去年，藏人阿什作為三月拉薩親歷者，撰寫紀實長文。時隔一年之後再讀，依然激動難抑。真實的記錄是寶貴的，它揭開被強權遮掩的黑幕，讓人們看見真相。
為此，重又在我的博客上貼出此文，以及隨後翻譯的英文譯文（譯者是普林斯頓大學教授林培瑞和耶魯大學講師康正果）。並向阿什致意！我似又回到了那些個日日夜夜......
圖為2008年3月14日，拉薩爆發藏人積怨已久的抗暴事件。白色的衛生紙被當成哈達使用，以示藏人舉事。然而飄飛的白紙，又似有祭奠的意味，催人神傷......
紀實：一個藏人親歷的拉薩3•14
文/阿什
2008 年3月的拉薩，與往年相比，氣候稍冷一點。就要到"3•10"紀念日了，中國政府稱之為西藏的"叛亂日"，而藏人則稱它是藏人的"受難日"、"流亡日"，從1959年3月10日那天起，整整49週年了。自上個世紀八十年代末拉薩的大規模"騷亂"之後，這二十年來，拉薩基本穩定，鮮見成規模的抗議遊行活動，逐漸呈現出讓中國政府寬心的"繁榮和諧"景象。今年的3月，拉薩依舊很平靜，大街小巷、寺院門前藏人比新年前少很多，因為很多返鄉過年的藏人還沒回來，而街上遊客日益增多，進入三月份也就快進入拉薩的旅遊季節了。
平靜的拉薩城讓人不禁懷疑，是否拉薩的藏人已經淡忘了"3•10"，不過政府的一些細微舉措又提醒人們，中國政府依然介意這個日子。從3月7日起，在由樟木邊關往日喀則方向進入拉薩的318國道上，執勤人員進行了大換血。這條國道有限速規定，平時只是司機下車到檢查站交個單子就完事，但3月7日後，路邊檢查站的工作人員會親自到車前查看盤問，對藏人司機的車子盤查得尤其嚴格，對車內每位乘客也仔細地打量，而且所有檢查人員全部更新，這或許是在嚴防由尼泊爾方向趕在"3•10"前進入拉薩的境外藏人。
3月10日那天，拉薩城依舊如往日般平靜，但下午4點多，哲蚌寺有三百多僧人下山往城裡走去，喊著要求宗教自由、勿讓太多漢人進藏等口號，在拉薩海關那裡被大批軍警阻攔，一些僧人被抓走，其餘僧人則靜坐地上，這期間還有一百多僧人聞訊走出寺院，但在山下就被軍警阻攔，直到當晚2點多，僧人們被軍警毆打，強行趕回寺院。而在老城中心的大昭寺廣場上，警力明顯比平時增多，廣場上增加了更多的便衣警力，廣場周邊也停了很多莫名的車輛。拉薩的安全工作做得很細緻，有特殊牌照的車絕大部分屬於武警，軍隊或公安的車輛許多都不挂特殊牌照，只挂普通民用車的車牌甚至沒有牌照。後來在拉薩街道上行駛的軍車、裝甲車也都是沒有牌照的，或者被蒙住了，所以也看不出來屬於哪個軍隊或武警。在廣場邊上的一輛中型小客車裡也坐滿了全副武裝的防暴警察。直到下午5點多，拉薩老城依然比較平靜，逛街的逛街，轉經的轉經。問起很多藏人他們是否還記得"3•10"這個日子，大家說，這是不會忘記的，只是並不打算很聲張地紀念，這一天，會在家裡點燈點蠟唸經，為曾經死去的亡靈祈禱。但是到了下午6點多，一場在中國政府意料中的抗議遊行終於開始了。抗議的規模很小，只是十幾二十人，其中大部分是僧人，後來才知道是色拉寺的僧人，都很年輕。剛喊了幾句要求自由的口號，把雪山獅子旗展開，便被廣場周圍嚴陣以待的軍警強行制止，並對遊行的僧人進行了毆打，然後全部抓走，在廣場周邊的藏人只能默默地看著，有人在流淚但對此也無能為力。
這個消息立即在所有拉薩藏人中傳開，大昭寺的僧人要求當局釋放抓走的僧侶民眾，但被回絕，大昭寺僧人於是絕食抗議。晚上10點的拉薩老城格外寂靜，街上很少有人走動，大昭寺廣場上依舊站著平時少見的武裝警察，有零星幾個頭纏白布條的藏人在繞著帕廓磕長頭，是為了這個特殊的日子而紀念。更多的藏人只是緊閉門戶，在家中燃起酥油燈祈禱。街上偶爾遊蕩著一兩個喝醉酒的藏人，對著過往的人喊"我們藏人需要自由"，過往人中藏人明白但漢人聽不懂，還以為是醉話。也許在拉薩，藏人只有喝醉了酒才有勇氣大聲喊出這句話。
3月11日上午，色拉寺也戒嚴了。一個當時在色拉寺旁邊的駕駛學校練車的藏人說，練車時便看見大批軍警包圍了色拉寺，有相當多的僧人在色拉寺的門外靜坐抗議，軍警讓他們回去但他們不回去，軍警便用催淚彈驅逐，還毆打僧人，強行讓僧人回寺。在練車場的藏人看了心裏著急，想過去幫助僧人，但是練車場的負責人已把大鐵門鎖上，不讓他們出去。這天開始，去往色拉寺的路被封閉了，色拉寺周邊很大一片區域手機根本無法使用。而前一天就被封閉的哲蚌寺，在這天從北京西路的西端就開始了封路。
3月12 日，拉薩城北部曲桑寺的一批尼眾下山進城要遊行抗議，走到途中便被軍警攔了回去，而後曲桑寺也被包圍了。一部分尼姑沒有直接回寺而是繞路進城，在13日又進行遊行抗議時，被軍警制止了。這一天，拉薩郊外的甘丹寺也被包圍封閉了。後來知道12日那天哲蚌寺有兩位僧人割腕，色拉寺也有僧人絕食。至此，拉薩周邊大寺全部被封，停止供水、關閉周邊飯館、禁止僧人出寺，長達二十多天並且還在繼續，聽說僧人們都在忍飢挨餓。
3月14日中午左右，拉薩老城中的小昭寺的僧人在做完了上午的佛事後，一些僧人突然起身出寺，推翻了早已守在寺外的警車，然後如同什麼事都未發生過一樣，又繼續回來唸經。其實，小昭寺外早已是守衛森嚴，但因為小昭寺幾乎是處於老城的中心，所以外面佈防的絕大多數是便衣，但是周圍的僧人民眾心裏都很清楚身邊哪些是便衣、哪些是普通百姓。沒過多久，小昭寺附近就開始了騷亂，小昭寺周圍更小的寺院的僧人、小昭寺周邊的藏人便與佈防在小昭寺門前的軍警便衣發生了衝突，有藏人被打得頭破血流，只能讓人抬著離開。正好小昭寺隔壁有一家民宅在裝修房子，憤怒的民眾就用現成的石塊打一些周圍漢人的商店。小昭寺一帶進入騷亂後沒多久，在馬路對面的沖賽康區域也進入了騷亂狀態。而此時，小昭寺周圍原本佈防的穿著制服的軍警已全部撤離，留下來的便衣如果被民眾識別出則被大家攻擊。此刻的時間，不到下午一點。
