet”, “Free Tibet”, “Release the 11th Panchen Lama”, “We want language rights” etc, are also expressing protests and demands and thus should also be counted. Besides, majority of the self-immolators, though have not left any last-words, the acts of self-immolations in themselves are acts of protests and demands, this cannot be clearer.

By the end of 2012, close to 100 Tibetans had self-immolated, and many of those had died. Phayul just reported that a ninth grade student in Dharamsala, India, was prevented from lighting himself on fire in November. Read more about the self-immolations via CDT.

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Sources have identified the Tibetan man as Wangdhen Khar, 21 years of age.

“Martyr Wande Khar set himself on fire on Wednesday, November 28 at around 7 pm (local time) in Tsoe region of Kanlho, eastern Tibet,” Zoegey Kangtsa Jampa, an exiled Tibetan told Phayul citing sources in the region. “He later succumbed to his injuries,”

[…] Also yesterday, around 500 Tibetans in Tsolho, eastern Tibet, publicly displayed a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and carried out a mass prayer service for the Tibetan spiritual leader’s long life and for all the Tibetans who have self-immolated.

Sources have identified the Tibetan as Tsering Namgyal, 31, a father of two, from Zamtsa Lotso Dewa region of Luchu.

“Tsering Namgyal set himself on fire near the local Chinese government office in Luchu earlier today for the cause of Tibet,” Sonam, a Tibetan monk living in south India told Phayul, citing sources in the region. “Tsering Namgyal passed in his fiery protest.”

[…] Tsering Namgyal is survived by his wife Choekyong Tso, their two children, Dorjee Kyi, 7, and Kalsang Dolma, 3, and his parents.

As in previous cases, sparse coverage by state media and government restrictions on foreign reporters stand in the way of independent verification. The total of 89 excludes five self-immolations carried out in India and Nepal and two disputed cases in Sichuan.

The protests have placed a growing strain on the Central Tibetan Administration’s (or government in exile’s) ‘Middle Way’ approach of seeking genuine autonomy rather than full independence. U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher wrote in a letter to prime minister Lobsang Sangay last week that “the 75 Tibetans who have self-immolated did not do so for the right to become a minority group within Communist China; the policy you are advocating. They are killing themselves for their right to freedom and self-determination and the end of the illegal Chinese occupation.” The congressman is otherwise known for his advocacy of measures to limit the number of U.S. visas granted to journalists for Chinese state media.

The controversy has been further stirred up by the removal of Ngapo Jigme as head of U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan service on November 1st. Critics, including Rohrabacher, say that this was engineered by the CTA in order to stifle dissent, charges the Tibetan Parliament has described as “baseless”. Influential Tibetan writer Woeser also responded that she was “shocked” by Rohrabacher’s criticisms, and hoped that he would redirect them. From Chander Suta Dogra at The Hindu:

The crux of the dispute lies in the increasing discomfort within the government-in-exile over the self-immolations by Tibetans inside Tibet (almost 80 till the beginning of this week) that has triggered a debate in the exile community about the usefulness of continuing with the Dalai Lama’s middle way approach. Most of those who immolated themselves had been demanding complete independence and the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. Those opposed to the Dalai Lama’s policy said Mr. Ngabo irked the government-in-exile by encouraging open discussions on various options for Tibet’s future, including outright independence.

His removal was preceded by several interactions between government-in-exile officials and RFA head Libby Liu.

Jamyang Norbu, a prominent Tibetan intellectual whose contract with the RFA was also cancelled, wrote in his blog this week: “It is an article of faith in the Central Tibetan Administration that if somehow all independence activism and discussion were halted or contained, then Beijing would agree to the “genuine autonomy” solution proposed in the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way policy; or would, at least, resume the negotiations it terminated two year ago.” He went on to say that given the extremely sensitive situation prevailing in Tibet as a result of the immolations “it would not be unreasonable to assume that Beijing wants Dharamsala to stop the “splittist” messaging from exile, particularly from RFA broadcasts, which it firmly believes is fuelling the immolations and protests within Tibet. Dharamsala in turn probably shares Beijing’s concerns as the self-immolation crisis in Tibet and the resignations of the Tibetan envoys have placed extreme pressure on the TGIE leadership’s signature Middle Way policy.”

