The Chinese team members and support staff confronted the eight activists who were seated close to them during Saturday’s friendly international match at the Allianz stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, that the U.S. won 3-0.

The activists, dressed in white T-shirts, had been shouting slogans and holding up white banners that read “Free Tibet” during the second half of the game.

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

Members of the Chinese team sought their removal from the stands, and the activists were asked to leave the stadium by security guards. That prompted boos from other spectators who shouted, “Let them stay!” and chanted “Free speech!”

Soon after, stadium officials allowed the activists to return to their seats but confiscated their white banners. The activists watched the rest of the game holding up the Tibetan national flag that is banned by China inside Tibet. They also still wore their “Free Tibet” T-shirts.

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

“The biggest takeaway (from this campaign) is that if Tibetans stand up, raise our voices, and take action for our own cause, then the people of the world automatically rise up in support,” one of the protesters, Tenzin Palsang, told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

“China doesn’t just play soccer. They also play games with human rights,” said Palsang, who is president of the Minnesota chapter of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress.

She cited harsh conditions inside Tibet, where she said children are suffering “colonial boarding school policies,” referring to the Chinese government-run schools where Tibetan children, aged 6-17, have reportedly been held in “prison-like” conditions and forced to study a Mandarin-heavy curriculum that promotes party loyalty or a state-approved “patriotic education.”

(Tenzin Shakya/RTYC-MN)

According to Freedom House’s annual 2025 Freedom in the World report, Tibet was given a score of 0, based on an analysis of political and civil freedoms, making it one of the least-free places in the world. China annexed Tibet in 1950 and has since governed the territory with an oppressively heavy-hand while seeking to erase Tibetan culture and identity.

Beijing denies it represses Tibet or seeks to erase its cultural traditions, instead pointing to economic development in the region as evidence of its positive impacts on the population of about 6 million Tibetans.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

Officials in Gade county in Golog prefecture of Qinghai province have placed the monastery of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, who died aged 56, under round-the-clock police surveillance, conducting random inspections of locals’ phones to curb information sharing about his death, said the sources. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

On April 3, Lung Ngon Monastery in Gade county confirmed that its abbot, Tulku Hungkar Dorje, had died on March 29 in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. His followers say the Buddhist leader, who had been missing for over eight months, had fled to Vietnam to escape Chinese government persecution for his work as an educator and promoter of Tibetan language and culture.

Since April 2, authorities from Golog prefecture and Gade county have been conducting inspections at the monastery and local village, imposing tight restrictions and forbidding public memorial services for the abbot, the sources told RFA.

“After Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s death, local Tibetans have faced comprehensive restrictions. Many local residents who expressed condolences or shared photos of the Rinpoche on social media have been summoned for questioning by Chinese authorities,” said the first source.

“Several Tibetans have also been detained, although detailed information cannot be obtained due to the strict controls and scrutiny,” he added.

Tulku Hungkar Dorje was renowned as a philanthropist, educator and environmentalist, who promoted Tibetan language and culture. Followers and rights groups say he was a victim of transnational repression by China and have demanded the Vietnamese government allow an independent investigation into his death, which they say took place under suspicious circumstances after he was arrested in a joint operation led by local Vietnamese police and Chinese government agents.

Vietnamese authorities have not publicly commented about the case.

Monks from Lung Ngon Monastery who travelled with Chinese officials to Vietnam on April 5 to retrieve the Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s body were initially refused permission to view the body of their abbot and from participating in meetings held at the Chinese embassy in Vietnam, Tibetan rights groups said, citing sources familiar with the matter in the region.

However, on April 10, the monks were allowed to view Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s face, but were not allowed to view the rest of his body, said Ju Tenkyong, director of the Amnye Machen Institute, a Dharamsala-based Tibetan center for advanced studies.

Currently, there is no clear information about the status of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s body, which is reportedly at Vinmec Central Park International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Tenkyong said.

Tibetans across the globe have united in their call for a thorough probe into the death of the respected Buddhist teacher, holding peaceful marches in several countries, including in India and the U.S., with demonstrations outside the Chinese and Vietnamese embassies and consulates in New Delhi and New York as well as candlelight vigils, prayer ceremonies, and formal petitions.

Closure of Tibetan language schools

Tulku Hungkar Dorje was a renowned Tibetan educator in a region where Chinese authorities are accused of stifling Tibetan language and culture and seeking to assimilate Tibetan children into the larger ethnic Han culture.

The abbot founded several schools and vocational centers to provide free education for children of local nomadic families. These schools, which included the Hungkar Dorje Ethnic Vocational High School and Mayul Center for Studies, were reportedly shut down shortly after he went missing last year, sources told RFA.

In another indication of the trend of Chinese authorities suppressing Tibetan education, a prominent school, also in Golog prefecture, announced Tuesday it was reopening but would not be teaching Tibetan language and culture as before.

In July 2024, Chinese officials shut down Ragya Gangjong Sherig Norbuling School, a reputed Tibetan vocational school run by prominent Buddhist teacher, Jigme Gyaltsen, citing lack of compliance with provincial communist party standards. The closure sparked widespread concern among Tibetans at the time over Beijing’s efforts to eradicate Tibetan language and culture.

On Tuesday, Gyaltsen told hundreds of monks, students, and local Tibetans at a public event that the vocational school will focus on providing practical training on technology and technical skills to enable Tibetans to keep pace with the current tech-driven era.

Tibetan netizens welcomed the reopening and praised Gyaltsen as “invincible” and “indestructible.” One also expressed hope that the “glory of Tibetan language and script will shine as before.” However, sources told RFA the school will reopen without its Tibetan language and cultural departments, which it was famed for.

Translated by Tenzin Norzom. Edited by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.

But Tibetans say they are relieved to see that Radio Free Asia is still broadcasting into the region despite the March 15 termination of Congressionally-authorized federal grants that fund the editorially independent news service.

“We still see you. We still hear you,” said one of the sources based in Tibet’s capital Lhasa on Thursday, just days after the abrupt cut to RFA’s funds forced the outlet to furlough much of its staff in its Washington headquarters.

(RFA)

Chinese media and Beijing’s army of nationalistic ‘little pink’ commentators welcomed the news about RFA and VOA, with the state-owned Beijing Daily declaring that the “beacon of freedom has collapsed” and that “U.S. hegemony will eventually perish under global condemnation.”

With the reduced staff, RFA’s nine language services -- including Tibetan, Mandarin and Uyghur -- are providing limited news updates via its website, social, and radio to regions across Asia with little or no press freedom, from North Korea and China to Cambodia and Myanmar.

“I listen and follow RFA and I am relieved to see you are still working despite the funding cut and risk of closure,” a second source based in the Tibet Autonomous Region told RFA Tibetan.

“I hope and pray that the (U.S.) administration reconsiders the decision and continues to fund your work,” the person said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Risking personal safety to listen

Under Mao Zedong, Communist Chinese forces invaded and annexed Tibet in 1950. Ever since, Beijing has maintained a tight grip on Tibetan daily life, suppressing Tibetan culture, the language and Buddhist practices while trying to assimilate Tibetans into Han Chinese culture.

In Tibet, RFA serves as a rare source of factual, timely news and information about domestic and international affairs as well as about the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in northern India, and Tibetans abroad.

Many Tibetans risk personal safety to secretly tune in to RFA and VOA and listen to these broadcasts, which the Chinese government has frequently jammed, according to former political prisoners, Tibetans, rights groups and foreign tourists.

Chinese officials have also destroyed or confiscated hundreds of ‘illegal’ satellite dishes, with seizures common across the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces.

Access to RFA Tibetan’s news website and social platforms are also blocked. However, some Tibetans use digital circumvention tools to get around China’s “Great Firewall” that censors and blocks access to many Western websites and news sources, including X, formerly known as Twitter.

Getting caught listening to RFA or VOA or sharing information with foreign media can cause Tibetans to be arrested. Some have been sentenced to several years in jail.

“Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans living in Tibet -– monks, nuns, nomads, farmers and other laypersons –- try every way possible to tune in to RFA and VOA,“ said former political prisoner Golog Jigme Gyatso, who was detained by Chinese officials several times for listening to and participating in discussions on RFA Tibetan.

“Both these news American outlets play an essential role in filling a big information gap; that is why both have always been a thorn in the side of Communist China,” he said.

(Guang Niu/Reuters)

Chinese authorities often blast music on radio frequencies used by RFA to make it difficult for listeners to hear, said Gyatso, who is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland.

They also plant informers and spies in Tibetans villages, schools and monasteries to find out who might be listening to these news programs, he said.

“And now to hear that the two news outlets that serve as such an important medium of information inside Tibet is likely coming to an abrupt end is unthinkable and heartbreaking to say the least,” Gyatso said.

In 2008, Gyatso helped make a documentary titled “Leaving Fear Behind,”which featured interviews with Tibetans in Tibet that highlighted the injustices they face under Chinese rule. He was subsequently jailed three times between 2008 and 2012 and brutally tortured by Chinese authorities before finally escaping Tibet in 2014.

‘Darkness will fall’

Other former Tibetan political prisoners and activists also expressed concerns that RFA and VOA may cease operations, saying the services provide a lifeline of information to Tibetans in their own tongue.

RFA Tibetan, for example, broadcasts news in three different dialects of Ukay, Amkay, and Khamkay.

“If these media outlets are silenced, darkness will fall upon the minds of millions who, under authoritarian oppression, have depended solely on these voices for truth, freedom, and democracy, and their hopes will be dashed,” said Jamyang Jinpa, one of the monks who disrupted a government-controlled press tour and spoke to foreign journalists during a widely publicized protest against Chinese rule in April 2008.

(Charlie Dharapak/RFA)

Jinpa said he first heard on RFA’s Amdo-dialect broadcast that a group of international reporters had been invited to visit Labrang Tashikyil Monastery in Gansu province, and made preparations to protest before them.

“Over the past several decades, these two media outlets have served as bridges between Tibetans inside and outside Tibet and made indelible contributions to the Tibetan people,” he said. “This will be confirmed by time itself.”

‘Act of resistance’

RFA began its first broadcast into China in Mandarin on Sept. 29, 1996, and in Tibetan a few months later, on Dec. 2, 1996.

It later expanded to nine languages, including Tibetan, Uyghur, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao and Burmese.

“When I was in Tibet in 2008 and 2011, I would hear Radio Free Asia Tibetan language service quietly being played in people’s homes at night,” said Nick Gulotta, a New York City who traveled to Tibet in 2008 and later in 2011.

“Just listening to the news was an act of resistance and extreme personal risk,” he said. “But for Tibetans resisting occupation, listening to uncensored information in their language was everything.

“Not only are these programs a lifeline for millions living under authoritarian regimes –- there are simply no other high quality media options for Americans that disseminate news in many of the languages offered by RFA and VOA,” Gulotta said.

However, there are signs that the U.S. administration is scaling back shortwave radio transmissions. RFA has learned that some shortwave radio frequencies that had carried its programming have stopped operating in recent days.

Most of RFA’s radio broadcasts are carried by transmitters run or leased by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees U.S. government-funded broadcasters.

CTA urges lobbying

Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the democratically elected president of the Tibetan government-in-exile -- the Central Tibetan Administration -- in Dharamsala, India, said CTA is striving to ensure continued U.S. support for both RFA and VOA through collective efforts of the Washington-based Office of Tibet and International Campaign for Tibet.

The CTA has also urged the over 30 North American Tibetan associations , made up of the Tibetan communities across the United States and Canada, to advocate on behalf of RFA and VOA with their representatives, he said.

“The continuation of RFA and VOA’s Tibetan language services is not only a geopolitical necessity — it is also a moral imperative," said Tsering Passang, founder and chair of the U.K.-based Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities.

“These broadcasts provide a rare and vital platform for Tibetan language preservation, helping sustain a culture that the CCP has relentlessly sought to erase through colonial-style boarding schools and other assimilation tactics,” he said, using an acronym to refer to the Chinese Communist Party.

Rigzin Lhundup, a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, recalled how when he was younger and living in Tibet, he would see Tibetans go to the terrace of their house or to the mountainside to hear the news broadcasts better.

“Now when I reflect on it, I still feel the impact of hearing the word ‘Free’ in Radio Free Asia and the line, ‘Reporting from Dharamsala, the place of His Holiness’s residence,’ which we would frequently hear in the broadcasts,” Lhundup said.

“Shutting down the two media outlets would be a huge loss to the Tibetan struggle,” he said.

Edited by Tenzin Pema and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.

For decades, the Tibetan language services of RFA and VOA have been lifelines for Tibetans behind China’s “Great Firewall” of censorship, connecting them to outside world.

These two services have provided windows into the truth about Tibet for Tibetans in Tibet and in exile, while also offering critical resources to the international community.

(Charlie Dharapak/RFA)

Over the years, their reporting has served as an indispensable source for the United Nations Human Rights Council, environmental organizations, human rights groups and Tibet experts around the world.

Now, with the potential shutdown of these services, Tibet risks further marginalization in global conversations and the international community’s attention to the Tibetan people’s plight is likely to decline further.

Suffocating restrictions

Access to information in Tibetan regions has long been highly restricted.

In 2000, the Chinese government launched the “Western Development Broadcasting Project” to saturate the region with official propaganda. It also constructed numerous high-powered jamming stations across the plateau to block international Tibetan-language broadcasts, including those from RFA and VOA — stations that are still in use today.

By the 2020s, nationwide surveillance projects like “Skynet" and “Sharp Eyes” had deployed vast networks of cameras, facial recognition systems and AI-powered monitoring technologies to reinforce control over society — with Tibetan regions under particular scrutiny.

By 2023, China had installed more than 500 million surveillance cameras nationwide. That same year, a Tibetan school in Lithang, Kham, was shut down after a teacher contacted relatives abroad via WeChat and used RFA Tibetan programming as classroom material.

(Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Even under this suffocating control, many Tibetans still risked everything to access forbidden broadcasts.

Some climbed mountaintops in search of a clearer signal. Others listened alone, late at night, in monastery corners. Some were summoned, detained, or even sentenced — simply for trying to hear the truth about Tibet, or to receive rare updates from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

And still, countless brave individuals find ways to get vital information out.

In February 2024, China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Dege, Kham, threatened to submerge six monasteries and surrounding villages. Local Tibetans protested and were met with arrests and beatings.

It was RFA’s Tibetan service that first broke the news. The story drew international attention, and so far the project hasn’t proceeded.

(Citizen video)

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is rapidly expanding its global media influence.

China Global Television Network, or CGTN, has established bureaus across North America, Europe and Africa to produce multilingual content and “tell China’s story well.”

The China Daily collaborates with U.S. media outlets to publish full-page sponsored inserts. CGTN and Xinhua now release YouTube videos to counter international criticism of China’s record in Tibet and Xinjiang, where 12 million Uyghurs are being persecuted.

In September 2024, China also launched a new “Tibet International Communication Center.” Its mission? To serve as “a global communication window for Tibet… in line with national strategic goals… building a more effective international media system related to Tibet,” and to “guide public opinion and conduct international public opinion struggles” on Tibet-related issues.

This aggressive global information offensive — while Tibet remains sealed off domestically — shows a stark contrast between external expansion and internal suppression.

Chinese media celebrates

Yet at this critical moment, the United States has chosen to gut RFA and VOA, including their Tibetan-language services. This decision is deeply regrettable and will undermine the Tibetan cause.

Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times, celebrated the news: “Voice of America is paralyzed! And the equally poisonous RFA is gone too. This is a great day… I hope this development is irreversible.”

Hu’s reaction underscores how crucial these Tibetan voices are. While the United States claims to defend global information freedom, it has now ceded key ground in the contest of soft power and public diplomacy.

The Tibetan services of RFA and VOA were among the most important elements of the United States’ global broadcasting system. Shutting them down has not only deprived Tibetans of a vital information source — it has weakened the U.S. presence on the global stage.

(Tsering Woeser)

Since 2006, I have written more than 900 articles for RFA’s Tibetan service. With the help of RFA’s senior broadcaster and translator Dolkar, whose accurate translations and eloquent Tibetan narration brought my words to life, my writing reached the ears and hearts of Tibetan listeners. Weekly broadcasts sustained not only my writing but also my reflections on Tibet’s fate.

This commitment culminated in four books: “Hearing Tibet,” “These Years in Tibet” (co-authored with Wang Lixiong), “Behind the Blessed Land,” and “Tibet in the Year of the Pandemic.” These works trace Tibet’s past, present, and future — and they serve as a heartfelt response to the silence surrounding the people, their monasteries, their towns, and their history.

Now, with fears of a potential closure of RFA’s Tibetan service, I feel a deep sorrow. I still believe that its voice will not vanish, and its influence will not disappear. It was once a bridge between Tibetans inside and outside the country, and it will continue to live on in memory.

Tibetans need more access to the outside world. More truth. More diversity. More clarity.

The Tibetan services of RFA and VOA were not just media — they were a cultural flame, a guardian of language, a lighthouse of thought.

Even under the weight of surveillance, Tibetans inside Tibet still listen: To remember their past, to understand their present, and to imagine a future that’s their own.

Shutting down these services is to sever the Tibetan people from their resonance, their reflection, and their hope.

We must ask:

When Tibetan children grow up hearing only a single narrative,

When villagers and nomads can no longer receive truthful messages from afar,

When monks are trapped in a web of data and ever-watching cameras—

Who will tell them that their world is not only the one written by the Chinese government?

Therefore, I appeal:

Please do not silence Tibet.

Please protect the last information channels for the Tibetan people.

Let truth continue to reach the plateau.

Let hope continue to cross borders.

Tibetan voices must not be buried. Let all people of conscience stand together and keep the light of truth shining across the snowland.

Tibetans have already lost too much — please, do not take away our last remaining voice.

Tsering Woeser is a Tibetan writer and poet based in Beijing. The views expressed here are her own.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by commentator Tsering Woeser.

That’s because a series of important events and acts of Tibetan resistance have happened during this month over the years, starting with the March 10, 1959, uprising against Chinese rule.

This year, too, Beijing has intensified security and surveillance measures across Tibet, conducting inspections and holding provincial, county and township level meetings to issue strict directives to take action to “win the stability battle” in March.

Additional police and military forces have been deployed in the capital of Lhasa, including religious sites such as the Jokhang Temple and Sera Monastery, according to two sources in the region. Security personnel have been patrolling neighborhoods even at 3 a.m., they said.

Social media censorship and internet shutdowns prevent Tibetans from sharing information with the outside world.

What happened on March 10, 1959?

On that day 66 years ago, tens of thousands of Tibetans in Lhasa rose up against Chinese rule, which had begun when Mao Zedong’s Communists invaded and forcibly annexed Tibet in 1950.

The revolt was in direct response to growing Chinese repression and fears for the safety of the Dalai Lama. As Chinese forces rose to crush the rebellion, thousands of Tibetans died.

(Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

That prompted the Dalai Lama, 23 years old at the time, to flee to northern India with thousands of other Tibetans, where he and a large community of Tibetans live to this day in Dharamsala.

Ever since, March 10 has been marked at as the anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day, with marches and protests in various locations around the world. Tibetans have used the day to honor the courage of those who rebelled, press China to stop its repression of Tibetans and voice their hope for a homeland where they can live freely.

March 12: Women’s Uprising Day

On March 12, 1959, two days after the uprising, thousands of Tibetan women went into the streets of Lhasa to protest the violent crackdown and demand Tibet’s freedom. Many were arrested, tortured, or killed.

This movement remains a powerful symbol of Tibetan resistance and female-led activism. Today, Tibetans and their supporters organize marches and gatherings worldwide to honor the courage of these women.

(Jason Reed/Reuters)

This year, in cities and towns globally, including in India, North America, and in Europe, the Tibetan Women’s Association organized marches that included students, Buddhist nuns and activists who amplified the voices of past Tibetan women patriots and assert the role of Tibetan women living in exile.

March 14: Lhasa protest and crackdown

Many years later, on March 14, 2008, large-scale protests erupted in Lhasa against Chinese rule and religious repression, erosion of Tibetan culture and economic marginalization.

What began as a peaceful protest quickly escalated into the biggest uprisings in Tibet since 1959, triggering a violent crackdown, resulting in hundreds of arrests, disappearances and deaths.

(Danish SIddiqui/Reuters)

March 16: Killing of unarmed protesters in Ngaba

Two days later, at least 10 Tibetans, including 16-year-old schoolgirl Lhundup Tso, were killed when police opened fire on unarmed protesters following a morning prayer session at Kirti Monastery, which is in the Ngaba region in Sichuan province.

Many Buddhist monks and laypeople were subsequently imprisoned and tortured. During police raids at Kirti, images of the Dalai Lama and other senior religious figures were destroyed. In June of that year, troops raided the Sey Monastery, where they shattered portraits of the Dalai Lama and harassed monks who were on retreat.

Ngaba remains one of the most heavily militarized Tibetan regions. Around March every year, the Kirti Monastery faces severe restrictions, with security forces closely monitoring monks and local residents.

March 2012: 11 Tibetans self-immolated.

A wave of self-immolations by Tibetans in Tibet began in 2011 and intensified in 2012. Desperate to show their opposition to China’s repressive policies, a total of 11 Tibetans set fire to themselves during March 2012, the highest number of such cases recorded in a single month.

They ranged in age from 18 to 44 years, and seven were from Ngaba. Many appeared to have done this during March because of its significance.

March 28: China declares ‘Serfs’ Emancipation Day’

In 2009, China declared March 28 as “Serfs’ Emancipation Day” to celebrate what Beijing said marks the ‘liberation’ in 1959 from Tibet’s ”feudal system.”

The Communist Party claims this day marks Tibet’s progress under Chinese rule, but Tibetans reject it as state propaganda justifying Chinese occupation.

Chinese authorities organize parades and other events and alternative narratives are suppressed.

(Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

What does the Dalai Lama say about the future of Tibet?

Beijing believes the Dalai Lama wants to split off the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces from the rest of the country.

However, the Dalai Lama does not advocate for independence but rather a “Middle Way” that accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China and urges greater cultural and religious freedoms, including strengthened language rights that are guaranteed for ethnic minorities under China’s constitution.

Do Tibetans living in exile protest in March?

