Tibetan Father of Four is Detained After Solo Protest in Ngaba
Authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province have detained a Tibetan man after he launched a solo protest in the latest public challenge to Beijing’s rule in restive Ngaba county, Tibetan sources living in India said.
Tashi, 31, staged his protest in the seat of Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county in the Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture on Oct. 26, calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tibetan monks Lobsang Yeshe and Kanyak Tsering said, citing contacts in the region.
“He carried a photo of the Dalai Lama in his hand as he walked down the street in protest,” Yeshe and Tsering said, adding, “Police stationed in the town quickly jumped on him and took him away.”
“At present, he is said to be held in the Ngaba detention center,” they said.
“Tashi is a family man with four children, two boys and two girls,” Yeshe and Tsering said. “His wife’s name is Kelpe, and two of their children are still students at the Meruma township school in Ngaba.”
“They all live in Group Five of Meruma township,” they said.
Communications cut
News of Tashi’s detention was briefly delayed due to communication blocks imposed by Chinese authorities in the area following a string of similar protests last month, and no official confirmation of his whereabouts or details regarding his condition were immediately available.
Internet service in the Ngaba area has been cut off since September after other Tibetans, including a woman and several monks, launched solo protests in the town, with the restrictions especially hurting the county’s business sector, Yeshe and Tsering said.
Hotels in the area have been particularly hard hit, they said.
“They are appealing to authorities to lift the ban.”
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 143 Tibetans to date setting themselves on fire to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the Dalai Lama’s return.
Reported by Dhondup Gonsar for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Chinese Authorities Demolish Tibetan Nunnery in Driru
106 nuns from a well-known Tibetan nunnery that has often been a subject to crackdown have been expelled from their homes, which was later destroyed, according to an exiled Tibetan nun originially from Jada Nunnery.
People familiar with the area say that Jada Nunnery of Driru County, Nagchu Prefecture,Tibetan Autonomous Region host both local nuns and nuns from other areas of Tibet.
The Tibetan Center of Human Rights and Democracy (TCHR) based in Dharamsala, Northern India reported that the Chinese authorities have often launched crackdowns in the area, and that a number of nuns had been expelled last month as well.
According to Ngawang Tharpa, a source from India, in November of last year, 26 nuns were reportedly expelled from the same nunnery. This is however, the first time that the authorities have destroyed the residence homes of the nuns through false promises of renovating the compound.
The nunnery now has only about 60 nuns remaining as a result of these constant crackdown and expulsion.

Tibet’s PM-in-exile urges global leaders to support cause of ‘free Tibet’ – both for the sake of democracy and the global environment
World Bulletin / News Desk
Tibetan Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay, who currently lives in exile in India, has urged global leaders to support the cause of a “free Tibet” — both for the sake of democracy and the global environment.
A Himalayan region of China, Tibet — which is surrounded by India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar — is of considerable ecological importance.
“Tibet is not only vital for six million Tibetans, but for the whole world — from an environmental point-of-view, a spiritual point-of-view and a strategic point-of-view,” Sangay told Anadolu Agency.
“Supporting Tibet is to support a rich, ancient civilization,” he added. “It is also [to support] values which we embrace [which] are democratic values.”
A graduate of Harvard University in the U.S., Sangay was elected head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in April 2011.
Beijing, however, remains staunchly opposed to any notion of Tibetan independence.
At an August meeting devoted to the issue, Chinese President Xi Jinping strenuously rejected proposals by the Dalai Lama — Tibet’s “spiritual leader” — for Tibetan “autonomy”.
Xi went on to assert that China would actively oppose any perceived threats to its territorial integrity.
– Ecological issue
Sangay, for his part, said that supporting the cause of a “free Tibet” was also important from an ecological perspective, as the country was the source of several important rivers in the region.
“It is also important for more than a billion people who survive on fresh water coming from Tibet,” he said.
China is currently building a number of dams in Tibet, which, Sangay warned, would have critical implications on neighboring India and Bangladesh.
“Unfortunately, the Chinese government has not signed the UN convention on water sharing,” he said. “So they are not bound to share water as per international norms.”
“The Indian government should be vigilant and make this issue more pronounced,” he added. “I was told the water level of the River Brahmaputra has receded over the years [which] will affect greenery, agriculture and fishing.”