不到下午兩點時，抗議的人群擴散到北京東路至策墨林一帶，此處距離後來電視中經常播放的損毀嚴重的青年路大概一百米遠。北京路是橫貫拉薩老城與新城東西之間的一條主路，青年路是與北京路呈十字交叉的路，南至宇拓路（毗鄰大昭寺廣場），北至林廓路。北京東路路北小昭寺區域對面是沖賽康區域，毗鄰老城的正中心帕廓街和大昭寺廣場。騷亂從沖賽康很快就擴散到帕廓街區域，不到兩點，沖賽康、帕廓街方向已經升起了幾處黑煙。中午時分，正是城裡學校午休時間，因為老城裡已經開始騷亂，所以學校紛紛放學關門。抗議藏人的攻擊只是針對漢人店舖，不會針對孩子，更不會是藏人孩子，所以孩子們都平安到家，而老城內中小學校的學生多數是藏人，所以這些孩子在穿越騷亂區域時不會受到任何騷擾。此時，北京東路策墨林以東已鮮有車輛通過，路邊站滿了藏人，而沿路的所有商店都已關門。偶有騎摩托車漢人路過時，會受到路邊幾個藏人的攻擊，但對路過看熱鬧的遊客人群不會有攻擊，尤其是西方遊客更不會受到任何攻擊。路上的漢人和很多隻是看熱鬧不願參與的藏人紛紛往西行。這時，在青年路和北京東路的十字路口處，有穿著交警制服的大約10個警察在維持秩序並觀望著就在他們前面騷亂的人群，卻不加阻止。當時，那邊騷亂人群也不知怎麼突然往西跑了十幾米，嚇得這些警察趕緊從路中間撤到了人行道上，跑得比旁邊看熱鬧的人還快。後來在西郊才有意思，一些當時從東面被迫撤到西面的遊客，問在路邊派出所裡出來到路上觀望的警察，怎樣才能返回東邊的旅館，能否讓警察護送回去，可警察說：我們自己都顧不過來，哪還有精力管你們那！基本上，騷亂起來之後軍警就都不太管了，只是守好規定他們佈防的區域路段，偶爾對靠近的人群用用催淚彈，而抗議的藏人也基本不太跟軍警發生正面衝突，似乎各行其是的樣子。也有不少政府和軍警方面的車輛由西駛來至青年路時，再拐入南面的宇拓路大昭寺方向，與騷亂人群幾乎是擦身而過。
沿北京東路西行，到了離青年路大約兩百米遠的下一路口，也就是北京東路與北京中路的分界，並與娘熱路交叉的路口時，發現已經有帶有鋼盔、手持盾牌的軍警嚴陣以待了。在離娘熱路口以西50米遠的康昂多路口，也就是布達拉廣場的東側，更有許多武裝軍警，路邊還停著幾輛軍車，也有重型裝甲車。並且，也有不斷從西面駛來的多輛軍車、裝甲車至康昂多路口時南行開往江蘇路方向。但主要路段上只有軍車和裝甲車在調動，根本不見救護車和消防車，而此時東面已經有多處起火，也有一些漢人受傷了。娘熱路口至布達拉廣場之間有中國銀行、農業銀行、郵政大廈等銀行郵政通信機構，也有拉薩最大的商場，而布達拉廣場就挨西藏自治區政府，把警力、軍力佈防在此的原因也是顯而易見的。到了下午三點多，遠遠向東望去，騷亂人群還沒過青年路，但是在娘熱路口的軍警開始把路邊觀望的人群不斷向西趕，退到了布達拉廣場以西，途中軍警不斷制止觀望人群用手機、相機等的拍照行為。在布達拉廣場西側向東望去，隱約可見騷亂已過了青年路。這時是下午4點左右，北京中路布達拉廣場以東被完全封閉。到了下午5點多的時候，騷亂經過林廓北路已經向林廓中路蔓延，除了最先開始的小昭寺區域、沖賽康區域和帕廓街區域，已經向北蔓延到團結新村一帶，向東到蔓延到嘎瑪貢桑一帶，這些區域也基本上是拉薩城被騷亂波及的全部區域。
整個騷亂期間，在白天的時候，基本沒出現藏人與軍警的大規模衝突，不然不可能有那麼大的範圍。白天騷亂髮生很長時間後，街上還有西方遊客看熱鬧，軍警當然不可能在人家眼皮底下屠殺的，到了夜裡才開始槍聲大作。不過，雖然入夜以前，在北京路上幾乎沒聽到多少槍聲，因為這是各國遊人在拉薩最集中的一帶，但是在帕廓街裡、在林廓路上均有藏人被軍警槍殺。在林廓路上，有人看到至少有四五個藏人被軍警殺死，其中有一人就在電視臺附近，那時是5點多以後。下午，有一個尼姑在帕廓街一帶被軍警開槍打死，她在帕廓街住的親人把她的屍體搬回家，但是到了晚上便有軍警上門來搶走屍體。
夜裡，平時總是很熱鬧的拉薩新城，即布達拉廣場以西也就是拉薩人口中的西郊也變得靜悄悄的，出租車只開到德吉路就再也不往東開了。過了德吉路，街上幾乎看不到行人，布達拉廣場的東側依舊有著大批的軍警在攔路佈防。北京東路上，在距娘熱路口50米以東的路北側，沿街商鋪損毀嚴重；但路南側卻安然無恙，而娘熱路上沿路商鋪則無損失，看來騷亂人群只是過了青年路向西沒走多遠便又退回青年路了，並沒有與早已佈防在娘熱路口的軍警發生正面衝突。這一小段路上偶爾可見幾處血跡，但以血跡大小來看，出血量不大。在這一小段路上，有著後來在電視上反覆播放死了5個女孩子的"以純服裝店"。青年路口處的商店也被損毀地頗為慘烈，路口人行道上有一輛被燒損的白色小轎車。青年路南段通往宇拓路方向損失不大，而青年路北段則損毀嚴重，這其中也有後來電視中反覆播放的彭姓漢人的商鋪。青年路口東側便是下午騷亂爆發的中心區域，這段的北京東路上已經開始有了槍聲和偶爾的慘叫聲。這時，是14日夜裡不到12點。