Yes. Every March 10, Tibetans and their supporters around the world organize protests and solidarity events marking the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan National Uprising.

These protests serve as a powerful reminder of Tibet’s ongoing struggle for freedom and human rights.

Edited by Tenzin Pema, Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Dolma Lhamo and Tenzin Dickyi.

In “Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People,” the Dalai Lama shares his experiences since assuming the leadership of Tibet at the age of 16 before he fled into exile in India.

The Tibetan spiritual leader also describes negotiating with a series of Chinese leaders, from Mao Zedong, to his more recent attempts to communicate with President Xi Jinping.

In an excerpt published here with permission from the publisher HarperCollins, the Dalai Lama says China’s government could make Tibetans feel welcome within the People’s Republic of China, but instead communist rule remains that of an “oppressive occupying power.”

He also rejects Chinese involvement in the selection of the next Dalai Lama and says whoever that is “will be born in the free world.”

If Beijing were to look at past history, it would see that policies of repression and forced assimilation do not actually work. It is, in fact, counterproductive, with the main result being the creation of generations deeply resentful of Communist China’s presence on the Tibetan plateau.

If the Chinese leadership truly cares about a stable and harmonious country wherein the Tibetan people could feel at home, its policies need to be grounded in respect for the dignity of Tibetans and to take serious note of their fundamental aspiration to thrive as a people with a distinct language, culture, and religion.

If, in the end, Beijing deems our foundational objective to be incompatible within the framework of the People’s Republic of China, then the issue of Tibet will remain intractable for generations. I have always stated that, in the end, it is the Tibetan people who should decide their own fate. Not the Dalai Lama or, for that matter, the Beijing leadership.

The simple fact is no one likes their home being taken over by uninvited guests with guns. This is nothing but human nature.

(Money Sharma/AFP)

I, for one, do not believe it would be so difficult for the Chinese government to make the Tibetans feel welcome and happy within the family of the People’s Republic of China. Like all people, Tibetans would like to be respected, have agency within their own home, and have the freedom to be who they are. The aspirations and the needs of the Tibetan people cannot be met simply through economic development.

At its core, the issue is not about bread and butter. It is about the very survival of Tibetans as a people. Finding a resolution of the Tibetan issue would undoubtedly have great benefits for the People’s Republic of China.

First and foremost, it would confer legitimacy to China’s presence on the Tibetan plateau, essential for the status and stability of the People’s Republic of China as a modern country composed of multiple nationalities willingly joined in a single family.

In the case of Tibet, for instance, it has now been more than seventy years since Communist China’s invasion in 1950. Despite the physical control of the country, through brutal force as well as economic inducements, the Tibetan people’s resentment, persistent resistance in various forms, and moments of significant uprising have never gone away.

Even though generations and economic conditions have changed, very little has changed when it comes to the Tibetan people’s perception and attitude toward those they still view as occupiers. The simple fact is that insofar as the Tibetans on the ground are concerned, the Communist Chinese rule in Tibet remains that of a foreign, unwanted, and oppressive occupying power.

The Tibetan people have lost so much. Their homeland has been forcibly invaded and remains under a suffocating rule. The Tibetan language, culture, and religion are under systematic attack through coercive policies of assimilation. Even the very expression of Tibetanness is increasingly being perceived as a threat “to the unity of the motherland.”

The only leverage the Tibetan people have left is the moral rightness of their cause and the power of truth. The simple fact is Tibet today remains an occupied territory, and it is only the Tibetan people who can confer or deny legitimacy to the presence of China on the Tibetan plateau.

All my life I have advocated for nonviolence. I have done my utmost to restrain the understandable impulses of frustrated Tibetans, both within and outside Tibet.

Especially, ever since our direct conversations after my exile began with Beijing in 1979, I have used all my moral authority and leverage with the Tibetan people, persuading them to seek a realistic solution in the form of a genuine autonomy within the framework of the People’s Republic of China.

I must admit I remain deeply disappointed that Beijing has chosen not to acknowledge this huge accommodation on the part of the Tibetans, and has failed to capitalize on the genuine potential it offered to come to a lasting solution.

At the time of publishing this book, I will be approaching my ninetieth year. If no resolution is found while I am alive, the Tibetan people, especially those inside Tibet, will blame the Chinese leadership and the Communist Party for its failure to reach a settlement with me; many Chinese too, especially Buddhists - some people told me that there are more than two hundred million in mainland China who self-identify as Buddhists - will be disappointed with their government for its failure to solve a problem whose solution has been staring at them for so long.

Given my age, understandably many Tibetans are concerned about what will happen when I am no more. On the political front of our campaign for the freedom of the Tibetan people, we now have a substantial population of Tibetans outside in the free world, so our struggle will go on, no matter what.

Furthermore, as far as the day-to-day leadership of our movement is concerned, we now have both an elected executive in the office of the Sikyong (president of the Central Tibetan Administration) and a well-established Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.

People have often asked me if there will be a next Dalai Lama.

As early as the 1960s, I have expressed that whether the Dalai Lama institution should continue or not is a matter for the Tibetan people.

So if the Tibetan people feel that the institution has served its purpose and there is now no longer any need for a Dalai Lama, then the institution will cease. In which case, I would be the last Dalai Lama, I have stated. I have also said that if there is continued need, then there will be the Fifteenth Dalai Lama. In particular, in 2011, I convened a gathering of the leaders of all major Tibetan religious traditions, and at the conclusion of this meeting, I issued a formal statement in which I stated that when I turn ninety, I will consult the high lamas of the Tibetan religious traditions as well as the Tibetan public, and if there is a consensus that the Dalai Lama institution should continue, then formal responsibility for the recognition of the Fifteenth Dalai Lama should rest with the Gaden Phodrang Trust (the Office of the Dalai Lama).

(OHHDL)

The Gaden Phodrang Trust should follow the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past Tibetan Buddhist tradition, including, especially, consulting the oath-bound Dharma protectors* historically connected with the lineage of the Dalai Lamas, as was followed carefully in my own case. On my part, I stated that I will also leave clear written instructions on this.

For more than a decade now, I have received numerous petitions and letters from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people—senior lamas from the various Tibetan traditions, abbots of monasteries, diaspora Tibetan communities across the world, and many prominent and ordinary Tibetans inside Tibet—as well as Tibetan Buddhist communities from the Himalayan region and Mongolia, uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.

In the official statement I issued in 2011, I also pointed out that it is totally inappropriate for Chinese Communists, who explicitly reject religion, including the idea of past and future lives, to meddle in the system of reincarnation of lamas, let alone that of the Dalai Lama.

Such meddling, I pointed out, contradicts their own political ideology and only reveals their double standards. Elsewhere, half joking, I have remarked that before Communist China gets involved in the business of recognizing the reincarnation of lamas, including the Dalai Lama, it should first recognize the reincarnations of its past leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping!

In summing up my thoughts on the question of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in that 2011 official statement, I urged that unless the recognition of the next Dalai Lama is done through traditional Tibetan Buddhist methods, no acceptance should be given by the Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhists across the world to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China.

Now, since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama — that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people — will continue.

Copyright @ 2025 by the Dalai Lama. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.

With faces painted in the blue and red of the Tibetan national flag –- and shouting slogans in a slew of different languages -– Tibetans and their supporters rallied in Sydney, Taipei, London, New York, Washington and Toronto, among others.

Some of the protests took place outside Chinese embassies. In New Delhi, police clashed with dozens of Tibetan protesters as some demonstrators tried to enter the Chinese Embassy.

Supporters carried banners that read “World Leaders, Stand up for Tibet,” “CCP, Stop Torturing Tibetans” and “Missing Home Since 1959.”

The Tibetan national flag –- which is banned inside Tibet -– was widely seen.

Demonstrations for the 66th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising were also held in Ladakh in north India, Guwahati in northeast India and Mysore in south India.

(RFA Tibetan)

China invaded and forcibly annexed Tibet in 1950. The revolt nine years later was sparked in part by fears that the Chinese would arrest Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled from Lhasa to India several weeks later.

Thousands of Tibetans died in the 1959 uprising amid a subsequent crackdown by China. Since then, Tibetans have used March 10 to honor their courage, press China to stop its repression of Tibetans and voice their hope for a homeland where they can live freely.

The date remains a politically sensitive one for Chinese authorities in Tibet, who routinely tighten surveillance and security measures in Tibetan areas of China to block protests ahead of the anniversary.

‘Freedom from Chinese forces’

The Central Tibetan Administration, or CTA, led an official event in Dharamsala, India, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is located.

“As we commemorate the Tibetan National Uprising Day, we honor our brave martyrs, and express solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside Tibet who continue to languish under the oppressive Chinese government,” CTA President Sikyong Penpa Tsering said at the event, which was attended by former Slovakian President Andrej Kiska and Estonian parliamentarian Juku-Kalle Raid.

Tibetans protested in 1959 out of a “sense of real desperation,” the Dalai Lama said from his residence in Dharamsala.

“There was no other way but to escape,” he said. “My heart was a little heavy. After I crossed a river, a local villager guiding my horse told me to take one last look at Lhasa as I won’t be able to see Lhasa beyond this point.

(OHHDL)

“So I turned and made my horse face Lhasa and said my prayers,” he said. “As I made my way southward, crossing the river and up through the passes, I felt a sense of happiness and freedom from Chinese forces.”

Since then, despite Chinese efforts to “wipe Tibet from the face of the earth,” Tibet has endured, he said.

Tight security in Lhasa

In Europe, over 3,000 Tibetans and supporters from across various European countries gathered at The Hague in the Netherlands to participate in a rally that is organized every two years in a major city in Europe under the campaign, “Europe, Stand with Tibet.”

Speaking at the rally were Dutch members of parliament, actor Richard Gere and former NBA player, Enes Kanter Freedom.

“Tibetans inside Tibet are still experiencing a lot of problems under Chinese rule,” Kanter told Radio Free Asia. “So being a supporter of human rights and peace in the world, I fully support the Tibetan people and movement.”

In Taipei, more than 500 people –- mostly Taiwanese and about 40 Tibetans –- gathered on Sunday. Representatives from Taiwan’s Human Rights Commission urged the Taiwanese people to stand with Tibetans to hold China accountable for human rights violations in Tibet.

The Tibetan national flag was hoisted in various parts of the United States, including Berkeley and Richmond in California, Burlington in Vermont and East Rutherford in New Jersey. In Germany, more than 400 cities, districts and municipalities raised the Tibetan flag to recognize the ongoing oppression in Tibet.

Inside Tibet, Chinese authorities have deployed police and military throughout Lhasa’s streets and religious sites, including the Jokhang Temple and Sera Monastery, since the beginning of March, two sources in the region told RFA.

The sources added that police are conducting patrols even at 3 a.m. in predominantly Tibetan neighborhoods, while travelers from other Tibetan regions attempting to enter Lhasa are being turned away for even minor documentation issues.

Edited by Tenzin Pema and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.

Tashi, an ethnic Tibetan and Belgian citizen, was elated when he heard last November that China had expanded its visa-free stay to 30 days for 38 countries, including Belgium, from the previous 15 days.

He immediately began making plans to visit relatives he hadn’t seen in 26 years, as the previous 15-day limit was too short a duration for such a long trip.

As the departure day approached, Tashi — whose name has been changed for safety reasons per his request — was filled with “a mixed sense of excitement and apprehension,” he told Radio Free Asia.

Tashi is one of several ethnic Tibetans who have been denied entry to China from European countries under this visa-free policy.

When in late January Tashi boarded his flight from Brussels to Beijing, he envisioned taking a connecting flight to Chengdu, from where he expected to make the 20-hour drive to his hometown in the historic Amdo region in Qinghai province.

“After 26 years, I thought my dream of returning had finally come true,” he said. “I imagined celebrating Losar [the Tibetan New Year] with my family, attending the Monlam Festival, and revisiting the place where I grew up.”

“But mine was a journey interrupted,” he said.

(RFA)

Instead, after Tashi landed, officials at Beijing Capital International Airport interrogated him for eight hours, detained him for 20 hours and put him on a plane back to Belgium.

Authorities said it was because he was a follower of the Dalai Lama and had done volunteer work to preserve Tibetan language and culture.

Denied entry

Tashi is one of several dozens of ethnic Tibetans who have been detained and questioned at Chinese airports, the travelers have told Radio Free Asia.

The Tibetans said officials interrogated them for hours and searched their belongings before they were deported.

At least four other Tibetans have been denied entry to China from European countries under the visa-free policy.

RFA reported in 2018 that Chinese authorities at Chengdu airport in Sichuan province prohibited three Tibetans with foreign passports — two with South Korean passports and one with A U.S. passport — from entering the country, questioning them harshly and detaining them for hours before expelling them.

In January, a Tibetan woman with Belgian citizenship was also deported from China, this time from Shenzhen Baoan International Airport.

This is not a new pattern.

In April 2024, authorities at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport detained another Belgian citizen, Thubten Gyatso, along with his 6-year-old son, on their way to visit family in Qinghai province.

(RFA)

At least six Chinese officials took turns grilling him in a small room for 18 hours, Gyatso said.

They questioned him on a range of subjects, including his escape from Tibet to India in 1994, his move to Belgium and his citizenship status there, and details about his relatives’ professions.

Afterwards, the officials told him that he would not be allowed to return to his hometown because they found a photo of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan national flag — both banned in China — when searching his belongings and mobile phone.

Queried about Dalai Lama links

Similarly, in the case of Tashi, officials repeatedly accused him of being a follower of the Dalai Lama.

He told RFA that authorities accused him of being part of a campaign under the Dalai Lama, as seen by Beijing, to split Tibet from China, even though his work focuses solely on Tibetan language and culture.

“This made me realize just how important my work is and knowing my work is meaningful and effective strengthens my resolve to do more,” Tashi said.

(Priyanshu Singh/AFP)

During more than eight hours of questioning, Tashi was asked about items among his belongings, apps on his mobile phone and the volunteer work he’d been doing in Belgium since 2006 concerning the preservation of Tibetan cultural and linguistic identity.

“With each passing minute, they probed deeper, inquiring about every activity I had been involved in while volunteering in Belgium,” he said.

Despite the quizzing, officials already “seemed to know every detail, right down to specific dates” about his activities, he said.

When authorities informed Tashi that he needed to return to Belgium, they confiscated his passport and flight tickets and escorted him to immigration where he had to wait for another 13 hours without food or drink.

“With nowhere to get sustenance, I sat there feeling helpless,” Tashi said.

The Belgian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an RFA request for comment.

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told RFA via email that the Chinese government does not engage in any discrimination with regards to its visa-free policy.

“The Chinese government administers the entry and exit affairs of foreigners in accordance with the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China and other laws and regulations,” Liu said.

“Patriotic overseas Tibetans are an important part of the overseas Chinese community,” he added. “The Chinese government has always been very caring about their situation, and there is certainly no discrimination.”

Additional reporting by Tsering Namgyal, Tenzin Tenkyong and Dickey Kundol. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Lhuboom for RFA Tibetan.

Using “Xizang” — a term China formally adopted in 2023 in all its official documents to refer to Tibet — plays into Beijing’s attempts to undermine and erase Tibet’s historical and cultural identity, advocates say.

Instead, they demand that the London museum use “Tibet” exclusively.

Earlier this year, the French museum Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac also came under fire using the term in its exhibit. In October, the museum said it would undo the change in its exhibits, following weeks of protests and petitions by Tibetans.

‘Inaccurate and deeply offensive’

The British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition, which explores the history of the ancient trade route during the key period from 500 to 1000, features over 300 objects from the museum’s own collection and those loaned from at least 29 other institutions.

The exhibit opened in late September and runs until Feb. 23, 2025.

(Hollie Adams/REUTERS)

On its labels and in catalogue materials describing Tibetan artifacts, the British Museum has used the phrase “Tibet or Xizang Autonomous Region.”

For example, a silver vase gifted by the 7th-century Tibetan Empire ruled by King Songtsen Gampo to neighboring Tang China was labeled as “Tibet or Xizang Autonomous Region, China.”

Tsering Passang, founder and chairman of the Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities, said use of “Xizang” is “not only inaccurate but deeply offensive to Tibetans.”

“It mirrors the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to erase Tibet from the global map, rewrite its history, and suppress the Tibetan people’s peaceful culture,” he said.

Tibetan groups — led by advocacy group Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities and the Tibetan Community in Britain — wrote to the British Museum, first on Nov. 25 and later on Dec. 18, citing their grave concerns about use of the term.

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The British Museum, in its response to initial complaints filed by the Tibetan groups, defended its use of the term Xizang, saying it “reflects the contemporary region,” according to a statement by the Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities.

Tibetan activists, however, have rejected the museum’s explanation, saying it ignores the political implications of promoting terminology perpetuated by the Chinese Communist Party that legitimizes the Chinese state narrative.

The British Museum did not immediately respond to RFA’s request for comment.

In 1965, the Chinese government — which annexed Tibet in 1950 — designated the historic regions of U-Tsang and the western part of Kham as the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR.

But later Beijing replaced the use of the term “Tibet” with “Xizang” in all official diplomatic documents, with Chinese official experts saying the name “Tibet” has been geographically misleading to the international community, and rectifying it “will help enhance China’s international voice on Tibet.”

(Hollie Adams/REUTERS)

The TAR borders India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south and spans more than 1.2 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles), making it China’s second-largest province-level division after the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the north — which Uyghurs prefer to call “East Turkistan.”

Shaping global understanding

Tibetan activists say the British Museum, which is funded by U.K. Department for Culture, Media and Sport and whose permanent collection of over 8 million items is among the largest in existence — “bears a profound responsibility to present history and heritage with integrity.”

“This is not just about labels; it’s about the museum’s role in shaping global understanding of a culture that is actively being suppressed,” said Phuntsok Norbu, chairman of the Tibetan Community in Britain.

The group has also urged the British Museum to engage in dialogue with Tibetan scholars and community leaders to ensure the accurate representation of Tibetan history and culture in future exhibitions.

Tibetans in France have also been protesting against Paris’ Musée Guimet, which has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia, saying it had kowtowed to Chinese pressure in referring to its Tibetan section as the “Himalayan World.”

Additional reported by Dickey Kundol. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Loboe Socktsang and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

The son of Cuban migrants and a longtime foreign policy “hawk” when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party, Rubio was named by Trump on Wednesday as his choice to replace Antony Blinken, who has served through President Joe Biden’s nearly four years in office.

Rubio would be the first sitting U.S. secretary of state to have been sanctioned by the Chinese government, having been blacklisted by Beijing in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the genocide of the Uyghurs and the crackdown in Hong Kong.

Such sanctions would bar Rubio from visiting China.

Both Uyghurs and Tibetans — large ethnic groups that live in the western regions of China — have been oppressed by the Chinese government, with the United States accusing Beijing of committing human rights abuses against both peoples.

The U.S. government and other Western parliaments have labeled China’s treatment of the 12-million strong Uyghurs a “genocide.”

Rushan Abbas, the executive chair of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, told Radio Free Asia the sanctions, which could complicate diplomatic ties, should be worn as a badge of honor for Rubio.

“Marco Rubio has been a steadfast advocate for human rights, particularly for the Uyghur people enduring ongoing genocide,” she said, noting his “leadership role” in Congress passing the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

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Abbas’ sister, Gulshan Abbas, has been imprisoned in China for the past six years, and she said the Florida senator had taken a personal interest in her battle to free her sister, even inviting her to Congress as one of his guests for Biden’s State of the Union address in 2020.

“His advocacy has helped in holding Chinese officials committing Uyghur genocide accountable, highlighted Uyghur prisoners of conscience, protected American markets from Uyghur forced labor and defended religious freedom,” Abbas said of Rubio’s senate tenure.

She added that she hoped Rubio “will strengthen efforts to secure justice for the Uyghur people and end the ongoing genocide.”

Experienced campaigner

Other human rights activists said Rubio could get off to a running start when it comes to U.S. relations with China, given that he already has a deep understanding of the country and its alleged rights abuses.

Elfidar Iltebir, president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, said he was “pleased” to learn of Rubio’s nomination and that it gave him hope “that we might finally be able to hold China accountable for its inhumane treatment of Uyghurs.”

“He is a young, fearless, and intelligent leader who already has a deep understanding of the Chinese government’s genocidal policies and state-imposed forced labor practices,” Iltebir explained.

“Having Rubio … at the State Department sends a powerful message to China: America will not tolerate oppression, and the new administration is ready to enforce a tough China policy.”

Namgyal Choedup, a representative of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration in North America, said that he believed it was too soon to say a State Department led by Rubio could lead to tangible change for Tibetans, but that he did not doubt Rubio’s sincerity.

“Senator Rubio’s deep understanding of Tibetan issues, his strong stance on Tibet and his significant role in sponsoring and advocating for two key Tibet-related acts passed by the U.S. government are commendable,” Choedup said. “His firm positions on China, Iran, and Venezuela have shown him to be a dedicated leader.”

In 2018, Rubio was the co-sponsor of the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, which seeks to deny entry into the United States to any Chinese officials who prohibit American citizens from entering Tibet.

He also pushed for the Tibet Policy and Support Act, which says any decision about Dalai Lama’s reincarnation rests solely with the Dalai Lama himself and the broader Tibetan community – and not with Beijing, which is seeking to install its own successor.

“While it is still too early to determine the exact impact he will have on Tibet, his unwavering support for the Tibetan cause is clear,” the Tibetan envoy added.

“With the new administration in place, we remain cautious, but we are optimistic, as the U.S. government, Congress, and the American people have long been strong allies of Tibet.”

Edited by Alex Willemyns and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Uyghur, RFA Tibetan.

The increased monitoring activities coincided with the start of a major annual festival, the Shoton Festival, on Aug. 4. Also known as a yogurt festival, it is observed when monks complete their annual religious retreats and involves the unveiling of a 500-square-meter thangka painting, performances of Tibetan opera and huge picnics.

“The government has been taking various measures to tighten its vigilance in response to sensitive situations in Tibet, but this August, it has suddenly taken even more drastic measures,” said one source from inside Tibet.

Authorities are calling it a “summer public security crackdown and rectification operation,” the sources said.