The Brahmaputra River emanates from a glacier located on Mount Kailash in Tibet, where the river is called the Yarlung Tsangpo.
According to Sangay, Tibet is the source of at least 10 major rivers in Asia, including the Brahmputra.
“Tibet’s glaciers — where most of these rivers originate — are fast depleting,” he said. “On top of that, there is deforestation and exploitation of water resources through dam construction and other activities.”
“Downstream countries are going to bear the brunt of Tibet’s ecological destruction,” Sangay warned while attending the fifth All India Tibet Support Groups Conference in India’s northeastern city of Guwahati.
Currently, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans live in exile in different countries, with more than 100,000 said to be living in India alone.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama — along with some 80,000 followers — fled into exile in India.
Sangay concluded by expressing hope that Tibet would soon be a “free country”, whose people would enjoy the “fruits of democracy”.

China Arrests Latest Tibetan Lone Protestor in Ngapa
A Tibetan man was arrested after staging a solo protest in Ngapa County, Ngawa Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province on Monday, October 26, 2015.
Holding up a picture of the Dalai Lama, Tashi, 31, took to a crowded street in Ngapa County and shouted, “Tibetans want freedom, and let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet.”
According to Kanyag Tsering, Spokesperson for Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, Tashi was immediately arrested following his protest and taken to the Ngapa county jail.
This is the latest in a series of lone protests that have been taking place in Tibet this year.
Since 2008, Ngapa remains one of most persistent protest areas in Tibet. It is also a place where the self-immolation movement inside Tibet began in 2009 by a monk named Tapey. Since then, there have been over 140 known self-immolations in the Tibetan areas to protest China’s policies towards Tibetans.

Destruction of Tibetan Homes Near Qinghai Lake Leaves Over 900 Homeless
The ongoing demolition by Chinese authorities of Tibetan dwellings near a scenic lake in northwestern China’s Qinghai province has left over 900 homeless and living in tents following a renewed assault, according to sources in the region and in exile.
The destruction in Gonpodung Kala village in Chabcha (in Chinese, Gonghe) county’s Trelnak township in the Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture took place late last week after the leveling a few days earlier of homes and shops elsewhere in Trelnak, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“On Oct. 22, a group of police arrived with bulldozers and began at around 4:20 p.m. to tear down over 240 houses built by Tibetan residents,” RFA’s source said, adding, “The authorities gave no reasons for the demolition.”
“Afterward, about 960 Tibetans from the village were left without houses and had to take shelter in tents,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They were not allowed to take photos of the wreckage or to go anywhere near their destroyed property,” he added.
Speaking separately, a Tibetan living in exile confirmed the resident’s account, citing contacts in the area.
“The Tibetan victims were given no chance to question the Chinese actions,” Dolma Tso told RFA from her home in India.
“The demolition was completed within a short time, and the Tibetans were not allowed near the site of their demolished homes,” she said.
Crowding, pollution
The destruction in Kala village followed by just five days a similar operation in Trelnak in which “Chinese officials and police arrived and tore down 30 structures built by the Tibetans as dwellings and place of business around Qinghai Lake,” a source told RFA in an earlier report.
The structures had been financed by personal loans and were constructed with iron sheets, with the shops set up to cater to tourists and pilgrims visiting the lake, the source said.
“The authorities accused the Tibetans of polluting and crowding the area around the lake, and took action to tear down the shops and homes,” he said.
“Now the owners are left without any source of supplemental income,” he added.
Tibetans living in China frequently complain of political, economic, and religious discrimination as well as human rights abuses.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 143 Tibetans to date setting themselves ablaze to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Reported by Sonam Wangdu for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tourist Garbage Choking Tibetan Wetland
From Radio Free Asia
With geographical beauty, clean air, and what many Chinese consider an exotic culture, Tibet attracts millions of Chinese tourists each year. However, with that interest, comes a heavy ecological cost.
An article published by the official Chinese Tibetan language news website, China’s Tibet, earlier this month titled, “Garbage-Filled Lake Kokonor,” unveiled the magnitude of garbage problems around the lake Kokonor (also knowns as Qinghai Lake), the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau.
The article revealed that hundreds of tons of garbage were dumped along the lake shore, which has been killing the domestic animals and polluting the lake and rivers.