14日的夜裡，在拉薩的老城，藏人聚集區域裡槍聲不斷。15日一早，便發現外面已是全城戒嚴了，至少老城是全面戒嚴，普通人不管是有無證件都不得出入。白天在老城區域時有黑煙冒起，也會聽到不時傳來的槍聲。16號，情況依然沒變。這兩日的拉薩城除了能聽到槍聲外一片死寂。警方的110電話和很多政府機構的電話都無人接聽。老城裡偶爾有人因為戒嚴不能出門，家裡沒有吃的了想出門買吃的，同樣被軍警攔回，而且對手拿手機的人也要檢查手機防止拍照。任何人、任何種族無一例外，16號那天青年路上有幾個店被砸的漢人想出去買點吃的，明顯可以看出他們只是當地生活的普通漢人，但是軍警堅決不讓他們出去，而且其中有個男人手裡拿著手機，也被軍警查看手機裡是否拍了照片。這兩日，軍警聯合當地派出所民警到藏人居住區內進行大規模的搜捕行動，到各家各戶搜索可疑人員並且搜查藏人家中是否供有達賴喇嘛的照片。一次，在一戶藏人家中搜出達賴喇嘛的照片，軍警讓這個藏人把照片扔到地上用腳踩，但是他說什麼也不這樣做，結果手被軍警給打斷。不少家裡有小孩的藏人家庭都流著淚把達賴喇嘛的照片燒了，不然小孩子難保不說漏嘴。比起白天偶爾出現的槍聲，這兩日夜裡的槍聲更加密集。夜間的槍殺及抓捕行動，加上完全的封城戒嚴，讓人難以得知這當中到底死傷了多少藏人。16日下午，老城的主要街道上出現了多輛的小公共汽車，車上裝滿了帶鐵锨和大掃帚的人，看來是政府召集單位的人來清掃混亂不堪的街道了，因為已經通知17日要解除戒嚴開始正常工作，學生可以去學校上學了。
17日，彷彿是解禁了。不過老城裡各個路口還是有軍警把守，來往的人必須出示有效證件，出去上班的必須出示工作證。而對於藏人居住區來說，依然是嚴格戒嚴，從路口到居民區的小巷子內佈滿了層層防線，早晨藏人家長想出去送孩子上學都不行，只能讓孩子自己背書包去。而且出入之人也要進行搜身及對隨身物品的檢查，甚至檢查每個藏人的脖子，看是否會挂帶達賴喇嘛的像章，只要查出來就會給抓走。但因檢查脖子上是否挂帶像章已是在入門進屋搜查之後的事，所以幾乎不會再有藏人當時還敢在脖子上挂帶達賴喇嘛的像章了。
從17日開始，電視廣播等新聞媒體開始大量密集地政治宣傳，電視中反覆播放藏人毆打漢人的畫面裡，那漢人不是普通的漢人，他們實際上是便衣。不過在騷亂中也確實出現了藏人毆打漢人的情況，這也是事實，是無法否認的。而對於藏人打砸燒某些漢人的商鋪也是事實。多年壓抑著心中不滿的藏人對一些無辜的漢人回人普通民眾的商鋪及人身進行攻擊，確實是讓人極其痛心的事，很多藏人在那個時候失去了理智，只想著發泄積累在心中多年的怨氣。不過，中國官方媒體中更多的宣傳卻可以用"編造"和"污蔑"來形容！藏人會打砸燒漢人回人的店舖，但是藏人不會去偷也不會去搶的。他們會把一些店舖裡的東西拿出來燒，但是決不會藉機把別人店裡的東西搶回家的！騷亂中如果有藏人發現別人這樣做，也會堅決制止，並且這種行為會遭到所有人唾棄的。當然，也不會出現把普通漢人毆打致死的現象。中國政府把騷亂的藏人定性為"暴徒"，自然在一般人的概念中，所謂暴徒出現這樣的行為是合理的，但是在絕大多數藏人心中，以上兩種行為是完全超越了做人的根本底線，即使有人出現這樣的行為，也會被周圍人嚴格制止的。
看著電視上被損毀嚴重的商鋪，讓人心裏不斷湧出許多疑問。怎麼可能？！怎麼可能會這麼嚴重？！下午一點多騷亂人群只是到策墨林一帶，而到了下午三點還沒過青年路呢，而當時青年路上有警察，不遠處的下一個路口大批的武裝軍警已佈防妥當，怎麼這裡會損毀得如此嚴重呢？就算軍警不想與騷亂人群發生暴力衝突，但是難道不能使用催淚彈和消防水槍來驅散人群和救火麼？另外，沖賽康那邊有些藏人的民宅也起火了，這也很奇怪，因為藏人在砸那些商鋪的時候，一排商鋪只有那麼幾家藏人商鋪都能給挑出來越過去不砸，怎麼可能放火燒藏人自己的民宅呢？還有，電視報紙網路上經常會有的那個持刀藏人的畫面，他穿的是安多風格的藏裝，但是他的臉不是一張安多藏人的臉，而且手裡的刀根本不是藏刀，很明顯就可以看出不是藏刀。其實當時，騷亂人群手裡沒有拿著大刀的，只是砸商店，用刀子又不能砸店還傷刀呢，刀子最多就是用來砍人，但是一般藏人對一些漢人無非就是踹幾腳打幾拳，用刀子殺傷性太大，沒人願意把人打死的。
不過被媒體大肆宣傳的燒死人的那幾起事件卻讓我震驚又不解。其中出現燒死人的地方，分別位於青年路北段和青年路口以西的北京東路上，這兩段路在發生騷亂開始的時候已經有警察把守，而且軍隊的佈防就在不遠處，而且從大家得知騷亂髮生、到騷亂蔓延至該路段有兩個多小時的時間，就算爬也能爬走了，怎麼還能被燒死呢？？？這兩段路在當時很長一段時間內即使是漢人都是安全的，是暢通無阻的，怎麼就能出不來呢？！而其中的"以純服裝店"距離軍警的佈防只有100多米的距離。至於說起藏人燒燬學校更是污蔑。學校裡的火勢是從學校隔壁的商店蔓延過去的，藏人根本不會去攻擊和燒燬學校的。而且明顯可以看出學校只是一部分二樓的房間有被火燒的跡象，哪有從二樓開始而不動一樓的縱火行為呀？！而且被採訪的很多說藏語的藏人，當時說的話跟字幕上的漢語翻譯也是不符的。又如宇拓路上也有一個很奇怪的現象，宇拓路靠近青年路南段的三分之一處的漢人商店和幾個政府事業單位損毀嚴重，而另三分之二通往區政府那段卻安然無恙，整個這一大段路並沒有大型十字路口，竟然也施行了分段把守佈防。而青年路南段（地圖上叫朵森格路）以南更是安然無恙，因為那裡有國防賓館（以前是西藏軍區第二招待所），裡面大院裡駐紮著大量的軍車和軍警。整個騷亂從開始到蔓延開來是經過了很長一段時間，而拉薩歷來都是有著大量軍警的駐防，尤其是"3•10"以來，拉薩更是處於嚴防當中，但在整個騷亂事件中，保持觀望的軍警不但是不作為，甚至更在其中推波助瀾，真不知到底是誰"有預謀、有計畫、有組織"的了！