The precise reasons behind the stricter measures – which continue – are not known, but Beijing has steadily tightened surveillance in Tibet over many years. One source said the measures were to ensure stability for the government’s commercial activities to stimulate economic growth.

That may be true on the surface, but comments from a senior security official point to a deeper motive. Zhang Hongbo, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region and director of the Public Security Department told state media that security forces would focus on national unity and fight separatism or secession.

Tibet was once an independent country, but Chinese forces invaded in 1950 and have controlled the territory ever since. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India amid a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Since then, Beijing has sought to legitimize Chinese rule through the suppression of dissent and policies undermining Tibetan culture and language. 

Authorities are hyper-sensitive to any hints of protest against Chinese rule or resistance to those efforts.

Here are three ways that authorities are boosting surveillance in Lhasa:

One: Greater police presence on the streets.

This includes plainclothes officers, and an increase in the number of traffic and police inspection points.

Lhasa’s Public Security Bureau deployed more than 1,200 police officers, set up 65 inspection and traffic checkpoints and conducted inspections of more than 2,000 venues and 24,000 vehicles, according to a Chinese state media report on Aug. 5.

Two: Authorities have deployed civilians – mostly food delivery drivers – as auxiliary police officers. 

Lhasa authorities launched a pilot program hiring delivery drivers from food delivery company Meituan to perform “voluntary patrol and prevention work,” Chinese state media reported on Aug. 8 – although sources say the workers are essentially forced to do the work.

They are helping police to keep an eye on ordinary residents, including serving at night watchmen in certain areas.

The measure suggests China is using Tibet as a testing ground for its surveillance tactics because they are similar to civilian-police integration efforts China employs in border areas, said Sriparna Pathak, associate professor of China studies at the O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana, India.

China has set up civilian-police integrated units in sensitive border areas of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Tibet Autonomous Region, both in the far western part of the country. The units comprise civilians, policemen, militiamen and government officials working with People’s Liberation Army soldiers to ensure security.

“China’s efforts to rope in delivery riders for surveillance is in line with the effort to further consolidate its grip in Tibet,” said Kalpit Mankikar, an expert at the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation. 

Hiring Meituan delivery workers for surveillance also signals a link between the Chinese government and private enterprises, showing how the government drafts companies to fulfill certain national objectives, Mankikar said.

Three: Crackdown on social media use among Tibetans. 

In the past, Tibetans could sign up for social media with only a phone number. 

But at the end of July, the government announced that social media users had to re-open their accounts and provide personal details, the sources said.

Re-registering involves providing a password connected to one’s personal cell phone or identity card that is accessible to the government, one of the Tibetans said.   

“If you do not have proper social media account registration, you will receive a summons from the government to re-register, and your phone will be examined,” one of the sources said. 

Authorities also began stopping individual Tibetans in Lhasa to check for use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, that allow users to get around China’s internet restrictions, often dubbed “China’s Great Firewall,” two sources from inside Tibet said.

In early August, authorities in Lhasa arrested three people for using a VPN but released them with an administrative punishment, the Municipal Public Security Bureau said on its website. 

The government said the latest measure was meant to protect personal data information, properly manage internet society and prevent telecommunication network fraud. 

Lhasa police said Tuesday that it was inspecting the entire internet network and city streets for two days and nights to ensure public safety and security. 

This comes on top of authorities’ strict monitoring of Tibetans’ use of social media, including Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. 

Authorities have banned Tibetans from using the Tibetan language on social media sites – part of an effort to undermine their language and assimilate into Chinese culture.

Additional reporting by Dickey Kundol, Tenzin Dickyi and Yangdon for RFA Tibetan. Written and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

Authorities also are prohibiting Tibetans in Sichuan province and elsewhere from organizing and participating in prayer sessions online, said the sources who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. 

The measures come as Beijing intensifies efforts to assimilate Tibetans and adapt Tibetan Buddhism so that its tenets and practices conform with the ideology of China’s Communist Party.

While authorities have demolished religious objects and structures at times at Buddhist monasteries in Tibet, this is the first instance of religious symbols at ordinary people’s homes being destroyed.

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Since the beginning of July, Chinese authorities have conducted searches of all homes in at least four villages in Ngaba county, said the sources, one of whom lives in exile and the other who is inside Tibet.

They are forcing Tibetans to remove prayer flags hoisted on rooftops and to destroy religious objects, said the source from inside Tibet.

Among the objects being dismantled are concrete structures resembling chimneys outside homes where Tibetans perform Sang-sol, or incense offerings, to mark important religious and personal events in their lives, he said.

While authorities have not publicly disclosed the reason for their actions, Tibetans expect similar inspections in neighboring Tibetan areas, both sources said. 

No online prayer sessions

Tibetans in Sichuan province and elsewhere are also prohibited from organizing any religious prayer sessions online in their social media messaging groups or chat groups, one of the sources said.

“Individuals who have initiated these prayer sessions have been summoned for interrogations by Chinese authorities,” he said.

China has continued to restrict and control Tibetan religious practices and shown no willingness to resume formal negotiations about greater autonomy for the region with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, according to the most recent annual report by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Beijing also bans Tibetans from observing significant cultural, religious and historical events such as Tibetan National Uprising Day and the Dalai Lama’s birthday. 

But Tibetans have defied these prohibitions, despite possible severe consequences.

During the Dalai Lama’s birthday on July 6, monks from monasteries in the Ngaba area were confined to their compounds under police presence to enforce such restrictions, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

With the birthday of Kirti Rinpoche, the head of Ngaba’s Kirti Monastery, approaching in August, Chinese authorities have already implemented online restrictions and threatened Tibetans against posting any photos or well wishes, said the second source.

In March, Chinese police arrested Pema, a Tibetan monk from Kirti Monastery for staging a solo protest while holding a portrait of the Dalai Lama on the streets of Ngaba county.

Pema, who was working as a teacher for the preliminary Buddhist study section at the monastery, also shouted slogans against Chinese policies in Tibet during his protest and was immediately arrested. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar for RFA Tibetan.

“It was there that I truly understood the significance of Tibetan language and identity,” Tenzin Woeser, a Tibetan songwriter who attended the school in the 1990s, told RFA.

So it was with tears in their eyes that students marked the last graduation Gangjong Sherig would ever hold after Chinese authorities closed the school this month, making it one of a growing list of Tibetan educational institutions that have shut. School founder and principal Ragya Jigme Gyaltsen said the Qinghai Provincial Communist Party had determined the institution did not meet its standards of instruction.

Chances are that the students who went or would have gone to Gangjong Sherig will now be sent to a Chinese-run boarding school that minimizes instruction in Tibetan in favor of a Mandarin-heavy curriculum that promotes party loyalty. The story of how Tibetans are educated has attracted international concern and reflects a tension between cultural preservation and national integration.

What is China’s education policy?

Tibetan students in the first half of the century were typically educated at home or in the hundreds of monasteries that dominated Tibetan culture and traditions. Some Tibetan children still attend schools where the medium of instruction is Tibetan. 

But the vast majority are thought to now go to schools where the lessons are in Mandarin, with Tibetan courses limited to a single language class. 

The Gangjong Sherig Norbu School is one of dozens of Tibetan institutions that have closed in recent years. Others include the Sengdruk Taktse School in Amdo Golog, Qinghai province, and the Drago Monastery in Kham Karze, Sichuan province. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the number of non-Tibetan-speaking teachers jumped in areas with ethnic Tibetan students. One goal, according to the report, appears to be to quiet restive regions through assimilation with the majority Han culture.

Visitors say young children who attend Chinese boarding schools are unable to easily communicate with older relatives who grew up studying Tibetan, creating a generational rift and worries about the loss of a unique Tibetan identity.

What do other governments think about China’s boarding schools?

China has come under increasing international criticism for its educational policies both in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in Tibetan areas in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan. 

A panel of experts advising the United Nations human rights office said as many as 1 million Tibetan students now attend boarding schools and risk an “erosion of their identity.” 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in August 2023 that China’s “coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans.” 

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What’s China’s response to the criticism?

China bristles at the complaints. Officials note that much of the Tibetan population remains scattered, leaving boarding schools as the only effective way of ensuring students have access to quality teachers and educational resources.

Beijing says Tibetans aren’t forced to attend and many also include instruction in Tibetan language and history.  

Officials also point to figures that show the number of Tibetans who can read and write (in Mandarin or another language) has increased dramatically, although official statistics are hard to verify and other surveys show varying literacy rates.

What are the concerns about Chinese-run boarding schools for Tibetans?

Gyal Lo, a Tibetan activist and sociologist who studied the boarding school system in China before fleeing into exile in Canada, told RFA that the schools serve to sinicize Tibetans, including children as young as 4-years-old. 

At that age, it’s easy to overwhelm the Tibetan language the students use at home with the Mandarin instruction they are bombarded with every day in school. Attendance is compulsory in everything but name, as families that don’t send their children to the schools may be cut off from government benefits or job opportunities, he has said.

“The Chinese government has repeatedly tried to convert Tibetans into Chinese by eliminating the Tibetan way of life and identity. Now they are educating the youngest members of society to eradicate Tibetan identity,” Gyal Lo said. “This is the most dangerous policy.”

Edited by Jim Snyder and Boer Deng.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek for RFA Investigative.

The Dalaia Lama, who turns 89 on July 6, has experienced health problems for years. His knee issues required medical attention outside northern India where he has lived in exile for 65 years following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

The Nobel Prize winner enjoys strong support in the United States, especially among prominent lawmakers who have spoken out about human rights issues in Tibet, despite objections by China which views him as a separatist and bristles at his interactions with foreign officials.

“After the surgery, he returned to his room in the hospital in a very stable condition and has already had his lunch,” said Dr. Tsetan Dorjee Sadutshang, who gave a video briefing on the Dalai Lama’s condition just hours after his operation Friday at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery, a top medical facility for musculoskeletal health.

The operation began in the early morning amid mass prayers and religious rituals by Tibetans worldwide, including those inside Tibet, for the Dalai Lama’s successful surgery and swift recovery.

“The entire team looking after His Holiness at the hospital has been very supportive and caring,” said Sadutshang, who was accompanied by Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lama’s secretary, at the briefing. 

The treatment was successful, and the surgery ended around 7:30 a.m., said another source with knowledge of the matter. 

The Dalai Lama arrived in New York on June 23, marking his first visit to the United States in over seven years and his first overseas trip since November 2018. 

Tibetans across Tibet have been offering prayers for his well-being ever since news of his U.S. visit reached people in various corners of the region and in Tibetan-populated areas of China’s western provinces, Tibetan sources said.

In Lhasa, Tibetans offered prayers at the Jokhang Temple, Ramoche Temple and other monasteries on Friday, as China tightened security at religious sites amid news of widespread prayer by Tibetans inside Tibet for the Dalai Lama’s successful surgery, the sources said. 

Tibetans worldwide also took to social media to express their joy and gratitude. 

“Thank you so much for the updates, Doctor. Wishing His Holiness the Dalai Lama a speedy recovery,” wrote one Tibetan netizen, commenting on the press briefing video posted on YouTube.

Another wrote: “Thank you, USA medical team. This is really good news for us.” 

The Dalai Lama’s trip to the U.S. comes in the wake of the passage of a bill in the U.S. Congress urging Beijing to re-engage with him and other Tibetan leaders to peacefully resolve their dispute over the status and governance of Tibet.

Translated by RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Paul Eckert.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

The Saga Dawa festival occurs during the fourth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar and runs from May 9 to June 6 this year. 

For Tibetan Buddhists, it marks the period of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana — the state entered after death by someone who has attained nirvana during their lifetime.

During the holy month, thousands of religious pilgrims visit temples and walk sacred kora routes around Lingkhor and Barkhor streets in Lhasa, encircling the revered Jokhang Temple. 

The ritual kora — making a circumambulation around sacred sites or objects as part of a pilgrimage — holds immense significance for Tibetan Buddhists who believe that virtuous deeds performed during Saga Dawa are magnified based on their location.

A video obtained by Radio Free Asia showed heavy police presence surrounding the Barkhor area — the heart of the capital with its famed pilgrimage circuit — on May 22, the eve of the 15th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan Lunar calendar, considered one of the holiest days during Saga Dawa. 

Since the start of Saga Dawa, Chinese police have tightened security around key religious sites, including Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, and the Barkhor area, the sources told RFA.

The measures illustrate the deterioration of religious freedom in Tibet under the Chinese government’s suppression and Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism — a policy that seeks to bring the religion under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

Police everywhere

While devotees were seen on pilgrimage on the other days of Saga Dawa, the 15th day on May 23 saw heightened restrictions, with police stationed along the pathways leading to the Sera, Gandhen and Drepung monasteries, said the sources who declined to be named out of fear of retribution by authorities.

“There isn’t any place where you don’t see police and interrogation stations,” one of the sources told RFA. 

The Chinese government has increased the number of police checkpoints in and around Lhasa, and authorities have been interrogating Tibetans spontaneously, the person said. 

Individuals who do not have a shenfenzhang, or Chinese resident identity card, are prohibited from visiting temples, leading to the heightened restrictions now in effect, said a second source. 

“During our visits to circumambulate the holy sites, Chinese police regularly inspect everyone's identity cards and engage in arguments,” said a third source. 

“Having to engage in disputes with the Chinese police takes an emotional toll on us, and this is one of the reasons why many are afraid of engaging in religious activities as often as they’d like,” he said.

Facial recognition technology is pervasive at key pilgrimage sites and authorities regularly frisk Tibetans making pilgrimages, said a fourth source.

Flag-raising festival

Additionally, during the Ngari Flag Raising Festival in Purang county, called Pulan in Chinese, of Ngari Prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, ​​Chinese authorities increased security  as people gathered on May 23 for the annual ceremony, and banned the use of drones during the event, according to the sources. 

The annual tradition of hoisting a large central prayer flag pole in front of Mount Kailash in Tibet began in 1681 during the time of the 5th Dalai Lama.

In a government notice dated May 16, the Pulan County Public Security Bureau in Talqin said the use of drones and other aircraft during the Saga Dawa flag raising festival was prohibited and that violators would be punished. 

Tibetans who attended the event were subjected to extensive questioning and coerced into agreeing to uphold social order and refraining from causing discord, said one of the sources.

Police instructed people not to share photos or videos of the festival on social media, he said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Sonam Lhamo for RFA Tibetan.

They had made a living raising yaks and other livestock and engaging in sustainable farming in Damxung county, located two hours away by road from Lhasa, until they and others were forced to move to Lhasa’s Kuro Bridge area, promised “improved living conditions” by Chinese authorities.

But in reality, they have faced joblessness, economic hardship and social exclusion ever since.

“All our farmlands in Damxung were confiscated by the government under the guise of development projects,” said Tashi, whose name has been changed for safety reasons. “Having grown up in the village without any education, it is extremely difficult for us to find jobs and make a living in the city.”

Their story exemplifies the forced relocation of more than 700,000 Tibetans since 2016 in the Tibetan Autonomous Region under supposed poverty-reduction measures, according to a 71-page report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.

Of that total number uprooted, 567,000 people lived scattered across the region and another 140,000 people lived in 500 villages.

The report,“‘Educate the Masses to Change their Minds’: China’s Coercive Relocation of Rural Tibetans,” is based on information from over 1,000 official Chinese media articles between 2016 and 2023, government publications and academic field studies.

Threats and harassment

According to official press reports, local officials used coercion and other extreme forms of persuasion to pressure villagers and nomads to agree to relocation. They claimed the moves were voluntary and would improve livelihoods and protect the environment.

Their tactics included repeated home visits, disparaging the villagers’ intellectual capacity to make decisions, implicit threats of punishment and the cutoff of essential services such as electricity and water. 

The officials also provided misleading information that said the moves would offer employment opportunities and higher incomes, the report said.

“The Chinese government says that the relocation of Tibetan villages is voluntary, but official media reports contradict this claim,” Maya Wang, HRW’s acting China director, said in a statement.

“Those reports make clear that when a whole village is targeted for relocation, it is practically impossible for the residents to refuse to move without facing serious repercussions.”

The human rights group urged Beijing to suspend relocations in Tibet and conform with Chinese laws and standards and international law concerning relocations and forced evictions.

Senior authorities put pressure on local officials to carry out the relocations as non-negotiable policies, threatening disciplinary action against local officials who failed to meet targets, the report said.

Labeled separatists

Tashi, who was forcibly moved to Lhasa, said he told Chinese officials they didn’t want to move. “But Chinese authorities accused us of disobeying national orders and labeled us as separatists,” he said.

Many like Tashi were forced to sell their herd in a hurry after the Chinese government ordered the relocations.

“The order to relocate came so suddenly and we couldn’t disobey, [so] we had to sell our herds in a rush, leaving us with nothing,” a Tibetan nomad told Radio Free Asia. “Ever since we moved to Lhasa, we have never been happy.”

He said that the houses provided by the Chinese government are very small and crowded, with large families of 10 or so members living in only two to three rooms, forcing some to sleep in tents on verandas, he said. 

When the relocated Tibetans sought jobs in restaurants, they were told they were not hygienic enough, he said. 

“Self-employment is out of reach, and we can’t even get cleaning jobs in restaurants,” he added.

Rooted to the land

Elaine Pearson, director of HRW’s Asia Division, told RFA that relocations have occurred both across the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas in Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. 

“It’s important to note that forced relocations do happen across China, and they aren’t unique to Tibet,” she said. 

“Tibetans have a particular connection with the land and their livelihoods, and they lose that connection if they are forced to move,” she added.

The Chinese government says relocations are poverty alleviation measures and that the new locations are ecologically sound, so that affected Tibetans can improve their livelihoods by relocating, Pearson said.

“But in reality, that hasn’t been the case because many of the people are pastoralists, and they live off the land, but when they move to more urban-like areas, the work options are different [and] they would need to speak Chinese rather than Tibetan,” she added. 

Pearson also said the United Nations should be pushing for unfettered access to Tibetan regions, which has not occurred for many years.

The rights group wants the U.N. Human Rights Council to set up an independent investigation into human rights violations across China, including these violations in Tibet, she said. 

“China’s coercive mass displacement of Tibetans destroys the Tibetan way of life and culture under the misleading policy labels of ‘poverty alleviation’ and ‘ecology protection,’” said Tencho Gyatso, president of Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.

Tibetans have lived on the Tibetan Plateau for thousands of years and have adapted genetically and socially to how best to live and protect the high-altitude environment. 

“China’s reckless relocation policy and programs are pulling apart Tibetan society, its ancient culture and its environmental best practices,” Gyatso said.

Additional reporting by Tashi Wangchuk, Tenzin Pema and Dolma Lhamo for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Tenzin Pema of RFA Tibetan and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tenzin Dickyi, Lobsang, Dorjee Damdul and Pelbar for RFA Tibetan.

Area officials are also preventing the Tibetans from petitioning higher authorities in Chamdo, a city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, for fair compensation for their land, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

County officials have misled higher-ranking officials in Chamdo and in Tibet’s capital Lhasa into thinking that the protest by Tibetan residents was political in nature, rather than an appeal against the land grab, said the first source.

“[They] have used that as an excuse to organize a series of political education sessions in the area,” he said.  

In early April, 25 Tibetan families from Taktsa village in Markham county learned their land had been sold without their knowledge to businessmen by county officials, when the new owners sent people to clear it.

Four Tibetans were arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab and later released on April 16, but they were beaten while in detention.

Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces often ignore residents’ concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, who routinely rely on force to subdue those who complain or protest, according to human rights groups.

Rejecting low compensation

In April, the Tibetans rejected 3,000 yuan (US$415) in individual compensation that was belatedly offered to them by Chinese authorities, saying the amount was too low for the pasture land that had been sold by Chinese county officials to businessmen in 2023. 

Since then, the Tibetans have had to attend a series of political education sessions, with more than 30 Chinese county officials from various departments visiting the area over the past month, said the two sources. 

Chinese authorities in Markham county also announced a reward for information that could help them identify an individual who shared news of the land grab protest with outside parties, the sources said.

“This is the first time we have seen such rigorous political education sessions and monitoring in the area, with so many levels of officials visiting the place to conduct group political education sessions and going door-to-door,” said the second source.

On April 16, the Luoni Township Party Committee, where the village is located, organized a Chinese Communist Party discipline study and political education meeting with over 30 Chinese officials. They included members of the township party committee, all party members of directly affiliated branches, at-home cadres, temple management committees, police stations, health centers and school administrators. 

“Following the meeting, members of the Chinese Working Affairs Committee visited each family in their homes to provide political education,” the second source said. 

They told the Tibetans that the Chinese government would address any problems they faced, but that they couldn’t share information with people living outside Tibet because it would compromise national dignity and reflect poorly on the Chinese Communist Party, thereby constituting a criminal act, the second source said.

Police monitoring

Since the protest, around 10 policemen have been deployed to patrol the area day and night to monitor the Tibetans’ activities, the sources said. 

“Instead of addressing the core problem, Chinese authorities are using political maneuvers and have prevented local Tibetans from appealing their case in Chamdo,” said the first source.  

The first source said the land taken from the Tibetans is 1.5 kilometers (one mile) long and covers an area of 1 square kilometer (0.4 square miles), and is worth about 5 million yuan, or US$692,000. 

Officials told the residents to accept their offer of 3,000 Chinese yuan each without protest or face imprisonment for noncompliance.

The Chinese police and Markham county officials are now threatening the Tibetans by labeling the protests as political in nature and intimidating locals about likely consequences, given that protests of a political nature amount to a criminal offense, the sources said. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang and Dorjee Damdul for RFA Tibetan.

On April 30, Tibetans across the Tibet Autonomous Region, in northern India as well as in Chinese provinces where Tibetans live participated in competitions, festivals and displays of calligraphy to mark the day on April 30, sources told Radio Free Asia.

The Tibetan Language Preservation Committee, a group based in Gangtok in northern India that is dedicated to preserving the Tibetan language, observed the day by organizing a calligraphy competition. 

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama has consistently urged Tibetans in exile to safeguard and preserve our invaluable Tibetan language,” said Tenzin Tsephel, president of the Gangtok Regional Tibetan Youth Congress.

Tibetans throughout Tibet shared their writings and opinions on Tibetan calligraphy and the significance of the Tibetan language on social media platforms. 

