China foreign minister complains to Secretary of State Kerry after Dalai Lama visits Washington
June 20, 2016
Reuters, June 18, 2016 – The United States should not interfere in China’s internal affairs on matters related to Tibet, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call on Saturday.
According to an account of the call posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website, Kerry reaffirmed that there was no change in the U.S. policy that Tibet is a part of China and that the U.S. does not support Tibetan independence.
The phone call follows on from President Barack Obama’s meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, last week at the White House despite China warning it would damage diplomatic relations.
China views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist. The meeting came at a time of already heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over Beijing’s pursuit of territorial claims in East Asia.
On the call, Wang and Kerry also discussed the success of the recently concluded bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, according to the foreign ministry posting, which did not give specifics.
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Speaks at United States Institute of Peace and the American University

Washington DC, USA, 13 June 2016 – After arriving in Washington from India yesterday and, as he declared this morning, having had ten hours sleep last night, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s first engagement was at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The Institute’s President Nancy Lindborg and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi met him at the door and ushered him into a breakfast meeting. Introducing him Mrs Pelosi said:
“A visit by His Holiness is always a cause for celebration and—in the light of the tragedy in Orlando—today we need you more than ever.” He responded:
“Genuine peace must come from inner peace. It’s impossible to find peace if we are full of frustration, suspicion and mistrust. USIP must encourage a change of heart based on a change of awareness rather than a dependence on blessings. Whether we are happy or sad depends directly on our own actions. I know that USIP is committed to creating peace. I believe that to achieve it what we need is education. Today’s education with its focus on materialistic goals needs to pay more attention to inner values. If this can be done, we may create a more peaceful world by the middle of this century.”
When Nancy Lindborg mentioned a recent USIP led visit of youth leaders from countries in conflict to meet His Holiness in Dharamsala, he remarked that these young people had real determination and courage, which he took as a real sign of hope for change. In his answers to questions he spoke of a draft curriculum that is being developed to incorporate human values into modern education, which will also require the training of teachers. Asked how to help the current waves of refugees he said:
“I admire all those countries that are helping them, but simply providing shelter is not enough. The long term solution is to restore peace in the lands these people are fleeing. In the meantime their young people must be given education and training to equip them to be able to help rebuild their countries in due course.
“Life is difficult, but coping with it is much easier if you have peace of mind. One way to achieve this is to encourage a more holistic approach to education that fosters a greater warm-heartedness based on scientific findings, common experience and common sense.”
Nancy Lindborg concluded the meeting by thanking Kalden T Lodoe, Tibetan Representative Kaydor Aukatsang and USIP Vice-Chairman George Moose for facilitating the Dharamsala visit.
Moving to a discussion before a larger audience in the Frank Carlucci Auditorium, His Holiness opened the meeting with an invitation to observe a moment of silent prayer in view of the tragedy in Orlando. Introducing herself as President of USIP, Nancy Lindborg said, “Peace is possible, practical and essential for world security.” Referring again to having taken 28 youth leaders to Dharamsala, she invited all present to watch a short video that summarized what took place. She said, “We share your vision of the 21st century as an era of peace.”
“We all have problems to do with fear and anger,” His Holiness said in his address, “but withstanding difficulties is much easier if you have mental strength. In my own case, I lost my freedom aged 16 and then lost my country when I was 24. I faced an array of problems after that, but my mind has remained peaceful.
“All 7 billion human beings alive today are mentally, physically and emotionally the same. We all have the same potential to find peace of mind. Some people mistakenly conclude that cultivating compassion is all about others’ benefit, whereas the first benefit is to us. Compassion brings us peace of mind. It attracts friends. Friends are based on trust and trust develops when we show concern for others. I really admire these young people who came to see me, not only for their interest, but because of the action they have taken in their own countries.”
Columnist Michael Gerson described the Dharamsala youth workshop in terms of something Robert Kennedy said in Cape Town 50 years ago, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope…”
Soukaina Hamia, a young leader from the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center, a large slum in Casablanca, Morocco said she had learned to be more honest; that she didn’t need to be afraid to be open. “We are all members of one human family,” she said. “We are peace and love. Knowledge only becomes real when it is shared. We should build a generation that dedicates itself to peace every day, again and again.”