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Post tags: Dalai Lama, independence, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibetan exiles, U.S. Congress, Woeser
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Kalsang Kyab, 24, set himself ablaze in front of a Chinese government office in Kangtsa town, raising slogans for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the exiled head of Kirti Monastery. He passed away at the site of his protest.

The Dharamshala based Kirit Monastery in a late night release said Kalsang Kyab carried out his protest at around 6:30 pm (local time).

“Kalsang Kyab doused his body with kerosene as he walked towards the local government office building, raising slogans,” Kirit Monastery said citing sources in the region. “Upon reaching the office building, he then set himself ablaze and continued to raise slogans.”

The Chinese government’s blackout of independent media in Tibetan areas makes independent verification of reports from the region difficult or impossible. Even the number of self-immolations is uncertain: according to activist group Rangzen Alliance and writer Woeser [zh], the current total is 92. (Woeser’s tweet states 91, but predates news of the latest incident.) A post by Woeser written on August 1st and translated at High Peaks Pure Earth explains part of the discrepancy.

U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported four arrests following student protests on Monday. Independent experts quoted by the similarly funded Voice of America suggested that the self-immolations have moved into a new phase in recent weeks, with activists describing this as an attempt to sway the recently installed Party leadership in Beijing.

[Columbia University's Robert] Barnett says the first phase of self-immolations began last year with monks and nuns trying to protect their monasteries from security crackdowns.

The second wave, which he says occurred for most of the past year, involved individuals in small towns sharing sympathy with those monks and nuns.

“But now in this phase we have laypeople staging these immolations in ways that are much more determined in an attempt to get a response from Chinese authorities, by having immolations in clusters, very close together, many on the same day or within a few days and many in the same place,” said Barnett.

James Leibold, a Tibet analyst for Australia’s Latrobe University in Beijing says that a broader segment of the Tibetan community is also involved in the latest protests.

[…] But Leibold says so far there is no indication that the government has changed its position on Tibet.

“Sadly, we hear the same rhetoric coming out of Beijing, and Chinese officials continually blaming a few black hands for collaborating with the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan community to stir up trouble and to damage China’s ethnic unity and harmony. There’s just absolutely no will, it seems, to admit a failure of policy,” he said.

In a further broadening of the protest movement, Phayul reports that coordinated hunger strikes have broken out across Tibetan areas:

More than 60 Tibetans from different walks of life began their solidarity hunger strike in their evening of November 26 in their respective places. According to Kanyag Tsering, an exiled monk who has been closely monitoring the situation inside Tibet, the Tibetans will end their hunger strike in the morning of November 28.

The campaign is being observed in various cities across the tradition boundaries of Tibet.

“The simultaneous hunger strike is being carried out in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, Drango, Jomda, Zachukha, Tridu, Sertha, Siling, Rebkong, Kardze and Trindu in China,” Tsering told Phayul. “They have also been offering prayers for the self-immolators.”

According to the same source, the Tibetans taking part in this campaign come from different walks of like and are “highly educated.”

“The participants in the solidarity campaign include government officials, writers, monks, and businessmen.”

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Post tags: 18th party congress, Dalai Lama, hunger strike, media censorship, Robert Barnett, self-immolations, student protests, Tibet, United States, Voice of America, Woeser
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Tamding Tso, a 23-year-old mother who self-immolated on November 7.

Since 2009, a growing number of Tibetans have self-immolated in protest of Chinese rule. Tongren (Rebkong), a county in Qinghai Province, saw five self-immolations last week and two more today. Radio Free Asia reports:

Some Tibetan groups believe that recent Tibetan self-immolation protests have been timed to coincide with the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress in Beijing, and to send a powerful message of Tibetan discontent with Chinese policies to the new leadership.

