A Message from Serthar, Tibet

Protest leaflet from Serthar, Kham.
The text says "Long Live the Dalai Lama"
The word inside the heart is "Tibet"

High Peaks Pure Earth has been following the news coming out of Serthar in Tibet's Kham region about protests on October 1, 2011 after a photo of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan flag were removed from a building in the town centre. Radio Free Asia has reported the protests by "several hundred people". October 1 is National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Problem Loading Page: Tibetan Blogs and Social Networking Site Inaccessible

Here at High Peaks Pure Earth we are in our third year of monitoring Tibetan blogs and social networking sites. At around this time every year, we usually notice Tibetan bloggers either posting less than usual or unable to, due to sites being closed down. Sometimes the closure of sites are temporary and sometimes they are permanent.

Tibetan Singer Tashi Dhondup Released From Prison

High Peaks Pure Earth is pleased to read the news reported by Radio Free Asia on February 8, 2011, that Tibetan singer Tashi Dhondup has been released from prison. Readers may remember the videos we posted last year from his album "Torture Without Trace".

Harry Potter Returns to Tibet!

Back in October 2008, we here at High Peaks Pure Earth wrote a blogpost about the first Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone" that had been translated into Tibetan (via Chinese) by Norkyil Buchung Gyal (ནོར་དཀྱིལ་བུཆུངརྒྱལ་ Nor dkyil Bu chung rgyal).

It's been over two years since we wrote that blogpost but we have constantly received emails enquiring after the book and how to get hold of it outside of Tibet and China. It has also remained a popular blogpost of ours, despite not being that new.

From Woeser's Blog - "Latest news: Tagyal (Shogdung) Released on Bail and Returned Home!"

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a short blogpost by Woeser that was posted on her blog earlier today, October 15, 2010.

To see our blogpost on Shogdung's detention earlier this year, go to this link: http://www.highpeakspureearth.com/2010/04/earthquake-in-tibet-leading-tibetan.html

The photo shows well-known Tibetan writer Tagyal (Shogdung) who was arrested this year in April in Xining

Earthquake in Tibet, Tibetan Netizens Express Grief and Solidarity

Following on from our blogpost from yesterday, High Peaks Pure Earth has continued to monitor online reactions to the earthquake in Tibet by Tibetan netizens.

Many expressions of grief and solidarity have appeared online on blogs and social networking sites in the forms of photos, poetry and statements. The photo below has appeared on several Tibetan blogs such as this blog here and also on Tibetan writer Woeser's blog.

 

Om Mani Padme Hum Om Mani Padme Hum

For our Yushu brethren

Many Tibetans are also organising themselves to provide aid on the ground or to raise funds. The Tweet below by Woeser written on April 14, 2010 states:

Serthar Buddhist Institute at Larung Gar have set up a Yushu earthquake rescue team, 1000 monks will set off for the disaster area on 15th!

Tibetan students in Beijing have also launched a fundraising campaign mobilising Tibetan students on various university campuses throughout the capital. The students are fundraising for two local NGOs, "I Love Green Lhasa" and "Children of the Snow-Covered Plateau".

Strikingly, High Peaks Pure Earth has observed many statements and expressions of solidarity amongst Tibetan netizens. Although this phenomenon was noted earlier in the year with Tibetan netizen online activity, the earthquake seems to have strengthened these feelings such as in the statement below:

My dear compatriots, a catastrophe once again descended on the children of the snowland, mercilessly robbing the lives of our vivacious brethren

In times of great difficulty, every one of us Tibetans must join hands in solidarity and go through the crisis together

Offer prayers to those compatriots who left us due to the disaster

May the three precious jewels of the Buddha, Sangha and Dharma lead their souls to the most pure and holy rebirth

Offer our greatest regards to our compatriots in the disaster area

All of us Tibetans will be forever with you

The same Tibetan blogger also posted a poem written earlier today, April 15, 2010, that mourns for victims of the earthquake and at the same time calls for solidarity:

Song of Sorrow

Days without love
Numbing
Dawn brought the darkest pain
Home has faded away
Soul has been orphaned
Grouted metal and rubble filled Yushu
Yushu wet with tears
Fellow brethren
Those in the ruins can not be kept waiting
Stand together
With strength we will bring peace to the dead
Go forward together
With our belief we will subdue heaven and earth
Fight the elements
Turn the tide
Establish our everlasting existence
Build up our bright future home

April 15, 2010

The poem prompted this exchange in the comments section:

• We can not change the fact that the disaster has struck, let us unite to help our fellow compatriots and loved ones to build up their homes! We shouldn't be left with only feelings of regret, I hope that this unfortunate incident will make us more united!