接下來的日子中，拉薩貌似"恢復穩定"，"人民生活生產恢復正常秩序"，其實戒嚴一時也沒有放鬆過，藏人的居住區內依然有大量的軍警把守，抓捕行動也由最早開始的公開轉為秘密進行，對藏人挨家挨戶的清洗也在持續進行中。有大量藏人被陸陸續續的抓捕，即使有切實證據證明沒有參與騷亂暴力行動，被抓捕的人還是會遭到毆打。據一名被抓捕又因有明顯證據證明其清白的而被釋放的藏人說，在看守所裡的絕大部分藏人都是堅強樂觀的，裡面有些被抓的藏族年輕女孩子，整天唱著歌鼓勵著大家。而他被釋放的時候，臉已經被打得腫得很高了。有個藏人被抓時是健康無恙的，但是過了幾天被放出來後已經無法走路神智也不清了，回到家過了兩天就死了。警察方面對被抓捕的藏人也不斷的進行威逼利誘，每揭發一個人給予2000元的獎勵。也有人因此而揭發舉報了別人，不過這樣做的人很少。後來，自治區公安廳還給每個手機用戶發簡訊，讓舉報被通緝的人，獎金是2萬元。從3月19日起，除了境外媒體和外國外交官來訪時中斷了幾天，其他日子，每個晚上都在電視上播放通緝者的照片，讓拉薩城裡的藏人人人自危。到底有多少藏人被抓，有多少藏人死在看守所，現在沒有人知道確切的數字，以後也很難統計出確實的數目。
3月27日，境外記者團進入拉薩採訪，已經變得冷冷清清的布達拉廣場前突然出現了大批轉經的人。這是因為前一日，藏人的幾個居住區的居委會被要求要派人僱人出去轉經，每人給的佣金是 200元。大家聽到這件事，也就跟聽笑話一樣。政府用盡辦法來粉飾"和諧穩定"的拉薩城，但是拉薩的普通百姓卻變得有些風聲鶴唳草木皆兵的味道。在拉薩3 月29日又起了小規模的騷亂，據稱當時有3人被打死，但此消息一直無法證實。半小時後，整個北京東路直至北京中路東段的沿街店舖已全部關門，拉薩百姓的反應與敏感度比3•14那天提高了數倍。除此之外，街上只是多了些制服警察，整個街上看不出發生騷亂的跡象，政府的處理手法完全不同於3•14期間了。這些天的拉薩又比前一陣子多了些軍警，無人知道什麼時候能完全解除戒嚴，對於藏人的解禁更不知是什麼時候。很長一段時間內，藏人出門都要帶著身份證，而且還要帶著自3•14以後被要求辦理的暫住證，而外地的藏人不知要到何時才能到拉薩來朝拜寺院。
"我們是被你們在49年前殺死的人的靈魂！我們不怕死！你們現在殺了我們，我們還會再回來的！"--這是在這次拉薩事件中藏人們呼喊的口號。聽到這個口號的藏人眼睛在流淚，心裏在淌血。在藏地，能夠轉世的不僅是活佛，每個具有強大信念支撐的靈魂都會轉世，而在這裡，這種信念就是--自由！
2008-4-4，拉薩、某地
Lhasa Witness, March 2008
By Ahshn
【譯者是普林斯頓大學教授林培瑞（Perry Link）和耶魯大學講師康正果】
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 Dram-mo [Zhangmu] and the prefecture Nyingtri [Linzhi] [note this can't be right; Dram is hundreds of km from Nyingtri with Lhasa in between. I think it's an error from Nyalam, the next town up from the border after Dram, with two checkposts between them. But that is a county town. The prefectural town is Shigatse, and there are three checkposts between them at least, more now during Everest torch nonsense], 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 [surely this means Han? Doesn't Han mean in English "ethnic Chinese"? Never sure what "Han Chinese" means} 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 Jokhang 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 Jokhang 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 Jokhang Temple demanded that the Sera monks be released. When that was denied, the Jokhang monks began a hunger strike. At 10:00 p.m. downtown Lhasa was eerily quiet. A few policemen remained on guard outside the Jokhang 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 Chubsang Nunnery in northern Lhasa began a trek toward downtown Lhasa. Police intercepted them, forced them to return, and proceeded to surround the Chubsang 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 Jokhang 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.