It appears the authorities sensed this coming. On Tuesday, Tibetan writer and activist Tsering Woeser posted this announcement of heightened security in a Tongren market to her blog:

Public Announcement

To create a harmonious and stable social and cultural environment for the success of 18th Party Congress, based on the requirements of Article 2 of “Eliminate Obscenity and Strike Illegal Publications” [2012] and Article 88 of the document printed and distributed by the Tongren County People’s Government Office, a special clean-up campaign will be carried out in the Longwu Regional Culture Market as follows:

(1) Cultural businesses are strictly prohibited from selling pictures of the 14th Dalai Lama, as well as any audio, pictures, books, articles, pendants, etc. that incite the split of the country, promote “free Tibet,” or are obscene, pornographic, or vulgar.

Click to view image at full size.

(2) All Internet cafe managers must strictly implement Internet cafe management and regulations. Juveniles are prohibited from entering Internet cafes. Verify Internet users’ ID cards according to regulation. Put a stop to providing public ID cards or ID numbers to Internet users and running business past closing time with the doors and windows closed. Strengthen safety awareness, promptly remind consumers not to surf the Internet excessively, and strictly prevent the sudden deaths of consumers.

(3) All game centers, karaoke bars, and other entertainment places must not admit juveniles except on national holidays, or set up entertainment activities which include violence or gambling. Pay attention to fire safety and eliminate hidden dangers.

In the next few days, the Culture Market Law Enforcement Alliance of Tongren County will carry out random inspections. All business owners should closely cooperate with and accept inspection, listen to suggestions, and reinforce corrections. Meanwhile, we will coordinate with the Administration of Industry and Commerce as well as the police force to severely punish those who are operating illegally and who refuse to correct their ways despite repeated admonition. Those who violate the law will be turned over to judicial organs for severe punishment.

We hereby make this announcement.

Culture Market Management Office of Tongren County

September 17, 2012

通告

为了给党的十八大胜利召开营造和谐稳定的社会文化环境，根据州扫黄打非[2012]2号文、同办发[2012]88号文件要求，决定对隆务地区文化市场进行文化市场专项清理整治行动，特通知如下：

一、各文化经营单位严禁销售十四世达赖照片及煽动分裂国家、宣扬“藏独”淫秽色情及低俗的音像制品，图片、图书、文字、挂件等。特别是盗印此类图文情况。

二、各网吧经营户要严格落实网吧管理和各项规定，禁止未成年人进入网吧，按规定核对上网人员身份证，杜绝为上网人员提供公卡或身份证号、超时营业并锁门闭窗等情况，强化安全意识，及时提醒消费者注意上网时长，严防消费者猝死等事件发生。

三、各游艺、歌舞等娱乐场所，不得在非国家法定节假日接纳未成年人以及游艺娱乐设置含有暴力、赌博内容的游戏娱乐活动。注重消防安全，以及排除安全隐患。

近期同仁县文化市场联合执法人员将进行随时检查，各经营户要密切配合接受检查，听取意见、建议加强整改，同时在此次行动中将对存在违法经营行为，屡教不改者，联合工商、公安进行严厉打击，触犯法律的移交司法机关依法严肃处理。

特此通知

同仁县文化市场管理领导小组办公室

2012年9月17日

Via Tsering Woeser. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

Note: Rather than check ID, Internet cafes will sometimes provide a “public ID card” to customers. Back.

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Post tags: 18th party congress, Dalai Lama, protests, qinghai, Rebkong, self-immolations, Tibet, tongren, Woeser
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A story Monday by the Xinhua news wire reported that a senior security official had recently been “inspecting a security ‘moat’ project created in areas encircling Beijing for the congress’ smooth holding.” There was apparently no water involved, just a lot of police.

The story quoted Zhou Yongkang, a standing committee member who oversees domestic security, as urging authorities in Beijing and surrounding regions to form a “solid defense . . . thus creating a safe, orderly, auspicious and peaceful environment for the successful holding of the 18th National Congress.”

Amnesty International released a statement last week that gave an idea of what that might mean: More than 100 activists have been rounded up so far.

“The police have placed dozens of activists under house arrest, forcibly removed individuals from Beijing and have closed down the offices of community groups in attempts to suppress peaceful dissent,” the group said. “Scores of activists are believed to be held in ‘black jails’ across the country. . . . Hotels, hostels, basements of buildings and farm centers have all been reportedly used as black jails.”