Several monasteries and educational institutions in Tibet and in Tibetan-populated areas of China organized events to commemorate the day. Over 300 participants gathered in Barkham county of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Sichuan province.

Videos posted on social media showed Buddhist monks in crimson robes who gathered with brushes, ink and paper to display their writing skills at the Tsangkor Sholma-gon Pel Ngedhon Tashi Choekorling Monastery in Qinghai province on April 30.

The Labrang Calligraphy Association in Sangchu county of Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province also organized calligraphy exhibitions in all county schools.

Banning Tibetan

Since 2020, the Chinese government has tightened its restrictions on the use and study of Tibetan, closing private Tibetan schools in Tibet and intensifying Chinese-language education in the schools in the name of promoting uniformity in the use of textbooks and instructional materials.

Just recently, authorities banned students in schools in a Tibetan-populated area in China’s Sichuan province from speaking their native language, following a similar case in another part of the province.

Tibetan Calligraphy Day began in 2017 following a Tibetan calligraphy conference held at Qinghai Nationalities University in western China. 

The significance of the date – April 30 – lies in its numerical representation: The number four symbolizes the number of vowels in the Tibetan alphabet, while 30 represents the number of consonants.

Given the importance of Buddhism to Tibetans, many traditions in Tibetan calligraphy come from religious texts written by monks in monasteries.

Despite the absence of a dedicated Tibetan school for children in Gangtok, a youth congress there began a Sunday school program in 2018 to teach children how to read and write Tibetan.

The day is more than just commemorating Tibetan calligraphy and hosting writing competitions, said Tsering Dhondup, a volunteer Tibetan teacher at the Sunday school. 

“We must also consider Tibetan alphabets, vowels and the Tibetan language as a whole, given its vast richness in representing Tibet,” he told Radio Free Asia.

Preserving a culture

Pema Tsultrim, a renowned Tibetan calligrapher based in Tibet, organized the Pema Golden Pen Competition in Chengdu, attracting about 100 Tibetan calligraphy experts, historians and writers from across Tibet who discussed the significance of Tibetan calligraphy.

He said the contest aimed to preserve the rich heritage of Tibetan calligraphy and to provide participants with a platform to display their talent.

Among the more than 1,200 calligraphy submissions from Tibetans various regions of Tibet, Dhondup Norbu, a resident of Lhasa, was chosen as the contest winner. 

“Calligraphy holds significant importance in preserving Tibet’s unique traditions,” said Geshe Lobsang Monlam, a Buddhist scholar, lexicologist and leading innovator of Tibetan information technology. 

​​“Through various calligraphy styles, we can understand writings that date back over 1,000 years,” he said. “Despite the presence of numerous dialects within Tibet, our ability to communicate and understand one another is facilitated by these Tibetan calligraphies.”

The day was observed in Tibetan communities around the world.

The Latse Project, a U.S.-based volunteer nonprofit group that promotes Tibetan language use and literacy, along with the Center for South Asia and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison held an event on Tibetan calligraphic arts on April 26-27.

In 2018, The Latse Project organized the first Tibetan Calligraphy Day to be held outside Tibet in New York City, and held subsequent calligraphy exhibits in Paris, France, and at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar, Pasang Tsering and Dolma Lhamo for RFA Tibetan.

Four Tibetans who had been arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, were released, but said they had been beaten while in detention, a source told RFA Tibetan on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“The four of them were released on April 16 but they were beaten and tortured during detention, and one of them even has a swollen cheek,” the source said.

Since the protest, about 10 policemen have been deployed to patrol the area day and night, where they closely monitor all activities of the people, sources said. 

It’s the latest example of land taken by Chinese authorities in Tibet and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces for mining, farming or other use. Local officials routinely use force to subdue those who complain or protest.

Earlier this month, about 25 families were shocked when a Chinese businessman came to clear their land. They were told their land had been sold without their knowledge or any compensation.

After they protested, Chinese officials agreed to pay each family 3,000 yuan, or about US$415, each.

The resident said that the affected families must accept the compensation without protest, and it cannot be negotiated because the amount has been decided by higher authorities.

Other residents said that those who do not comply with the government’s instructions on the matter could face imprisonment.

Authorities conveyed the details of the compensation plan at a meeting on April 16, requiring at least one representative of each of the affected families to attend.

“The people were unhappy about the compensation and rejected the low figure,” said the first source, who explained that the pasture land is being dug out to clear all remaining grass.

Attendees were not allowed to bring their phones to the meeting, where authorities warned the families that it was forbidden to leak any information outside the country and reprimanded them for committing the “crime” of spreading news about the land grab and protesting it.

“They were told that internal problems can only be solved internally,” a second resident said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

“But if this information had not been widely reported, there wouldn’t have been any talk of compensation, let alone the release of the four young men who were arrested and detained.”

Additional reporting by Dolma Lhamo and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang and Dorjee Damdul for RFA Tibetan.

Jetsun Pema, 84, received the Pearl S. Buck Award, with a medallion and a cash prize of US$25,000, from Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Thursday.

Pema, revered by Tibetans as “Amala,” or “Respected Mother,” has built one of the most successful Tibetan educational institutions abroad — the Tibetan Children's Villages, or TCV. The nonprofit organization cares for and educates orphaned, destitute and refugee children from Tibet. Its main facility is in Dharamsala in northern India. 

She is the first Tibetan to receive the award given to women who exemplify the ideals, values and commitments of writer and novelist Pearl S. Buck, the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and a champion of women’s and children’s rights. 

“We had some amazing nominations, and when the nominations for Jetsun Pema came through, it just felt like this is [someone] who exemplifies Pearl Buck and her commitments to people of Asia and the children, and her commitment to education,” college president Sue Ott Rowlands told Radio Free Asia.

Pema was also the first woman elected to a ministerial post in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, serving as minister for education.

Officially recognized by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile as the “Mother of Tibet,” Pema worked at TCV for over five decades.

She served as president of TCV from 1964 to 2006 and was instrumental in leading the expansion of schools across India and in caring for and educating over 53,000 Tibetan children who had escaped Tibet and were separated from their families, or who were orphaned or from underprivileged families.

After she retired in August 2006, Pema continued to work on various children’s education projects, including the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education in Bangalore, India.

“This award acknowledges the efforts of not only myself but everyone who has contributed to this cause, starting from my late elder sister along with many others who have dedicated their lives to the education of Tibetan children,” Pema told RFA Tibetan in an interview. 

Illustrious list

Previous award winners include former Irish President Mary Robinson, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former First Lady of Egypt Jehan Sadat, former Philippines President Corazon Aquino, U.S. architect, designer and sculptor Maya Lin, and American author Maxine Hong Kingston.

Pema said she would donate her award money to TCV.

“The education we have given to our young people has benefited them greatly and has empowered them … and that is encouraging,” Pema said, addressing a gathering of several hundred people, including former students and Tibetans who had traveled from other parts of the country to be at the award ceremony.

At the event, Pema spoke about the mandate she received from the Dalai Lama to ensure Tibetan children received a good education and care when she took over the work initiated by her late sister, Tsering Dolma Takla. 

Takla, the elder sister of the Dalai Lama, first volunteered in May 1960 to care for over 50 Tibetan children whose parents were working in road construction camps in north India, creating a nursery home for them, which later expanded into a series of over 15 TCV schools across India under Pema’s leadership.

Pema has received several global honors, including the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child in Sweden in 2006, the Maria Montessori Award in Italy in 2010, and a UNESCO Medal in 1999. 

She also received the esteemed Nari Shakti Puraskar award in 2018 from the Indian government, which recognizes women or institutions dedicated to advancing women’s empowerment. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi with additional reporting by Passang Dhonden for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dorjee Damdul for RFA Tibetan.

On April 10, residents of Taktsa village in Luonixiang rural township in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, clashed with authorities after they appealed against the land grab and demanded compensation, said the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

In 2023, a Chinese county official illegally sold the pasture land to businessmen without the knowledge of locals and without providing them any compensation, the sources said. 

The Tibetans had no knowledge that their land had been seized illegally until this April when the businessmen sent people to clear it. The Tibetans then confronted authorities, demanding payment.

Police arrested and detained four of the Tibetans, and slapped and beat many others at the scene, said one of the sources. 

There were no immediate details about the status of the four or the charges against them, and it is not clear for what purpose the seized land will be used. 

Despite repeated attempts, RFA did not receive any immediate response to calls to Markham county authorities and the local police station. 

Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces often ignore residents’ concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, who routinely rely on force to subdue those who complain or protest, according to human rights groups.

Over the past few years, there have been several reports of similar land grabs that have taken place in Chamdo, a resource-rich area in eastern Tibet. 

Most of the land grabs have been related to mining, including copper, gold and lithium, and development projects that China has undertaken in the areas. In some cases, Tibetans have been forced from their homes.

Thumbs up

Videos obtained by RFA show over a dozen Tibetans pleading before Chinese police as they raised both their thumbs up — a Tibetan gesture of a request to show mercy. 

The gesture was also seen being made by Buddhist monks and Tibetans residents during February protests in Dege county, southwestern China’s Sichuan province, in an appeal to Chinese officials to stop a planned dam project on the Drichu River.

In the videos from Markham county, young and elderly Tibetans kneel before police clad in black, and wail, while others pull and tug at the authorities to heed their pleas.

The land in question is used by about 25 Tibetan families to graze their animals and for recreation purposes, the sources said. 

Chinese authorities have arrested the official who had colluded with the businessmen to illegally seize the land without compensating the Tibetans, charging him with corruption, said one of the sources. 

Now, the residents are demanding compensation for the land that had been occupied, he added.

Chinese police have forbidden the Tibetans from sharing information about the incident with people outside China, the sources said. 

Translated by Dolma Lhamo and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang and Dorjee Damdul for RFA Tibetan.

The wildfire that broke out in March in Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, forced 3,000 people from the traditional Kham region of Tibet to evacuate the area and burned down several houses. No human casualties have been reported. 

But the fire destroyed about one-sixth of the county’s matsutake output, Chen Wen, director of the Yajiang Matsutake Industrial Park, told Chinese media.

The mushrooms, which Tibetans gather to supplement their income and others use in dishes in Japan, South Korea and China, may not grow again in the burned area for at least 20 years, he said.

China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of matsutake mushrooms, exporting US$30.3 million in 2022, while Japan is the top importer, bringing in US$24.7 million that year.

The primary places where the mushrooms grow in China are within the Tibetan plateau, including in Nyagchu county, which accounted for more than 12% of China’s annual output, according to the Yajiang County Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Science and Technology Bureau. 

Demanding and lucrative

Many families in Nyagchu — where Tibetans make up the majority of the county’s population of over 51,000 — have for years braved the frigid mountain air to forage for the elusive mushrooms during the traditional harvest season between July and September. 

Foraging matsutake is a demanding if lucrative job with harvesters often spending weeks at high altitudes in harsh weather conditions to search for the mushrooms, said an area resident. Some varieties are rare and require meticulous searching, while others grow underground and require careful removal, he said.

“In one day, you can make more than 2,000 yuan (US$300) during the harvesting season,” said a source inside Tibet who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Residents believe that the impact of the fire may force some Tibetans to abandon matsutake harvesting and seek alternative sources of income in other areas.

But at a recent press conference on the impact of the wildfire, Sichuan provincial representatives did not mention the disaster’s potential effects on the livelihoods of Tibetans who rely on matsutake harvesting.

The fire also damaged the local ecosystem, killing birds and insects that play a role in the growth of the mushrooms, said an area resident, adding that the long-term ecological consequences of the blaze remain unclear.

“Nyagchu is renowned for its abundance of naturally grown matsutake, and the harvest is a crucial source of income for many Tibetan families in the county,” said Washington-based Tsering Palden, a native of Nyagchu, who has sold the mushrooms in the past. 

Palden estimates that area households earn about 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) annually from selling the mushrooms.

‘Oak mushrooms’

In Tibet, matsutake mushrooms are most commonly referred to as “oak mushrooms,” or beshing shamo and besha for short in Tibetan, in a nod to their symbiotic relationship with evergreen oak trees in Tibet. 

In his 2022 book “What a Mushroom Lives for: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make,” Michael Hathaway, professor of anthropology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, describes how Tibetan villagers in Yunan province hunt for them.

The villagers gather the mushrooms in the morning and return home when dealers arrive at a market or drive along the roads, buying them as they go, he writes. The dealers then sell their matsutake to other dealers, who arrange for them to be shipped across China and to Japan and South Korea.

The price of matsutake mushrooms had jumped over the past 40 years from the equivalent of about US$1 per pound (2.2 kg) in 1985 to US$70 per pound, according to Beijing-based Tibetan writer and poet Tsering Woeser.

The mushrooms have specific environmental requirements for growth and thrive in undisturbed, high-altitude forests with the right balance of sunlight and moisture, said the source inside Tibet.

“The fire has disrupted these conditions and may take years for the ecosystem to recover sufficiently to support matsutake growth,” he added. 

Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tenzin Pema, Dorjee Damdul and Sonam Lhamo for RFA Tibetan.

The fire, which began on the evening of March 15 on the slopes of a mountain near Petse village, forced Tibetans from about a dozen villages in three areas of Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, to leave their homes.

The county lies in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Kham region of eastern Tibet. Tibetans made up the majority of the county’s total population of over 51,000, according to 2020 census data. 

The cause of the fire, which quickly spread to multiple mountain ridges due to strong winds on March 16, is still unknown, sources told Radio Free Asia. 

One of three main sections of the fire has been extinguished, China Daily reported Monday.  

But more than 11 Tibetan villages at the foot of the mountains are still in danger as the wildfire continues to spread rapidly across the area covered mostly by pine trees, while residents are being evacuated, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

Although the fire burned down several houses in nearby communities and harmed animals on the mountains, no human casualties have been reported, said two sources inside the country and a third from the exile community with knowledge of the situation.

Firefighters arrived at the scene on Sunday, said the first source from inside Tibet. That same day, the Ministry of Emergency Management declared a Level-4 emergency response.  

Firefighters dispatched

Chinese state media reported that more than 1,200 firefighters and eight helicopters had been dispatched to fight the fire, with a reinforcement of 750 more firefighters expected from neighboring Yunnan province, according to Chinese media. 

The Jamyang Choekhorling Monastery, founded by popular Tibetan religious leader and activist Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, as well as the Pamo Monastery near Paomo Mountain, are located close to an area where the fire is spreading rapidly, the sources said.

The fire also has burned to the ground about 30 houses in the nearby villages, said the second source from inside Tibet. 

“The fire is spreading very fast because of the direction of the wind,” he told RFA. “If we put it out in one area, it starts in another.”

Firefighters, local Chinese authorities and Tibetan residents are all working to stem the spread of the fire and to ensure minimum damage to homes, monasteries and animals, he added.  

Chinese authorities have warned Tibetans not to share photos or videos of the fire on social media platforms or with contacts abroad, or face arrest, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

State media reported that authorities temporarily closed a highway passing through the region and that communication with a hydroelectric station has been interrupted. 

Written by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Lhuboom for RFA Tibetan.

If built, the Gangtuo Dam power station on the Drichu River could submerge several monasteries in Dege’s county’s Wangbuding township and force residents of at least two villages near the river to relocate, sources earlier told RFA. 

“Chinese officials have held meetings in the Wonto village area where they ordered local Tibetans to comply with the government’s plans and regulations and called for the leaders of the local monasteries to mobilize the locals to toe the party line,” said one source who hails from Dege and now lives in exile. 

On Feb. 25, Dege County Party Secretary Baima Zhaxi visited Wangbuding and neighboring townships to meet with Buddhist monastic leaders and village administrators, during which he called for “stability” and urged residents to comply with regulations or else be “dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations,” according to a local news report.

“As the stability maintenance period in March and the national Two Sessions approach, we must implement detailed stability maintenance measures to promote continued harmony and stability in the jurisdiction,” Zhaxi was quoted in the report as saying. 

The Two Sessions refers to China's annual meetings of the National People's Congress and of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, being held this week in Beijing.

“We must continue to carry out the investigation and resolution of conflicts, risks and hidden dangers, and effectively resolve conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level, and nip them in the bud,” Zhaxi said.

Zhaxi’s visit comes ahead of Tibetan Uprising Day on March 10, a politically sensitive date that commemorates the thousands of Tibetans who died in a 1959 uprising against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland, and the flight of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in northern India.

Keep building

Zhaxi also visited the dam construction site and told the leaders of the coordination team to adhere to their work orders and make arrangements for “the next step of work,” according to a local Chinese government announcement.

Zhaxi told residents about “the great significance and necessity of the construction of hydropower stations” and indicated that the government would “protect the legitimate interests of the masses to the greatest extent.”

“Abide by the law, express your demands in a legal, civilized and rational manner, and do not exceed the bottom line,” Zhaxi told locals during the on-site visit, according to the same news report. “Otherwise, you will be dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations.” 

On Feb. 23, police arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks and residents in the county in Sichuan’s Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, who had been protesting the construction of the dam, meant to generate electricity.

Authorities continue to heighten security restrictions in Dege county on the east bank of the Drichu River, called Jinsha in Chinese, and in Jomda county of Qamdo city in the Tibet Autonomous Region on the west bank of the river, said the sources who both live in exile and requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

Strict surveillance

Residents are forbidden from contacting anyone outside the area, the sources said. Chinese officials continue to impose strict digital surveillance and tight restrictions on movement in Wangbuding after rare video footage emerged from inside Tibet on Feb. 22 of Chinese police beating Tibetan monks, before arresting more than 100 of them, most of whom were from Wonto and Yena monasteries. 

Since then, authorities have carried out wide-scale rigorous interrogations of the arrested Tibetans, even as information from inside Tibet has been harder to come by amid a crackdown on the use of mobile phones and social media and messaging platforms to restrict communication with the outside world, sources said.

The protests began on Feb. 14, when at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside Dege County Town Hall to protest the building of the Gangtuo Dam, part of a massive 13-tier hydropower complex with a total planned capacity of 13,920 megawatts. 

Over the past two weeks, Tibetans in exile have been holding solidarity rallies in cities in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia and India.  

Global leaders and Tibetan advocacy groups have condemned China’s actions, calling for the immediate release of those detained. Last week, Chinese authorities released about 40 of the arrested monks on Feb. 26 and 27, RFA reported. 

Additional reporting and editing by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Kalden Lodoe for RFA Tibetan.

Similar solidarity rallies were held in London and other cities the same day.

The large Buddhist community in Ladakh – in Jammu and Kashmir – expressed concerns that the dam project will submerge several significant monasteries with ancient murals that date back to the 13th century. 

The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, which organized the march and rally, said Buddhists there were concerned about the humanitarian situation and the violation of cultural and religious rights stemming from the expected impact of the dam on several monasteries and villages near the Drichu River.

On Feb. 23, police arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks and residents, of Dege county in Sichuan’s Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, who had been protesting the construction of the Gangtuo Dam, meant to generate electricity.

If built, the power station could submerge monasteries in Dege’s Wangbuding township and force residents of at least two villages near the Drichu River to relocate, sources told RFA. 

Rigzin Dorjey, president of the youth wing of the Ladakh Buddhist Association Leh, said there is an urgent need to address the ongoing human rights abuses and environmental destruction perpetrated by China’s communist government. 

He underscored the interconnectedness of global Buddhist communities and the shared responsibility to stand in solidarity with Tibetans in their struggle for justice, freedom and dignity.

‘Collective commitment’

Lobsang Tsering, vice president of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of Ladakh, said the rally serves as “an expression of solidarity and support for Tibetans facing challenges and oppression in Dege county.”

“It symbolizes a collective commitment to standing up against oppression, promoting human rights and preserving Tibetan culture and identity in the face of adversity,” Tsering said. 

Tenzin Peldon, who participated in the march in Ladakh said while Tibetans everywhere usually gather to raise their voices against China on politically significant dates such as March 10, known as Tibetan Uprising Day – which commemorates the thousands of lives lost in the 1959 uprising against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland – it is crucial that they come together during dire situations like the one being faced by Tibetans in Dege to collectively speak up against China’s oppression. 

“I urge all Tibetans in exile not to give up hope and to continue to raise awareness on online platforms about the plight of Tibetans in Dege county,” she said. 

Other protests were held in Bir village and Clement town in India, and in London, where Tibetans demonstrated outside the Chinese Embassy to show their support for the Dege county protesters, demand the release of the detainees, and call for an immediate halt to the dam construction.

“Risking arrest and torture, Tibetan residents of Kham Derge [Dege county] have shared images and videos of the protest with the outside world,” the Tibetan Community UK said in a statement. “They want the international community in the free world to know about their plight and to raise their voice.”

Authorities released about 40 of the arrested monks on Feb. 26 and 27, RFA reported on Tuesday.

Chinese authorities released about 20 monks each on Monday and Tuesday, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. 

Also on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch called on Chinese authorities to immediately release the detained Tibetan monks.

“The Chinese authorities have long been hostile to public protests, but their response is especially brutal when the protests are by Tibetans and other ethnic groups,” said Maya Wang, the group’s acting China director, in a statement. 

“Other governments should press Beijing to free these protesters, who have been wrongfully detained for exercising their basic rights,” she said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Additional reporting by Pelbar for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Thinley Choedon for RFA Tibetan.

On Friday, RFA reported exclusively that police had arrested more than a 1,000 Tibetans — both Buddhist monks and local residents — of Wangbuding township in Dege County of Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, in central China.

The detainees were “slapped and beaten severely each time they refused to answer important questions,” one source told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity for personal safety. “Many had to be taken to the hospital.”

Since Feb. 14, monks and residents had been peacefully protesting the planned construction of the Gangtuo hydropower dam on the Drichu River, known as Jinsha River in Chinese.

The dam will force two major communities to be relocated and submerge several monasteries, including the Wonto Monastery, famous for ancient murals dating back to the 13th century.

“One of the monks from Wonto Monastery was among those who had to be immediately rushed to the hospital because he had been beaten so badly that he could not even speak,"

the first source said. "He also had many severe bruises on his body."

Detainees not given food

Many of those arrested were being held in a police station in Upper Wonto while many others were being held in an old prison in Dege County, sources told RFA.