• [Reply] Only united can we Tibetans stand among the nations in the world

Strangely, the main Tibetan language blog-hosting sites are down. One Tibetan language site that is accessible carries photos from the earthquake area and has provoked the following two comments by Tibetan netizens:

http://tbyouth.org.cn/article/news/2010/04/15/455/

I mourn all the lives of my fellow Tibetan countrymen lost in this earthquake. We must share both happiness and suffering together. With one heart we must face this natural calamity.

I deeply mourn the lost lives of people in Yushu in the earthquake. We should consider yesterday's calamity as a natural disaster and work hard on tomorrow's victory and happiness. With all our strength we must continue to survive.

High Peaks Pure Earth will continue to monitor Tibetan netizen reactions and post them here.

Earthquake in Tibet, Initial Reactions from Tibetan Netizens

It has been reported both by Chinese state media and Western media that a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck in Tibet early this morning, April 14, 2010. Whilst Chinese media refers to the affected area as the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu (玉树) in Qinghai province, Western media has been calling it Western or North Western China inhabited by "ethnic Tibetans" or part of the "Tibetan plateau".

In fact, the area known in Tibetan as Kyegundo (སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ། skye rgu mdo) is considered by Tibetans to traditionally be part of Kham, eastern Tibet. Although spelt Kyegundo, when spoken it sounds more like Jyekundo. This Google map shows the position of Kyegundo in relation both to Lhasa and also to the provincial capitals of Qinghai and Gansu, Xining and Lanzhou, to the north east.  Here is the link to the map on the website of Tibetan and Himalayan Library, an excellent resource site.

Whilst media reports on the technical details of the natural disaster and the ongoing aid efforts, High Peaks Pure Earth has been looking at the online responses by Tibetans as expressed on blogs and social networking sites.

Just hours after the earthquake, Tibetan netizens were expressing their grief and anxiety. These Tibetans wrote the following status updates on a Chinese language social networking site for Tibetans and seem to be mostly Tibetan students based in Chinese urban centres:

The status updates read:

• May the Buddhas protect our brethren!
• Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum
• I want to go to Yushu, I'll go there soon!
• Fortunately, due of economic underdevelopment in Yushu and the remote location, most housing would only be buildings for officials, so compared to earthquakes of the same level in other areas, the number of casualties would be relatively small.
• I don't want to pray, I want to do something!

One netizen anxiously writes:

All of my relatives are in Yushu, I can't get through to them, so anxious! hope they are ok

This netizen then wrote a short poem about her feelings:

My Loved Ones

Dears, my only relatives
You are my everything, in this world, my everything
It's only because of you that I live
It's only because of you that I can feel joy, sorrow
Before I get there, you mustn't leave me
Before I rescue the lost lambs
You mustn't abandon me
You are all my guardian spirits -- my everything
I will always serve and revere you
Dears
Promise me, you won't leave me so soon
Promise me, you won't leave me alone
Promise me, that I will still be able to see your bright smiles in my dreams
Promise me, your hands will stay warm like the sun's rays
I will always pray for you, my brethren, my loved ones.
You all must stay alive.

Today, the most popular Tibetan blog portal TibetCul has a black and white banner on its website to commemorate the earthquake:

High Peaks Pure Earth will continue to monitor Tibetan netizen reactions and post them here.

China: A New Approach To Tibetan Language Blogsites?

Internet censorship in China is currently dominating the news due to Google's announcement yesterday that they might withdraw their PRC operations following serious hacking and attacks on the GMails of dissidents. Read the full statement "A new approach to China" here.

It remains to be seen how much longer Google and Google.Cn will be accessible in China and Tibet for. Several hours ago, a Twitter user in Lhasa posted this:

It is unclear from this Tweet, however, whether the Google search results are filtered or not. At the same time that the Chinese internet may seem more free today than yesterday (for now), High Peaks Pure Earth has been monitoring the state of Tibetan-language blog hosting sites that have been inaccessible for the last two weeks.

It is fairly common for Tibetan blogsites to be rendered inaccessible, if only for a short period of time, at particular times of the year. High Peaks Pure Earth monitored such "technical issues" last year, for example in March 2009 in these blogposts All Quiet on the Tibetan Blog Front and The Disappearing Tibetan Cyberspace. In August 2009, Global Voices reported on Tibetan blogsites being down in the report Are Tibetan Bloggers Being Silenced?

The four popular Tibetan language blogsites that cannot be accessed at the moment are:

TibetABC: http://www.tibetabc.cn/ 

Chomed: http://www.cmbod.cn/index.html 

Tibet123: http://www.tibet123.com/tibbs 

The error message for Tibet123 in Chinese reads: 您未被授权查看该页 - You are not authorised to view this page.