A major thrust of the campaign has been to block petitioners from reaching the capital. The Telegraph’s Tom Phillips visited Lü Number 3 Team Village on the outskirts of Beijing:

Lu is home to around 700 permanent residents, many of whom supplement their incomes by renting shoddily built shacks to aggrieved men and women bound for Beijing to seek assistance from the central government.

“I don’t care who the tenants are, as long as they pay,” said the owner of one of dozens of cramped guesthouses, who rents rooms for 10 yuan (£1) a night or 200 yuan (£20) a month.

But the village’s once-crowded guesthouses stand largely empty this week after police and security forces moved in to weed out potential troublemakers ahead of the highly sensitive leadership transition.

The state media has dubbed the crackdown the “zero petitions” policy. A report in the Global Times newspaper last month claimed”petitioning cases” in Beijing had fallen 12% since August, after 10,000 detentions.

Activists already in Beijing have faced house arrest or strong pressure to leave the city. From Gillian Wong at The Associated Press:

The crackdown has extended to lawyers such as Xu Zhiyong. He said Beijing authorities have held him under informal house arrest since mid-October, stationing four or five guards outside his apartment in Beijing around the clock.

[…] Even dissidents’ relatives have come under pressure. Beijing activist Hu Jia said he was warned by police to leave town, and that even his parents told him that police had told them to escort him to his hometown.

“My parents said to me: ‘Hu Jia, you don’t know what kind of danger you are in, but we know,’” he recounted in a phone interview from his parents’ home in eastern Anhui province. “They said: ‘Beijing is a cruel battlefield. If you stay here, you will be the first to be sacrificed. Don’t do this.’”

Also pressured to leave Beijing was writer Wang Lixiong, whose Tibetan wife Woeser had already left for Lhasa. Wang wrote in a New York Times op-ed, translated by Perry Link:

The Communist Party has, for the sake of its own meeting, asked that my wife leave me and that I leave my elderly mother, who is too old to live without someone to care for her. Incidentally, she joined the Communist Party in 1947 (two years before the founding of the People’s Republic, and a time when joining was still dangerous) and did so in order to oppose the reigning Nationalist government, which she saw as “lacking humanity.”

Now, I want to ask her, “What do you think of the humanity of the Communist Party today?” but cannot bring myself to inflict on her the pain that the question would bring.

I have replied to State Security that a party conclave is no reason to disperse a family. They, in turn, threatened that if I refused to leave, things would become “uncomfortable” for me. They did not say how. I have decided to wait at home and see. What does a party that vows before the entire world that it follows the rule of law have in mind for my discomfort?

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Post tags: 18th party congress, activists, Amnesty International, CCP, dissidents, Global Times, house arrest, Hu Jia, perry link, petitioners, security crackdown, stability preservation, Wang Lixiong, Woeser, Xu Zhiyong, Zhou Yongkang
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Early one summer morning in August, travelling from Golmud to Lhasa on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, we came across the first checkpoint. A police officer wearing a dark cotton uniform used a flashlight to inspect our identity cards: “There’s a Tibetan? Tibetan, get out of the vehicle! Do you have a permit to enter Tibet? If not, you can’t enter!”

[...] Around the checkpoint there were all kinds of blockades. I said pointedly: “I’m not from the ‘four major Tibetan regions’.” This was because, one day in May, two Tibetans from other regions, doing contract work in Lhasa, self-immolated between the Jokhang Temple and the police station on Barkhor Street, where it was busiest with the military, police, tourists and believers. This brought the number of Tibetans who had self-immolated in recent years to 39. It is an unprecedented action of personal sacrifice and protest against the Chinese government.

Such protests have moved from the borders of Tibet to the hinterland, and the Tibet Autonomous Region issued an urgent notice requesting that Tibetans in the “four major Tibetan regions” of China, namely in the four provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan, must have a certificate from the public security bureau of the local county to enter Lhasa. After this decision, another 14 Tibetans self-immolated, one of whom was a herdsman from near Lhasa.