Around noon on March 14, after monks at the Ramoche Temple in Old Lhasa had finished their morning rituals, several of them suddenly went outside the temple, overturned the police cars that were stationed there, and then, as if nothing had happened, calmly walked back inside and continued to read their scriptures.
The Ramoche Temple is always tightly guarded, but, because of its location near the center of Old Lhasa, most of the guards need to be disguised in civilian clothes. This makes the appearances more seemly, but the monks and other Tibetans are all quite clear who the police are. This was the context in which the first "riot" of March 14 occurred. About 1:00 p.m., Tibetans and monks from a small temple near Ramoche clashed with plainclothes police at the Ramoche gates. A few Tibetans sustained serious head injuries and were carried away by friends. A private residence next door to Ramoche happened at the time to be undergoing renovations. Angry Tibetans took bricks from the renovation site and used them to smash several nearby shops owned by Han Chinese. The trouble soon spread to the Tromsigkhang District, which lies to the south of Ramoche across Beijing Road. Strangely, the uniformed guards who had been stationed in front of Ramoche disappeared at this point, leaving behind only the plainclothes guards, who, when discovered by the incensed crowds, became their targets. The protestors moved slowly eastward along Beijing Road, passing the intersection with Shonu [=Youth in Tibetan, Qiannian lu] Road, which runs north and south. It is that strip of Shonu Road near Beijing Road that Chinese television later showed, over and over, as evidence of the "grave losses" that rioters had inflicted. The protesters then moved to the Tsomonling district, about a hundred meters beyond Shonu Road, and toward the center of Old Lhasa where the Barkor and Jokhang Square are located. By 2:00 p.m. clouds of black smoke were rising along the route between the Tromsigkhang District and the Barkor.