Victoria Ibiwoye from Nigeria, who works with a group that helps vulnerable children and youth, said, “We have the choice to work for peace. At the heart of the community we have the opportunity to build peace. We want to change the narrative.”
Among questions from the audience, His Holiness was asked his advice for girls and women in violent circumstances. He explained how early human groups probably had no leaders, but once agriculture and a sense of property emerged there was a need for them. At that time the criterion was physical strength, which is why men became dominant. However, education has brought greater equality between men and women. He said that at a time when we need to encourage a greater sense of warm-heartedness, since women are more attuned to others’ pain, they need to take a more active role. He wondered if more of the world’s nearly 200 nations were led by women, the world might be a more peaceful place. Smiling at the two delegates, he remarked:
“Thank you for coming to our meeting. I learned a good deal from you.”
His advice to young leaders to fend off discouragement was to meet with other people, to make a point of recognizing them as fellow human beings, and to make friends with them.
As His Holiness was leaving the building, Oren Dorell of USA Today asked him about the meeting he had just attended. His Holiness reiterated the importance of cultivating peace of mind. He cited it as the main reason that friends tell him that, although he is now nearly 81 years old, his face looks younger. He continued this theme in an interview after lunch with David Bronnstrom of Reuters, telling him that peace can only grow where people have inner peace. He stressed the importance of not isolating our Muslim brothers and sisters. He repeated once more with regard to the current refugee crisis that the key factor is to achieve a cease-fire and restore peace to the lands that people are fleeing.
Bronnstrom asked whether, in the context of what His Holiness had already said about female leadership, it would be good for the US to have a women President. He would only say that he was confident the American people would make the right choice. He ended by saying:
“I support President Obama’s recent initiative to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons and pray that it will come to fruition.”
At the American University in the afternoon, His Holiness was welcomed by Richard Gere, Chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi and Capital Area Tibetan Association President Jigme Gorap. In her introduction Mrs Pelosi spoke of her recent delegation to Tibet where local authorities boasted of gilding the roof of the temple as evidence of their respect for religious freedom, while what is studied in the monasteries is subject to restrictions. She said there is no better way to honour His Holiness than to be a friend of the Tibetan people. Richard Gere, for his part, described His Holiness as the greatest advocate of his people and an exemplary proponent of non-violence.
“Dear brothers and sisters I’m so happy to see you all here,” His Holiness began. “As human beings we have a marvellous brain and we have to use it to find joy in life and avoid suffering. That scientists are finding indications that basic human nature is compassionate gives us real hope. It enables us to foster a sense of community and develop infinite altruism.
“We face a lot of problems, many of them of our own making, arising as they do from anger and self-centredness. But we can change. We can use our brains to learn to extend our concern to others, recognizing that as human beings we are physically, mentally and emotionally the same. We all have a seed of compassion in our basic nature. When someone asked me at Heathrow Airport yesterday the secret of my happiness, I replied that it’s a secret, but then told him it’s having peace of mind.
“Education can help us change our way of thinking. The generation of the 20th century to which I belong has created a lot of problems which those of you who belong to the 21st century have to solve. If we take a calm and compassionate approach I believe we can create a better, more peaceful world, but if we continue to quarrel, cheat and exploit each other, we’ll only see greater misery.”
Speaking in Tibetan he encouraged Tibetans not to think only of their livelihood but to remember they are ambassadors for Tibet. He counseled them to appreciate the value of their culture, to remember that Tibetan Buddhism is derived directly from the Nalanda tradition that hinges on the use of reasoning. He suggested that his own training in this tradition, with no modern education, had equipped him engage in meaningful discussions with scientists for more than thirty years.
He suggested that understanding of the workings of the mind and regulation of emotions is something that Tibetans can contribute to the world. Analyzing whether anger is of any value or whether warm-heartedness is more helpful is an example. He said that while anger may appear to bring energy to bear, it tends to be blind. He stressed once again the importance of education.
He referred to his own devolution of political authority to an elected leadership and his retiring the institution of Dalai Lamas from future political activity in the context of the need to adapt to the modern world.
Coming down from the stage, His Holiness made his way right along the front row of an audience eager to make contact with him, shaking hands, exchanging a few words with old friends, and naming young children. Finally, he turned to wave goodbye and, as the audience chanted “Long live the Dalai Lama”, climbed into a car to return to his hotel.

