Just days after the tenth self-immolation in protest of Chinese rule in Tibet, a bomb was detonated early yesterday morning at a government building in eastern Tibet. From an AFP report:
A bomb blast has ripped through a government building in Tibet, causing damage but no injuries, a leading campaign group told AFP on Thursday, citing two sources.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing early on Wednesday, which came as tensions ran high in the Chinese region following a series of self-immolation protests by Tibetan monks.
“Several sources have confirmed a bomb blast but nothing is known about who carried it out or why,” spokeswoman Kate Saunders from the International Campaign for Tibet told AFP by telephone.
“As it was carried out at 4:00 am, it is thought that no one was hurt,” she added. The blast was in Tibet’s Changdu county, known by Tibetans as Chamdo.
An article in the Eurasia Review describes government reaction to the explosion:
“Now, police and soldiers have blocked both sides of the bridge near the township, and no one is being allowed to cross the bridge. People going to Chamdo and leaving Chamdo are being stopped,” he [a member of the TGIE] said.
[…]One source said that all the monks in Karma monastery, located on the eastern bank of the Dzachu River in Chamdo and founded in the twelfth century by the First Karmapa, have been confined inside the monastic compound on suspicion of possible involvement in the blast.
According to the source, authorities have also halted the activities of many Tibetans engaged in the production of Buddhist religious objects and artifacts in the area, known for the profession.
Providing us with an account of how the recent protests are seen inside the TAR, High Peaks Pure Earth translated a poem posted by a Tibetan blogger earlier this month:
“Mourning”
By SengdorThe sadness of living is more painful than death
Unbearable sorrow turned you all into glowing red skeletonsThe mouth quivers with flames
The hands are pierced with flames
Flames burn in the breast
Rosary beads of fire scatter to the groundLook at the smoke rising
from the monastery’s golden roof
Look at the doors of each monk’s cellIn every moment
After a storm bursts on one grassland
Another storm bursts on the other grasslandFollowing the direction of the wind
Dark shadows move accordingly– Written on one night of October 2011