The public schools in Lhasa normally observe a noon recess, but that day, because of the disturbances, they all cancelled afternoon sessions and sent their young charges home. The protestors were targeting Han-owned shops, not children, so the youngsters walked home through all the turmoil as if charmed, and remained unscathed.
Roadside shops began to close up, and crowds of Tibetan onlookers began to form. Vehicular traffic, which had been temporarily stopped, began to reappear from the eastern end of Beijing Road. The Tibetan crowds shouted taunts at Han Chinese who passed by on motorcycles, but they spared tourists, and were especially careful not to affront Western tourists. At the intersection of Beijing Road and Shonu Road about ten policemen directed traffic but, strangely, did nothing to intervene in the rioting. At one point when the rioters suddenly turned westward, in the direction of the policemen, they seemed to panic. They scurried from the center of the road and disappeared into alleys, seemingly more fearful than were all the curious onlookers. I heard a tourist ask a policeman for assistance in returning to a hotel at the eastern end of Beijing Road. "We're busy enough just trying to take care of ourselves here," the policeman said. "How do you think we can care for you?"
The police, including the military police, were trying to control only certain stretches of road. Elsewhere they occasionally tossed a tear-gas grenade into a crowd, but that was about all. The Tibetan rioters rarely sought to confront the police, either. It was almost as if the rioters and the police had agreed to disagree and let each side attend to its own business. I saw a convoy of government cars and police cars turn south from Beijing Road toward Yuthok Road passing right through a knot of rioters. Neither side seemed to pay any attention.
Suddenly, about 200 meters to the west, near the junction of Beijing Road and Nyangdren Road, I could see that a contingent of People's Armed Police had appeared in helmets and shields. Then about fifty meters farther east, at the junction with Karnadong [never heard of this, I don't think it's right. What's the original pinyin?] Road, which is also the eastern edge of Potala Square, more rows of military police appeared, and large armored vehicles lined the streets. A stream of military vehicles arrived steadily from the west along Beijing Road; when they reached the junction with Karnadong Road they turned south toward Chingdrol [=Liberation, ie Jiefang] Road. All of these vehicles, whether armed or not, were military vehicles. I saw no fire engines or ambulances, even though, at that time in the eastern part of the city, several fires were already burning and a number of Han Chinese had already been injured.
Potala Square is the seat of the Tibetan government, and the stretch of Beijing Road that runs east from it contains several large buildings housing the Bank of China, the Bank of Agriculture, the central post office, and Lhasa's largest shopping center. It was, in short, the obvious place for troops to protect. Shortly after 3:00 p.m., when the rioting was still confined to the eastern side of Shonu Road, the soldiers at Nyangdren Road were already shooing bystanders westward toward the far side of Potala Square. They were also stopping anyone they could from using cameras or cell phones to take photographs. Around 4:00 p.m. soldiers blocked off Beijing Road eastward from Potala Square. Meanwhile the disturbances had crossed to the west side of Shonu Road. An hour later they had spread to Lingkor Central Road, northward to the area of New Unity Village, and eastward as far as the Karma Kunsang area. These were the areas most affected by the rioting.
One reason why the riots spread as far as they did was that Chinese troops apparently did not dare to carry out major repression while Western tourists were watching. There was very little gunfire anywhere along Beijing Road, where the tourists were most numerous. But some Tibetans were shot to death elsewhere. A witness told me that he had seen military police kill at least four or five Tibetans at Lingkor Road about 5:00 p.m. At the Barkor, police shot and killed a nun whose family then carried her body inside their home; that evening police came to the door, entered forcibly, and removed the body. With the arrival of nightfall, when the tourists were in their hotels and out of sight, gunfire in the city increased.
The city of Lhasa usually bustles at night, but that night the area of Lhasa west of Potala Square, where I was at the time, was shrouded in a ghostly silence. I took a taxi eastward but could go only as far as Dekyi Lingka Road. From there, as I walked farther eastward, I saw only empty streets and an occasional pedestrian. At the eastern edge of Potala Square, the legion of military police and their vehicles were still blocking the roadways out of the square. Walking farther along Beijing Road, for the next 50 meters or so, I saw heavy damage to stores on the north side of the road, while stores on the south side seem not to have been touched. I heard from passersby that the rioters had crossed west of Shonu Road only briefly and then turned back, apparently to avoid confrontation with the troops stationed at Potala Square. I saw bloodstains on the streets, but, to judge from their size, the bloodshed had not been great.
This was the stretch of road that included the Yichun Clothes Shop where five Han Chinese girls had died in a fire. Their charred remains were shown over and over on television throughout China in the days that followed. The damage to stores at the junction of Shonu Road was also severe, especially to the north of the crossroads, but not so much to the south. The burnt remains of a white car rested on the sidewalk at the intersection. This was also the area that contained the shop of the Han Chinese "Mr. Peng," whose losses were shown repeatedly on China's state television. The area to the east of Shonu Road had been hardest it by the rioting on the afternoon of March 14. Now, at shortly before midnight, the streets were empty. Only the intermittent crackle of gunfire broke the silence, as did, occasionally, a chilling scream.
