The Nangpa La shooting incident occurred on 30 September 2006 when a group of unarmed Tibetan refugees attempting to flee Tibet via the Nangpa La pass were fired upon by Chinese border guards.[1] The shooting resulted in at least one death and numerous injuries.[1] The victims were shot from a distance by border guards as they moved slowly through chest-deep snow. Although the Chinese government initially denied the shooting, the death of one of the refugees was captured on film by a Romanian cameraman Sergiu Matei, who was nearby as part of a climbing expedition.[2][3] The video caused expressions of anger from around the world.[4]
Forty-one members of the Tibetan group reached India, while the other thirty-two living members were taken into custody by Chinese border guards. Most of the refugees were later released, although some are still unaccounted for. Some of the individuals who were released stated that they suffered torture and forced hard labor during their captivity.[1][5]
The incident
On 30 September 2006, a group of 75 Tibetans, accompanied by two guides, crossed the Chinese border to join the Dalai Lama in exile in Dharamsala, India. At approximately 10:30 a.m. local time, Chinese border guards of the People's Armed Police opened fire on the group. The gunfire resulted in the death of Kelsang Namtso, a 17-year-old Buddhist nun. Kunsang Namgyal, a 23-year-old man, was hit in the leg twice, then taken away by the Chinese border guard. Forty-one of the refugees, along with the guides, reached the Tibetan Refugee Transit Center in Kathmandu, Nepal.[6] Two weeks later they arrived at their destination in Dharamsala, India.[3]
Nangpa La Pass is visible from the nearby Cho Oyu mountain and its mountaineering base camps. Dozens of foreign mountaineers who were on Cho Oyu witnessed the incident. The mountaineers were able to produce numerous images and videos of the incident, including images of Chinese soldiers escorting the survivors through advanced base camp at Cho Oyu and footage of the People's Armed Police personnel shooting the refugees from great distance. Sergiu Matei, a Romanian cameraman at Pro TV, filmed the incident and broadcast live during the incident on Romanian station Pro FM. Matei later helped hide one of the Tibetan refugees for 10 hours, before the refugee was able to cross the border into Nepal.[1] Slovenian climber Pavle Kozjek also took important photos of the incident.[7]
Aftermath
Kelsang Namtso lying in the snow after being shot and killed. Photo: Pavle Kozjek
On 12 October 2006, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that the border guards had been "forced to defend themselves" after the refugees had thrown stones at them while trying to cross the border.
Matei successfully smuggled his footage of the shooting out of the country. On 14 October 2006, Matei was interviewed on the Romanian television station Pro TV. Footage of the incident was shown during the interview.
The incident received global media attention concerning human rights in Tibet. On 12 October 2006, the United States Ambassador to China, Clark T. Randt, lodged a formal protest regarding China's treatment of the refugees. On 26 October 2006, the European Union Parliament passed a Joint Motion for a Resolution on Tibet, making explicit reference to the shooting.[8]
On 30 November 2006 at the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, 16 non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement questioning the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the steps taken concerning the 30 September killing of a Tibetan in the Nangpa Pass. However, the High Commissioner did not respond to questions posed about the Nangpa Pass killing.[9]
Missing persons
Tibetan refugees crossing the Nangpa La pass between Tibet and Nepal viewed from Cho Oyu basecamp in 2000. In the background Lunag Ri.
Of the 75 refugees who attempted to cross the border on 30 September 2006, 17 people remain unaccounted for. At least one individual captured by the Chinese government was released, but said that he had been tortured and subjected to mandatory hard labor.[1][10] The individuals who were not accounted for ranged in age from 7 to 35 years old. Some of the children who are unaccounted for may have been detained for a short time and then released.[11]
Portrayal in the arts
A documentary called Tibet: Murder in the Snow, based on this incident, was released in 2008 by the Australian production company 360 Degree Films, working in collaboration with the BBC.[12]
English journalist Jonathan Green wrote a book about the shootings, titled Murder in the High Himalayas, which was released in 2010.[1] The book is an expansion of Green's earlier article in Men's Journal called "Murder at 19,000 Feet."[13] Canadian technical death metal band Gorguts' song "Absconders" on their album Colored Sands was based on Green's book, using direct quotes from the book with Green's permission.[14]
↑ Kadzielawa, Mark; Jotzat, Bill (2013). "Gorguts Interview". 69 Faces of Rock. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
The Central Tibetan Administration is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, composed of a judiciary branch, a legislative branch, and an executive branch, and is sometimes labelled as a government in exile for Tibet.
