纪实：一个藏人亲历的拉萨3•14

去年，藏人阿甚作为三月拉萨亲历者，撰写纪实长文。时隔一年之后再读，依然激动难抑。真实的记录是宝贵的，它揭开被强权遮掩的黑幕，让人们看见真相。

为此，重又在我的博客上贴出此文，以及随后翻译的英文译文（译者是普林斯顿大学教授林培瑞和耶鲁大学讲师康正果）。并向阿甚致意！我似又回到了那些个日日夜夜……

图为2008年3月14日，拉萨爆发藏人积怨已久的抗暴事件。白色的卫生纸被当成哈达使用，以示藏人举事。然而飘飞的白纸，又似有祭奠的意味，催人神伤……


纪实：一个藏人亲历的拉萨3•14

文/阿甚

2008年3月的拉萨，与往年相比，气候稍冷一点。就要到“3•10”纪念日了，中国政府称之为西藏的“叛乱日”，而藏人则称它是藏人的“受难日”、“流亡日”，从1959年3月10日那天起，整整49周年了。自上个世纪八十年代末拉萨的大规模“骚乱”之后，这二十年来，拉萨基本稳定，鲜见成规模的抗议游行活动，逐渐呈现出让中国政府宽心的“繁荣和谐”景象。今年的3月，拉萨依旧很平静，大街小巷、寺院门前藏人比新年前少很多，因为很多返乡过年的藏人还没回来，而街上游客日益增多，进入三月份也就快进入拉萨的旅游季节了。

平静的拉萨城让人不禁怀疑，是否拉萨的藏人已经淡忘了“3•10”，不过政府的一些细微举措又提醒人们，中国政府依然介意这个日子。从3月7日起，在由樟木边关往日喀则方向进入拉萨的318国道上，执勤人员进行了大换血。这条国道有限速规定，平时只是司机下车到检查站交个单子就完事，但3月7日后，路边检查站的工作人员会亲自到车前查看盘问，对藏人司机的车子盘查得尤其严格，对车内每位乘客也仔细地打量，而且所有检查人员全部更新，这或许是在严防由尼泊尔方向赶在“3•10”前进入拉萨的境外藏人。

3月10日那天，拉萨城依旧如往日般平静，但下午4点多，哲蚌寺有三百多僧人下山往城里走去，喊着要求宗教自由、勿让太多汉人进藏等口号，在拉萨海关那里被大批军警阻拦，一些僧人被抓走，其余僧人则静坐地上，这期间还有一百多僧人闻讯走出寺院，但在山下就被军警阻拦，直到当晚2点多，僧人们被军警殴打，强行赶回寺院。而在老城中心的大昭寺广场上，警力明显比平时增多，广场上增加了更多的便衣警力，广场周边也停了很多莫名的车辆。拉萨的安全工作做得很细致，有特殊牌照的车绝大部分属于武警，军队或公安的车辆许多都不挂特殊牌照，只挂普通民用车的车牌甚至没有牌照。后来在拉萨街道上行驶的军车、装甲车也都是没有牌照的，或者被蒙住了，所以也看不出来属于哪个军队或武警。在广场边上的一辆中型小客车里也坐满了全副武装的防暴警察。直到下午5点多，拉萨老城依然比较平静，逛街的逛街，转经的转经。问起很多藏人他们是否还记得“3•10”这个日子，大家说，这是不会忘记的，只是并不打算很声张地纪念，这一天，会在家里点灯点蜡念经，为曾经死去的亡灵祈祷。但是到了下午6点多，一场在中国政府意料中的抗议游行终于开始了。抗议的规模很小，只是十几二十人，其中大部分是僧人，后来才知道是色拉寺的僧人，都很年轻。刚喊了几句要求自由的口号，把雪山狮子旗展开，便被广场周围严阵以待的军警强行制止，并对游行的僧人进行了殴打，然后全部抓走，在广场周边的藏人只能默默地看着，有人在流泪但对此也无能为力。

这个消息立即在所有拉萨藏人中传开，大昭寺的僧人要求当局释放抓走的僧侣民众，但被回绝，大昭寺僧人于是绝食抗议。 晚上10点的拉萨老城格外寂静，街上很少有人走动，大昭寺广场上依旧站着平时少见的武装警察，有零星几个头缠白布条的藏人在绕着帕廓磕长头，是为了这个特殊的日子而纪念。更多的藏人只是紧闭门户，在家中燃起酥油灯祈祷。街上偶尔游荡着一两个喝醉酒的藏人，对着过往的人喊“我们藏人需要自由”，过往人中藏人明白但汉人听不懂，还以为是醉话。也许在拉萨，藏人只有喝醉了酒才有勇气大声喊出这句话。