The most incessant gunfire that night was in the Tibetan district of Old Lhasa. Early the next morning, March 15, this district was put under martial law. Ordinary people, whether they had identification documents or not, were not allowed to enter or leave the area, and those inside it were discouraged from going onto the streets. People who left home to buy food were sent back. Cell phones were examined for unauthorized photography. These rules were applied to Hans and Tibetans alike. Black smoke arose from the area from time to time throughout the day, and sporadic gunfire rang out as well.
These conditions remained essentially the same through the next day, March 16. For those two days, March 15 and 16, only the occasional sound of gunfire disturbed the tomb-like silence. No one answered the telephone at the police department's emergency number--or, for that matter, at the number of any government office. On those two days all government resources seemed to be devoted to a dragnet in which the local police and the People's Armed Police looked for "violent thugs". On March 16 some Han Chinese whose shops on Shonu Road had been smashed two days earlier wanted to go out to buy some food, but police blocked them, denied permission for their shopping trip, and confiscated a cell phone that one of them was carrying.
The real searching, though, was in the Tibetan neighborhoods. Armed police went door to door looking for suspects in the rioting and for pictures of the Dalai Lama--which were the primary grounds for making one into a suspect. A story spread that in one Tibetan home the police found a photograph of the Dalai Lama and demanded that the owner throw it onto the floor and trample it; when the man refused, police beat his hands until bones broke. Some Tibetan families made the painful decision to burn their photos of the Dalai Lama.
On the afternoon of March 16 there was an announcement that martial law would be lifted the next day. Small buses carrying people with shovels and brooms appeared on the streets of Old Lhasa. These people seemed to have been mobilized from government work units to go clean up the mess on the streets.
On March 17 martial law was officially lifted but Old Lhasa was still guarded by military police. Passersby had to show valid identification and no one could go to work without a work-unit ID. In Tibetan neighborhoods there was no real change from the martial-law regimen: armed police were still stationed at every intersection and patrols roamed even the smallest of alleyways. Tibetan parents were not allowed to accompany their children on the walk to school. Tibetans who appeared in public were subject to search of their persons and of any items that they carried. Necks, in particular, were examined to see if anyone still dared to wear a Dalai Lama pendant. If so it was confiscated. By then, though, most people had figured out not to wear pendants.
On the same day, March 17, a media barrage on television and radio and in the newspapers showed, showed and re-showed scenes of Tibetans beating up Han Chinese. Most of the Hans were plainclothes police whom angry crowds had identified and surrounded. But some of the Han victims were just ordinary citizens. We Tibetans must face this fact. We should acknowledge, too, that Tibetans smashed and set fire to shops owned by Han and Moslem Chinese. We might explain these actions by saying they were irrational outbursts that sprang from many years of frustration. But still it was wrong, and it was painful to watch.
Some of what the Chinese media showed, however, was highly misleading and, I believe, probably fabricated for the purpose of showing to the rest of China. Angry Tibetans did burn and smash Han shops, but they did not, as the media claimed, steal anything. They sometimes removed goods from shops, put them onto the street and set them afire, but they did not take anything home. If any looting by Tibetans had begun, I feel certain that other Tibetans would have stopped it, and indeed would have angrily chastised the offender for corrupting the spirit of the protest. Material loot was not the point of the riots--indeed was quite far from the point. The Chinese media's attempt to present it this way was cynical deception. The media's reference to the Tibetans on the street "violent thugs" was a further deception, because this term, in normal Chinese use, suggests that a person is willing to kill. But none of the filmed footage showed anyone being beaten to death, and, in the minds of the overwhelming majority of Tibetans, to do such a thing would violate the fundamental principles of living as a human being. If a Tibetan had begun to do such a thing, others would certainly have stopped him.
The Chinese media images of shops and homes devastated by fire raises a number of other troubling questions. How, for example, could the damage have been so extensive? On March 14, when the burning happened, the Tibetan rioters who were moving westward reached the Tsomonling area at just past 1:00 p.m. By 3:00 p.m. they still had not crossed Shonu Road, where police crews were already in place. One block farther west, the Peoples Armed Police were already deployed and at the ready. So how could this area have been one where the damage was most severe? Even if we consider that, it being daylight, the troops did not want to use violence in front of the cameras of tourists, they still could have used tear gas or water hoses to prevent major arson. Another puzzle is why, when houses were set ablaze in the Tromsigkhang area, the homes of both Tibetans and Hans were burned. Why would Tibetans burn the homes of Tibetans? It is not plausible that they could not tell the difference. When shops were set ablaze on Shonu Road, the ones owned by Tibetans were left untouched even if the neighboring shops on both sides, if owned by Hans, were burned. It is at least as easy to recognize a Tibetan home as a Tibetan shop.
One image that was shown repeatedly all across China, and internationally, showed a "Tibetan" wielding a machete. He was wearing clothing characteristic of people from the Amdo region in northeast Tibet, but his face did not look like an Amdo Tibetan face and the big knife that he held was one that no Tibetan would recognize. Moreover the aim of the rioters on March 14 was to smash shops, a task for which a big knife like that would have been a clumsy tool. Using it would likely have resulted in damage to the knife itself. Are we supposed to believe that the purpose of the knife was to hack Han Chinese? I cannot. There is no evidence that the rioters, for all their anger, had that kind of bloodthirsty goal.