The detainees are being held in various other places throughout Dege County as the police do not have a place to detain more than 1,000 individuals in a single location. 

“In these detention centers, the arrested Tibetans were not given any food, save for some hot water, and many passed out because of the lack of food amid the freezing temperatures,” the second source told RFA. 

On Friday, RFA learned that the arrested Tibetans were told to bring their own bedding and tsampa – a Tibetan staple — which sources said were an indication that the detainees would not be released anytime soon.

China has also imposed Covid 19-like restrictions in Dege County and deployed a large number of police to the areas where Tibetans have been detained, including in Upper Wonto, to bring the situation under control, the sources told RFA. 

“Each of the police units brought in from outside Dege have been tasked with controlling a community each and for carrying out strict surveillance and suppression of the people there,” a third source told RFA.

“In the communities of Wonto and Yena, people have been restricted from leaving their homes and the restrictions are so severe that it is similar to what happened during the Covid-19 outbreak when the entire place was under lockdown,” said the same source. 

Police began arresting the protesters on Thursday, Feb. 22. Citizen videos shared exclusively with RFA showed Chinese officials dressed in black forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out to stop the dam construction. 

Reactions

A Canadian foreign ministry spokesperson told RFA the government is closely monitoring the situation in Dege and said the detention of Tibetans was a matter of “grave concern.” 

“Canada remains deeply concerned about the human rights situation affecting Tibetans, including restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief, and the protection of linguistic and cultural rights,” said Geneviève Tremblay, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada.

“We urge Chinese authorities to immediately release all those (Tibetans) detained for exercising their rights to freedom of speech and of assembly,” she said.

Citing RFA’s report of the mass arrests, leaders of the Tibetan government-in-exile along with representatives of Tibet support groups from more than 42 countries issued a statement on Saturday expressing alarm.

“The crackdown on non-violent protests in Dege is beyond condemnation. The Chinese authorities’ disregard for the rights of Tibetans is unacceptable by any measure,” said Penpa Tsering, Sikyong or the President of the Central Tibetan Administration. 

“The punitive acts demonstrate China’s prioritization of its ideology and interests over human rights,” he said. “We call on the Chinese government to release all those detained and to respect the rights and aspirations of the Tibetan people.” 

Tibetans around the world continued to hold demonstrations in solidarity with the protesters, including in Dharamsala, India, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Over the past week, Tibetans have demonstrated in front of Chinese Consulates in New York, Toronto and Zurich. 

“I want to underscore how rare (it is that) we are able to have a little window into the situation in Tibet given the escalating control of information the Chinese government has imposed on Tibetan areas,” Maya Wang, Interim China Director, Human Rights Watch, told RFA by phone. 

“People who send information out and videos like this face imprisonment and torture.”

Additional reporting by Pelbar and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Malcolm Foster

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kalden Lodoe and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

The arrested individuals – both monks and local residents – are being held in various places throughout Dege county in Kardze Tibetan Prefecture because the police do not have a single place to detain them, said the sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

Those arrested have been forced to bring their own bedding and tsampa – a staple food for Tibetans that can be used to sustain themselves for long periods of time, the sources said.

“That police are asking Tibetans to bring their own tsampa and bedding is a sign that they will not be released anytime soon,” one of the sources said.

On Thursday, Feb. 22, Chinese authorities deployed specially trained armed police in Kardze’s Upper Wonto village region to arrest more than 100 Tibetan monks from Wonto and Yena monasteries along with local residents, many of whom were beaten and injured, and later admitted to Dege County Hospital for medical treatment, sources said.

Citizen videos from Thursday, shared exclusively with RFA, show Chinese officials in black uniforms forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out to stop the dam construction. 

Following news of the mass arrests, many Tibetans from Upper Wonto village who work in other parts of the country returned to their hometown and visited the detention centers to call for the release of the arrested Tibetans, sources said. They, too, were arrested. 

The Dege County Hospital did not immediately return RFA’s requests for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn’t commented on the arrests other than in a statement issued Thursday that said the country respects the rule of law.

“China protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals in accordance with the law," the statement said.

Massive dam project

The arrests followed days of protests and appeals by local Tibetans since Feb. 14 for China to stop the construction of the Gangtuo hydropower station.

RFA reported on Feb. 15 that at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside Dege County Town Hall to protest the building of the Gangtuo dam, which is part of a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu River with a total planned capacity 13,920 megawatts. 

The dam project is on the Drichu River, called Jinsha in Chinese, which is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, one of China’s most important waterways. 

Local Tibetans have been particularly distraught that the construction of the hydropower station will result in the forced resettlement of two villages – Upper Wonto and Shipa villages – and six key monasteries in the area  – Yena, Wonto, and Khardho in Wangbuding township in Dege county, and Rabten, Gonsar and Tashi in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, sources told RFA.

Sources on Friday also confirmed that some of the arrested monks with poor health conditions were allowed to return to their monasteries. 

However, the monasteries – which include Wonto Monastery, known for its ancient murals dating back to the 13th century – remained desolate on the eve of Chotrul Duchen, or the Day of Miracles, which is commemorated on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan New Year, or Losar, and marks the celebration of a series of miracles performed by the Buddha.

“In the past, monks of Wonto Monastery would traditionally preside over large prayer gatherings and carry out all the religious activities,” said one of the sources. “This time, the monasteries are quiet and empty. … It’s very sad to see such monasteries of historical importance being prepared for destruction. The situation is the same at Yena Monastery.” 

Protests elsewhere

Tibetans in exile have been holding mass demonstrations in various parts of the world, including in Dharamsala, India, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. 

In the past week, Tibetans have demonstrated before the Chinese embassies, including those in New York and Switzerland, with more such protests and solidarity campaigns planned in Canada and other countries. 

“The events in Derge are an example of Beijing’s destructive policies in Tibet,” said Kai Müller, managing director of the International Campaign for Tibet, in a statement on Friday. “The Chinese regime tramples on the rights of Tibetans and ruthlessly and irretrievably destroys valuable Tibetan cultural assets.”

“Beijing’s development and infrastructure projects are not only a threat to Tibetans, but also to regional security, especially when it comes to water supplies to affected Asian countries,” he added.

Human Rights Watch told RFA that it is monitoring the development but that information from inside Tibet is extremely rare given China’s tight surveillance and restrictions imposed on information flow. 

“People who send information out and videos like this face imprisonment and torture,” said Maya Wang, the group’s interim China director. 

“Even calling families in the diaspora are reasons for imprisonment,” she said. “What we do see now are actually … typical scenes of repression in Tibet, but we don’t often get to see [what] repression looks like in Tibet anymore.”

Additional reporting by Pelbar, Yeshi Dawa, Tashi Wangchuk, Palden Gyal and Sonam Lhamo for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kalden Lodoe and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked the northwestern Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Gansu on Dec. 18 — one of the most powerful earthquakes the country has seen in recent years — killing at least 149 people and injuring over 780 others. 

The earthquake brought down buildings across Jishishan county and Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu — the worst hit province — as well as in parts of neighboring Qinghai, a province on the Tibetan plateau. The affected areas are mainly populated by Tibetans.

In the absence of adequate aid from the Chinese government, Tibetans in other parts of Chinese-occupied Tibet as well as Tibetan lay and monastic communities have sent funds and supplies to those displaced by the quake, said the sources, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. 

“Other than laying a few tents three days after the quake, the Chinese government did not provide any special assistance or aid, but many Tibetan individuals, organizations, and monasteries from all over Tibet have volunteered help with funds and relief materials, so we have not faced any immediate difficulties,” at least two sources told RFA.

Another source noted that more than a week after the earthquake, Chinese authorities had conducted checks to see if water and electricity supplies were flowing but that no other aid or housing and relocation facilities had been provided.  

China’s local housing and urban-rural development bureau, however, said it is building 15,000 prefabricated houses in Gansu for quake-affected people and estimates they will be completed by the end of December, Chinese state-owned reported. 

Tibetans living in Tibet and in Tibetan areas of western Chinese provinces, such as Qinghai, say they are subject to political, economic and religious discrimination as well as human rights abuses. Some fear Beijing is now pursuing ever more aggressive policies aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Separately, another source also told RFA that Qinghai authorities issued an order stating that no photos or video footage of the earthquake be posted on social media, particularly photos of areas and homes destroyed by the quake.

Official media are typically ordered to publish only central-government approved news copy during natural disasters, while local people who speak out have had their posts deleted or been targeted by local authorities for detention and other forms of harassment.

Translated by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked the northwestern Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Gansu on Dec. 18 — one of the most powerful earthquakes the country has seen in recent years — killing at least 149 people and injuring over 780 others. 

The earthquake brought down buildings across Jishishan county and Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu — the worst hit province — as well as in parts of neighboring Qinghai, a province on the Tibetan plateau. The affected areas are mainly populated by Tibetans.

In the absence of adequate aid from the Chinese government, Tibetans in other parts of Chinese-occupied Tibet as well as Tibetan lay and monastic communities have sent funds and supplies to those displaced by the quake, said the sources, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. 

“Other than laying a few tents three days after the quake, the Chinese government did not provide any special assistance or aid, but many Tibetan individuals, organizations, and monasteries from all over Tibet have volunteered help with funds and relief materials, so we have not faced any immediate difficulties,” at least two sources told RFA.

Another source noted that more than a week after the earthquake, Chinese authorities had conducted checks to see if water and electricity supplies were flowing but that no other aid or housing and relocation facilities had been provided.  

China’s local housing and urban-rural development bureau, however, said it is building 15,000 prefabricated houses in Gansu for quake-affected people and estimates they will be completed by the end of December, Chinese state-owned reported. 

Tibetans living in Tibet and in Tibetan areas of western Chinese provinces, such as Qinghai, say they are subject to political, economic and religious discrimination as well as human rights abuses. Some fear Beijing is now pursuing ever more aggressive policies aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Separately, another source also told RFA that Qinghai authorities issued an order stating that no photos or video footage of the earthquake be posted on social media, particularly photos of areas and homes destroyed by the quake.

Official media are typically ordered to publish only central-government approved news copy during natural disasters, while local people who speak out have had their posts deleted or been targeted by local authorities for detention and other forms of harassment.

Translated by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

Officials used Mao’s birthday “to spread false information and distort facts about Tibet’s past history, in the hope of making the Tibetan people believe this disinformation,” a young Tibetan in Lhasa told Radio Free Asia, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

The source said the public celebrations for Mao depicted an independent, pre-invasion Tibet as backwards and impoverished in order to justify the region’s invasion and annexation by China, which argues that Tibet was historically always a part of its territory.

“Chinese authorities use and disseminate pictures of poor, underprivileged Tibetan families from the 1940s and 1950s at these events to make it seem like the whole of Tibet at the time was poverty-stricken and in the same condition,” the person said.

“While it’s true that Tibet has witnessed development since the Chinese first invaded the country, the fact remains that many of the world’s free countries also underwent significant development over the same period, without the need for any ‘peaceful liberation,’” they said.

Mao’s government invaded Tibet in 1950 and subsequently took over the region completely in 1959 after a failed uprising by locals, which led Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of followers to flee into exile across the border in India and elsewhere in the world.

Chinese officials have exercised a tight grip on the region ever since, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity. In October, Beijing changed Tibet’s romanized name to “Xizang” to further erode its independent identity.

17-point agreement

As part of its propaganda campaign on Mao’s birthday, the source inside Tibet told RFA, Chinese authorities were again promoting the idea that the Dalai Lama in 1951 signed the “17-Point Agreement” with Beijing and had promised Mao in a telegram he would abide by it.

Experts and rights groups, however, say the Tibetan side was forced to sign the document under duress by the occupying Chinese forces, who threatened all-out war if they declined. The Dalai Lama later repudiated the agreement after arriving in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, just across Tibet’s border.

The source said it was a tense time for Tibetans, with many forced to bite their tongues as the local Chinese authorities celebrated Mao.

“Any Tibetan who tries to share the real facts about Tibet’s past – in particular Tibet’s history as an independent country – is immediately apprehended by Chinese police and faces their wrath,” they said.

Tibet Policy Institute director Dawa Tsering said the forced celebrations for Mao seemed particularly twisted given many Tibetans know some of the worst atrocities against their forebears occurred under his rule.

“The ‘peaceful liberation of Tibet’ was in reality a forceful occupation of Tibet by Chinese authorities, who brutally tortured Tibetans for opposing the occupation and compelling the helpless Tibetans, under duress, to sign the 17-Point Agreement,” Tsering told RFA.

Nyima Woeser, a researcher at the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in Dharamsala, India, added that more than 1 million Tibetans are estimated to have been killed at the hands of Chinese “oppressive policies” in Tibet since Mao’s 1950 invasion.

“Every year, the human rights abuses inside Tibet continue to worsen … with no sign of a let-up,” Woeser said.

Translated by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek for RFA Tibetan.

There is no Chinese Embassy in democratic Taiwan, so the Dalai Lama Foundation will exhibit 166 works of calligraphy by Ho Tsung-hsun, with prayers and chants from five Buddhist teachers honoring the "heroes and martyrs" of the Tibetan resistance movement instead. 

The exhibit – titled "Those Who Give Fearlessly" – will honor 166 Tibetans inside and outside China who have set themselves on fire as an act of resistance to Chinese Communist Party rule, and in pursuit of freedom, Ho told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.

"I was very worried when I was doing this that people would think that I was encouraging self-immolation," Ho said. "But these things happened – that's a fact."

"You can't erase an entire nationality from the historical record who have made such sacrifices in pursuit of their freedom," he said. 

Ho made the exhibit not to advocate self-immolation, but to highlight the despair and helplessness of those who use it as a form of protest, he said. 

"Self-immolation is a last-ditch choice – there must be so much going on in people's minds that we can't understand," he said. "166 self-immolations in the space of just 10 years is a shocking number." 

"Cheng Nan-jung self-immolated right here in Taiwan, and we still see memorials to him here every year marking that day," Ho said, in a reference to the 1989 self-immolation of the Taiwanese publisher, in a protest against the lack of free speech under authoritarian, one-party rule by the Kuomintang.

Writing history

Calligraphic inscriptions have been used since ancient times to record important events, whether on stone steles or on paper, Ho said.

He hopes that his imitation of ancient scrolls will pay due respect to the people who burned in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. 

Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's envoy to Taiwan, told Radio Free Asia he was moved by Ho's tribute.

"These Tibetans are heroes as we define them in Tibet," he said. "The Chinese government demonizes them as insane, or claims they acted out of desperation due to family or economic disputes, but it's not that. No." 

"They sacrificed themselves for their country, and for their people."

Kelsang Gyaltsen said the epithet, "Those who give fearlessly" is the highest level of almsgiving in the Buddhist tradition. "It means to give your life for a just cause," he said. 

Many of those who set fire to themselves did so while shouting slogans or leaving statements calling for freedom for Tibetans, or for the return of its exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and the protection of Tibetans' Buddhist and cultural heritage.

Some inscribed "Independence for Tibet" on their bodies, Kelsang Gyaltsen said. 

Anyone who claims that just speaking of the self-immolations means encouraging them is engaging in pro-Beijing "cognitive warfare," he added.

"Who is it who most wants to forget them? Who doesn't want us to cherish or remember them? It's the brutal Chinese Communist Party regime," he said, calling for the anniversary of the first self-immolation – Feb. 27 – to be marked as "Tibetan Self-Immolation Day."

Art as protest

Ho, who studied advertising and fine arts, started writing calligraphy in high school 40 years ago. 

His calligraphy has graced a number of protests over the last three decades in Taiwan, including environmental protection and anti-nuclear campaigns, educational reform movements and political activism. 

He has an abiding memory of one self-immolation – the second to take place in Tibet, in 2009 -- in particular. 

"Lobsang Phuntsok, who was only 20 years old at the time, self-immolated on March 16, which happened to be my birthday," Ho said. "From then onwards, it seemed as if our souls were connected, and that was when I started to pay attention and care about what was happening." 

March 16 is also the anniversary of mass protests by Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns in Ngaba, a Tibetan region of China's southwestern province of Sichuan, in 2008, that were to be a turning point in the movement for a free Tibet.

"I was shocked, saddened and outraged by each self-immolation, especially during the nearly 90 self-immolations that took place in 2012 – at their peak, we were seeing nearly one a week," Ho said.

Just thinking about the way Lobsang Phutsok died causes him pain to this day, he said. 

Ancient style

Ho's exhibit will display 166 records of self-immolation by Tibetans using paper and a calligraphic style that matches the style of ancient official records. 

Each piece is 34 cm long and 18.5 cm wide (13 x 7 inches). Each work shows the person's name, place of birth, identity and age of self-immolation. 

Ho's exhibit also has the blessing of the Tibetan government-in-exile's envoy to Taiwan, who suggested he make sure Tibetans are the central subjects of the work, and add the ancient Tibetan place-names from when the region was a sovereign and independent country, alongside the modern place-names that are used under Chinese rule. 

One record reads: "Lobsang Tashi, a monk from Amdo in today's Sichuan, was 24 years old when he set himself on fire on Feb. 27, 2009, to fight for the freedom of Tibetans."

Every one of the 166 self-immolators, who include elderly in their 80s, 16-year-old students, high-ranking Buddhist teachers, or Rinpoche, monks, nuns, students and women, is given equal weighting in the exhibit, with a word limit of 43 to 46 words each, Ho said. 

The process has been a harrowing one at times for Ho, who got horribly stuck on the record for 49-year-old herder Namlha Tsering, the 104th Tibetan to self-immolate. 

He kept making errors on this record, missing out words each time he tried to copy it. 

"Namlha Tsering was the first to directly face the main entrance of the People's Armed Police headquarters in Labrang town, in China's Gansu province, which is part of the Tibetan region of Amdo. He sat cross-legged with his back straight, and set himself alight right in the faces of his totalitarian oppressors," Ho said.

Finally, Ho placed the paper on a desk in front of statues of the tantric Buddhist deity Palden Lhamo, a protective warrior goddess also known as Shri Devi, and Nechung, a protective deity closely associated with the Dalai Lama, that had been given to him by Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's envoy to Taiwan. 

Ho says he needs a calm mind to be able to practice calligraphy, yet much of the subject matter he chooses makes him feel angry. 

"I write protest banners because I will be taking to the streets the next day, so I'm often angry," he said.

In order to write each record, Ho said he had to remain calm. "It was a very painful process," he said. 

"I couldn't allow myself to think about the experiences of the self-immolators, so I found a way to relax and become fully engaged in the work, using Tibetan and Buddhist music, and some chanting," he said. 

‘I started weeping’

When Ho came to write the 115th record – that of a woman who self-immolated at the entrance of a temple in 2013, all of that broke down, however.  "I started weeping ... so I went to read her story again. She was just 20 years old, a young wife and mother of a 3-year-old son," he said. 

"[She] would have had to have such courage, perseverance and determination to abandon her family to make such a sacrifice," he said.

The text that appears on Ho's "records" is based on the work of Tibetan writer Woeser, whose book "The Tibetan Self Immolation Files" was published in Taiwan in 2013 by Snowland. 

Every recording has been cross-checked with the records of the Tibetan government in exile and proof-read by Kelsang Gyaltsen. 

It took Ho a couple of years to finalize the details that would appear in the exhibit. The topic of self-immolation is regarded as highly sensitive by the Chinese government, so accurate records were hard to come by. Just cross-checking the names of the Tibetans in Tibetan and in their Chinese and English transliterations was hugely time-consuming. 

The 166 self-immolation protests represented by Ho have been verified and are based on publicly available information, with 156 taking place in China and 10 overseas, covering the years between 1998 and 2023. The first record in Ho's exhibit is that of Thubten Ngodrup, who set himself on fire as a Tibetan Youth Congress hunger strike was broken up by Delhi police on April 27, 1998. 

The most recent is from Feb. 25, 2022, when 25-year-old Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu self-immolated. 

Some of the protesters survived, but were left paralyzed or with amputated limbs. Some of their stories remain unknown to this day. 

Some were born in remote regions, and their friends and relatives were persecuted as a result of their actions.

Through the exhibit, Ho also hopes to remind people that Tibetans are still setting themselves alight in protest at Chinese rule in their homeland.   

"Self-immolation is still happening," he said. "It's ongoing." 

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA Mandarin.

The four men — Gyalo, Tsedho, Bhamo and Kari, each going by just one name — are being held at Yaknga Prison in Sichuan province, according to the sources.

“In September when they were sentenced to two years in prison, none of their families were informed,” said a Tibetan who lives in exile. “Neither are the families aware that the court has issued this judgment.” 

Authorities previously arrested the four men on Aug. 24, 2022, for engaging in religious activities such as sang-sol, a purification or cleansing of spiritual pollution or blockages, and reciting prayers for the longevity and wellbeing of Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders, said another Tibetan source who lives in exile.

They were detained until July 2023, when they were released, though it is not known why they were freed.

It is not unusual for Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas of western provinces like Sichuan to arrest, detain and abuse Buddhist monks, nuns and others on account of their religious practices, without giving them trials. 

There also have been reports of individuals dying in custody after being beaten, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, issued this May.

Such arrests are part of a larger campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to Sinicize Tibetans by eroding their religion, language and culture, bring them into line with the party’s ideology, and compel them to be loyal to the state, rather than to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans’ exiled spiritual and political leader. 

At the time of the first arrest, a fifth Tibetan named Chukdhar, 52 was also taken in, but he died in custody after a week or so because of severe beatings and torture by Chinese police, the second source said. 

“However, they have been arrested again and now all of them are sentenced to two years in prison,” he said. 

The first Tibetan source said Chukdhar’s family accused Serta county police of killing the man by physical torture in the prison, but police denied it. 

“The families were also offered 100,000 yuan [US$1,400] by the police station if they collected Chukdhar’s body immediately after he died, but they declined to accept the offer, and were given nothing,” he said. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

As a member of the Tibetan diaspora, Sengmo knew about the Chinese government’s campaign to assimilate ethnic minorities in the broader culture, including through the curriculum at boarding schools where students stay for weeks at a time. 

But it was only after witnessing firsthand how his elementary school-age relatives interacted with one another that he thought: “They will not be like us.”

