In Sichuan province, in an area incorporating the traditional Tibetan areas Kham and Amdo, Tibetan monks and police clashed in riots on 16 March in Ngaba county (Aba) after the monks staged a protest. It formed part of the 2008 Tibetan unrest and was one of two major events to happen in Sichuan during 2008, the other being the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in May 2008.
On 16 March, Tibetan monks staged a protest against its harsh treatment by the Chinese government. The word got out and the police became involved. The monks and local residents clashed with police, killing at least one policeman, and setting fire to three or four police vans.[ citation needed ]
In Aba, an eyewitness said 17 people were killed, [1] including a young girl that attended middle school. By 18 March, the witness described the area as teeming with police and soldiers, and the people as anxious. [1] Protests continued for several days.
On 24 March, AP reports that Chinese state-run Xinhua said "381 people involved in protests...had surrendered to police" in Aba, [2] which was not verified by independent sources.
As reported by the BBC, the unverified reports in Sichuan and the "expulsions and restrictions of foreigners, and uncorroborated reports of vast convoys of paramilitaries entering areas of unrest, raise fears that the government has created a "black box" in which its security personnel can take action without scrutiny."
The BBC also reports, "Unrest was also said to have flared again in Aba, Sichuan, where there are claims that police shot between 13 and 30 protesters after a police station was set on fire. Like Tibetan exiles' claims that at least 80 have died in Lhasa, the reports of deaths are impossible to verify because of the restrictions on journalists." [3]
During the week of 22 March, authorities and security forces in the city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, locked down a Tibetan neighborhood [4] located near the Southwest University for Nationalities and the Wu Hou Temple. The lockdown comes amid unconfirmed reports of Tibetan protests earlier in the week and unconfirmed reports of a stabbing attack of a Han Chinese man by a Tibetan. Cars and other vehicles are not allowed to drive through the neighborhood, which has a large police presence. [4]
In Sichuan's Ngaba prefecture, Chinese authorities fired on protestors. The Tibetan government-in-exile's Central Tibetan Administration states the police shot and killed 19 people during the protest. The Chinese authorities denied killing anyone. Photographs of bodies with bullet wounds were released by a rights group. [4]
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has reported "official interference with journalists in Chengdu", and that travel by foreign journalists to other areas of the province has been restricted. [4]
On 21 and 27 March, nuns of the Kirti Monastery in Ngawa county were arrested by Chinese police forces. The information was confirmed by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung after phonecalls into the region with locals. Troops also blocked roads in nearby Sertar. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign reported that troops had been sent to the county after residents blew up a bridge near the village of Gudu. [5] Arrests have also been reported from Sertar after security forces cracked down on protests. [6]
On Monday, 24 March 2008 in Drango county, Garze prefecture, a Tibetan rights group reports 200 monks, nuns, and ordinary people gathered to march before clashes with police began. Police fired shots into the crowd, killing a monk and critically wounding another monk, [2] as reported to Associated Press by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
On 25 March, Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency, citing local authorities, reported that one police officer was dead and "several others" injured, as sympathy protests spread in western Tibet, and added the police were "forced to fire warning shots" and had "dispersed the lawless mobsters." [2] [7]
On 27 and 30 March, the suicides by two monks in Amdo have been reported by TCHRD as an act of freeing from oppression. Independent verification is however outstanding. [8]
On 3 April new violence broke out in Sichuan as various sources report. According to Xinhua News Agency at least one government official has been seriously injured. An overseas Tibet activist group said eight people had been killed in the incident. It said police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama. [9] Unidentified eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia's Tibetan agency that 15 people had been killed in the incident. [10]
Amdo is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being Ü-Tsang in the west and Dotoe also known as Kham in the east. Ngari in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. The formal name of this Tibetan region/province is Domey in literatures. Historically, Amdo and Kham together were also called Do Kham on maps and manuscripts. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous with China's present-day Qinghai province, but also includes small portions of Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok,, was a Nyingma lama and Terton from Sertha Region. His family were Tibetan nomads. At the age of five he was recognized "as a reincarnation of Lerab Lingpa. Known also as Nyala Sogyel and Terton Sogyel, Lerab Lingpa was an eclectic and highly influential tantric visionary from the eastern Tibetan area of Nyarong ." He studied Dzogchen at Nubzor Monastery, received novice ordination at 14, and full ordination at 22. In 1980, he founded Larung Gar, the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastic academy.
Larung Gar in the Larung Valley is a community in Sêrtar County of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan, China, known as Kham. Larung Gar is the local name for the community of mostly Tibetan and Han Chinese students which grew around the Serta Larung Five Science Buddhist Academy, founded in 1980 by Kyabje Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok. The residents are monks, nuns, vow holders and lay people. Larung Gar was considered the largest Buddhist monastic center until demolitions by the Chinese government recommenced in July 2016.
Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Aba, is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Sichuan, bordering Gansu to the north and northeast and Qinghai to the northwest. Its seat is in Barkam, and it has an area of 83,201 km2 (32,124 sq mi). The population was 895,200 by 2022.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese annexation of Tibet, during which Tibetan representatives signed the controversial Seventeen Point Agreement following the Battle of Chamdo and establishing an autonomous administration led by the 14th Dalai Lama under Chinese sovereignty. Subsequent socialist reforms and other unpopular policies of the Chinese Communist Party led to armed uprisings, eventually assisted by the CIA, and their violent suppression. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama escaped to northern India for fear of being captured by Chinese forces. He formed the Central Tibetan Administration and rescinded the Seventeen Point Agreement. In 1965, the majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and parts of Kham and Amdo, was established as the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibetans suffered along with the rest of China during the Great Chinese Famine and the Cultural Revolution under episodes of starvation, religious repression, destruction of cultural sites, forced labour, and political persecution. US-China rapprochement in the 1970s saw an end to Washington's support for Tibetan guerillas. Amid broader reforms across the country, China adopted policies to improve conditions in Tibet. Since the 2000s, it has invested heavily in the region but generated controversies due to the sinicization of Tibet. Human rights abuses remain a concern especially where it comes to freedom of religion and political prisoners.