However, the most alarming page belongs to TibetTL that is reported as an attack site:

When clicking for more information, Google shares this advisory:

High Peaks Pure Earth has even had problems linking to the TibetTL page on our Twitter as it was identified immediately as malware:

All of the above blogsites contain Tibetan language articles and posts previously translated into English by High Peaks Pure Earth. The Tibetan cyberspace continues to disappear... check back here on High Peaks Pure Earth for updates.

Update #1, January 20, 2010: Blogsites http://www.cmbod.cn/index.html and http://www.tibet123.com/bbs/ are back online. http://www.tibettl.com is still down.

Tibetan Language Blogsites Back Online

High Peaks Pure Earth has noticed that Tibetan language blogsites are back online now - albeit in sanitised form as posts of a political nature have been removed.

As first reported on Global Voices on August 28, all Tibetan language blogsites (except for one) were inaccessible for almost the whole month of August. The reasons for the closures of the blogsites were unclear at the time but now it appears to be linked to a wider effort within the People's Republic of China to eradicate anonymity on the web.

A September 5 article in the New York Times reports that in compliance with secret government orders, web users are required to log on under their true identities to post comments. For a commentary on these new regulations, please see this blogpost by China internet expert Rebecca MacKinnon.

Tibetan language blogsite tibetabc.cn has returned online with a new notice (photo above) on the main page that reads:

Because of difficulties we are unable to recreate the blog pages. For this reason you first need to log onto the administration page and recreate your new blog profile. Our apologies for creating many difficulties, one more thing to say, please pay careful attention to the content of your posts.

Another popular Tibetan language blogsite, tibettl.com, carries a smaller notice (photo above) that simply reads:

Create a new blog account and after creating a new account you can access your old account.

Heavy Rainfall and Serious Floods in Amdo Machu

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a Tibetan blogpost about the recent heavy rainfall and serious flooding in Amdo's Machu area (Tibetan: rma chu rdzong, Chinese: 玛曲县 maqu xian, Gansu Province) on the evening of July 20, 2009 that left five people dead.

Screenshot taken from Google Maps, A marks the county of Machu.
The nearest big towns are Lanzhou in Gansu Province and Xining in Qinghai Province.

The blogpost represents another example of citizen journalism in Amdo and official state media has only reported on the floods in Chinese and not Tibetan (or English). For dramatic photos and an official news report in Chinese see http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2009-07-22/084318272323.shtml.


High Peaks Pure Earth came across the blogpost (photo above) on a young Tibetan middle-school student’s blog.


The motto on his blog (the last three lines on the photo above) reads:

I am searching for a sky that will empower me,
I am searching for a sky under which there is equality and freedom,
I am searching for a sky under which there is no deception and hypocrisy.

The blogpost was written on the afternoon of July 21 and includes this photo:

The writing on the photo reads: Her name is Trakho (bkra kho). She is from Machu Tsho Ru. Her beloved children drowned in floodwater. Now, her hope rests with her simple, young, sick handicapped daughter and rents a room from the neighbours.

Read more accounts and see photos of the floods on the following Tibetan blogs:
http://www.tibetabc.cn/u/freedomfreedom/archives/2009/200972121548.html
http://www.tibetabc.cn/u/murchenchep/archives/2009/2009721222749.html

News from Machu

On the night of 20th July, a flood destroyed villages around Machu County (Dzong). Countless numbers of people’s houses have been washed away. More importantly, three children were carried by the floodwater. Although the mother was stricken with grief, she is searching for her children.

This morning when I arrived, the cries of families who lost everything and the mother of the three children filled my ears and this made me weep. Sadly, the family lost everything; the income earner is not only handicapped but is also of ill health. The family will face great difficulties in the future. Her beloved children and belongings accumulated through blood and sweat have been washed away by the floodwater. Now her life has been plunged into darkness.

I am only a poor student and lacking means to help people of my race. I appeal to brothers and sisters of the land of snows, to think and give support for the future livelihood of the mother and child .

Lama Jigme Has Returned Home!!! by Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser that was posted on her blog a little earlier today, readers are encouraged to follow that link to see many photos of Lama Jigme that Woeser has posted.

High Peaks Pure Earth previously reported Lama Jigme's detention and is happy to learn of his release.


Lama Jigme Has Returned Home!!! by Woeser

Extremely unexpectedly, fortunately, joyfully, I have learned --

Labrang Monastery's Lama Jigme, having spent an entire half year in detention, was released on May 3rd and has returned home!!!