[...] I once discussed an important question with Tibetans from the Amdo, U-Tsang and Kham regions: had Tibetans been right to protest in 2008? Some think the protest incurred severe repression and even tougher policy reform, so that the little space that had previously been won rapidly diminished. But we think this outcome was not related to the protest. It just turned the lukewarm water used to boil a frog into boiling water.

In March 2008, widespread protests broke out in Tibet ahead of the Olympic torch relay’s trip across China. Since 2009, more than 60 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Beijing’s policies in the region. See more on Tibet protests via CDT.

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Post tags: Dalai Lama, lhasa, self-immolations, Tibet protests, Woeser
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A Tibetan man set himself ablaze and died Thursday in a central Tibetan county in the second self-immolation protest challenging Chinese rule in the past week, according to Tibetan sources.

Gudrub, 41, shouted slogans calling for Tibetan freedom and for the return to Tibet of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as he self-immolated in Driru [in Chinese, Biru] county in the Nagchu prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, a source told RFA’s Tibetan service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

[...]Gudrub, who returned to Tibet in 2005 after studying at the exile Sogar School in Dharamsala, India, was a resident of Kali village in the Shagchu subdistrict of Driru county, and was an enthusiastic reader of Tibetan history, sources said.

A writer and poet, Gudrub had been known to post about the situation in Tibet on his personal blog. Voice of America recalls one of his posts from earlier this year:

This past March, Gudrup blogged about the anti-China protests that had gripped southwestern China and Tibet, writing on March 14 “Tibetans who refuse to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama or accept China’s rule on Tibet are secretly killed or made to disappear.”

In the same post, Gudrup called on fellow Tibetans to “win the battle through truth, by shooting arrows upon our lives.”

He also warned Tibetans “are sharpening our nonviolent movement… declaring the reality of Tibet by burning our own bodies to call for freedom.”

The count of those who have self-immolated and lost their lives doing so varies depending on the source. A post today from Tibetan blogger Woeser tallies 58 self-immolators since 2009 (55 inside Tibetan regions of China, and 3 in the exile community), 46 of whom have perished. The recent post by Woeser [zh] also translates a poem that Gudrub left behind on his blog from Tibetan into Chinese:

Brothers and sisters of the snow-covered Tibetan land, when looking back at our past, very rarely is it a joyful scene—I have only regret, anger, heartbreak and tears. When I welcomed the year of the Water Dragon, I prayed for health, peace and the fulfillment of wishes. At the same time, I hoped for the perseverance of our ethnic pride even when confronting hardship and loss. We mustn’t lose our faith, we must strengthen our unity.

雪域藏地的兄弟姐妹们，回顾我们的过去，只有遗憾、愤怒、伤心和泪水，很少有兴高采烈的景象。正值在迎接水龙新年时，祈祷大家健康平安，万事如意，同时希望保持民族自豪感，即使面对痛苦和损失，也不要失去信心，务必加.团结

Inside China, there has been little media coverage of Tibetan protests or ensuing government crackdowns. The news of this most recent self-immolation comes just days after Radio Free Asia reported on harsh sentences handed to 4 Tibetans for supporting self-immolation and leaking information:

Chinese courts have ordered four Tibetan men jailed to between seven and 11 years after accusing them of supporting a self-immolation protest and of leaking news of protests against Chinese rule to “outside contacts,” according to Tibetan sources.

[...]During the first week of September, a Chinese court sentenced Kirti monk Lobsang Tsultrim, 19, to 11 years in prison, and fellow monk Lobsang Jangchub, 17, to an eight-year term, Tsering and Yeshi said.

[...]Separately, a court in Sichuan’s Barkham (in Chinese, Ma’erkang) county sentenced a monk and a layman to long prison terms for “leaking news from inside Tibet to outside contacts,” Tsering and Yeshe said, citing local sources.

[...]The court also sentenced a layman, Bu Thubdor, 25, who was also detained in November, to a seven-and-a-half year term on the same charge, Tsering and Yeshe said.