China to demolish world’s largest Buddhist monastery: Human Rights Watch
June 13, 2016
NDTV, June 10, 2016 – China plans to demolish a large part of one of the world’s biggest Buddhist monasteries that would leave thousands homeless, Human Rights Watch said today as it appealed to the country to instead negotiate with the Buddhist community.
Chinese authorities should suspend plans to demolish residences at the historic Academy of Larung Gar Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province and negotiate with the community’s leadership, the watchdog said in a report released in New York.
The government plans to take over the management and eliminate quarters for all but 5,000 monks, nuns, and others at the monastery, one of the world’s largest monastic institutions, by September 2017, cutting numbers there by at least half, it said.
“China’s authorities should not be determining the size of monasteries or any other religious institution, but should accept that religious freedom means letting people decide for themselves their religious practices,” Sophie Richardson, watchdog’s China director said.
“If authorities somehow believe that the Larung Gar facilities are overcrowded, the answer is simple: allow Tibetans and other Buddhists to build more monasteries,” she said.
A recent order from the Serta county government in Sichuan provides no reason for the demolitions and dramatic reduction in Larung Gar’s population – which consists of at least 10,000 monks, nuns, and others – but simply says that the community is in need of “ideological guidance,” the report said.
“There is no suggestion that the authorities consulted the Larung Gar leadership about the measures,” it said. The watchdog alleged that officials of the ruling Communist Party would make up the majority of the management staff at the monastery, a practice it said has become common in other Buddhist monasteries too.

Tibetan monk detained following peaceful protest
June 13, 2016
Radio Free Asia, June 7, 2016 – A Tibetan monk was taken into custody by police in southwestern China’s Sichuan province on Tuesday after staging a solo protest challenging Beijing’s rule in Tibetan areas, sources in the region and in exile said.
Lobsang Tsering, believed to be in his 20s, was detained shortly after launching his protest at about 4:00 p.m. local time on June 7 on a street known locally as Heroes’ Road in the main town of Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county in the Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, one local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“While walking in protest through the street, he carried a photo of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama and a ceremonial scarf raised high over his head, calling out loudly for the Dalai Lama’s long life,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Soon afterward, police overpowered him and took him away,” he said.
No information was immediately available regarding Tsering’s condition or whereabouts following his detention, though a second local source said that the monk, who was enrolled in Ngaba’s restive Kirti monastery, was “severely beaten” as he was being detained.
“Many people standing on both sides of the road witnessed his protest, but no one else was seen raising any slogans,” the source added, also speaking on condition he not be named.
“Additional numbers of police were then stationed on the roads and at all the intersections of Ngaba town,” a third local source said, adding that members of Kirti monastery’s government-run management committee were later seen at the protest site.
“Security forces were still stationed on the streets late on Tuesday night,” the source said.
Frequent protests
Speaking from exile in France and citing contacts in Ngaba, another Tibetan source said that Tsering, also known as Abe, was enrolled in the Kalachakra College of Kirti monastery, the scene of frequent protests calling for Tibetan freedom in recent years.
“He was born in Lhade Gabma in Ngaba,” the source, named Sonam, said. “His father’s name is Ngore and his mothers’s name is Yukho.”
Tsering’s Kirti monastery has been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests by Tibetan monks, former monks, and nuns opposed to Chinese rule.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
A total of 145 Tibetans living in China have now set themselves ablaze in self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009, with most protests featuring calls for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lama’s return from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.
Reported by Lhuboom, Lobe Socktsang, Kunsang Tenzin, and Yangdon Demo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Former prisoner of conscience vanishes into custody again
June 6, 2016
Radio Free Asia, June 3, 2016 – A Tibetan man freed from prison three years ago after serving a 21-year sentence has disappeared again into Chinese police custody, a Tibetan source in exile says.
Lodroe Gyatso, 55, was detained in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa around midnight on May 14, 2016 and has not been heard from since, Ngawang Tharpa, a Tibetan living in India, told RFA’s Tibetan Service, citing contacts in the region.
“We have no information on his present condition, and it is very difficult to contact anyone to get more information,” Tharpa said.
News of Gyatso’s detention was delayed in reaching outside contacts due to restrictions on communications imposed by Chinese authorities in Tibetan areas.