What the official media showed about the Han people who died in fires raises yet other questions. The deaths are as shocking as the questions are unsettling. The two places where Hans died in fires were on Shonu Road north of Beijing Road and on Beijing Road to the west of Shonu Road. These were both locations where the police were already in place, and the armed militia was nearby, well before the rioters arrived. Moreover the elapsed time between the point at which it was known that rioting had begun in the city and the point at which the slow-moving rioters arrived at these two locations was about two hours. That was plenty of time to do an evacuation. People on the streets at the two locations--Hans and Tibetans alike--were moving freely during those two hours. How, as the media reports said, could the fire victims have been trapped inside their shops? One of the stores in which people died, the Yichun Clothes Shop, was only about 100 meters away from where the Peoples Armed Police were on duty, and yet there seems to have been no effort to evacuate or rescue anyone. On Yuthok Road as well, where a number of government offices suffered heavy damage, as did about one third of the Han-owned shops, other nearby shops and offices suffered no damage at all. The puzzle is that police, including military police, were stationed throughout the area--both where damage occurred and where it did not occur. In some areas the police deterred rioters; in others they stood by and watched. The Chinese media has repeated endlessly that the disturbances had been "plotted, planned, and organized" by the Dalai Lama. But looking at the streets of Lhasa, it seemed much more likely that someone else had done some planning and organizing.
One of the official news reports claimed that Tibetans had set fire to a school. It is true that a school was burned. But that had happened when flames spread from neighboring shops. I find it impossible to imagine that Tibetans deliberately set fire to a school. Moreover one could see from the news clip that only part of the second floor of the school building showed signs of having been burned. Would someone aiming to burn down a building begin at the second floor? Chinese television interviewed some Tibetan witnesses who condemned "the arson," but only a viewer bilingual in Tibetan and Chinese could know that the Chinese subtitles were a poor match what the Tibetans were saying.
In the days that followed March 18, life in Lhasa seemed to calm down. The government announced that "the people's lives and production have been restored to normal order." But the description was superficial. The tension caused by the military crackdown had not diminished. Troops continued to occupy Tibetan neighborhoods, and the household searches, and arrests of Tibetans, continued as before. The arrests from March 15 to 18 had been done by uniformed police; now they were done, more furtively, by plainclothes police. Once arrested, it seemed to matter little whether a person could show that he or she had had nothing to do with the rioting; a beating followed in either case. I interviewed a Tibetan who had been released from a detention center because he was able to show clear evidence that he had been elsewhere when the rioting occurred. His face was still badly swollen from beatings. But he said that the great majority of Tibetans inside his detention center were determined to stay optimistic. Some young Tibetan women detainees, he said, sang songs all day long in an effort to boost everyone's spirits.
He introduced me to another Tibetan who had entered the detention center in good health but came out unable to walk and mentally disoriented. This man died two days later. People have asked me how many Tibetans were arrested, all together, and how many died in both the night-time shootings and the detention centers. I do know, and I am not optimistic that this number will ever be precisely known.
The police presented inducements to detainees as well as coercion. They offered rewards of 2000 yuan (about $285) for information that led to the arrest of a rioter. A few Tibetans apparently took this offer, but not many. The Public Security Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region also sent a text message to every cell-phone subscriber in Lhasa announcing a reward of 20,000 yuan for anyone who could turn over a person on the government's "most wanted" list. Photographs of people on this list were broadcast on television every night beginning March 19, with exceptions only of a brief suspension when foreign journalists and diplomats were being given guided tours to show that all was well in Lhasa.
On March 27, when the foreign journalists arrived for their tour, Potala Square, which for days had been bleak and barren, suddenly teemed with Tibetans saying their ritual prayers. The journalists could not have known that government officials had gone to Tibetan neighborhoods the day before with orders that people go say prayers at Potala Square and that they provided "reimbursements" of 200 yuan apiece for those who complied. In normal times the people of Lhasa might have found this charade to be funny, but now the whole thing was laced with the sharp edge of fear.
Another small riot broke out on March 29. It was said that three people were beaten to death, but I cannot confirm that. I can say, though, that I saw all the shops on Beijing Road close up within half an hour. The residents of Lhasa had become much more sensitive and quick to react than they had been on March 14. Other than that, I can say only that extra police were visible on the streets. Very quickly, there was no sign that any riot had taken place; the government's reaction this time was entirely different from what it had been on March 14.
In early April there were still more police than usual patrolling the streets of Lhasa. No one knows when martial law will be entirely removed. Tibetans have long had to carry identifications card when they go out of their homes; now, in addition, they have had to carry temporary residence cards that the government has required them obtain in the wake of "March 14." Tibetans outside of Lhasa cannot visit the city's temples now, and do not know when they will next be allowed to do so.
One of the chants that Tibetans used during the protests between March 10 and 13 was: "We are the spirits of the people you killed 49 years ago! We are not afraid of death! If you kill us again, we will only come back again!" To Tibetans, it is not only the [there's no such thing in Tibetan. It's a Chinese invention/mistranslation. The word huofu is used for the Tibetan term trulku, manifested body, which is usually given as reincarnated lama.] who can be reincarnated. Any soul who draws strength from a sacred cause can do this. For them, the sacred cause is freedom.