On a related note, the Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed concern surrounding the unknown whereabouts of Jigme Gyatso, a former colleague of Dhondup Wangchen. In 2008, Wangchen made the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind,” after which he was charged with state subversion. Filming for Tibet, a site dedicated to Wangchen, explains how social media is being used in the search for Jigme Gyatso:

At great personal risk, Tibetan netizens have been posting on social media sites and alerting each other about Jigme Gyatso’s disappearance. A post on the Sina Weibo microblogging site from September 30, 2012 (screenshot above) says that “Jigme Gyatso has been missing for the last 10 days”.

Another post also from September 30 on Tibetan blog-hosting site Sangdhor.com titled “Looking for Jigdrel’s Jigme” says in Tibetan, “It has been over 10 days since we are not knowing the whereabouts of Jigme, maker of the film “Leaving Fear Behind”, also known as Golog Jigme. This is causing family and friends to worry. Looking for information about him, please contact us immediately, thank you.” This post was deleted from Sangdhor.com very quickly.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Dhondup Wangchen, netizens, self-immolations, tibet protest, Tibet protests, Woeser
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IN A recent posting on her blog, Tsering Woeser accused the authorities in Lhasa of carrying out racial segregation, welcoming Han Chinese visitors to the Tibetan capital but not Tibetans. “Has the world forgotten its boycott of governments that practised apartheid?” she fumed. As a chronicler of repression in Tibet, Ms Woeser has long been China’s most daring voice online, and a very rare one.

Ms Woeser’s dogged determination, despite close surveillance by security agents in Beijing where she lives with her (Han Chinese) husband, has kept open a rare window on conditions in Tibetan-inhabited areas. These have been largely off-limits to foreign journalists since riots in Lhasa in 2008. The 46-year-old writer scours the social media for titbits of news from the plateau, passing them on through her blog, “Invisible Tibet”, or on Twitter. Her postings are in Chinese, which has helped to raise awareness among non-Tibetans.

[...]The police often contact Ms Woeser to make their displeasure known. At politically sensitive times, she and her husband, Wang Lixiong, himself a Tibetologist and outspoken dissident, are sometimes kept under virtual house arrest. Yet Ms Woeser, who worked for a state-owned publication in Lhasa before falling foul of the authorities in 2004 because of her politically edgy writings, is undeterred. She also uses China’s home-grown version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, to post messages under a pseudonym. Several times, Ms Woeser says, censors have shut down her accounts.

Woeser’s electronic activism fills an informational gap that the Committee to Protect Journalists has noted may be created by Beijing’s policies, as “placing travel restrictions on journalists may have one unintended effect. It means that when it comes to unofficial news from China, activists and advocacy groups play a vital role in collecting and disseminating information.”

While microblogging platforms have been a boon for China’s nascent civil society, a recent analysis of Weibo revealed that Tibet and other areas populated with ethnic minorities experience relatively higher rates of censorship.

See the “‘City Moats’ and ‘Apartheid’” [‘护城河’与’种族隔离‘], the post referred to in The Economist article, or browse Woeser’s “Invisible Tibet” blog or Twitter stream [both zh] in their entirety. Stay tuned to the High Peaks Pure Earth for English translations of her posts. Also see prior CDT coverage of Woeser.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cyberdissidents, digital culture, dissidents, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibetan protests, Woeser
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Lungtok, a monk from the restive Kirti monastery in Ngaba, and another Tibetan, believed to be a layperson and identified as Tashi, torched themselves at around 6:00 p.m. local time to highlight their opposition to Chinese rule in Tibetan-populated areas, a Tibetan source in the area told RFA.

“A large contingent of police and armed PSB [Public Security Bureau] personnel arrived at the site of the self-immolation and imposed stern restrictions in the area,” the source said.

“The local Tibetans gathered in the area clashed with police and the situation became very tense. One Tibetan died from being beaten by the police.”

A woman who answered the phone at the Aba police department denied that any immolations or clashes between police and Tibetans had taken place, according to The Associated Press. Forty-eight Tibetans have self-immolated since March 2011, according to The New York Times, and many of the incidents have taken place near the Kirti monastery in Aba as Tibetans in the region have grown tired of Chinese rule.

