Today would normally be a day of high celebration for Tibetans everywhere, the welcoming of the lunar New Year with fireworks, music and festive dinners. Instead, many parts of Chinese-controlled Tibet are expected to solemnly boycott the next week of state-sponsored events marking the festival known as Losar.
After a year that saw dozens of people killed during pro-independence riots in Lhasa and other Tibetan towns -- and with thousands of additional Chinese troops being deployed to the region to prevent further unrest -- many say there's simply nothing to celebrate.
"A lot of people were killed on March 14. In our culture, we don't celebrate Losar if someone in your family died during the previous year," said Thubbstan, a 24-year-old Tibetan monk who was passing through Chengdu this week.
He was referring to the bloody pro-independence riots in Tibet last March that were quelled by Chinese troops. Monks played a front-line role in those events, clashing with police on the streets of Lhasa and elsewhere.
The Chinese government describes what happened as a series of anti-Han-Chinese pogroms provoked by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and says 19 people died in the unrest. Pro-Tibetan groups based outside China remember the same events as a violent crackdown on protesters marking the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, and claim the real number of those killed is somewhere between 100 and 200.
Many more Tibetans were arrested following the unrest, and some haven't been seen since. Tibetan monks interviewed here in the capital of the neighboring province of Sichuan say the Chinese authorities have escalated the repression of Tibetan nationalism since last year's violence.
That campaign has intensified in the weeks leading up to Losar and a series of sensitive anniversaries. Some reports suggest as many as 20,000 additional Chinese soldiers and paramilitary forces have been sent to Tibet, and Internet services to at least one village have been cut.
The movement to boycott the New Year's events is a highly organized one, originating from the Dalai Lama's home in exile in Dharamsala, in northern India.
"We cannot forget our fellow men who sacrificed for our benefit," reads a text message Thubbstan received on his cellphone several weeks ago. "To commemorate Losar, we will not celebrate, we will not fire fireworks, we won't wear new clothes, we won't dance, we won't sing. We will protest silently and we will pray."
Recipients were urged to pass the message on to six other Tibetans.
The Beijing-backed Communist administration in Lhasa is nonetheless pushing ahead with its own New Year's festivities to give the appearance of normalcy. A four-hour New Year's gala was televised last night, and concerts, horse races and fireworks displays are scheduled in the coming days. The Communist Party in Tibet has given vouchers worth $120 each to 37,000 low-income families to encourage them to spend and celebrate during the holiday.
"The Tibetan people are enjoying a good life now, so there's no reason for them to forgo celebrating their traditional holiday," Nyima Tsering, vice-chairman of the Beijing-backed Tibetan administration, said recently. "I believe there will be a glorious festival."
But even here in Chengdu, a majority Han Chinese city with a sizable Tibetan population, the situation is far from normal. Police vans are parked on every street in the city's Tibetan quarter, and cruisers drive in slow circles through the neighbourhood with their emergency lights flashing, giving the area an occupied feel.
Monks say they are frequently stopped and asked for identification when travelling between towns in the region. Police also often ask to see travellers' cellphones, monks say. Those who have pictures of the Dalai Lama on their phones are arrested on the spot, they said.
"As Tibetans, we are like cows, animals that have no freedom. I am a monk who likes the Dalai Lama very much, but I only dare like him in my heart. If I say it out loud I could be arrested or even killed," said 28-year-old Renqing, another monk who was passing through Chengdu this week.
The Tibetan town of Lithang, in Sichuan province, has been virtually cut off from the outside world since the middle of this month, when a 37-year-old monk named Lobsang Lhundup walked through the public market carrying a photograph of the Dalai Lama and chanting, "No Losar." Hundreds of people joined the protest, according to the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Center for Rights and Democracy, and at least 21 were arrested.
Foreign journalists are barred from visiting Tibet, though some are occasionally invited on government-escorted trips. In recent weeks that restriction has been expanded to include Tibetan areas of the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, and even ordinary tourists have had difficulty getting a permit to visit Tibet.
The coming months are charged with political significance for Tibet and China, particularly the looming 50th anniversary of the abortive Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.
The Beijing government recently announced that March 28 will be celebrated as Serf Liberation Day, reflecting its view that the People's Liberation Army freed Tibetans from feudal serfdom and religious rule
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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