Last year on September 3rd, Lama Jigme was featured on a video that was made public. Alone and facing the camera he spoke for approximately twenty minutes showing his face, using his real voice and his real name, on events that had occurred in Tibet since March 2008 and gave a full testimony, expressing his hopes as an ordinary Tibetan monk. (see http://www.highpeakspureearth.com/2008/09/voa-video-testimony-of-labrang-monk.html )

Following Voice of America Tibetan Service's broadcast of this video testimony, Lama Jigme went into hiding for almost two whole months. Finally, not long after returning to his monastery, on November 4th, over 70 police suddenly surrounded his living quarters, took him from his quarters and detained him until May 3rd without any explanation and his whereabouts were unknown.

At present, more details are not known.

In short, offer prayers for Lama Jigme, he has finally returned home and is near his close relatives, back to his monastery days, wish him a good rest and a speedy return to health!

Offer prayers to all Tibetans who are enduring suffering!

The Return of TibetABC!

Having previously reported various closures and 'technical maintenance' incidents related to Tibetan language blogs, High Peaks Pure Earth is happy to report that the highly popular Tibetan language website www.tibetabc.cn is back online!

We haven’t gone through each of the posts to see if any have been sanitised and cleansed of any inappropriate thoughts but just at quick glance, it appears that many of the previous posts are intact. Jamyang Kyi’s previous posts haven’t been removed either.

The return of the site is welcomed by netizens with many celebratory odes. All Tibetan netizens agree that the Tibetan language websites and forums are vital to the flourishing of Tibetan language and its use. The Tibetan creator of the website and other writers and intellectuals argue that making a Tibetan language that is vibrant and used daily, especially the written language, is the most important task of all. Without turning the Tibetan language into a language of everyday practice, its vibrancy will be lost.

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated two posts, which reflect the happiness felt by Tibetan netizens.


http://www.tibetabc.cn/u/sosang/archives/2009/200932019751.html

A Joyous Day 20th March 2009

Today is the day the Tibetan language blog has been re-opened. Over the last five or seven days, the blog has been closed. In my opinion, it is better not to post anything that “exceeds the limit” (gtam ‘gal) if you are a real friend of the blog. Since everyone knows the reason, I do not have to tell you about this in detail. All the unsuitable comments on the blog will be deleted, but comments on the ten minor and five major sciences of Tibetan culture are welcome, especially on Tibetan literature. In order to keep the Tibetan language blog running; we appeal for your support for our work by posting comments that will bring only benefits for the blog.

Under this post a comment reads:


On the joyous day of 10 March in the Land of Snows, Golog Kunga Tsangyang (mgo log kun dga' tshangs dbyans) was suddenly arrested. At the moment he is probably in the city prison (grong khyer btson khang).

For this second posting, High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a celebratory poem:


http://www.tibetabc.cn/u/xueyuhanzi/archives/2009/2009320195322.html

Tibetan language website
The radiating light of our hearts
From today
Lets hope that the light may not be eclipsed

Tibetan language website
The single lamp that is the thread of our souls
From today
I hope that it may not be blown away by the wind

Tibetan language website
The messenger for the souls of compatriots
From today
I hope that the noble messenger may be free of all obstacles.

The Disappearing Tibetan Cyberspace

High Peaks Pure Earth has been thwarted again in bringing translations from Tibetan blogs to an English-speaking audience. We have lost access to two major Tibetan language blog and discussion forums. The usually active www.tibetcm.com has definitely been closed down, the photo above is a screenshot of the government closure notice. The very popular www.tibetabc.cn (which hosts Jamyang Kyi's blog, amongst others) is not loading now - no reasons are given.



Having reported earlier that Tibetan blogs and discussion forums are suddenly undergoing "maintenance" in this sensitive period, High Peaks Pure Earth has also translated a blogpost by Woeser that was posted on her blog on 9th March 2009 and deals with disrupted communications. High Peaks Pure Earth readers are invited to draw their own conclusions!

"China Mobile Texts Users: Network Renovations to Start March 10" by Woeser

Recently, the China Mobile Group Tibet Ltd. 10086 customer service hotline sent this short cell phone message to all its subscribers in the Tibetan Autonomous Region:

"Dear customers, our company has decided to renovate our network during the period March 10 to May 1. This will have some effects on the quality of communications. We ask for your understanding of the inconvenience this will cause. For more information call 100086"

It has been learned that from mid-February 2009, cell phone messaging service has been cut off in 18 counties of Ganzi (Kardze) Prefecture with Internet service being cutoff as well. Currently, Internet service has been restored only in Kangding County, however cell phone messaging remains blocked there. Cell phone messaging and internet service remain blocked in all the other counties of Ganzi Prefecture.

Moreover in Aba Prefecture, in the counties considered the most sensitive: Hongyuan County, Ruo'ergai County, and Rangtang County, internet and cell phone messaging service are also cut off.

All telephone calls to Tibetan areas within China from outside China are blocked.

Some private Tibetan websites such as the Tibetan's Culture Website tibetcul.cn and the Tibetan Buddhism website "Kamageju China Forum" have been asked to "close for maintenance".