Elsewhere, in Qinghai province, Radio Free Asia reported that nearly 500 Tibetans protested in the streets on Tuesday after they claimed that police attached a car of traveling Tibetans on Monday night:

Witnesses to the Monday assault described the Chinese police who attacked the Tibetans as “drunk,” local sources told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“On Aug. 13, local police, who appeared to be drunk, stopped four Tibetans traveling in their vehicle and harshly questioned them,” sources said.

“The harassment reached a point where the police and the Tibetans clashed, and the Tibetans were severely beaten.”

Several months ago, state-run CCTV produced a documentary blaming the Dalai Lama for inciting the string of self-immolations in the region. Woeser, a prominent Tibetan writer placed under house arrest in Beijing in March as tensions rose ahead of China’s National People’s Congress, discussed the documentary in a post on her blog in June. From the blog High Peaks Pure Earth, which translated Woeser’s post:

Up to the present day, CCTV has not broadcast the documentary to audiences within China. We all remember how CCTV, after the protests that erupted across the whole of Tibet in 2008, was quick to make a documentary called “Records of the Lhasa Riots” that was ceremoniously released during prime time and broadcast over and over again; it even became available on DVD. The result of the large-scale marketing campaign is best described by the words of a retired cadre who used to be engaged in ethnic matters: “the rifts between two ethnic groups that could have still been mended have been torn apart, what is done cannot be undone.”

So, why did the authorities decide to, this time, only broadcast the documentary to audiences abroad and not to people within China? Is it only to prevent Han Chinese, the majority of all Chinese people, to learn any more about the current situation in Tibet and risk that they start doubting the claims by the authorities that “Today, Tibetans are experiencing development and happiness as never before in history”? This is probably one reason, but the more important reason is that they are afraid of provoking the several millions of Tibetans living in Tibet and with them also the much-feared Uyghurs and Mongolians. This documentary only talks about 13 Tibetan self-immolators, but some of the video recordings and images shown here are revealed to the public for the very first time and display the great courage of the Tibetan self-immolators; on top of that, the various kinds of explanations offered by CCTV are full of ridiculous loopholes.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: aba county, CCTV, Dalai Lama, self-immolations, Sichuan, tibet protest, Woeser
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Armed police in Lhasa.

Most foreigners, with some notable exceptions, will be allowed back in Tibet starting tomorrow. Foreigners were banned from visiting following two self-immolations in the capital, Lhasa, on May 27. What did Tibet look like during the ban?

Tibetan poet and activist Woeser compiled reports and photos from Lhasa and beyond via Weibo on her blog. One of the original signatories of Charter 08, Woeser is currently under police surveillance in Beijing. She wrote an appeal to her fellow Tibetans this spring to “stay alive to struggle and push forward,” rather than end their lives in protest.

More comments and photos are available from CDT Chinese.

WeaselPauper: The train arrived on schedule in Lhasa. The most outstanding thing was that they didn’t check our tickets as we left the station, but instead our ID cards. The riot police carrying guns and the hoards of city police make you feel nervous, hinting at the lack of peace. (June 2)
黄狼财尽：列车准点抵达拉萨，出站不查车票只查身份证可能是其最大的特色。荷枪的武警与大量的警察给人一种紧张的感觉，预示着这个城市的不平静。（6月2日）

Desert-WolfKing: Lhasa is crawling with riot police. In gas stations, temples, power stations, intersections—everywhere there are riot police carrying guns. There are even armored cars in the pedestrian walkways. There are lots of places where you can’t take photos! (June 5)
沙漠-狼王：拉萨什么情况满街都是武警，加油站，寺庙，电力公司，十字路口都是带枪的武警。连步行街都有装甲车。很多地方都不让拍照！（6月5日）

ChenMengshengTravels: When taking pictures in front of the Potala Palace, you can’t sit or lie down on the ground. Otherwise Uncle Riot Police will come get you. (June 7)
陈梦生京粤行：在布达拉宫附近拍照，不能坐地上或是趴地上。不然武警叔叔会找你。（6月7日）

CoolSummerBreeze: The Lhasa police all drive Infinitis. They sure do have money. (June 12)
夏天小凉风：拉萨武警当官的开私家车牌的INFINITI上班，真有钱啊 。（6月12日）