Cho Oyu is the sixth-highest mountain in the world at 8,188 metres (26,864 ft) above sea level. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan. The mountain is the westernmost major peak of the Khumbu sub-section of the Mahalangur Himalaya 20 km west of Mount Everest. The mountain stands on the China Tibet–Nepal Province No. 1 border.
Mahālangūr Himāl is a section of the Himalayas in northeast Nepal and south-central Tibet of China extending east from the pass Nangpa La between Rolwaling Himal and Cho Oyu, to the Arun River. It includes Mount Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oyu — four of Earth's six highest peaks. On the Tibetan side it is drained by the Rongbuk and Kangshung Glaciers and on the Nepali side by Barun, Ngojumba and Khumbu Glaciers and others. All are tributaries to the Koshi River via Arun River on the north and east or Dudh Kosi on the south.
Nangpa La is a high mountain pass crossing the Himalayas and the Nepal-Tibet Autonomous Region border a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu and some 30 km (20 mi) northwest of Mount Everest. A foot-trail over Nangpa La is the traditional trade and pilgrimage route connecting Tibetans and Sherpas of Khumbu. This was the location of the 2006 Nangpa La shootings.
The history of Tibet from 1950 to the present includes the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the Battle of Chamdo. Before then, Tibet had been a de facto independent nation. In 1951, Tibetan representatives in Beijing signed the Seventeen-point Agreement under duress, which affirmed China's sovereignty over Tibet while it simultaneously provided for an autonomous administration led by Tibet's spiritual leader, and then-political leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when Tibetans arose to prevent his possible assassination, the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to northern India where he established the Central Tibetan Administration, which rescinded the Seventeen-point Agreement. The majority of Tibet's land mass, including all of U-Tsang and areas of Kham and Amdo, was officially established in 1965 as Tibet Autonomous Region, within China.
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 peaceful 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. The arrest of monks at Labrang Monastery increased the tension of the situation. Violence began when Chinese police and People's Liberation Army units used force on non-violent protests by monks and nuns, and spread when protesting Tibetans later clashed with security forces. Clashes also occurred between Tibetans and Chinese Han and Hui residents, resulting in Han and Hui stores and buildings being destroyed and numerous Chinese civilians being injured or killed.
The serfdom in Tibet controversy is a prolonged public disagreement over the extent and nature of serfdom in Tibet prior to the annexation of Tibet into the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1951. The debate is political in nature, with some arguing that the ultimate goal on the Chinese side is to legitimize Chinese control of the territory now known as the Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, and others arguing that the ultimate goal on the Western side is to weaken or undermine the Chinese state. The argument is that Tibetan culture, government, and society were barbaric prior to the PRC takeover of Tibet and that this only changed due to PRC policy in the region. The pro-Tibetan independence movement argument is that this is a misrepresentation of history created as a political tool in order to justify the Sinicization of Tibet.
The Green Book is a document issued since 1971 by the Central Tibetan Administration to Tibetans living outside Tibet, and described by the issuing organization as "the most official document issued by the Tibetan Government in Exile." More than 90 percent of Tibetan exiles own one. It serves as a receipt book for the person's "voluntary taxes" to the CTA, and has been described by a CTA official as "the passport of the exiled Tibetans to claim their rights from the Tibetan Government in Exile". The CTA says that in the future, the document "will become the basis for claiming Tibetan citizenship".
Pavle Kozjek was a Slovenian mountaineering pioneer and a photographer.
The Tibetan diaspora are the diaspora of Tibetan people living outside Tibet.
Human rights in Tibet is a contentious issue. Reported abuses of human rights in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association; arbitrary arrest; maltreatment in custody, including torture; and forced abortion and sterilization. The status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures who are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama, is a regular object of criticism. Additionally, freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet's media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is a Tibetan non-governmental nonprofit human rights organization.
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.
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Colored Sands is the fifth full-length album by technical death metal band Gorguts. It is Gorguts' first studio album since 2001's From Wisdom to Hate. The album features the band's first recordings with guitarist Kevin Hufnagel and bassist Colin Marston, and the band's only recordings with drummer John Longstreth. It is a concept album based on Tibet. The album was released digitally on August 6, 2013, and the release of the CD and vinyl versions on September 3, 2013.
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