For the government, that is doubtless the point. Under leader Xi Jinping, China has applied harsh tactics to promote party ideology over local traditions, cultures and religious practices. In the Tibet Autonomous Region and the southwestern Chinese provinces where many Tibetans live, that has meant prohibiting photographs of the Dalai Lama, pressuring monks to denounce the spiritual leader, and restricting communications with people outside of the area.

Though movement in and out of Tibetan areas remains as limited as ever, China's long-awaited loosening of COVID-related travel controls impelled Sengmo to make a rare trip home. Sengmo is a pseudonym to protect his family in Tibet from any retaliation from Chinese authorities.

Members of the diaspora granted travel visas told RFA that they were able for the first time in years to see how their homeland is changing. Given the importance of language to a culture, a linguistic move away from Tibetan among young students attending residential schools is among the most significant shifts returnees witnessed. 

Sengmo said the courses at the boarding school his nieces and nephews attend are taught in Mandarin, with Tibetan instruction limited to one hour a week. The rest of his family still speaks their native language, but the children are away for two-week stretches, and he fears his relatives won’t have enough time to counteract the Chinese-heavy education provided by the school. Other sources said the Tibetan instruction was more frequent but still insufficient. 

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, defended the  boarding school system as a way to improve the educational opportunities for Tibet's scattered population. 

Students aren’t forced to attend, and parents can visit whenever they want, he said in an emailed statement. 

“Courses of traditional culture, such as Tibetan language and literature and folk dance, are widely available, traditional food unique to the Tibet Plateau is provided, and students are allowed to wear traditional dresses at these schools,” he said.

But a panel of experts advising the United Nations has said the instruction is heavily weighted toward the dominant Han culture. Roughly one million students attend the schools and risk an “erosion of their identity,” the group warned. 

An ugly legacy

Critics draw comparisons to past efforts to assimilate Indigenous cultures in the U.S. and Canada by forcing young children to learn English in remote schools that kept them from their families. 

Conditions there were often especially brutal, and former students have reported a variety of mental health issues, including problems with anxiety, depression and addiction. The boarding school policies in the United States lasted more than a century, finally ending in the 1970s.

Now the U.S. has emerged as one of the loudest opponents of China’s educational efforts. Last month, the State Department announced visa restrictions on unnamed Chinese officials involved with the “forced assimilation” boarding school program.

Gyal Lo, an educational sociologist and activist who has studied boarding schools in Tibetan areas of China, said the policy began to be applied to preschool-aged children in 2016. Now, three out of every four children in that age group attend a residential school, he said.

Among them are his young relatives back in Tibet. In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, Gyal Lo wrote about how his brother had called him seven years ago to express his concern that his granddaughters – ages 4 and 5 at the time – were already beginning to reject Tibetan traditions. 

Gyal Lo said his brother’s family felt they had no choice. Not sending the young children to the school would shut them off from any educational opportunities and the family from government benefits. 

“The distance is already breaking out between the older generation and the younger generation,” Gyal Lo told RFA when asked for an update on his brother’s family. “They will no longer be able to share a common identity and values. We’re seeing the breaking of the home nest.”

He called the inclusion of preschool-aged children in boarding schools a threat to “Tibetan civilization.”

The language loss isn’t necessarily limited to residential schools. Lhamo said children aged 3 to 6 she met on a recent trip back spoke Chinese even though they returned home from school every day. When she addressed them in Tibetan they “looked confused and puzzled,” she said. Lhamo also asked to be identified by a pseudonym to avoid adding any scrutiny to her family back in Tibet.

The curriculum had changed too, she said. History textbooks her relatives read for school featured unflattering depictions of the U.S. as a global bully since the end of the Cold War, Lhamo said. 

Cameras everywhere

On his trip home, Sengmo said he noticed other changes too, apart from the classroom. 

Walking into his local monastery he had to be scanned by a facial recognition camera before he went in, a level of security he wasn’t used to. Inside he said he noticed fewer worshippers and less interaction between laypeople and monks, even though monasteries operate as the spiritual and cultural heart of many Tibetan communities. 

The sense of being watched was pervasive. “There were cameras everywhere,” he said. 

Sengmo blamed the increased surveillance for what he said was a greater level of circumspection among the friends and relatives he met with. Even behind closed doors, the Tibetans he met with appeared to be careful of what they said. 

“It used to be that you could talk about anything at home,” Sengmo said. In the future, it may not even be certain that everyone there will speak the same language.

Edited by Abby Seiff

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan and Jim Snyder for RFA Investigative.

The move to control access to the Sept. 15-17 sermon by prominent lama Gungthang Rinpoche Lobsang Jamyang Geleg Tenpe Khenchen in Gansu province’s Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture comes amid growing criticism of China’s policies in Tibet, where authorities restrict Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity.

In a Sept. 10 directive obtained by RFA Tibetan, authorities in Dzoege county – a part of Tibet’s historical eastern region of Amdo – said the sermon “is only arranged for residents of [the city of] Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo)” and that there “are no arrangements made for Tibetan devotees coming to attend from other parts of Tibet.”

“To maintain the religious activities pertaining to Kalakchakra in order, and to keep everything in control including crowd and traffic, non-resident Tibetans will not be allowed to go near the teaching site,” the directive said. “Those [non-residents] who have already arrived are instructed to leave the premises.”

The Kalachakra, which means “infinite wheel of time” in Sanskrit, is a sacred event where key Buddhist teachings are passed on to devotees. Only a very few qualified Tibetan Buddhist masters, including exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, can deliver such sermons.

A Tibetan in the region said that the sheer size of the audience for the Kalachakra had prompted authorities to restrict access to the event.

“The Chinese authorities have barred Tibetans coming from other parts of Tibet from attending the teaching because they are fearful of such huge gatherings and are being cautious of possible demonstrations against the Chinese government, said the Tibetan who, like others RFA interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

“More than 100,000 Tibetan devotees have gathered for this Kalachakra but, besides residents, Tibetans coming from Qinghai, Sichuan and other parts of the region are not allowed to attend.”

Directive removed from website

The Gungthang Rinpoche is an influential religious figure from the Labrang Tashikyil Monastery in Gansu’s Xiahe county. In 2004, he was recognized as the seventh reincarnation of the Gungthang Rinpoche by the sixth one, Jamyang Zhepa.

The directive follows the earlier canceling of the Kalachakra in July when, despite obtaining permission from authorities, organizers were told they could not hold the event because it conflicted with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Gannan prefecture.

Tibetans frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Barring non-residents from Friday’s teaching due to security concerns has also made authorities the target of their anger, sources said.

On Thursday, the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Hezuo City, which had originally posted the directive, appeared to have removed it from their website, with no explanation given.

Another Tibetan source told RFA that authorities may have felt helpless in the face of devotees “pouring” into the region for the Kalachakra.

“The authorities have not been able to control and restrict them as per their directive,” he said. “There are more than 100,000 devotees … who have come to attend the teaching and, in order to avoid any sort of conflict and commotion, I think that the government is now giving up on it.”

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibet. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lhuboom Tash for RFA Tibetan.

But the claim is false. Various data, studies and testimonials indicate that a significant portion of Tibetans in China cannot speak their ethnic language. 

The U.S. State Department announced on Aug. 22  that it would place visa restrictions on Chinese officials participating in the “forcible assimilation” of Tibetan children enrolled in Chinese government boarding schools, a policy the department estimates has caused more than 1 million Tibetan children to lose their traditional language, culture and religion. No list of specific Chinese officials affected by the restrictions has yet been released. 

In response, Chen Weihua, the EU bureau chief of the official Chinese news outlet China Daily, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “almost 100% of Tibetans” speak Tibetan. 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying later posted similar claims on X that 96% of Tibetans can speak their ethnic language.

Chen also claimed Native Americans – that make up “2% or less” of the U.S. population – are “locked” in reservations and the country has been “forcing” Latinos to study English. 

Chen’s remarks about Native Americans and Latinos are opinions and cannot be comprehensively fact-checked, but they still contain some misleading elements. 

In 2020, the American Indian and Alaska Native population comprised 9.7 million people, or 2.9% of the total U.S. population. However, keyword searches revealed no movement restrictions for these individuals. 

The U.S. does not have an official language, but some states list English as their official language. The lack of Spanish education in American schools has been a topic of discussion for a long time, but some recent media reports indicate that the number of schools offering Spanish language programs is on the rise. 

Official Chinese media outlets such as Tong Media and Hong Kong Satellite Television later cited Chen’s remarks in a short video, with subtitles saying that “99% of Tibetans speak Tibetan.”

This claim is false. Available information indicates that a significant number of ethnic Tibetans cannot speak the language. Below is what AFCL found.

‘Not all Tibetans speak their ancestral tongue’

Most Tibetans living in eastern Sichuan and east of Qinghai Lake cannot speak their ancestral tongue, and that the skill has almost disappeared in Qinghai’s Xining City over the last few decades, said Dawa Tsering, the director of the Central Tibetan Administration’s Tibet Policy Institute think tank who was born and raised in Tibet.

Tibetans are mainly distributed across the Tibet Autonomous Region and the southwestern Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan. 

“Significant amounts of local ethnic Tibetans in other parts of Qinghai and Sichuan only learned to speak basic Tibetan after their respective regions became popular tourist resorts,” Tsering told AFCL.

He further pointed out that several self-proclaimed Tibetan content producers on social media defend their inability to speak Tibetan. AFCL found examples of such people on Youtube and Douyin, Chinese equivalent of TikTok, who have further stated in their posts that not all ethnic Tibetans in China speak the language. 

Decrease in language skills started since at least 1980s

A survey conducted by the Tibetan scholar Takrong Tsering Dhondup in the 1980s and included in his book My Wish found that only 991 of 6,044 educated ethnic Tibetans working as civil servants across Sichuan’s Ganzi Prefecture could understand written Tibetan.

The book also mentions that the political violence of the Cultural Revolution dealt severe blows to the vitality of the Tibetan language in Ganzi. Between 1962 and 1978, Tibetan primary and secondary school courses were suspended, Tibetan publications were destroyed and thousands of historical documents in Tibetan were burned. Teachers of Tibetan transferred to other professions and professional language education amongst ethnic Tibetans vanished. 

Media reports on inadequacy of current bilingual education

The Human Rights Watch said in a 2020 report that China’s “bilingual education” policy in Tibet is drastically limiting the opportunities for Tibetans to receive education in their mother tongue. While “bilingual” in name, the report states that in reality the Tibetan language is gradually being replaced with Chinese.

The report found that local authorities are assigning more Han Chinese teachers without knowledge of Tibetan in local primary schools, thereby forcing schools to tacitly allow more and more classes to be taught in Chinese rather than Tibetan. 

The report further cited a 2016 article by the state-run Global Times regarding a sharp decline in the use of the Tibetan within China. The article attributed the decline to increased urbanization and a lack of use in schools due to increased time spent speaking Chinese, further emphasizing that many parents have also noticed their children’s lack of proficiency in Tibetan. AFCL could not find the original text of this article. 

Dr. Gyal Lo, a Tibetan activist who taught in the Tibetan Department at China’s Northwest Minzu University before relocating to Canada in 2021 - said during the 2023 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy that what is nominally called “bilingual education” has long functioned with Chinese as the predominant language in Tibetan schools,

After visiting more than 50 different boarding schools for children aged 4-6 across eastern Tibet in the early 2010s, Gyal found that students at these schools were forced to communicate in Mandarin and teachers were only allowed to use textbooks approved by the Chinese government. 

Citing educators in Tibet that Tibetan would be completely removed from school curriculums by 2024, Gyal projected in a separate article that about 70% of China’s Tibetan population will not be able to speak their mother tongue by 2030. 

In February 2023, the United Nations called on China to stop “what appears to be a policy of forced assimilation” of Tibetans into China’s majority Han culture. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab.

The State Department “is taking steps to impose visa restrictions” on Chinese government officials “for their involvement in the forcible assimilation of more than 1 million Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools,” according to the statement.

“These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” the statement said, urging officials “to end the coercion of Tibetan children into government-run boarding schools and to cease repressive assimilation policies” in Tibet and elsewhere in China.

It did not provide details about which officials would be impacted by the sanctions, or when. An official at the State Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Radio Free Asia that visa records were confidential under U.S. law so those impacted would not be identified.

But they said those impacted were “current or former” Chinese officials “believed to be responsible for, or complicit in” repressing Tibetans.

Forced schooling

A 2021 report by the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Tibet Action Institute found that hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children between the ages of 4 and 18 years old were being taken from their families and forced to live in state-run boarding schools, often losing the ability to speak Tibetan.  

The report said that the “teachers only speak in Mandarin and conduct all school curriculum in Mandarin, including nursery rhymes and bedtime stories” and that “the implications for whole generations of Tibetans and the long-term survival of Tibetan identity are grave.”

Authorities, it said, justified the forced schooling as a way of providing education to Tibetans spread out across a large geographical area.

U.N. experts in February said they had determined at least a million Tibetan children were being held in the schools, where “the educational content and environment is built around majority Han culture.”

“We are very disturbed that in recent years the residential school system for Tibetan children appears to act as a mandatory large-scale programme intended to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture, contrary to international human rights standards,” the experts said.

“As a result,” the experts added, “Tibetan children are losing their facility with their native language and the ability to communicate easily with their parents and grandparents in the Tibetan language, which contributes to their assimilation and erosion of their identity.”

Sanctions welcomed

Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, told Radio Free Asia he welcomed the news of the planned sanctions.

“China’s unconscionable separation of Tibetan children from their families cannot be left unchecked. It shows the depths of Beijing’s plan to eliminate the Tibetan way of life and turn Tibetans into loyal followers of the CCP,” Tencho said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

“This boarding school program targets the most vulnerable and impressionable minds and is aimed at converting Tibetans into Chinese, cementing the Chinese government's control over Tibet and annihilating the Tibetan culture and way of life,” she said.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alex Willemyns and RFA Tibetan.

“At the end of the day, action is what matters,” he told Radio Free Asia. “ Tibetan youth should play a bigger part because we are the future, and we should be the ones taking the initiatives and responsibilities.”

The youth activist from Washington, D.C., and co-founder of the Bodja podcast was one of more than 100 young Tibetans from 16 countries attending the forum in Dharamsala, India, at the invitation of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government-in-exile. His podcast aims to raise awareness among Tibetan youth about news and events concerning Tibet. 

Fellow participant Chime Lhamo, a human rights activist and campaign director of Students for a Free Tibet in New York, said Tibetan youths have a huge role to play when it comes to advocacy. 

“Our older generations were busy trying to survive, put food on our table and protect our Tibetan identity, but the younger generation has the opportunity not just to survive, but now we are thriving in our own neighborhoods,” she said. 

“We have a wonderful, precious opportunity to not only give back to the Tibetan community in exile, but also play a role in making sure that we are amplifying the voices of Tibetans inside Tibet.” 

The theme of the event, which runs from July 18-20, is “empowering voices and inspiring actions for Tibet’s future.” 

The forum comes amid an ongoing effort by the Chinese government to maintain its control of those who live in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas incorporated into Chinese provinces by suppressing expressions of their Buddhist religion.   

Tibetans accuse Chinese authorities of violating their human rights and trying to eradicate their religious, linguistic and cultural identity.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who is currently in Ladakh for a month-long sojourn, addressed the participants in a short video, urging them to preserve Tibetan culture and tradition. 

“The new generation of Tibetans living in different parts of the world should never forget our own tradition of moral behavior,” said the Dalai Lama. “Those living in India may not find this difficult, but those living in the West are also doing well to cherish and preserve our culture and traditions. Those with young minds should be made aware of Tibetan’s tradition of consideration for others.” 

Instead of feeling anger towards China, whose military troops crushed a revolt in Tibet in March 1959 that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India, young people and other Tibetans should “generate compassion for them,” he said. 

Events like the youth forum are important because they inculcate leadership in young Tibetans and ensure they keep Tibetan culture alive, Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the head of the Central Tibetan Administration, told Radio Free Asia.

“The younger generation is the future of Tibet,” he said. “Our investment in the younger generation is very important. Otherwise if we are not able to bring up the younger generations as future leaders then we would be failing in our duty.”

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

The Chinese government has been intensifying its monitoring of Tibetans and maintained their interrogations of Tibetans living in Lhasa to determine if they have contacted people outside Tibet and stepped up surveillance measures to prevent such communication. Now the Chinese authorities are interrogating Tibetans in Lhasa specifically targeting and warning them to stop communication. 

In March, two major anniversaries prompted police to step up surveillance. The month marked the 15th anniversary of a 2008 riot, and the 64th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese troops that had invaded the region a decade earlier.

But the heightened security from March has continued well into June, and police have continued closely monitoring residents in Lhasa and random searches of their cell phone and online communications to discover whether they had communicated abroad.

The police were particularly concerned that the Lhasa residents might be in contact with journalists or researchers outside of Tibet, a Tibetan resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service. 

“Tibetans are warned not to contact people outside and those who have, have been summoned and interrogated,” the source said. “Their cell phones are confiscated and they are under constant scrutiny.”

The source was among those who had contacted people outside of Tibet, and was summoned for interrogation along with some friends.

“They gave us warning to not ever contact people on the outside, especially researchers on Tibet and journalists,” said the source. “I also know that so many other Tibetans who contacted people outside Tibet were interrogated by the Chinese authorities too.”

Another resident said that people could be summoned even for casual conversations with outsiders.

“I was summoned two times already this year for interrogation and one of my friends had to bribe the authorities to release me the second time around,” the second resident said. “My name is now listed amongst those interrogated, therefore I have to get permission from the local police if I need to travel outside Lhasa.” 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

Chinese state media reported Monday that the Kela mega hydro-photovoltaic complementary power station began full operation Sunday. The sprawling solar plant, which covers 16 million square meters, or more than 2,000 soccer fields, has a hydropower component that helps stabilize energy supply due to shifting weather conditions.

It is capable of generating 2 billion kilowatt-hours each year, and can fully charge 15,000 electric vehicles with a range of 550 kilometers (340 miles) in just one hour.

But nomadic Tibetans who once grazed their cattle in the area now covered by a sea of solar panels were forced away and offered nothing in return, a Tibetan resident living near Kela told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“The Chinese government has begun operating the largest solar power station along with the hydropower dams in Nyakchu county in Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi] beginning June 24,” the resident said, referring to a separate hydropower project.

“In order to build and facilitate these power plants, the Chinese government has displaced the local Tibetans in these regions in a land-grab and has not given any compensation yet.”

The resident said that the displaced Tibetans were never informed before the project started.

“Instead, police were stationed near these power plants and locals were not permitted near them,” the person said. “Though the authorities told the local Tibetans that these power plants would be beneficial to livestock and their pastures, but now the Tibetan nomads are being displaced and pushed away to other places.”

The nomads had filed complaints with the Chinese government to no avail, another Tibetan resident said.

“In April this year, the local Tibetans pleaded with the Chinese authorities to stop these projects,” the second person said. “However it is very clear that no opposition to displacement and resettlement is possible and that local Tibetans have no choice but to comply with the government’s orders.” 

The power plants pose a serious threat to Tibet’s fragile environment, Lobsang Yangtso, an environmental researcher at the San Francisco-based Tibet International Network.

“China’s policies and the expansion of infrastructure in Tibet are the cause of earthquakes, floods and various types of irreversible damage to the ecosystem,” she said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

Gyaltsen Norbu is the Chinese-backed Panchen Lama, and he is touring parts of the region to give his blessings – but many Tibetans consider him to be an imposter.

Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama are reincarnated as children when they die. After the 1950-51 Chinese invasion and annexation of Tibet, Beijing has made an effort to influence Tibetan affairs including the selection of a spiritual successor to the 10th Panchen Lama who died in 1989..

In 1995, the exiled Dalai Lama chose 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima to be the 11th Panchen Lama, recognizing him as the reincarnation of his predecessor.

The Panchen Lama’s responsibilities include leading a council of high lamas to find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama after the current one dies.

The 1995 recognition of the 11th Panchen Lama by the 14th Dalai Lama angered Chinese authorities, who three days later took the boy and his family into custody. They have since disappeared.

Beijing then installed another boy, Gyaltsen (in Chinese, Gyaincain) Norbu, as their own candidate in his place.

Unpopular choice

The Panchen Lama installed by Beijing remains unpopular with Tibetans both in exile and at home because he is perceived as someone foisted on them by Beijing.

Beijing is giving out a small monetary incentive for people who receive his blessing, a Tibetan resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“The Chinese government has told the local Tibetans that anyone who attends and receives Gyaltsen Norbu’s blessings will be rewarded with 100 yuan,” the resident said. “The Chinese government has also put in lots of effort to stage Norbu’s visit in Lithang and Bathang as a very grandiose and popular event.”

The resident said that Gyaltsen Norbu recently completed a tour to Gyalthang (Shangri-La, in Chinese Xianggelila), Lithang (Litang), Bathang (Batang), Markham (Mangkang) and Dhapa (Daba) County in Tibet, where he visited the Gyalthang Sumtsen monastery and Lithang monastery.

China’s communist leaders are using Gyaltsen Norbu to push their political agenda, said Namrata Hasija, a Research Fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.

“The Chinese government’s effort and attempt in forcing Tibetans into embracing Gyaltsen Norbu has gone futile because other than just a Buddhist monk Tibetans don’t consider and revere him as the Panchen Lama,” she said. 

The visit is the third by the Chinese-backed Panchen Lama and the atmosphere is slightly different from his last visit in 2021, another resident said.

“In July 2021, Tibetans were forced to attend and receive his blessings and there were tight restrictions in those areas where he was,” the second resident said. “Restrictions are not as severe this time compared to his last visit and also there were only a handful of Tibetans who went to see Gyaltsen Norbu in Bathang and Lithang.”

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

Authorities in Lingya village, about an hour's drive from Rebgong, issued the order on May 23, requiring seven villages in the region to move so the Chinese government can begin the first phase of construction 10 days after the notice’s issue date, said a Tibetan from Rebgong who now lives in exile. 

“The land that is being confiscated by the Chinese government is farmland, which is the livelihood of Tibetans,” said the source who declined to be identified so as to speak freely about the situation. “The authorities have warned the Tibetans to not show any kind of condemnation.” 