Now that they have cut off Tibetan areas from the outside world and deployed many soldiers to Tibetan areas, what do they intend to do?

All Quiet on the Tibetan Blog Front

High Peaks Pure Earth is being forced to take a holiday! A notice suddenly appeared on 5th March 2009 on the most popular Tibetan language blog hosting site www.tibetcul.com saying that blogs and online forums were being closed for 'maintenance' and that this would last around a week.

So it means that we at High Peaks Pure Earth can put our feet up and not worry about finding interesting blogs to translate over the next few days. This has been most unexpected. Actually, we had been looking forward to bringing our keen readers the view from Tibetans inside Tibet and China in the run up to March 10th. Having realised it would be a sensitive time, we hadn't quite thought that blogs and forums would simply be closed down for the period, it really is such a coincidence.

Interestingly, a few days ago, when we tried to access the site we got a Google virus warning on www.tibetcul.com. Google provided a detailed analysis of the site and the viruses that were loaded on the site - let's see what changes or improvements await when the site comes back to life next week!

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated the notice that comes up when you try to access the blog and online forum pages of www.tibetcul.com:

Screenshot of the 'Maintenance' Notice

Respected broad masses of netizens.

Hello everyone!

Tibetan Culture Net will be closed for high-level maintenance starting from two o’clock on the afternoon of March 5, with maintenance lasting around one week. Maintenance is to be carried out in stages, with Blog Tibet and Tibetan Culture Community are closed now (March 5) for maintenance, and the main Tibetan Culture Net site will be closed the following day for maintenance.

There will be no way of accessing Tibetan Culture Net during the period of maintenance. We ask for the broad masses of netizens’ understanding, and deeply thank everyone for their continued support for Tibetan Culture Net.

We wish everyone a happy life, good health, pleasure in work, and Tashi Delek!

Tibetan Culture Net, March 5, 2009.

Tibetan NGO Worker Given A Life Sentence

High Peaks Pure Earth has been looking at the news behind the news today. Unfortunately the news is already over five weeks old but behind it is a wealth of information courtesy of the 9th November 2008 edition of the Lhasa Evening News (拉萨晚报 La Sa Wan Bao). Thankfully this one particular news story with the dramatic headline "Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court Pronounced Judgement on Four Criminal Cases of “March 14th Incident” Accused of Endangering National Security" was picked up sooner rather than later by the Dharamsala based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) in yesterday's press release titled "Chinese Court Sentences Seven Tibetans Between 8 Years to Life Imprisonment".

Electronic edition of the Lhasa Evening News

The news behind the news is intriguing to say the least. As usual, there is one scapegoat to deter other people from following their example. As the Chinese saying goes, 欲加之罪，何患无辞 (yùjiāzhīzuì, héhuànwúcí which roughly means that if you are out to condemn someone, you can always trump up a charge). In this case, the scapegoat goes by the name of Wangdu, a former Jokhang monk in his 40s. A former political prisoner, Wangdu had been working as an HIV/AIDS activist and was employed by the Australian medical research and public health NGO the Burnet Institute. An earlier press release from TCHRD tells us that Wangdu disappeared in Lhasa on 14th March 2008. Despite nine months having passed since then, the Burnet Institute's website poignantly still lists Wangdu as a staff member. Maybe they were waiting for his return. His disappearance had not gone entirely unnoticed, on the back of TCHRD's press release, his case was taken up as an urgent action by the Dublin based human rights group Frontline Defenders. For curious High Peaks Pure Earth readers who want to know all there is to know about Wangdu, his record number is 2004-00243 in the Congressional - Executive Commission On China's Political Prisoner Database. Look him up.

Wangdu (left) and colleague at an HIV/AIDS awareness stall in Lhasa
Photo: TCHRD

As Wangdu was charged on the grounds of "espionage", the people he allegedly gathered to conspire with him were duly punished including Migmar Dhondup, Phuntsok Dorjee and Tsewang Dorjee who received sentences of 14, 9 and 8 years respectively. The TCHRD press release left out some crucial information that was contained in the Lhasa Evening News. Namely that two Tibetans were charged with conspiring with Tibetan NGOs, Beijing's favourite scapegoat after the Dalai Clique, the Tibetan Youth Congress - as chronicled earlier in a previous post and this time a new one, a Dharamsala based NGO called Gu Chu Sum that helps Tibetan ex-political prisoners.

Here is the full High Peaks Pure Earth translation of the Lhasa Evening News article:

Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court Pronounced Judgement on Four Criminal Cases of “March 14th Incident” Accused of Endangering National Security

Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court of Tibet, in accordance with the law, recently held a public trial on four criminal cases of the “March 14th Incident” accused of endangering national security and announced the judgement publicly. Seven defendants, including Wangdu (Wangdui 旺堆) and others, have been held criminally responsible in accordance with the law.

A Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court spokesman said that the facts of crimes of the above-mentioned four criminal cases are clear, and its evidence is irrefutable and ample. All these have fully proved that the “March 14th Incident”, the serious and violent incidents that occurred in Lhasa and other areas, was well planned by the Dalai Clique and its "Tibetan independence" separatist forces, and was deliberately created after they had colluded with “Tibetan Independence” elements within Tibet in a well organized and pre-meditated manner.

After Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court held the trial, it ascertained that the defendant Wangdu received the assignments from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique, and set up an underground intelligence network in Lhasa. He made a great number of copies of a CD, the contents of which were inciting to split the country, and leaflets inciting to hold a "People's Uprising in Tibet” given to him by the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique, then, he, together with the defendant Migmar Dhondup (Mima Dunzhu 米玛顿珠), distributed them in Tibet. In addition, right before and after the “March 14th Incident”, they also collected information concerning national security and interests and provided this to the Dalai Clique. Their actions violated the 110th article of the Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China [1], constituting the crime of espionage. The defendants Phuntsok Dorjee (Pingcuo Duoji 平措多吉) and the defendant Tsewang Dorjee (Ciwan Duoji 次旺多吉) collected information concerning national security and interests and they provided it to organizations outside of China through Wangdu. Their actions violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China [2], constituting the crime of providing intelligence illegally to organisations outside of China. Among the afore-mentioned defendants, Wangdu and Phuntsok Dorjee are recidivists, thus, in accordance with the law, they should be punished severely. On October 27th, Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court sentenced, in accordance with the law, defendant Wangdu to life imprisonment and deprived of political rights for life for the crime of espionage, defendant Migmar Dhondup to 14 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of espionage, defendant Phuntsok Dorjee to 9-year imprisonment with deprivation of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China and Tsewang Dorjee to 8 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.

The defendant Sonam Dakpa (Suolang Zaba 索朗扎巴) joined the "Tibetan Youth Congress" of the Dalai clique and accepted assignments from this organization. Right before and after the "March 14th Incident" in Lhasa, he had collected a great amount of intelligence concerning national security and interests and had submitted this to the organisation. His actions violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China. On October 27th, the Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court, in accordance with the law, sentenced Sonam Dakpa to 10 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.

The defendant Yeshi Choedon (Yixi Quzhen 益西曲珍)accepted assignments from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique and also received funds from the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique. She provided intelligence and information endangering national security and interests to the “Public Security Department” of the Dalai Clique. Her actions violated the 110th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of espionage. On November 7th, Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court sentenced the defendant Yeshi Choedon to 15 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of espionage.

The defendant Sonam Tseten (Suolang Cidian 索朗次点) accepted assignments from the separatist organisation "Gu Chu Sum". He collected a great amount of intelligence concerning national security and interests and provided it to the afore-mentioned organisation. His actions have violated the 111th article of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, constituting the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China. On November 7th, the Lhasa City Intermediate People's Court, in accordance with the law, sentenced Sonam Tseten to 10 years in prison and deprived of political rights for 5 years for the crime of illegally providing intelligence to organisations outside of China.


[1] Article 110 covers the crime of espionage dealt with in Article 97 of the 1979 law. While the sentencing range stays the same as before - three years to life imprisonment, or death - the former distinction between "agents" (tewu, which used to be reserved for Kuomintang spies from Taiwan) and "spies" (jiandie, denoting mainly non-Chinese agents) has now been dropped, and the latter term is used throughout. The new article includes two main categories of offense: "Joining an espionage organization or an accepting assignment from an espionage organization or its representative" in 110(1) and "identifying bombardment targets for an enemy" in 110(2). It is unclear from this article that those who carry out such "assignments" are required to be aware they are doing so for an entity identified by the authorities as a "spy organization."

In practice, "espionage" is a highly elastic term in Chinese criminal law. For example, in unconnected cases, Hada and Ngawang Choepel were accused of this offense, yet no evidence was ever presented to show that either had access to any privileged information or that they passed anything resembling "intelligence" to any "spy organization." Both are from sensitive ethnic minority regions - Inner Mongolia and Tibet - and both were concerned about the preservation of their respective cultures. And they received harsh sentences: 15 years in prison for Hada, 18 for Ngawang Choepel.

