A Tibetan from Sichuan province has made a rare public appeal on Chinese social media, calling on authorities to take action against a company that he accuses of illegally extracting sand and gravel from a local riverbed, Tibetan sources with knowledge of the situation said.
Since early August, Chinese authorities have dramatically boosted surveillance of Tibetans in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa by putting more police on the streets, cracking down on social media users and – in a new wrinkle – hiring food delivery workers to serve as auxiliary police officers, sources inside Tibet say.
Chinese government measure to boost the economy and improve the business environment of the Tibet Autonomous Region will benefit the large and growing Han population there, while Tibetans face increased economic marginalization, according to a new think-tank report.
The Gangjong Sherig Norbu School has long been a source of pride for ethnic Tibetans in China’s Qinghai province. Known for its rigorous curriculum, the school counted leading Tibetan scholars as members of its faculty; its graduates have gone on to excel in fields like engineering, education, medicine and religion.
Elaine Pearson, director of HRW’s Asia Division, told RFA that relocations have occurred both across the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas in Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
Tibetans who protested the seizure of their pasture land by Chinese authorities in Markham county in April have been subjected to a series of political education sessions after they were accused of protesting for political reasons, two sources with knowledge of the situation said.
For several years now, Tibetan Calligraphy Day has been a way for Tibetans to keep their language and heritage alive amid China imposing restrictions and bans on use of the language.
It’s caterpillar fungus harvesting season in Tibet, and parents have staged protests urging Chinese authorities to let their children leave a residential boarding school to help collect the rare ingredient used in traditional medicine, two sources inside the region said.
A recent wildfire in a Tibetan-populated area of China’s Sichuan province ravaged vast swathes of forests covered with pine and oak trees that nurtured a hidden treasure and an economic lifeline for residents — matsutake mushrooms.
In the event of the Dalai Lama’s death, Buddhist monks are banned from displaying photos of the Tibetan spiritual leader and other “illegal religious activities and rituals,” according to a training manual Chinese authorities have distributed to monasteries in Gansu province in China’s northwest, a source inside Tibet and exiled former political prisoner Golok Jigme said.