Rebgong, called Tongren in Chinese, is in Malho, or Huangnan, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a Tibetan-populated area of China’s Qinghai province. 

Chinese authorities tightly control residents of the restive Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting their political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity.

Chinese infrastructure and development projects in these areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people. Many result in violent suppression, the detention of protest organizers and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government’s wishes.

Local authorities will complete all basic requirements from checking land authorization documents, performing measurements and ensuring that residents have left the area within 10 days of the notice date, he said.

Another Tibetan living in exile said authorities have begun confiscating land, but they have not discussed compensation for residents forced to move. 

“In a notice sent out by the Chinese authorities regarding the land grab, it mentions that those in areas that need to be vacated for dam construction must be prepared to [leave] and that they must not start any other construction in that area,” said the Tibetan, who declined to be identified for the same reason. “If people don’t abide by it, then they will not be compensated.” 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

A video of the Tibetan Buddhists’ spiritual leader hugging and kissing the young boy on the lips at a student event in northern India on Feb. 28 went viral on social media and sparked online criticism and accusations of pedophilia.

The Dalai Lama, 87, later apologized to the boy’s family, and Tibetans quickly came to his defense, explaining that sticking out one’s tongue is a greeting or a sign of respect in their culture.

More than 2,000 Tibetans and their supporters rallied in Switzerland, demanding that local media apologize to the Dalai Lama for misinterpreting the video. Activists approached one news organization that agreed to look into the matter. 

“I have never seen Tibetans gathered in such a huge number in a long time, and it is very important that we organize these rallies against those who defamed His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said Tenzin Wangdue, vice president of the Tibetan Association of Liechtenstein,

More than 300 Tibetans and Indian supporters gathered in Bangalore, India, to demand apologies from news organizations. About 15,000 people gathered on April 15 in Ladakh, a region administered by India as part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China for decades. 

“We the faithful followers of His Holiness The 145th Dalai Lama are deeply saddened and shocked by the deliberate attempt of many news/media portals, circulating a tailored propaganda video clip to defame and malign the impeccable character and stature of His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama,” said a statement issued on April 14 by the Ladakh Buddhist Association’s Youth Wing in Kargil to show its solidarity with the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.

When the Dalai Lama meets with people, “he speaks with them freely, without any reserve or cautiousness, as if they were long-time friends, and treats them lovingly,” said Ogyen Thinley Dorje, the Karmapa, or spiritual leader and head of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the four major lineages of Tibet. 

“Sometimes he does playfully tug someone’s beard, or tickle them, or pat them gently on the cheek or nose,” he said in a statement issued on April 12. “This is just how he normally is, and it shows no more than his genuine delight and love for others. 

Tibetans living in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas of Chinese provinces as well as those who live abroad believe the Chinese have used the video to cast a dark shadow on the Dalai Lama.

“Tibetans inside Tibet have seen and heard about the video clips on various social media,” said one Tibetan from inside the region, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“It is so pleasant to be able to see pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but at the same time it is heartbreaking to see how the Chinese government is taking advantage of this and manipulating the playful video interaction between the Dalai Lama and the young Indian boy,” the source said. 

Many Tibetans inside Tibet have not publicly commented on the video, knowing that it would be dangerous to do so because of China’s heavy surveillance and repression in the region, said another Tibetan who declined to be named for the same reason.

“The Chinese government would track down the individuals and punish them and they would be sentenced to three to four years [in prison],” the source said. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

March 14 marks the 15th anniversary of a 2008 riot in Lhasa during which Chinese police suppressed peaceful Tibetan protests and led to the destruction of Han Chinese shops in the city and deadly attacks on Han Chinese residents.

The event sparked a wave of demonstrations against Chinese rule that spread into Tibetan-populated regions of western Chinese provinces. Security forces quelled the protests and detained, beat or shot hundreds of Tibetans.

“Today, March 14, is a very sensitive date, and there are more restrictions in place than usual, so it’s better not to contact us,” one Tibetan source said in a written message to Radio Free Asia. 

“There are ‘interrogation posts’ stationed near all the streets that lead to Jhokang Temple, Potala Palace and the Sera and Drepung monasteries,” he wrote. “They are searching the cell phones and the backpacks of tourists and anyone who is walking around these places.” 

China maintains a tight grip on Tibet, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity as Buddhists. Tibetans frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at wiping out their national and cultural identity.

So far, police have interrogated two Tibetans from Lhasa for allegedly contacting people outside Tibet, and it has become very difficult for Tibetans to communicate by phone with others who live in exile outside the region, according to two people who know about the situation.

Summoned by police

Police have continued tight scrutiny of residents of the capital and random searches of their cell phone and online communications, they said. 

“Two friends of mine and I received a call from the local police station a few days ago and were summoned to the police station,” a second Tibetan source said.

“They asked us to share all the details of people that we have contacted and the information we have shared with them,” he said. 

The police officers made photocopies of their identity cards and a record of everything on their devices, he said. They also warned the trio not to contact anyone outside the region. 

RFA reported earlier that police in Lhasa, the region’s administrative capital with a population of about 560,000 people, increased security measures ahead of the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese troops that had invaded the region a decade earlier.

Beginning Feb. 25, security personnel began randomly checking public spaces, guesthouses and hotels, and areas where Tibetan Buddhists perform religious activities and do businesses. They also stopped people to check their cell phones to ensure they had not been in contact with anyone living outside the region – considered a crime. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

Chinese authorities have clamped down on Tibetans during Losar, celebrated Feb. 20-26 this year, with cellphone checks and raids in Lhasa, Xigatse and Chamdo, the sources said. Before the holiday, authorities warned against holding events that could endanger national security and said they would take immediate action against them. 

A Tibetan living in Dharamsala, India, called his relatives in China’s western Tibet Autonomous Region to wish them well for the Tibetan New Year, but they asked that he not contact them.

“After a long time, I called my family members in Lhasa to give them Losar greetings, but then they anxiously told me not to contact them on special occasions such as the Tibetan New Year and other sensitive days,” said the Tibetan who like other sources in the story declined to be named so as to speak freely and without retribution by authorities. 

China rules Tibet with a tight grip, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity, especially during festivals like Losar. Tibetans say Chinese authorities trample on their human rights and are trying to stamp out their religious, linguistic and cultural identity.

Chinese security forces are usually deployed in large numbers in Tibetan-populated areas to monitor crowds gathered for religious festivals and to prevent possible protests during Losar.

Key date approaching

The holiday comes just before a politically sensitive anniversary on March 10, commemorating the Tibetan uprising of 1959 during which tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of the regional capital Lhasa in protest against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland a decade earlier. 

The failure of the armed rebellion resulted in a violent crackdown on Tibetan independence movements, and the flight of the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans into exile in Dharamsala. 

Another Tibetan who now lives in exile but has family members in Lhasa, said even written communication was risky in the current environment.

“Without permission from the government, one cannot print out anything at the moment,” he told Radio free Asia. 

A Tibetan living outside the region who has relatives in Shigatse, about 275 kilometers (170 miles) west of Lhasa by car, said his parents sounded very tense when he called and told him to refrain from contacting or sharing messages with them. 

“They told me that police in Shigatse have been conducting unexpected probes, and Tibetans remain under scrutiny all the time,” he said. 

A Tibetan living in Dharamsala who has relatives in Chamdo in the eastern part of Tibet, said his relatives, too, were fearful when he contacted them directly from India.

“So, I asked my relatives in the West to greet them for Losar on my behalf,” he told RFA. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek for RFA Tibetan.

The communications clampdown in Drago county is the latest measure by Chinese authorities to bring locals to heel following the demolitions of huge Buddha statues in the area beginning 2021, as monks and local residents were forced to watch, sources in the region said. 

Drago county is called Luhuo in Chinese and lies in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, the historical Tibetan province of Kham.

“Beginning January this year, local Chinese authorities in Drago county have warned Tibetans living in the region to stop communicating with people outside Tibet,” said one of the sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

“Their cell phones are randomly probed and restricted from sharing any kinds of information with the outside,” he said. “They are also not allowed to contact their family members or send money.”

A report issued in January by Free Tibet and its affiliated research arm Tibet Watch said Chinese authorities have ramped up repression of Tibetans, razing significant religious structures while committing serious human rights violations in Drago county.

The demolition of Tibetan Buddhist sites escalated under Drago county Communist Party chief Wang Dongsheng, who had earlier overseen a campaign of the expulsion of Buddhist clergy and destruction at Sichuan’s sprawling Larung Gar Buddhist Academy.

“Ever since Wang Dongsheng was appointed as county chief in Drago, the campaign against the Tibetans has gone from bad to worse,” said another Tibetan who declined to be identified for fear of his safety. 

“There have been massive communication clampdowns and other security measures put into place,” he told RFA. “Also, the staff and those with authority in the monasteries have been forced to attend re-education programs.”  

Since 2008, Drago county residents have participated in acts of resistance against the Chinese government, prompting interventions by authorities, including significant crackdowns in 2009 and 2012. 

Beijing views any sign of Tibetan disobedience as an act of separatism, threatening China’s national security.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Paul Eckert.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, rules the western autonomous region with an iron hand and says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law.

But Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he is reincarnated, a process that has occurred 13 times since 1391, when the first Dalai Lama was born. 

If China appoints his successor, it will further erode the religious and cultural identity of Tibetans, who have been subjected to crackdowns by Beijing during periods of unrest and whose spiritual sites and centers have been destroyed in recent years. Authorities view the unrest as acts of separatism that threaten China’s national security.

The 14th Dalai Lama, 87, whose original name was Lhamo Thondup, was found in Tibet’s Amdo province, and at the age of 2 was recognized as the reincarnation of the spiritual leader. He took on his full role as ruler of Tibet in November 1950, but a month later fled to India from Chinese troops who had entered the region in 1949. 

The current Dalai Lama, who resides in exile in Dharamsala, India, has become an influential global figure because of his espousal of Buddhism and advocacy of rights for Tibetans.

The Japan Buddhist Conference for World Federation, an umbrella organization of a number of sects of Japanese Buddhism, which has millions of followers in Japan and other countries, has condemned China for interfering in the selection of Tibetan lamas and for claiming authority to appoint the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama.

“We, the Japanese Buddhist[s], believe that the Tibetans should decide the succession of the Dalai Lama based on Tibetan Buddhist culture and history,” says a statement the group issued. “The national policy of the People’s Republic of China is communism, and communism is based on the principle of non-religion. Therefore, it is a contradiction to allow people who don’t believe in religion to decide who the country’s religious leader will be.”

The Central Tibet Administration, the formal name of the Tibetan government-in-exile, issued news of the statement on Tuesday when representatives from the organization visited the Office of Tibet in Japan.

“It is of utmost importance for the Japan Buddhist Federation to highlight the issue of succession of His Holiness the Dalai Lama as Tibet’s rich culture and religion is on the threshold of destruction under China’s occupation of the land,” said Eihiro Mizutani, secretary-general of the umbrella organization.

“China continues to hold its unlawful right to interfere in the selection of the next Dalai Lama; therefore, we hope and believe that the government of Japan will also be critical of the Chinese government's policies towards Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama,” he said. “The issue of the successor of the Dalai Lama is very important to world peace." 

Dr. Arya Tsewang Gyalpo, representative of the Liaison Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia, said the Chinese government has violated the basic human rights of Tibetans inside Tibet for decades. 

“Now the Chinese government is aggressively declaring their interference in the succession process of the next Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, so a sharp message to China to back off from interfering in the succession process was a long time coming,” he told RFA.

The Dalai Lama insists he is in good health despite his advancing age. The Kashag, the cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration under the guidance of the Dalai Lama, has said it believes he will live to the age of 113 as the spiritual leader has predicted. The Kashag also has said that the system of recognizing reincarnated spiritual beings is a religious practice unique to Tibetan Buddhism.

Chinese authorities intend to install a pro-Beijing puppet leader in place of the current Dalai Lama after he dies, giving it an opportunity to firm up its control of the region, according to a report issued in 2022 by the International Tibet Network, a global coalition of Tibet-related groups.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek for RFA Tibetan.

International Campaign for Tibet, which issued the report on Thursday, based its projections on demographic data and health studies from Japan and Brazil as well as first-hand accounts from Tibetans who have reported on the number of bodies being taken to sky burial sites and Chinese census data.

The group estimates that 221,218 Tibetans age 60 and older could die amid a current COVID surge in Tibet, including 45,469 Tibetans who are 80 and older.

“While these estimates are conservative, a true COVID death toll in Tibet cannot be determined without genuine transparency from the Chinese government,” the group said.

The Chinese government dropped its restrictive zero-COVID policy in early December following mass protests against lockdowns. Later that month, government health officials announced that they would stop issuing daily COVID data, though the number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged following the easing of restrictions.

The rights group says its report is the first known attempt to estimate the number of possible deaths in Tibet, where the death toll from the virus climbed after lockdowns were ended by authorities. Many of those who have died have been elderly Tibetans or people with underlying health issues, RFA reported earlier this month. 

“The abrupt end of the zero-COVID policy has had disastrous effects in Tibet, but China’s lack of transparency and access, as well as its discriminatory treatment of Tibetans, have made it difficult to estimate the full extent of the horrors there,” the group said. 

“Tibetans are living a nightmare and facing an unimaginable death toll. The Chinese government’s mismanagement of this crisis is endangering lives not only in Tibet, but in China and the entire world,” it said.

According to China’s 2020 census data, there are nearly 693,000 Tibetans age 60 and older living in the autonomous region, including about 82,700 who are 80 and above.

International Campaign for Tibet said it used this data as a baseline to arrive at its estimates through reasoning, logical deduction and extrapolations from available analytical studies.

The group also based its projection on findings from a study in Japan and acknowledgement by China’s National Health Commission indicating that the fatality risk from COVID was highest for people 80 and older. Studies in Brazil have shown that the effectiveness of two doses of Chinese COVID vaccines have been very low for those in that age group.

Older Tibetans were excluded from a third-dose vaccination campaign that began in 2022, sources told the group.

A large number of deaths from COVID also have been reported in Tibetan areas outside the officially designated Tibet Autonomous Region, which spans only about half of Tibet, according to the group.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Roseanne Gerin.

A wave of coronavirus infections hit the restive region in August, where China, wary about independence movements, has strengthened its governance in an effort to prevent frequent unrest of the repressed Tibetan minority group.

The latest move came days after hundreds of angry demonstrators took to the capital’s streets on Oct. 26-27 to protest harsh “zero COVID” measures, including lockdowns in place for about 80 days. During the lockdown, people complained of food shortages and poor conditions in mass quarantine facilities, RFA reported earlier.

Many of the demonstrators were Han Chinese migrant workers demanding permission from authorities to return to their homes in eastern China because they could not earn money amid the lockdown, city sources told RFA. 

The Chinese migrant protesters dispersed after authorities agreed to process applications for them to leave the Tibet Autonomous Region, while Tibetans from towns outside the capital area had to remain in place. 

Now authorities are allowing Tibetans living in Lhasa who are natives of the cities and towns of Shigatse, Kongpo, Lhoka, Nagchu, Chamdo and Ngari to return to their homes. But they can do so only after first getting in touch with their respective points of contact as set by regional authorities for “swift processing,” according to an official notice dated Oct. 31. They are prohibited from returning on their own.

Authorities will provide Tibetan migrant workers in the Lhasa area with transportation services to return to their hometowns once the regional office makes the contact points public, the notice said, and provided no further details. 

Despite the relaxation of COVID lockdowns in Lhasa and Shigatse, Tibet’s second-largest city with about 800,000 people, as of Oct. 29, the capital remains under lockdown for three more days, said sources from Tibet, adding that they did not know the reason behind the move which was not publicly announced.

Tibetan sources indicated that Chinese government officials treated Tibetans differently when it came to giving them permission to leave Tibet for other places in China, noting that authorities accommodated Chinese migrant workers who agitated against the lockdown.

“Tibetans who study in high schools and universities in mainland China were supposedly planning to visit China three months ago under special circumstances, but that didn’t happen,” said the source, who declined to be named for safety reasons.  

As of Monday, Tibet recorded 18,653 confirmed coronavirus cases in the region of roughly 3.65 million people, according to the latest Chinese government census data. 

Two new asymptomatic COVID-19 infections have been found in Lhasa in the last 24 hours, and 33 asymptomatic cases have been detected in the northern region of neighboring Qinghai province on Oct. 29, according to an official Chinese announcement.

Local authorities in Xining, capital of Qinghai province near the Tibetan Plateau, reported 70 new COVID-19 infections on Oct. 28.

Translated by Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

Monasteries and schools in Tibetan areas of western Chinese provinces have also been instructed to watch the proceedings, which opened in Beijing on Sunday, Tibetan sources say.

Tibetan residents of Lhasa are now confined to their homes so they can pay close attention to speeches given by China’s President Xi Jinping and other top leaders, a source living in Tibet told RFA.

“A few days ahead of the meeting, one person from each family was allowed to go out to pick up groceries and other essentials, but now no one is allowed to leave their home,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Buddhist monks in the Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba), Kardze (Ganzi), and Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan and Qinghai are meanwhile under orders to watch the Congress, another Tibetan source said, writing to RFA.

“All the schools in the Ngaba, Khyungchu [Hongyuan], and Dzamthang [Rangtang] region have also been instructed to watch the Party Congress meetings from the beginning,” the source said, also asking not to be named.

Also speaking to RFA, Tenzin Lekshey — spokesman for Tibet’s India-based exile government the Central Tibetan Administration — said that Beijing fears Tibetans may launch protests while Party Congress meetings are under way.

“This is why they’re being forced to stay indoors,” Lekshey said. “The Chinese government regards ‘Tibet’ as a very sensitive issue, but these tactics will never succeed until the status of Tibet is resolved.”

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, following which Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world.

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of fomenting separatism in Tibet.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, 69, is widely expected to be endorsed by Party Congress delegates this week for a third term in office, breaking recent party norms and becoming China’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

The five Tibetans, identified as Chugdhar, Ghelo, Tsedo, Bhamo and Kori, lit incense and prayed for the long life of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in Sertar county (in Chinese Seda), in China’s northwestern Sichuan province on Aug. 24.

Police arrested them shortly after, although the sources said the religious activities did not violate any law. RFA was unable to identify any charges.

“The arrested Tibetans were appointed by the local Tibetans in their area to lead religious activities,” a Tibetan living in exile, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.  

“But amidst growing religious clampdown by the Chinese government in Serta and Golog, Tibetans are not even allowed to hang prayer flags in front of their own house. They also deny Tibetans from performing Sang-sol (an incense burning ritual), because they say it is harmful to the environment,” the source said.

Chugdhar died in a prison in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture where the other four remain in detention, another Tibetan living in exile, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA.

“Chugdhar was 52 years old and he is survived by his parents. Chinese police kept denying that they tortured him to death,” the second source said.

“The police even have offered his family 100,000 yuan [more than U.S. $14,000] and agreed to pay an additional 10,000 yearly if they would just take Chugdhar’s body with them. But it was just a trick played by the Chinese police to make them take the body because his family never received any of the money they were promised,” the second source said.

Chugdhar’s official cause of death is suspicious, the first source said.

“Chugdhar was a healthy person, but he was brutally tortured in prison until he died. His family was summoned by Chinese authorities on Aug. 26, and they informed him that his death was sudden. They told the family to collect his body from the prison,” the first source said.

 “When Chugdhar’s father and other family members went to get his body, the Chinese police forced them to sign a document which states the Chinese police have nothing to do with his death,” the first source said. 

The other four Tibetans were first detained in a prison in Sertar county for a week and then moved to a prison in Kardze on Aug. 31, according to the first source.

“They are still undergoing trial but their families fear that they will be convicted soon. Their family members are also not allowed to meet them at all,” the first source said. “These Tibetans are innocent because they were only performing religious activities.” 

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

Sources in Tibet and in exile identified the dead as Penpa Tsering from Lhasa Toelung Dechen (in Chinese, Duilongdeqing); Ajho Penpa from Shigatse (Rikaze); and an unidentified Tibetan in Gyantse (Jiangzi).

All three died at home after failing to receive timely medical care, sources told RFA. “They died because they did not get the treatment they needed on time," one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Penpa Tsering, 62, was a doctor by profession and had lived in India, but was unable to return after traveling to Tibet in 2005 to visit relatives, RFA’s source said.

“After getting COVID, he experienced a severe cough and body aches, which led to his death at home," the source said.

 In Shigatse, Ajho Penpa’s family was not allowed to burn his body for six days, a Tibetan living in exile said, citing contacts in the TAR. “But local Chinese staff eventually came to take his body away. A sign that read “COVID positive family” was then hung outside their door.”

The Chinese government has not reported a single death due to COVID in the TAR region, the source said. “But we believe that many Tibetans have died, and the authorities are confining people together in quarantine facilities whether they are COVID positive or not.”

Chinese authorities imposed a lockdown 31 days ago in Lhasa as COVID numbers there and across China continue to climb, with government sources reporting 16,327 cases of infection in the TAR alone by Thursday.

Tibetan netizens meanwhile say the lockdown order came leaving them no time to prepare, with people in many cases left short of food. Finding treatment for COVID-positive patients has also proven difficult, sources say.

Tibetans posting videos on Chinese social media platforms have criticized quarantine facilities, saying they lack provisions for sanitation and that medical staff often fail to wash their hands after conducting tests.

Others posted photos and videos of infected people left standing for hours in the streets of Lhasa because authorities cannot quickly transport them to designated facilities.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the TAR. According to official figures from the Chinese government, there were 16,902 confirmed cases in the region through Tuesday, across 147 “substantial or high COVID transmissible areas” and 158 “medium-level transmissible areas.”

The Chinese government imposed a lockdown 31 days ago in Lhasa as COVID numbers there and throughout China continued to climb. The netizens say the lockdown order came without enough time to prepare, leaving people in some cases short of food. Finding treatments for COVID-19 positive patients has also proven difficult.

“Lhasa has been under lockdown for almost a month now,” a Tibetan living in Lhasa told RFA’s Tibetan Service on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. The Chinese government has been fumbling through the hastily ordered lockdown, the source said. 

