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TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN
down protest by the monks without being shot might herald the possibility of a new
form of protest.
Professor Robert Barnett of Columbia University, a specialist in contemporary Tibet,
gives the following account of the monks’ protest:. “The young monks of Drepung
monastery have to meet each afternoon to carry out group debating, and it was this
event that spilled out into the march. […] They had several reasons to be antagonised
about China’s policies in Tibet, besides what some might see as 50 years of foreign
occupation, particularly its repeated campaigns since 1994 forcing them to denounce
the Dalai Lama; an unprecedented ban on pictures or worship of him; an end to new
monasteries or any increase in monk numbers; a ban on students or government employees
having religious possessions or practices; the forced settlement of 100,000
nomads announced this year; the relocation of 250,000 farmers to roadside houses,
partly at their own expense, in 2006; the much-publicized railway line opened that
year, with its unacknowledged encouragement of yet more Chinese migration to Tibetan
towns, demonstrated by the construction of a new satellite town to the south
of Lhasa; the ban on criticism of most governmental policies. No doubt the monks
were also aware through leaflets sent secretly from exile and foreign radio broadcasts
in Tibetan of major exile protests that same day in India; they may also have calculated
that the Olympic dividend would deter the police from using lethal force. But outside
instigation would not have been required to explain why the monks chose to
mark this anniversary with public action.” 3
Following the incident, Drepung was then blockaded by the security forces and remained
so for the following weeks and months. It is still closed, as far as ICT is aware,
and is likely to remain closed until after the Olympics given the political sensitivities.
The number of monks killed or arrested remains unconfirmed.
Also on March 10, a group of around 14 monks from Sera monastery along with laypeople
staged a demonstration calling for Tibet’s independence outside the Jokhang
(Tsuklakhang) temple in the city centre. An eyewitness report including images posted
online by tourists of the incident in the Jokhang Square, in the centre of Lhasa, reported
that Tibetans “formed a strong, silent, peaceful circle around the police” after
between seven and nine monks from Sera monastery shouted slogans outside the
temple. A feature of the protests in Tibet since March have been the attempts by
laypeople to prevent harm coming to monks or nuns who have engaged in peaceful
protests, despite the risks.
The tourists, who posted their account and images on a blog, said that “hundreds” of
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