“Following the National Day holiday and the tourists’ departure, Lake Kokonor area has been covered by garbage, Both the land and sky in the area where local residents live are filled with garbage,” said the article. It also mentioned that every time the wind blows, the plastics can be noticed flying everywhere. Some local nomads were quoted saying that their animals are dying as a result of this pollution. “The guts of the dead animals are filled with plastic.” The article further said that over 360 kilometers of wetland is now threatened from toxic garbage pollution.
The article, which first appeared in Chinese popular website, Sina on Oct. 8, has apparently received attention from the provincial authorities. Two days later, China’s Tibet website, the same website that had published the earlier article on October 9, reported that Qinghai Provincial party secretary sent over “10,000 soldiers and civilians to clean up the area and collected 270 tons of garbage in two days.”
However, according to an expert, the problem is rooted deeper in China’s environmental education system. Xia Shu, who has started recycling factories in some of China’s biggest cities, including Shanghai, has recently visited Tibetan Plateau. He tells VOA’s Tibetan service that the government has not provided any information to tourists about environmental protection and how to manage their own garbage. “There is nothing, no habits, no signs or anything to encourage people or tell people that it is wrong (to leave garbage),” Xia says. He added that his group drove from the end to the source of Yellow River and saw garbage everywhere along the river. “I didn’t see that the government has done much, or the people have done much,” Xia said. “I think it is about education.”
According to the article in China’s Tibet, 5343 tourists visited the lake on China’s National Day on October 1, 2015. The report quotes a 50 year-old herdsman saying that the surrounding area of the lake used to be full of countless wetland, vegetation, and “colorful flowers that carpeted the earth” in the summer. “Now, it is very hard to find such a place,” said the report.
“We can’t do anything about it because we have no political authority,” said Palzang Tsering, a manager of Qinghai Lake Tourism Group, according to the article.
In 2013, the official Chinese report published on China’s Tibet said 3,400,000 tourists arrived in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) alone. As China often imposes restrictions to foreign tourists to visit Tibet, the majority of the tourists TAR and Tibetan areas, like Qinghai Lake, receive are from China.

Chinese authorities destroy ‘over 300’ Tibetan houses and shops in Tibet
October 26, 2015
Radio Free Asia, October 21, 2015 – Authorities in northwestern China’s Qinghai province moved against a lakeside Tibetan village this week, tearing down over 300 private homes and shops and beating and detaining area residents who resisted the demolition work, according to a local source.
The assault on Trelnak village in Chabcha (in Chinese, Gonghe) county in the Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture began on Oct. 16 and has continued for the last five days, the source told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Tuesday.
“So far about 300 houses owned by Tibetans have been destroyed, and the demolition is still going on,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“In the commotion, five Tibetan nomads were detained and beaten, but were later released,” he said, naming two married couples who had tried to recover personal property from the ruins of their homes and an elderly man who was threatened at gunpoint by police and taken into custody.
“On Oct. 19, Lhachen Kyab and his wife Dobe, and Yangmo Kyab and her husband Jampel, went back to collect their belongings, but the police would not allow them to do this,” he said.
“Instead, they were severely beaten and held for two hours before being released.”
Police then threatened another Tibetan—Luthar Kyab, 60—by pointing a rifle in his face before taking him away, RFA’s source said.
“He was later found in a hospital,” he said.
‘Pollution, crowding’
The demolition in Trelnak began on Oct. 16 and 17, “when a group of Chinese officials and police arrived and tore down 30 structures built by the Tibetans as dwellings and places of business around Qinghai Lake,” the source said.
The structures had been financed by personal loans and were constructed with iron sheets, with the shops set up to cater to tourists and pilgrims visiting the lake, he said.
“The authorities accused the Tibetans of polluting and crowding the area around the lake, and therefore took action to tear down the shops and homes,” he said, adding, “Now the owners are left without any source of supplemental income.”
The reported number of destroyed dwellings and shops could not be independently confirmed, and calls seeking comment from local police authorities rang unanswered Wednesday.
The campaign against Trelnak followed similar incidents in May in which temporary dwellings deemed “illegal” by authorities were torn down in villages in Chabcha and Mangra (Guinan), another Tsolho county, sources said in earlier reports.
Tibetans living in China frequently complain of political, economic, and religious discrimination as well as human rights abuses.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 143 Tibetans to date setting themselves ablaze to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Chinese officials in Tibet to step up efforts ‘against separatism’, says party chief
October 26, 2015
The Guardian, October 22, 2015 – Communist party officials in Tibet must be a “fortress” against separatism and work to ensure that the Chinese regime’s monopoly on information is maintained, the regional boss has warned.
