主题：【原创】西藏暴乱真相----我和一个美对华研究问题专家的争论 -- 新长城

Lhasa Witness, March 2008

By Ahshn

In March, 2008 the weather was cooler than normal in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as the anniversary of "March 10" was approaching. On this day in 1959 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army crushed a popular uprising. The Chinese government refers to it as the "Day of Revolt," but Tibetans know it as the “Day of Suffering”--or, for those who had to flee their homeland at the time, the “Day of Exile.”

Other fairly large-scale "disturbances" had happened in Lhasa in 1987 and 1989, but, in the twenty years since then, the city had been stable. Sporadic skirmishes had never amounted to much, and the Chinese government's ideal of a "flourishing and harmonious society" seemed to be taking root. Usually, in early March, the streets, alleys, and monasteries of Lhasa are fairly quiet because many Tibetans go to the countryside for celebrations of the Lunar New Year in February and take their time coming back. But March is also the beginning of the tourist season; visitors from other provinces and countries begin to trickle in.

The city's tranquility in early March of this year could have made one wonder whether "March 10" had been forgotten. Only a few subtle signs on the government's part showed that anybody remembered. On March 7 a special deployment of police was assigned to national highway 318 that runs between Nepal and Lhasa. There is a checkpoint between the frontier pass at Zhangmu and the prefecture Nyingchi, where, under normal conditions, the driver of a car must alight to hand in paperwork to authorities. Beginning March 7, though, the new police detachment did things differently. Now inspectors approached every vehicle as it arrived, and cars that had Tibetan drivers received special attention. Each passenger was scrutinized. The authorities gave no reasons for the stricter measures, but they appear to have been a way of screening Tibetans who might be arriving from Nepal to observe "March 10."

Through most of the day of March 10, Lhasa was as placid as ever. Then, a bit after 4:00 p.m., three hundred monks came marching down from the Drepung Monastery in the nearby hills. They were chanting slogans for freedom of religion and against the migration of Han Chinese to Tibet. Military police blocked them at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. A few monks were arrested and driven away. For this, the rest sat down in silent protest. News of these happenings spread quickly, apparently by cell phone, and soon another one hundred monks emerged from Drepung. This group was blocked by military police at the foot of the hills before ever reaching the checkpoint. Police beat both groups of monks with clubs, and by 2:00 a.m. all of them had been forced back to their monastery.

Also on March 10, at the Jokhangl Temple Square at the center of the old city in downtown Lhasa, an enhanced police force went on duty. Plainclothes police--"undercover" but obvious to any Tibetan--were everywhere, as were military vehicles. It is never easy in Lhasa to distinguish among vehicles of the Peoples Armed Police, the Peoples Liberation Army, and Public Security. Some have special license plates; some use regular civilian plates; some have no plates at all, and others cover the ones that they do have. On March 10 I saw at the edge of the Jokhangl Temple Square a minivan packed with uniformed police and riot gear.

Up until about 5:00 p.m. the old city remained tranquil. Shoppers shopped as usual, and evening prayers were proceeding normally. I asked a few Tibetans if they still remembered "March 10" and they said things like "of course, how could we forget?," but they were not planning to do anything in particular about it. Most were heading home to light lamps and say prayers for the spirits of their deceased loved ones.

Then, about 6:00 p.m., a small public protest broke out. About a dozen young monks--twenty, at most--emerged from the Sera Monastery, unfurled a Tibetan flag and shouted demands for a free Tibet. Instantly a swarm of police set upon them, beat them, arrested every one of them, and took them away. Tibetan bystanders watched, apparently immobilized by fear.

The news of this incident, too, spread quickly. Monks at the Jokhangl Temple demanded that the Sera monks be released. When that was denied, the Jokhangl monks began a hunger strike. At 10:00 p.m. downtown Lhasa was eerily quiet. A few policemen remained on guard outside the Jokhangl Temple while a few Tibetans, wearing white head-scarves as a sign of mourning, bowed deeply, in silence, in front of the temple. But most Tibetans stayed at home, their doors and windows shut tight, lighting yak-butter lamps and saying their prayers. I heard one drunken Tibetan shouting “We Tibetans want freedom!” at passersby. Tibetans understood him, but Han Chinese who did not know Tibetan seemed to assume they were hearing only the ravings of an inebriate. In any case, in Lhasa, only drunkards dared to shout such things.

On the afternoon of March 11, the government put the Sera Monastery under emergency lock-down. A group of Tibetans at a driving school next to the monastery witnessed the crackdown and told me what they saw. They said monks had sat down outside the monastery, meditating in protest, when suddenly a large number of police cars surrounded them. Police demanded that they go inside, but they refused. The police then used tear gas and clubs to force them inside. The Tibetans who watched from the driving school were upset at this spectacle, and at one point set out to aid the monks, but were blocked when authorities at the driving school locked the gates of the premises and temporarily prevented anyone from leaving. The cell-phone wireless network in the area was also cut off, and the road that leads to the Sera Monastery was blocked. The Drepung Monastery had already been closed, the day before, but now the road leading to it was blocked as well.

On March 12, a group of nuns from the Chupsang Nunnery in northern Lhasa began a trek toward downtown Lhasa. Police intercepted them, forced them to return, and proceeded to surround the Chupsang Nunnery. A few of the nuns somehow managed to elude police and found their way to the city center. On March 13 they staged a protest demonstration but it, too, was quickly snuffed out.

It was also on March 12 that monks at Sera Monastery began a hunger strike and two monks from the Jokhangl Temple were said to have slit their wrists. All monasteries in Lhasa were then put under lock-down, which meant not only that monks were forbidden from entering or leaving, but that food and water supplies were also suspended. That situation held for several days.

• 【原创】西藏暴乱真相----我和一个美对华研究问题专家的争论