Gyatso, a native of Sog (in Chinese, Suo) county in the Nagchu (Naqu) prefecture of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, was first handed a 15-year prison term in 1991 for killing a man in a fight, but later had his sentence extended for engaging in political activism while incarcerated, sources told RFA in earlier reports.
On March 4, 1995, he called on other prisoners to protest and shouted, “Tibet is independent, China should leave Tibet!,” one source said, adding that Gyatso had also distributed protest literature in prison.
Though authorities wanted to execute him for his activism, his case was raised by Amnesty International and the U.N., and he was sentenced instead to a further six-year term, sources said.
Gyatso had been “severely tortured” during the initial phase of his earlier detention, Tharpa said.
“His cell was so small that he couldn’t even raise his head, and at one point he was hung from a ceiling all night with nails driven through his thumbs,” he said.
The reasons for Gyatso’s most recent detention and the place where he is being held are still unknown, Tharpa said, adding, “His relatives and family members have had no word on his condition.”
Reported by Lobe Socktsang for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibetan Prisoner’s Family Fears For His Health
2016-05-20
A Tibetan monk jailed for 13 years for his role in protests challenging Chinese rule is in uncertain health in a prison in Sichuan province, leading family members to fear he may not survive the remaining six years of his sentence, sources say.
Lobsang Choedar, a monk of Kirti monastery in the Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, was detained in 2009 after calling the previous year for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a source in the region told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“He is now languishing in Mianyang prison in Sichuan, and his family members are very worried about his health, as he still has six years of his sentence left to serve,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Choedar has received visits in prison three times this year, with family members speaking to him through a closed glass window, and relatives have formed changing impressions of his health, the source said.
“His family members are very worried, but at the same time they are very proud because he is serving his sentence for the sake of Tibet and the Tibetan people.”
“His mother, who is 72, is concerned that she may not see her son again before she passes away, though,” he said.
Hunger strike
At one point during his incarceration, Choedar had gone on a 12-day hunger strike in protest over the poor diet fed to the prison’s more than 1,000 prisoners, the source said.
“Later, he was physically forced to eat and was moved to another location within the prison complex,” he said.
“He is now reported to be in slightly better condition,” the source said, adding that Choedar has told relatives that changes in his appearance may be due to long periods of exercise while in prison.
Choedar’s Kirti monastery has been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests by monks, former monks, and nuns opposed to Chinese rule in Tibetan areas.
Authorities raided the institution in 2011, taking away hundreds of monks and sending them for “political re-education” while local Tibetans who sought to protect the monks were beaten and detained, sources said.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule and calling for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
A total of 145 Tibetans living in China have now set themselves ablaze in self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009, with most protests featuring calls for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lama’s return from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibetans in Ngaba Warned Over Anti-Mine Protests
2016-05-27
Authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province are ordering residents of a Tibetan-populated county not to resume their blockade of road construction in the area, issuing their warning two months after police violently cracked down on an earlier protest, according to a local source.
Tibetans living in Akhore town in the Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture’s Chuchen (Jinchuan) county are objecting to the work because the finished road may be used to support Chinese mining operations on nearby sacred mountains, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Officials said that the road is intended for a dam project in the area, but workers have explained to the local people that mining is the project’s ultimate object,” RFA’ s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On May 20, a group of police officers arrived in Akhore and warned residents over loudspeakers of “serious consequences” if they attempted to block government road work in the area, the source said.
“They also imposed restrictions on the activities of local Tibetans,” he said.
Beaten, detained
Two months before, police had clashed with community members protesting authorities’ failure to respond to their concerns over the work, the source said.
Police “randomly beat up Tibetan protesters, including an old man in his 60s,” during the March 28 protest, the source said.
“They also took away seven Tibetans who were detained for seven to 20 days and then released. Several among them suffered serious injuries.”
Local residents had earlier halted work on the project for almost five years, RFA’s source said.
“However, on March 28 of this year, workers arrived in the area again,” he said.
Tibet has become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and Chinese mining operations in Tibetan areas have often led to widespread environmental damage, including the pollution of water sources for livestock and humans and the disruption of sacred sites, experts say.