Tibet party boss Chen Quanguo, writing in the official People’s Daily, said there was “nothing more harmful than chaos”, and China’s stability as a whole rests on the stability and security of Tibet.
A central element of this was to train and promote a core of high-calibre Tibetan and Han Chinese officials who will be based in every county and village across the region, Chen said.
“Build up grassroots party organisations which serve the masses and promote development and are a staunch combat fortress to maintain stability and oppose separatism,” Chen wrote.
The “ideological security” of Tibet needs the party to control public opinion, the media and the internet, and every house in every village must be able to watch the television or listen to the radio, he said.
“Work hard to build the same spiritual home for all ethnic groups, focus on building a strong positive force for a united, beautiful, harmonious and happy socialist Tibet,” Chen said.
It is 50 years since China established what it calls the Tibet autonomous region. Beijing says it “peacefully liberated” Tibet in 1950 and that its rule has brought prosperity and equality to a once-backward region.
However, rights groups and exiles say China governs with an iron fist and represses Tibet’s Buddhist people which leads to periodic outbreaks of violence and anti-Chinese protests.
China blames exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for unrest in Tibetan parts of the country, including a wave of self-immolations. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama denies Chinese charges he wants Tibetan independence or that he promotes violence, saying only that he wants genuine autonomy for Tibet.
Unusually, Chen made no direct mention of the Dalai Lama, saying only that the “struggle against separatism has been noticeably stepped up”.

China state visit: Is Tibet silence the price for UK-China ties?
Three years ago, China froze all high-level contact with the UK when Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama, the Spiritual leader of Tibet.
But relations between the two countries thawed significantly after Mr Cameron said he had no plans to meet him again.
Now, with President Xi Jinping in the UK for a state visit, what do people in Tibet make of Britain’s strengthening ties with China?
Beijing correspondent John Sudworth reports from Aba.
Longer piece – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34578324
The first thing that strikes you about the monasteries clinging to the side of the mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau is their beauty.
Small, isolated communities of a few hundred monks, seemingly unperturbed with their white and gold stupas and prayer flags set against the almost impossible blue sky.
But anyone who stops to ask a few questions (although they are the kind of questions the busloads of Chinese tourists will never ask) notices something else too.
Fear.
We are winding our way up the long road from the central city of Chengdu to the Aba Tibetan region in north-west Sichuan Province.
Seen as part of “greater Tibet” by exile groups, it is an area that lies just outside the borders of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and so, in theory at least, foreign journalists do not need special permission to be here.
But many a reporter has been turned away in the past and we are moving quickly, trying not to linger too long in any place.
With the gantries bristling with video cameras it is clear that a careful watch is being kept on these monasteries.
So the introductions need to be brief and the questions direct. But we find that many monks, despite the risks, are keen to talk – although not on camera.
“What do you think of the Dalai Lama?” I ask one elderly monk.
His response is typical; a hesitation, a glance round, and then, in hushed tones: “He is always close to our hearts.”
“Is it dangerous to talk about him?”
“It is, it is,” he replies. “I’d be taken away like this,” and he gestures by crossing his hands to show me where the handcuffs would go.
He speaks of his resentment over the restrictions on his religious freedom, about how – despite reports that China has been relaxing the penalties for carrying or displaying portraits of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader – they have to worship him in secret.
And then he bends down and briefly kisses my translator’s hand. “I’ve been here for 20 years and I’ve never spoken to a foreigner,” he says.
“These things have been burning inside of me, just to say it is enough.”
These are sentiments we hear repeated time and again.
A Chinese state visit to Britain might not seem like an obvious premise for a reporting trip to this country’s remote Tibetan regions.
With President Xi Jinping 8,000km (4,970 miles) away and talking of common ground and closer economic ties, his officials would likely see our attempt to gather testimony here as the usual foreign media mischief-making.
But while the tight control of coverage of Tibet domestically is nothing new, we wanted to ask Tibetans what they thought of Beijing’s recent efforts to keep it off the diplomatic agenda too, the shadow of which looms large over the pomp and ceremony in London.
The deep displeasure over the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s May 2012 meeting with the Dalai Lama, a man China considers a dangerous separatist, was made abundantly clear.