TuoZhenguo: When traveling in certain places in Ti_bet—Mount Everest, Ngari, Shannan, Yadong, Medog—you need a border pass in addition to your ID card in order to get past the border police. In Lhasa you can find a travel agency to get the pass for you, which will allow you one month of travel in up to four different locations. The situation is really tense now. Whether or not you get your pass in Lhasa depends on how you present yourself. (June 14)
脱镇国： 在西_藏旅行，除了必须带好身份证，珠峰、阿里、山南、亚东、墨脱等一些地区还必须办边境证，否_则通不过边防武警的关卡。在拉萨可以找旅行社代办，有效期一个月，可填4个地方。最近局势紧张，在拉萨办不办得出来要看人品。（6月14日）

LiMumuStudent: I’m here #PotalaPalace I touched the Potala Palace!! It feels so holy… The square [in front of the palace] is heavily guarded. There are riot police, and there’s a security check… (June 14)
黎木木同学：我在這裡：#布达拉宫广场#摸得着的布宫啊！！感觉到很神圣……广场守卫深严，有武警，还要过安检…（6月14日）

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lhasa, Potala Palace, self-immolations, Tibet, Woeser
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While there is no lack of media commentary, scholarly examination of the subject is sparse. In a special digital issue of their academic journal, the Society for Cultural Anthropology has compiled recent work by preeminent Tibet scholars and cultural figures, in an attempt to find “ways of making sense of self-immolation.” The issue consists of 21 essays divided into six themes, including work by Tibetan historian Tsering Shakya on the changing forms of protest in Tibet; activist-blogger Woeser on CCP propaganda; and High Peaks Pure Earth blogger and translator Dechen Pemba on online documentation in a censored digital environment. An essay on artistic responses to self-immolation features a piece by Crazy Crab, author of the Hexie Farm political cartoon and frequent contributor to CDT. From the introduction to the collection:

Tibet has no history of self-immolation as sacrifice, religious offering, or political protest. Yet, in the last year alone, roughly thirty-five Tibetans have set themselves on fire. The overwhelming majority of self-immolators are inside Tibet, in the People’s Republic of China, and almost exclusively in northwestern Sichuan and southeastern Qinghai provinces (corresponding to the Tibetan regions of northern Kham and southern Amdo). In this special issue of Cultural Anthropology, we collectively ask why. Why are so many Tibetans resorting to the singular act of setting the body on fire? What combination of cultural, historical, political, and/or religious reasons inspire these acts?

 [...]As we compiled this issue over the last two months, the frequency of the self-immolations increased. Updating the numbers, however, did not necessarily put us closer to comprehending the acts. How does one write about self-immolation—an act that is simultaneously politically charged, emotionally fraught, visually graphic, individually grounded, collectively felt—and what does one write? How do we intellectually make sense of these self-immolations, and how do we do so while writing in the moment, but writing from the outside?

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: activism, self-immolations, Tibet protests, Woeser
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Tibetans have no voice in China. The Dalai Lama, who has been in exile for 53 years; the Panchen Lama, who has been missing for 17 years; the 27 people who have set fire to themselves over the past three years, a group of people between the ages of 17 to 41, monks and nuns, farmers, herders, students, and the parents of children — the only existence they have in Chinese society is one in which their reputations have been sullied and the truth has been distorted.

How many members of Tibet’s elite have been disappeared by the party apparatus and now sit in some black jail somewhere?

And still the Han Chinese say nothing. Many keep silent because they accept the concept of grand unity, where all minorities need to be shoehorned into fitting under Chinese rule. Some keep silent because they mind their own business, a traditional principle of Confucianism that has devolved into selfishness. And some are silent because they are afraid. In Beijing recently, someone transmitted news of a Tibetan committing self-immolation on Sina’s microblog (China’s Twitter). The police took him to a police station in the middle of the night and warned him not to mention Tibet again.

Read more by and about Woeser, via CDT. Also see her blog, Invisible Tibet, and follow her on Twitter, @degewa.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dissidents, ethnic discrimination, self-immolations, Tibet protests, Woeser
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