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TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN
teries had staged a demonstration but they were beaten back by many armed police.
The Jokhang and Ramoche Temples were also closed [to the public].
“[On the day of March 14] after 11:20 am, like any other day, when I, together with a
few of my friends, passed by Ramoche Temple, an incident had already happened
there. Many Tibetans were shouting, and were throwing stones at the soldiers. We
were all stupefied. We heard somebody near us saying that for these last few days
there had been police cars at the gate of Ramoche Temple, and just now some monks
rushed out to overturn the cars as they claimed that the cars were blocking the road
to the monastery. Immediately, the policemen called the armed police to come to
assist them, then those armed police who had shields and sticks in their hands began
to beat the monks. Tibetans on the streets could not bear to continue to watch, thus
the people began to demonstrate. [...] I saw many Tibetans were very young, and not
well dressed. While throwing stones, they were shouting ‘Come out, tsampa eaters’
[tsampa is a traditional Tibetan food, of roasted barley, and in this context it symbolizes
the Tibetan identity].
“A Tibetan peddler wanted to join the others, but his wife exerted all her strength to
drag his arms while crying, and pleaded with him not to go. There were also many
girls, who said to us ‘’Young man, are you still a Tibetan? If you are, then come over to
join us’, and when they saw we did not join them, they spat on the ground, and said
scornfully, ‘Ngo tsa, ngo tsa’ (shame on you). To tell you the truth, I was very sad, but
I dared not to participate, and only stood aside to watch. Among my friends, some of
them ran over there and threw a stone, but immediately they came back again.
“[The eyewitness is asked whether he thinks these actions were pre-organised and
pre-meditated] Kun chok sum [Vow to the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
— roughly equivalent to ‘By everything I hold holy’ in English], it is not so. The stones
they threw were those used by people in the neighborhood to build their houses.
Some of them were holding knives, but they were not Tibetan knives, instead, they
were long knives. I do not know where they got them either. Many people were waving
khatags [Tibetan white blessing scarves], and it is possible they seized them from
the nearby shops, anyway, there were many khatags in those shops. Then they poured
into Tromsikhang [the market at the corner of Barkhor Street] from Ramoche Temple.
On the way, many shops owned by Chinese and Chinese Muslims (Hui) were destroyed.
Part of the Tromsikhang market was also burned down. The Chinese all ran
away, and the Chinese Muslims took off their white caps and ran away, too. It is strange
that no policemen were there, and all of them also ran away. […] Many people know
that there are video cameras, but they weren’t afraid. [...] They did it for the sake of our
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