Reported by Lobe Socktsang for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Detained Tibetan Monk Had Photo Taken With Banned National Flag
2016-05-18
A young Tibetan monk taken into custody this week by authorities in southwestern China’s Sichuan province had been photographed with a banned Tibetan national flag, leading to his investigation and eventual detention by police, sources in exile said.
Jampa Gelek, believed to be about 23 years old, was seized by police at about 8:30 p.m. on May 16 in Tawu (in Chinese, Daofu) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, one source told RFA’s Tibetan Service in an earlier report.
A first-year student at the Tawu Institute of Buddhist Studies, Gelek was detained while walking in prayer around a Buddhist stupa near his monastery, the source said.
Though no explanation for his detention was immediately available, exile sources with contacts in Tawu now say that Gelek had been photographed with a Tibetan national flag and may have expressed a wish to immolate himself in protest against Beijing’s rule in Tibetan areas.
“Gelek was detained after authorities obtained a photo he had taken in his room with a Tibetan flag hanging in the background,” Sonam, a Tibetan living in Switzerland, told RFA.
“Another reason may have been that he had declared his intention to stage a self-immolation protest last year, though family members later stopped him from doing so,” Sonam said.
Slogan found on wall
Separately, a second Tibetan source with contacts in Tawu confirmed Sonam’s account of Gelek’s detention, adding that police on searching Gelek’s room had found a Free Tibet slogan written in English on a wall.
“After Gelek was taken away at around 8:30 at night on May 16, another group of security officials raided his room again at around 11:00 p.m.,” the source, a monk living in South India named Yama Tsering said.
“That very night, Gelek was moved to Dartsedo [Kangding] county and is now being held in a detention center,” Tsering said.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule and calling for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
A total of 145 Tibetans living in China have now set themselves ablaze in self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009, with most protests featuring calls for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lama’s return from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959.
Reported by Lhuboom and Sonam Wangdu for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Cycle rally in India highlights continued detention of Panchen Lama
May 23, 2016
Times of India, May 20, 2016 – To highlight the “pitiable condition of Tibetans under the Chinese rule” and to spread awareness about the 11th Panchen Lama – Gedhun Choekyi Nyima – the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, as many as 47 cyclists reached Meerut on Friday afternoon.
The bicycle rally named ‘Cycle Rally for Panchen Lama’ has been organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest Tibetan NGO in exile.
Several youngsters – in the age group of 17-28 – had started their cycling journey from Dehradun on Tuesday and reached here on Friday. The group plans to reach New Delhi on May 23, the day the ’17-Point Agreement’ was signed between Tibet and China.
Tenzin Tsukte, president, Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, said, “Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was just six years old when he was recognized as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, one of the most important religious leaders of Tibet. Soon after, Chinese authorities took him and his family into custody. For more than twenty years, people and human rights entities across the world have urged the Chinese government to release Panchen Lama but to no avail.”
To spread awareness about Panchen Lama, the Tibetan Youth Congress organized the cycle rally on May 17, the day Panchen Lama was arrested and the same will conclude in Delhi on May 23, the day the agreement was signed between Tibet and China.
“So far, we’ve halted at Haridwar, Roorkee and Mansoorpur. We will reach Delhi on May 23 and assemble in front of Jantar Mantar where we will submit a memorandum of our demands to the UN,” said Tsukte.
Tibetans from Dekyiling in Dehradun, Poanta Sahib, Puruwalla, Raipur, Rajpur, Herbertpur, Nainital, Mussoorie, Delhi, Dharamsala and Bir Tibetan Settlements are taking part in the rally.

New railway into Tibet poses both technological and political challenge
May 23, 2016
The Economist, May 21, 2016 – “A colossal roller-coaster” is how a senior engineer described it. He was talking about the railway that China plans to build from the lowlands of the south-west, across some of the world’s most forbidding terrain, into Tibet. Of all the country’s railway-building feats in recent years, this will be the most remarkable: a 1,600-kilometre (1,000-mile) track that will pass through snow-capped mountains in a region racked by earthquakes, with nearly half of it running through tunnels or over bridges. It will also be dogged all the way by controversy.
Chinese officials have dreamed of such a railway line for a century. In 1912, shortly after he took over as China’s first president, Sun Yat-sen called for a trans-Tibetan line, not least to help prevent Tibet from falling under the sway of Britain (which had already invaded Tibet from India a decade earlier). Mao Zedong revived the idea in the 1950s. In the years since, many exploratory surveys have been carried out.