The 1959 Tibetan uprising began on 10 March 1959, when a revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the effective control of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since the Seventeen Point Agreement was reached in 1951. The initial uprising occurred amid general Chinese-Tibetan tensions and a context of confusion, because Tibetan protesters feared that the Chinese government might arrest the 14th Dalai Lama. The protests were also fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment and separatism. At first, the uprising mostly consisted of peaceful protests, but clashes quickly erupted and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) eventually used force to quell the protests. Some of the protesters had captured arms. The last stages of the uprising included heavy fighting, with high civilian and military losses. The 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa, while the city was fully retaken by Chinese security forces on 23 March 1959. Thousands of Tibetans were killed during the 1959 uprising, but the exact number of deaths is disputed.
Drapchi Prison, or Lhasa Prison No. 1, is the largest prison in Tibet, China, located in Lhasa. Drapchi is named after its location and was originally a military garrison until it was converted into a prison after the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. It is roughly one mile from the city centre and is the main prison for judicially sentenced prisoners in Tibet. It was the primary place for the detention of political prisoners before 2005 when the newer and modernised Chushur Prison was built. Drapchi also goes by the name Delapuxie prison, which has sometimes been listed as a separate prison online.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also referred to as the 2008 Tibetan uprising in Tibetan media, was a series of protests and demonstrations over the Chinese government's treatment and persecution of Tibetans. Protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, by monks and nuns on 10 March have been viewed as the start of the demonstrations. Numerous protests and demonstrations were held to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Day, when the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. The protests and demonstrations spread spontaneously to a number of monasteries and throughout the Tibetan plateau, including into counties located outside the designated Tibet Autonomous Region.
Tibetan Uprising Day, observed on March 10, commemorates the 1959 Tibetan uprising which began on March 10, 1959, and the Women's Uprising Day of March 12, 1959, involving thousands of women, against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet.
The 1987–1989 Tibetan unrest was a series of protests and demonstrations that called for Tibetan independence. These protests took place between September 1987 and March 1989 in the Tibet Autonomous Region, in the Tibetan regions of Sichuan, and Qinghai, as well as the Tibetan prefectures in Yunnan and Gansu. Protests began shortly after the Dalai Lama, the religious and temporal leader of Tibet exiled in India since the 1959 Tibetan unrest, proposed a Five Point Peace Plan regarding the “status of Tibet” on September 21, 1987, which was subsequently rejected by the Chinese government. The Plan advocated for greater respect and autonomy of the Tibetan people, and claimed that “Tibet was a fully independent state when the People’s Liberation Army invaded the country in 1949-50.” China rejected the idea of Tibetans as an invaded people, stating that “Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinese territory” and has been for hundreds of years. The Tibetan sovereignty debate is longstanding, and the Tibetan assertion that they are a separate and unique people invaded by China has become a central argument for their independence.
The 2008 Lhasa riots, also referred to as the March 14 riots or March 14 incident in Chinese media, was one of a number of violent protests that took place during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
Ngawa County, or Aba or Ngaba, is a county in the northwest of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. It is located in the remote northwestern part of the prefecture, on the border with Qinghai and Gansu. The county seat is Ngawa Town.
Sêrtar County or Serthar County is a county in the northwest of Sichuan Province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the north. It is one of the 18 counties under the administration of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, covering some 9,340 square kilometres. Sêrtar, which means "golden freedom" in Tibetan, lies in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau and in the historical region of Kham. The vast majority of the population is Tibetan, followed by Han Chinese.
The 2008 Tibetan unrest was a series of protests and demonstrations met by excessive force, focused on the persecution of Tibetans, in the buildup to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. There was a mixture of outrage and understanding from leading figures abroad.
Human rights in Tibet has been a subject of intense international scrutiny and debate, particularly since the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China. Before the 1950s, Tibet's social structure was marked by inequality and described as a caste-like system or, controversially, as serfdom. Severe punishments, including permanent mutilations of body parts, were common, although capital punishment was banned in 1913. Muslim warlord Ma Bufang caused widespread destruction and deaths in Amdo which is northeast of Central Tibet.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is a Tibetan non-governmental nonprofit human rights organization.
The Phuntsog self-immolation incident occurred when a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the name of Rigzin Phuntsog self-immolated on March 16, 2011 in Ngawa County, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. This was followed by another self-immolation incident on September 26, 2011. By March 2012, more than thirty other Tibetans had self-immolated as a protest against Chinese rule of Tibet.
Kirti Gompa, is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery founded in 1472 and located in Ngawa, Sichuan province, in China, but traditionally part of Amdo region. Numerous other associated Kirti monasteries and nunneries are located nearby. As of March 2011, the Kirti Gompa was said to house 2,500 monks. Between 2008 and 2011, mass arrests and patriotic re-education programs by Chinese authorities have targeted the monks, reducing the population substantially to 600 monks. The wave of Tibetan self-immolations began at Kirti Gompa.
Protests and uprisings in Tibet against the government of the People's Republic of China have occurred since 1950, and include the 1959 uprising, the 2008 uprising, and the subsequent self-immolation protests.
As of May 2022, 160 monks, nuns, and ordinary people have self-immolated in Tibet since 27 February 2009, when Tapey, a young monk from Kirti Monastery, set himself on fire in the marketplace in Ngawa City, Ngawa County, Sichuan. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), "Chinese police have beaten, shot, isolated, and disappeared self-immolators who survived."