UK-China relations were only put back on track after a great deal of fence-mending, bridge-building, and a statement from the PM’s office that he had no plans to meet the Dalai Lama again.
He has so far kept his word on that promise, and many critics see a dangerous precedent in Britain’s readiness to allow the Chinese Communist Party to demand a foreign policy price in exchange for economic grace and favour.
We eventually pass unnoticed through the checkpoints on the edge of Aba County, some 10 hours drive from Chengdu, and reach our ultimate destination, Kirti Monastery.
One of the most important centres in Tibetan Buddhism, Kirti has also been at the centre of one of the biggest challenges to Chinese authority in decades.
The Tibet-wide rioting of 2008 began here, and many of the more than 140 gruesome self-immolations have taken place in or around Aba.
The recent one-man protests, with monks carrying portraits of the Dalai Lama through the centre of Aba along what they now call “Heroes Street”, have been met with a heavy response.
The punishment for such defiance can be up to four years in prison.
During our visit, the whole town of Aba was undergoing one of its periodic internet blackouts – completely cut off since early last month – and the monks told us that people had been taken away for simply forwarding prayers and messages from the Dalai Lama.
China has long been trying in vain to force people here to turn their backs on their spiritual leader.
So what do they think of the attempts to force foreign governments to do the same?
Remarkably, in a quiet corner, outside the monastery walls and at great risk to themselves, some of the monks agree to talk to us on camera, providing we disguise their identities.
Some of the monks agree to talk to the BBC’s John Sudworth on camera “The Dalai Lama is the biggest living Buddha for all Tibetans, and he is the only master in our heart,” one of them tells me.
“He is like the sun to us,” another adds. “All the Tibetan people think the same.”
“When China tells foreign governments not to meet him, should they listen?” I ask.
“They should meet him,” the monks insist.
And then that fear again, palpable and real.
“If the government knows [we’re talking to you] they’ll arrest us. It happened before.”
“Some of us tried to contact reporters overseas online and talk about the Chinese government’s control over Tibet. As soon as the government finds out, they’ll make the arrest.”
After just a few short minutes, they melt away.
There’s so much more I’d like to ask them but, fleeting as it is, it is at least real testimony, real voices from one of the most closed and controlled places on the planet.
And it is proof that 50 years in exile have done nothing to diminish the Dalai Lama’s popularity and authority here.
It is that popularity perhaps that lies at the heart of China’s continual preoccupation with a man who has spent over five decades in exile, and why it tries so hard to limit his influence on the global stage.
The more foreign governments comply, critics say, the more the human rights abuses here slip from international view – and the more isolated Tibet’s fearful monks become.

Tibetan Prisoner in Failing Health Three Years Into 10-Year Term
2015-08-26
A Tibetan man jailed three years ago for preventing Chinese police from seizing the body of a self-immolation protester is in failing health in prison and has been refused family visits from his aging parents, sources said.
Washul Dortruk, age unknown, was handed a ten-year term in December 2012 after returning the body of Lobsang Gendun to his monastery in Qinghai province’s Pema (in Chinese, Banma) county, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.
“Since then, he has been serving his sentence in a prison located in the eastern part of [provincial capital] Xining,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He has completed almost three years, and has another seven years to serve,” he said.
Lobsang Gendun, 29, set himself ablaze on Dec. 3 to protest China’s rule in Tibetan areas and walked about 300 steps with his hands folded in prayer, shouting slogans, before he collapsed and died, sources said in earlier reports.
Though Chinese police arrived quickly at the scene to remove his remains, local Tibetans struggled with them for possession of the body and took it to Pema county’s Penak monastery, where Gendun had lived before staging his fiery protest, sources said.
Failing health
Dortruk, one of those who returned the dead monk’s body to his home, is now in poor health in prison, RFA’s source said.
“His parents were allowed to meet with him some years back, but they are now in their 80s and have been refused permission to see him again,” he said.
When other family members were allowed to visit him this year, they could see and speak to him only through a glass partition, the source said.
“At that time, they saw that he was very weak, and he appeared to have suffered a serious injury to his leg while in detention.”
“His family has appealed for a commutation of his sentence, but the authorities have not responded positively to their request,” he said.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 142 Tibetans to date setting themselves on fire to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the Dalai Lama’s return.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.