[2] Article 111 incorporates into the Criminal Code the main principles of the State Secrets Law and the 1988 Supplementary Regulations of the NPC Standing Committee on the Punishment of Crimes Involving Leaking State Secrets regarding the provision of secret material to parties outside China. Article 111 defines the offense as: "Stealing, prying into, purchasing or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence for institutions, organizations and individuals outside the country." While this generally mirrors the formulation of Article 32 of the State Secrets Law, the vague term "intelligence" (qingbao), which does not appear in that law, has been added, thus expanding the scope of materials covered beyond documents classified in accordance with the formal system it established. The full range of penalties is available for this crime, from probation to life imprisonment, or death.

Charter 08

Liu Xiaobo

The biggest China news story at the moment is “Charter 08”, a document signed by over three hundred prominent Chinese citizens all united in their calling on reform for the political system in China. As Perry Link, who translated the Charter into English, tells us, Charter 08 “was conceived and written in conscious admiration of the founding of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, where, in January 1977, ‘more than two hundred Czech and Slovak intellectuals formed a loose, informal, and open association of people…united by the will to strive individually and collectively for respect for human and civil rights in our country and throughout the world.’” Václav Havel was one of the key figures behind Charter 77 and has been a long-time supporter of Tibet and a symbol of freedom in his own right. The two recently met in Prague where Havel said "I dare say we have become good friends". Read Havel's editorial in the Wall Street Journal in support of Liu Xiaobo here.

Chinese intellectuals and liberal thinkers are fond of writing this kind of charter or petition to their government. Liu Xiaobo, a high-profile intellectual, writer and activist, was sentenced to three years in labour camp on 30th September 1996, for writing a joint letter addressed to China’s President Jiang Zemin supporting Tibetan self-determination and also calling for dialogue with the Dalai Lama. He was the first Chinese person to be sentenced for speaking up for Tibet.

Liu Xiaobo and Zhang Zuhua – both of whom were detained by police in Beijing on 8th December - spearheaded this particular Charter 08 initiative. Liu Xiaobo, alongside Wang Lixiong, was also a crucial figure behind this year’s “Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibetan Situation” which High Peaks Pure Earth had translated into English and published by the New York Review of Books. It is interesting to note that there are overlaps between the signatories of both documents, at least 28 names signed both “Charter 08” and “Twelve Suggestions”. Only one Tibetan, however, has signed “Charter 08” and that is Beijing based poet and blogger Woeser who just days ago on her blog wrote a touching tribute to Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xiaobo still remains in police custody.


Signatories of both “Charter 08” and “12 Suggestions…”:

Liu Xiaobo, (Beijing, writer)

Zhang Zuhua , (Beijing, Constitutional Scholar)

Yu Haocheng (Beijing, Legal Scholar)

Ding Ziling (Beijing, Professor)

Jiang Peikun (Beijing, Professor)

Sun Wenguang (Shandong, Professor)

Ran Yunfei (Sichuan, Scholar)

Pu Zhiqiang (Beijing, Lawyer)

Liao Yiwu (Sichuan, Writer)

Jiang Qisheng (Beijing, Scholar)

Zhang Xianling (Beijing, Engineer)

Wang Debang (Beijing, Writer)

Zhao Dagong (Shenzhen, Writer)

Jiang Danwen (Shanghai, Writer)

Wen Kejian (Zhejiang, Scholar)

Tian Yongde (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Human Rights Defender)

Zan Aizong (Zhejiang, Journalist)

Liu Yiming (Hubei, Freelance Writer)

Che Hongnian (Shandong, Freelance Writer)

Zhang Jiankang (Shaanxi, Legal Professional)

Zhang Xianyang (Beijing, Ideologist)

Ye Xiaogang (Zhejiang, Retired University Faculty Member)

Yu Meisun (Beijing, Legal Professional)

Li Changyu (Shandong, Teacher)

Shi Ruoping (Shandong, Professor)

Wan Yanhai (Beijing, Public Health Expert)

Wang Xiaoshan (Beijing, Media Worker)

Ouyang Yi (Sichuan, Human Rights Defender)

Paljor Norbu, 81, Sentenced to 7 Years

A day ahead of President Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in Gdansk, Human Rights Watch sent out a press release focusing on the detention and recent sentencing of 81 year old Lhasa native, Paljor Norbu (Dpal ’byor nor bu, private photo above), a printer by profession, to 7 years in prison for allegedly printing "prohibited material". Also mentioned in the press release were two cases that will be known to regular High Peaks Pure Earth readers, Jamyang Kyi’s good friend Norzin Wangmo and Labrang monk Jigme who still hasn’t been heard from since he was arrested just over a month ago.

Since the March protests, the two major international human rights organisations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been largely silent. In April, Amnesty International issued an urgent appeal for Jamyang Kyi and this is also the first appeal since then that Human Rights Watch have issued that focuses on Tibet.