But it is only after building the world’s second-longest railway network—including, in the past few years, by far the biggest high-speed one—that China’s government has felt ready to take on the challenge. It had a warm-up with the construction of the first railway into Tibet, which opened in 2006. That line, connecting Lhasa with Golmud in Qinghai province to the north (and extended two years ago from Lhasa to Tibet’s second city, Shigatse), was proclaimed to be a huge accomplishment. It included the highest-altitude stretch in the world, parts of it across permafrost. It required ingenious heat-regulating technology to keep the track from buckling
China further honed its skills with the opening of a high-speed line across the Tibetan plateau in 2014—though in Qinghai province, rather than in Tibet proper. But neither track had anything like the natural barriers that the Sichuan-Tibet line will face. It will be just under half as long again as the existing line to Tibet, but will take three times longer to build. The second line’s estimated cost of 105 billion yuan ($16 billion) is several times more than the first one. Lhasa is about 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) higher than Chengdu, yet by the time the track goes up and down on the way there—crossing 14 mountains, two of them higher than Mont Blanc, western Europe’s highest mountain—the cumulative ascent will be 14,000 metres. The existing road from Chengdu to Lhasa that follows the proposed route into Tibet is a narrow highway notable for the wreckage of lorries that have careered off it. Some Chinese drivers regard the navigation of Highway 318 as the ultimate proof of their vehicles’, and their own, endurance.
Work on easier stretches of the railway line, closest to Lhasa and Chengdu respectively, began in 2014. Now the government appears to be getting ready for the tougher parts. A national three-year “plan of action”, adopted in March for major transport-infrastructure projects, mentions the most difficult stretch: a 1,000km link between Kangding in Sichuan and the Tibetan prefecture of Linzhi (Nyingchi in Tibetan). The plan says this should be “pushed forward” by 2018. It will involve 16 bridges to carry the track over the Yarlung Tsangpo river, known downstream as the Brahmaputra. Dai Bin of Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu says the Chengdu-Lhasa line could be finished by around 2030.
In Litang, a town high up in Sichuan on that difficult stretch, a Tibetan monk speaks approvingly of the project, which will bring more tourists to the remote community and its 16th-century monastery (rebuilt since the Chinese air force bombed it in 1956 to crush an uprising). But the impact on Tibet of the Golmud-Lhasa line still reverberates. It fuelled a tourism boom in Lhasa that attracted waves of ethnic Han Chinese from other parts of China to work in industries such as catering and transport. The resentment it created among Tibetans, who felt excluded from the new jobs, was a big cause of rioting in Lhasa in 2008 that ignited protests across the plateau. The new line will cut through some of the most restive areas. Since 2011 more than 110 Tibetans are reported to have killed themselves by setting themselves on fire in protest at China’s crackdown after the unrest. Some of the self-immolations have happened in Tibetan-inhabited parts of Sichuan, including near Litang.
With spectacular views, the new line is sure to be a big draw. It is also sure to attract many migrant workers from Sichuan, a province of 80m people, to cash in on Tibet’s tourism. The journey time from Chengdu to Lhasa is a gruelling three days by road, or more than 40 hours by train through Qinghai. The new line will reduce it to a mere 15 hours.
Officials see other benefits. The route will cross a region rich in natural resources, from timber to copper. It will also, to India’s consternation, pass close to the contested border between the two countries. (China says India occupies “south Tibet”, and launched a brief invasion of India there in 1962.) A Chinese government website, China Tibet News, said in 2014 that building the Sichuan-Tibet railway had become “extremely urgent”, not just for developing Tibet but also to meet “the needs of national-defence-building”.
Communist party officials in Tibet hope that the new line will be just the start of a railway-building spree in the once-isolated region. On May 16th Tibet Daily, the government mouthpiece in Tibet, said that work would start in the coming five years on around 2,000km of track. It would include a line from Shigatse to Yadong (or Dromo), near the border with India and Bhutan, and another one to Jilong (or Gyirong), near the border with Nepal. China’s railway chief talks of “the extreme importance of railway-building for Tibet’s development and stability”. The region’s recent history offers scant evidenc