“A man bleeding from his nose was locked inside a quarantine facility, and the officials in charge were not able to find the keys to open the door so that they could take him to a hospital. The man remained in that poor condition for almost two days,” the source said.

“In another facility, someone had a stroke and due to communication issues between the hospitals and officials, he could not reach the hospital sooner,” the source said. “The patient is now in the hospital but remains unconscious. So even though the Chinese government has set up facilities to lock people down, there are no proper treatments for them.”  

Nowhere to complain 

Tibetans on Chinese social media short video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou criticized the quarantine facilities.

“There is no one attending or treating the COVID patients and there is no sanitization in this facility,” a Tibetan in one of the facilities said in one of the videos. 

“Above all, there are no officials or offices where we can complain about these [conditions],” the source said.

Another Tibetan in one of the facilities said they were “empty houses without beds.”

“If you walk around, you can actually see dust falling down from the roof, which is unhealthy for COVID patients,” the second netizen said. “Food does not arrive on time and by the time it reaches us it has all spoiled.”

Another netizen posted a video blaming quarantine procedures for spreading COVID-19.

“We see this rise in COVID cases in Lhasa because the officials who test the public never sanitize their hands, and so this cycle goes on and on,” the third netizen said.

RFA was unable to confirm that Chinese authorities spread the virus at testing sites.

Others posted photos and videos of infected people standing around the streets of Lhasa for hours because the government is overwhelmed and cannot quickly transport them to designated facilities.

“Local officials forced me into lockdown without any verification whether I have COVID or not,” a Tibetan from Karma Monastery in Lhasa told RFA. 

“They made me wait by the roadside for almost three hours before they took me to the facility for a day and then released me. There were around 600 people with me in those lockdown facilities and now I am worried I might have COVID.” 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

Authorities have threatened to arrest Tibetans in the Ngaba and Dzoge regions who defy the order by posting messages on Aug. 8, the 80th birthday of the 11th Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche (honorific) Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is the chief abbot in exile of the Kirti Monastery, one of the most important and influential monasteries in Tibet.

“The government has warned of such activity by Tibetans, and individuals will be arrested and severely punished if found defying it,” said a Tibetan source inside Tibet who declined to be identified so as to speak freely. 

Chinese authorities restricted monks from the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county and the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county, both in Sichuan province's Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, from celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday in 2021. The areas are heavily populated with ethnic Tibetans.

Monks were not allowed to leave their monasteries, and gatherings were not permitted during that time. 

“Last year Tibetans inside Tibet anticipated restrictions and scrutiny from the Chinese government on celebrating the 80th birthday of the Kriti Rinpoche, so they held back,” said a Tibetan who lives in exile.

“But this year, Tibetans living in exile and inside Tibet are looking forward to celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday and offering tenshug,” the source said, referring to a long-life prayer offering made to spiritual teachers. “But we are seeing restrictions and scrutiny in Ngaba and Dzoge.” 

The Kirti Monastery has been the site of the majority of self-immolations by monks who oppose China’s repressive policies in Tibet.

“In one post circulating among some online Tibetan chat groups, members have been warned not to talk about the Kirti Rinpoche or his birthday and to be careful,” the source in exile said. 

Restrictions are greater in the Ngaba region now also because of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party later this year, said the Tibetan in exile.

Rinpoche was born in Thewo Takmoe Gang in the Amdo region of Tibet on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. When he was a child, leading lamas recognized him as the reincarnation of 10th Kirti Rinpoche, and he was placed at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in 1946.

Rinpoche went with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile to Dharamsala, India, in 1959, following the invasion of Tibet by China a decade earlier. He undertook advanced studies in Buddhist religion and philosophy in India, and took higher vows of Buddhist monkhood from the Dalai Lama in 1962. 

From the late 1980s onwards, Rinpoche held various positions in the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

Authorities have threatened to arrest Tibetans in the Ngaba and Dzoge regions who defy the order by posting messages on Aug. 8, the 80th birthday of the 11th Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche (honorific) Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is the chief abbot in exile of the Kirti Monastery, one of the most important and influential monasteries in Tibet.

“The government has warned of such activity by Tibetans, and individuals will be arrested and severely punished if found defying it,” said a Tibetan source inside Tibet who declined to be identified so as to speak freely. 

Chinese authorities restricted monks from the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county and the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county, both in Sichuan province's Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, from celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday in 2021. The areas are heavily populated with ethnic Tibetans.

Monks were not allowed to leave their monasteries, and gatherings were not permitted during that time. 

“Last year Tibetans inside Tibet anticipated restrictions and scrutiny from the Chinese government on celebrating the 80th birthday of the Kriti Rinpoche, so they held back,” said a Tibetan who lives in exile.

“But this year, Tibetans living in exile and inside Tibet are looking forward to celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday and offering tenshug,” the source said, referring to a long-life prayer offering made to spiritual teachers. “But we are seeing restrictions and scrutiny in Ngaba and Dzoge.” 

The Kirti Monastery has been the site of the majority of self-immolations by monks who oppose China’s repressive policies in Tibet.

“In one post circulating among some online Tibetan chat groups, members have been warned not to talk about the Kirti Rinpoche or his birthday and to be careful,” the source in exile said. 

Restrictions are greater in the Ngaba region now also because of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party later this year, said the Tibetan in exile.

Rinpoche was born in Thewo Takmoe Gang in the Amdo region of Tibet on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. When he was a child, leading lamas recognized him as the reincarnation of 10th Kirti Rinpoche, and he was placed at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in 1946.

Rinpoche went with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile to Dharamsala, India, in 1959, following the invasion of Tibet by China a decade earlier. He undertook advanced studies in Buddhist religion and philosophy in India, and took higher vows of Buddhist monkhood from the Dalai Lama in 1962. 

From the late 1980s onwards, Rinpoche held various positions in the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

Returnees living in Golog (Chinese, Guoluo) and Ngaba (Aba) counties, Tibetan-populated regions in western China’s Qinghai province, have recently been called in by police without warning, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA this week.

“They are being asked about possible involvement in political activities,” RFA’s source said, citing contacts in the region and speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Frequent meetings are being held to tell them how to live ‘a decent life’ under Chinese government rule and to stay away from sensitive political issues, and they are also being questioned over the phone from time to time,” the source said.

As part of a broadening Chinese campaign of political education, Tibetans returning from exile to their former homes have been taken on excursions to Chinese cities to show them what the authorities call evidence of progress and development under Communist Party rule, the source added.

Tibetans returning from exile to Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa are kept under particular scrutiny, another source in exile said, with their cell phones regularly inspected and monitored and their movements restricted around politically sensitive dates like the July 6 birthday of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Efforts by China to bring Tibetans back to Tibet have escalated in recent years, with Chinese authorities reaching out to Tibetans living in India and Nepal about their plans to return and asking them what kind of work they are currently doing, sources say.

“The Chinese government tried to send me money back when India was experiencing its worst wave of COVID cases, but I wouldn’t take their money,” said a Tibetan man now living in India but formerly from Qinghai. “They called me and tried to convince me to return, and they also interrogated my parents at their homes back in Tibet,” he added.

COVID status

Chinese authorities in Sichuan are meanwhile demanding that local Tibetans report the COVID status of relatives living outside the country, threatening them with the loss of housing subsidies and other government support if they fail to disclose the information, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

Tibetan families must also reveal the cell phone numbers and social media accounts of their relatives living outside of China, one source said.

China closely tracks communications from Tibetans living in Tibetan areas of China to relatives living abroad in an effort to block news of protests and other politically sensitive information from reaching international audiences, sources say.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule.

Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok and Lobsang Gelek.

Previous years have seen arrests in the weeks around the July 6 birthday and Lhasa and other population centers across Tibet and Tibetan regions of Chinese provinces faced beefed up security this year.

“Despite Chinese authorities’ clampdown on celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 87^th birthday, Tibetans inside Tibet are finding ways to observe the anniversary, either covertly or openly” said a Tibetan in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“On July 6^th Many Tibetans are making Sangso incense smoke offerings on the top of hills in their respective areas, and Tibetans are also commemorating the day by holding picnics at other places,” said the source.

Despite the intensifying security this year, “there are Tibetans inside Tibet, who write essays and articles in praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion,” the source said. The articles “are widely read and shared on social media,” he added.

Chinese authorities in the Himalayan region made everyone attend meetings to warn Tibetans not to share any kinds of photos and telling them that their cellphones will be checked for banned content, another source said.

“In many places, new checkpoints are erected that check all travelers and police units are established to spy on the activities of the family,” the second source said.

“This year around in recent days, the visitors and pilgrimage to Potala Palace and Tsulangkhang Temple in Lhasa are heavily restricted and limited.  Only a certain number of visitors are allowed each day to avoid large public gatherings,” said a source in Lhas, the regional capital.

Last year RFA reported the arrests of 20-30 Tibetans around the time of the Dalai Lama’s 86^th birthday. But there has been no word of detentions or arrests this year.

“It took more than two hours to complete the celebrations with the presence of many Western embassy dignitaries,” said a local Tibetan who attended the celebration.

Local media reported that diplomats from the embassies of France, the EU, Japan, and the United States were among the foreign guests at the settlement center.

"This year the Nepali government granted permission and a large number of Tibetans showed up to celebrate the occasion,” the local source said.

“Nepali police were deployed at the venues, but they are just keeping watch and does not interrupt the celebrations, which included processions of carrying the Dalai Lama’s portrait, official speeches of the Central Tibetan Administration, cultural performances and so on,” added the Nepal source.

Nepal had in previous years banned any such open display of devotion to the Dalai Lama, a stance seen as deferring to its powerful neighbor China, which reviles the popular leader as a separatist.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950.

Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lama’s photo, public celebrations of his birthday, and the sharing of his teachings on mobile phones or other social media are often harshly punished.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

In a statement honoring the Dalai Lama’s birthday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised his “ongoing commitment to non-violence to resolve the grievances of the Tibetan community” and his “dedication and service to humanity.”

Blinken said “the United States will continue to support His Holiness’s and the Tibetan community’s efforts to preserve Tibet’s distinct linguistic, religious, and cultural traditions, including the ability to freely choose their religious leaders.”

Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

More than 25,000 residents of Barkham (Maerkang, in Chinese), a county-level city in the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, were displaced when an earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck the area on June 10.

Government rescuers did not reach the affected area until Monday. Meanwhile, Tibetans living in areas nearby offered immediate help, with monks and townspeople providing food, clothing and temporary shelter in tents to those whose homes were destroyed, local sources said.

After Chinese rescue teams arrived on June 13, however, Tibetans offering aid were told to leave, a Tibetan resident of the area told RFA on Wednesday.

“After the official Chinese rescue teams came in, the Tibetans who had come from nearby regions to provide help were not allowed to stay and were told by Chinese authorities to leave the area for their own safety,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.

“However, the timely assistance they provided to survivors was a huge help,” the source said.

Updated figures of casualties were not immediately available. However, Chinese state media on June 10 reported one resident had been injured in the quake, with 25,790 survivors transferred and resettled.

Chinese authorities have meanwhile imposed a strict clampdown on information coming from Barkham, with residents barred from posting reports, pictures or any other information about the quake, which devastated houses, stupas and monks’ residences, a source told RFA in an earlier report, also declining to be named.

Earthquakes are common on the Tibetan plateau, with a 7.3-magnitude quake last year striking Matoe (Maduo) county in Qinghai, killing 20 and injuring 300. Authorities had similarly blocked social media reporting at that time, telling citizens to report injuries and deaths only to the government rather than sharing information online, RFA said in earlier reports.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

Local officials in the province’s Drago (in Chinese, Luohuo) county have gone door to door to collect the required data, a Tibetan living in exile said, citing contacts in Drago. Sichuan shares a border Tibet, which was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. 

“Chinese authorities are now forcing Tibetans in Drago to disclose the COVID vaccination status of their relatives living abroad. The information should include proof of vaccination and details of additional doses,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Tibetan families must also reveal the cell phone numbers and social media accounts of their relatives living outside of China,” the source said. “They are being told that if they fail to hand this information over, they will be removed from household registries and denied any state assistance they may be receiving from the government,” he added.

The reason for the data collection is still unclear, the source said. “However, there have been a few Tibetans living overseas who have been submitting their COVID vaccination records in the hope of someday returning to Tibet.

“On the other hand, the Chinese authorities may want to collect data on Tibetans living abroad simply to gather information,” he said.

China closely tracks communications from Tibetans living in Tibetan areas of China to relatives living abroad in an effort to block news of protests and other politically sensitive information from reaching international audiences, sources say.

In May, RFA reported that Sichuan authorities were forcing Tibetan monks in Drago, a county located in Sichuan's Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, to sign affidavits claiming responsibility for the destruction of a sacred statue torn down by China. The move came after news of the demolition reached the international community, prompting widespread condemnation.

The 99-foot tall Buddha that stood in Drago was targeted for destruction in December by officials who said the statue had been built too high. Monks from a local monastery and other Tibetan residents were forced to witness the destruction, an action experts called part of an ongoing campaign by China to eradicate Tibet’s national culture and religion.

Eleven monks from a nearby monastery were later arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of sending news and photos of the statue’s destruction, first reported exclusively by RFA, to contacts outside the region.

Using commercial satellite imagery, RFA later verified the destruction at the same time of a three-story statue of Maitreya Buddha, believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be a Buddha appearing in a future age, at Gaden Namyal Ling monastery in Drago.

Communications clampdowns and other security measures meanwhile remain in place in the county, Tibetan sources report.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

Monks at the Atsok Gon Dechen Choekhor Ling monastery in Tsolho (in Chinese, Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have petitioned Chinese officials to rescind the order, a Tibetan resident of the area told RFA this week.

“But the Chinese local supervisor and other authorities have been visiting the Tibetans and warning them to relocate regardless of the cost,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Monks from the monastery are also being summoned for meetings and ordered to agree to relocation,” the source added.

Construction of the power plant was authorized by the Chinese government, with supervision of the work assigned to a company called Machu after an investigation into the project’s viability concluded in December 2021, RFA’s source said.

Dechen Choekhor Ling monastery was founded in 1889 and is currently home to 157 monks, with monks under the age of 18 forbidden since 2021 by government order to live or study there, sources say.

Frequent standoffs

Chinese development projects in Tibetan areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people.

Many projects result in violent suppression and the detention of project organizers, with intense pressure put on local populations to comply with government wishes.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an NGO based in Dharamsala, India, has reported that China’s development drives in Tibet have pulled the region closer to economic and cultural integration with Beijing.

Projects have failed to benefit the Tibetans themselves, however, with rural Tibetans often moved from traditional grazing lands and into urban areas where the best jobs are held by Han Chinese.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

Sonam Gyal and two others, who were not immediately identified, completed their terms and were freed earlier this year, a source living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“In January this year, Sonam Gyal and two others were released after serving their prison term,” said the source.

“Tashi Tsering and two others are scheduled to be released in June, also after completing their prison terms,” the source added. The names of the other two who are expected to be freed are also unconfirmed.

While the source said that the terms of the second trio are set to expire in June, “it is also uncertain if [they] will be released accordingly.”

According to the source, the remaining three had their cases “sent back for retrial and were sentenced to seven years again.”

“The prison time they had already served until now was invalidated,” they said.

In April 2019, RFA reported that the nine Tibetans, all residents of Horgyal village in Qinghai’s Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county, were handed terms of from three to seven years by the County People’s Court for running an “illegal organization,” citing information from the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Authorities had additionally accused the men — Gendun Soepa, Drukbum Tsering, Bende Dorje, Tashi Tsering, Sonam Gyal, Dargye, Shawo Tsering, Khajam Gyal and Choesang — of usurping the duties of already established village committees, “extortion,” and “gathering people to disturb social order,” the group said at the time.

Detained in July 2018, the nine men were formally arrested in August, and were serving their sentences at a large prison facility in Rebgong, a second Tibetan source in exile told RFA.

“Though the prison is very close to Horgyal village, their families and relatives were never allowed to meet them over the last several years,” said the source, who also declined to be named.

“Sonam Gyal’s health was not in a good state for a long time while in prison, but we don’t know much about his current health status, even though he is released. … People in the region were all too scared to talk about it and tried to avoid the conversation.”

The second source said that the health conditions of the six still in prison are also uncertain.

Petition to reclaim land

In a petition signed on Feb, 21, 2017, the nine, part of a larger group of 24, had mobilized village support to demand the return of Horgyal village land handed over for use by three brick factories in exchange for lease payments to the village that ended when the works were closed down by government order in 2011.

For the next seven years, authorities compensated the factories annually for their loss of business, though payments to the Horgyal village government then stopped, TCHRD said in its statement at the time of their sentencing, adding that villagers had called since then for the land’s return.

Two years before, a Tibetan monastery in Rebgong had appealed for the return of property formerly leased to a teacher’s college but seized by local officials as the college moved to a new location, Tibetan sources told RFA in an earlier report.

The property, comprising one third of the total estate of Rongwo monastery, was confiscated in 2016, and monks had petitioned ever since for its return, sources said.

Chinese development projects in Tibetan areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans, who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people.

Many projects result in violent suppression, the detention of protest organizers, and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government’s wishes.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

But that changed last year when the Chinese government stepped up its surveillance measures and restricted online communications between Tibetans and their family members and friends abroad.

“I was able to communicate with my family and relatives back in Tibet using social media chat apps, [but] the communication was completely cut off a few months back due to greater surveillance and restrictions,” Gyatso told RFA.

Part of Chamdo prefecture, Markham county (in Chinese, Mangkang) is an area rich in agricultural, water and mineral resources. Residents of depend on farming and animal husbandry to make a living.

“It’s very worrisome not having any information on how they are doing, and I’m sure it’s the same for them also not knowing about my well-being,” said Gyatso, who in 2000 fled his impoverished hometown, located in the TAR’s far west and bordering China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Chinese authorities in the TAR and Tibetan areas of nearby Chinese provinces restrict freedoms of religion, expression, movement, and assembly, and ignore residents’ concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, who routinely rely on force to subdue those who complain or protest, human rights groups say.

Authorities have intensified surveillance of Tibetans over the past decade under the leadership of Chen Quanguo, the TAR Communist Party chief from 2011-16 and the figure widely associated with setting up a system of mass internment camps for Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, a restive region north of Tibet, where he led the party from 2016 until last year.

“Chen’s system combines hyper-securitization and militarization with efforts to accelerate the political and cultural transformation of local people. Its stated aim is ‘breaking lineage, breaking roots, breaking connections, and breaking origins’ of Tibetans and Uyghurs,” said the International Campaign for Tibet in a December 2018 report.

“Surveillance technologies that have sparked outrage internationally because of their use in Xinjiang were trialed in Tibet,” the Washington-based rights group said.

Tibet, a formerly independent Himalayan country, was invaded by China in 1950 and has been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party ever since. There are some 6.3 million Tibetans living in China and as many as 200,000 living in India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Harassment and punishment

Human Rights Watch's latest World Report, an annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, noted that an announcement in November 2020 that the government was tightening controls on online communications it claimed undermined national unity was followed by an uptick in reported detentions of Tibetans in 2021 for alleged online offenses.

“Tibetans who contacted people outside China were harassed and punished, regardless of the content of their communications,” said the report by the New York-based rights group.

The authorities’ increasingly hardline policies have made it more difficult for Tibetans in exile to communicate with their families and friends back home, said Tibetan sources inside and outside the region.

RFA’s Tibetan Service recently surveyed 215 Tibetans living in India about the communication flow between them and their relatives and friends inside the TAR, with half of the respondents saying that there had been a complete breakdown in contact because of stepped-up Chinese restrictions and monitoring of residents in recent years.

Forty-four of the respondents said that maintaining contact with those inside the TAR has become very challenging in the last two years.

Tibetans in India rely mostly on the Chinese instant messaging app WeChat to communicate with their family members in the TAR.

Geshe Lobsang Yeshi, Tibet coordinator at the Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, India, home of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and the Tibetan government in exile, agreed.

“Nowadays, it’s not only politically sensitive conversations but anything you discuss with Tibetans outside that is regulated,” he said. “For instance, there is a specific office set up in [the TAR’s] Ngaba region that regulates and examines the cell phones of local Tibetans.”

To make matters worse, since June 2020, the Indian government has banned more than 200 Chinese apps, starting with about 59 popular applications in the first round, including WeChat, saying that they pose a threat to national security.

The move has hampered communication between some Tibetans in exile and people in the TAR. RFA’s survey found that only 10 percent of respondents were affected — mostly older Tibetans or those who did not know how to use a virtual private network to skirt Chinese internet censorship and blockages.

Prohibiting money transfers

China has been tracking Tibetans in Tibet communicating with those in exile to shut down the flow of information to the outside world, according to sources inside Tibet who provide information to communities abroad.

The Chinese government also has started prohibiting the transfer of money from Tibetans in the TAR to outside recipients, they said.

RFA reported in October 2020 that a Tibetan herder, Lhamo, and her cousin, businessman Tenzin Tharpa, were detained for sending money to family members and others living in India. Lhamo died after being tortured in Chinese custody, while her cousin was still being held by police.

The survey results indicated that it is even more difficult for Tibetans in exile involved in political campaigns and protests against the Chinese government, dignitaries, and journalists to communicate with their families inside Tibet.

“It is a fact that Chinese authorities specifically harass and surveil family members of Tibetans in exile who are usually actively involved in political campaigns, and journalists,” said a Tibetan journalist living in India who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“My family members back home were also questioned many times in the past by the Chinese authorities who continue to do so,” he added.

Three survey respondents living in Qinghai province told RFA that they had received calls from Chinese authorities urging them to move to the TAR.

Authorities told them that a new Chinese government policy would allow them to reunite with their families in the TAR and that officials would take care of processing the required documents and provide other necessities, the Tibetans in Qinghai said.

“Lately, I’ve been receiving calls from Chinese officials in Tibet asking me to return home,” said a Tibetan who now lives in India.

The Chinese government also sent officials to his home in Tibet and interrogated his parents, taking photos and recording videos of them, said the man, who declined to give his name for safety reasons.

“It worries me now, and because of the growing scrutiny, I’m scared, too,” he said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lobsang Gelek.