Paljor Norbu ran a traditional Tibetan printing house, using woodblocks to print lungta (rlung ta) and religious texts known as (chos sku'i ring bsrel) which are sacred writings used for the consecration (rab gnas) of religious artworks. The picture below from Paljor Norbu's printing house shows rolls of text that are lodged inside newly consecrated religious statues. Human Rights Watch calls Paljor Norbu a “prominent Tibetan cultural figure”. He had been involved in printing since the age of 11 when he started an apprenticeship with his Uncle. No stranger to political climate changes, he had been imprisoned after the 1959 uprising as he was already considered a “rebellious person” for having been a printer under the direct employment of the Tibetan government (through the Guild at the time).

(Paljor Norbu's printing house, private photo)

Before 1959, apart from his regular work, he also went to Drepung Gomang to print texts from wooden blocks stored there, as well as Tashilhunpo and Narthang Monasteries. In Narthang, he supervised the printing of one set of the 224-volumes of the famous Narthang Tengyur (Snar thang Bstan ’gyur), an order from the Fifth Jamyang Shepa (1916-1947), the famous head of Labrang Monastery and book collector. It took him ten trips from Lhasa to Narthang to supervise the process.

Those who know him describe Paljor Norbu as a “very modest, quiet person” and he is widely considered as an elder by other printers in Lhasa, and is therefore widely respected. The Human Rights Watch press release mentions that his family-run printing press has been closed down since his detention.

Labrang Monk, Jigme, Arrested

A few weeks ago, we posted the video testimony of a monk from Labrang, Jigme. We have just learned that he has been arrested. At around 1pm on November 4th, Jigme was arrested from his quarters in Labrang Monastery. Approximately 70 armed police came to arrest him and there were also army trucks and police cars that removed him from his quarters with their sirens blaring.


Jigme's video testimonies were broadcast by Voice of America on 3rd September 2008 and he had been in hiding since then before recently returning to his quarters in his monastery. View his video testimonies here. At present nobody knows his whereabouts or what will happen to him in the future. Read articles about Jigme's arrest from The Times and The National.

Twittering Tibet

Earthquake in Tibet. An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale jolted 'dam gzhung (Ch: Damxung), 82 km from Lhasa, Latitude: 30.274°, Longitude: 90.711°, at 4:30 pm on October 6th. 'Dam gzhung is part of Lhasa Municipality. Read a report about the earthquake from Chinese state media in English here and in Tibetan here.



As misleading reports come through about houses being razed down to the ground in Lhasa, where else to hear the news but from the horse's mouth? Someone in Lhasa has been twittering regularly about daily life in Lhasa and has the following to say about the events of that day:

An earthquake was felt in Lhasa just a minute ago, the quake lasted for only 3 seconds, people were running on the street, dogs barking.
04:33 PM October 06, 2008

And now people were laughing on the street, as if something "exciting" happening.
04:35 PM October 06, 2008

Historically Lhasa wasn't an earthquake zone...", said **** of **** Hotel. It seemed that most people weren't feeling panic.
08:30 PM October 06, 2008

The epicenter of the recent quake was in Damxung County (82km away from Lhasa), the qake measuring 6.6 degress on Richter scale.
09:56 PM October 07, 2008

More than 100 bldgs were destructed in Damxung County, > 30 dead. Nothing much happened in Lhasa, students had a half-day leave.
09:57 PM October 06, 2008

Had hotpot again till 4am, met 2 primary school students on the way back home, they were scared of quake & decided to sleep at Jokhang Sq.
04:47 AM October 07, 2008

And I have to emphasize that the quake only had an extremely minor effect on Lhasa, **** & the buildings around were affected at all.
05:42 AM October 07, 2008

Harry Potter Goes to Tibet

Last week Forbes magazine announced that J.K Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, a story about a boy Wizard is the highest earning author and number one celebrity author in the world. Did we Tibetans contribute anything to this? It seems that the Tibetans will be making a modest contribution to her monthly income of three million dollars.

I always look forward to the arrival of a neatly packed box of books from Tibet; this has been rudely interrupted since March. Last week, to my surprise, the supply resumed and I excitedly opened the box. On the top of the pile of books was a Tibetan translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, (published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Actually, don’t you think this is a bit of an insult to the Yanks? The publisher may have assumed the word “philosopher” could confuse American readers. Anyway, the Tibetan translation retains the original title. The photo above is the Tibetan cover of the book.

At quick glance it is clear the book has not been translated from English but from Chinese. This often happens these days. The rendering title sounds like “Haru’s Potter” in Tibetan. The translator Norkyil Buchung Gyal (ནོར་དཀྱིལ་བུཆུངརྒྱལ་) in his preface writes that the chief motive for translating is to provide Tibetan language reading materials for junior middle school age groups. Certainly, there is a total lack of reading materials in Tibetans for young people. I for one welcome the publication.

Hopefully, there are many more to come!