Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The definitive (but weighty) account of Tibetan history since 1947 is The Dragon in the
Land of Snows by Tsering Shakya.
Reforms & Riots
The early 1980s saw the return of limited religious freedoms. Monasteries that had not
been reduced to piles of rubble began to reopen and some religious artefacts were returned
to Tibet from China.
Importantly, there was also a relaxation of the Chinese proscription on pilgrimage. Pic-
tures of the Dalai Lama began to reappear on the streets of Lhasa. Talks aimed at bringing
the Dalai Lama back into the ambit of Chinese influence continued, but with little result.
Tibet, according to the Chinese government, became the 'front line of the struggle against
splittism', a line that continues to be the official government position to this day.
In 1986 a new influx of foreigners arrived in Tibet, with the Chinese beginning to
loosen restrictions on tourism. The trickle of tour groups and individual travellers soon be-
came a flood. For the first time since the Chinese takeover, visitors from the West were
given the opportunity to see the results of Chinese rule in Tibet.
When in September 1987 a group of 30 monks from Sera Monastery began circumam-
bulating the Jokhang and crying out 'Independence for Tibet' and 'Long live his Holiness
the Dalai Lama', their ranks were swollen by bystanders and arrests followed. Four days
later, another group of monks repeated their actions, this time brandishing Tibetan flags.
The monks were beaten and arrested. With Western tourists looking on, a crowd of 2000 to
3000 angry Tibetans gathered. Police vehicles were overturned and Chinese police began
firing on the crowd.
The Chinese response was swift. Communications with the outside world were broken
but this failed to prevent further protests in the following months. The Mönlam festival of
March 1988 saw shooting in the streets of Lhasa, and that December a Dutch traveller was
shot in the shoulder; 18 Tibetans died and 150 were wounded in the disturbances.
The journalist Harrison Salisbury referred to Tibet in the mid-1980s as a 'dark and sorrow-
ing land'.
 
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