3月11日上午，色拉寺也戒严了。一个当时在色拉寺旁边的驾驶学校练车的藏人说，练车时便看见大批军警包围了色拉寺，有相当多的僧人在色拉寺的门外静坐抗议，军警让他们回去但他们不回去，军警便用催泪弹驱逐，还殴打僧人，强行让僧人回寺。在练车场的藏人看了心里着急，想过去帮助僧人，但是练车场的负责人已把大铁门锁上，不让他们出去。这天开始，去往色拉寺的路被封闭了，色拉寺周边很大一片区域手机根本无法使用。而前一天就被封闭的哲蚌寺，在这天从北京西路的西端就开始了封路。

3月12日，拉萨城北部曲桑寺的一批尼众下山进城要游行抗议，走到途中便被军警拦了回去，而后曲桑寺也被包围了。一部分尼姑没有直接回寺而是绕路进城，在13日又进行游行抗议时，被军警制止了。这一天，拉萨郊外的甘丹寺也被包围封闭了。后来知道12日那天哲蚌寺有两位僧人割腕，色拉寺也有僧人绝食。至此，拉萨周边大寺全部被封，停止供水、关闭周边饭馆、禁止僧人出寺，长达二十多天并且还在继续，听说僧人们都在忍饥挨饿。

3月14日中午左右，拉萨老城中的小昭寺的僧人在做完了上午的佛事后，一些僧人突然起身出寺，推翻了早已守在寺外的警车，然后如同什么事都未发生过一样，又继续回来念经。其实，小昭寺外早已是守卫森严，但因为小昭寺几乎是处于老城的中心，所以外面布防的绝大多数是便衣，但是周围的僧人民众心里都很清楚身边哪些是便衣、哪些是普通百姓。没过多久，小昭寺附近就开始了骚乱，小昭寺周围更小的寺院的僧人、小昭寺周边的藏人便与布防在小昭寺门前的军警便衣发生了冲突，有藏人被打得头破血流，只能让人抬着离开。正好小昭寺隔壁有一家民宅在装修房子，愤怒的民众就用现成的石块打一些周围汉人的商店。小昭寺一带进入骚乱后没多久，在马路对面的冲赛康区域也进入了骚乱状态。而此时，小昭寺周围原本布防的穿着制服的军警已全部撤离，留下来的便衣如果被民众识别出则被大家攻击。此刻的时间，不到下午一点。

不到下午两点时，抗议的人群扩散到北京东路至策墨林一带，此处距离后来电视中经常播放的损毁严重的青年路大概一百米远。北京路是横贯拉萨老城与新城东西之间的一条主路，青年路是与北京路呈十字交叉的路，南至宇拓路（毗邻大昭寺广场），北至林廓路。北京东路路北小昭寺区域对面是冲赛康区域，毗邻老城的正中心帕廓街和大昭寺广场。骚乱从冲赛康很快就扩散到帕廓街区域，不到两点，冲赛康、帕廓街方向已经升起了几处黑烟。中午时分，正是城里学校午休时间，因为老城里已经开始骚乱，所以学校纷纷放学关门。抗议藏人的攻击只是针对汉人店铺，不会针对孩子，更不会是藏人孩子，所以孩子们都平安到家，而老城内中小学校的学生多数是藏人，所以这些孩子在穿越骚乱区域时不会受到任何骚扰。此时，北京东路策墨林以东已鲜有车辆通过，路边站满了藏人，而沿路的所有商店都已关门。偶有骑摩托车汉人路过时，会受到路边几个藏人的攻击，但对路过看热闹的游客人群不会有攻击，尤其是西方游客更不会受到任何攻击。路上的汉人和很多只是看热闹不愿参与的藏人纷纷往西行。这时，在青年路和北京东路的十字路口处，有穿着交警制服的大约10个警察在维持秩序并观望着就在他们前面骚乱的人群，却不加阻止。当时，那边骚乱人群也不知怎么突然往西跑了十几米，吓得这些警察赶紧从路中间撤到了人行道上，跑得比旁边看热闹的人还快。后来在西郊才有意思，一些当时从东面被迫撤到西面的游客，问在路边派出所里出来到路上观望的警察，怎样才能返回东边的旅馆，能否让警察护送回去，可警察说：我们自己都顾不过来，哪还有精力管你们那！基本上，骚乱起来之后军警就都不太管了，只是守好规定他们布防的区域路段，偶尔对靠近的人群用用催泪弹，而抗议的藏人也基本不太跟军警发生正面冲突，似乎各行其是的样子。也有不少政府和军警方面的车辆由西驶来至青年路时，再拐入南面的宇拓路大昭寺方向，与骚乱人群几乎是擦身而过。

沿北京东路西行，到了离青年路大约两百米远的下一路口，也就是北京东路与北京中路的分界，并与娘热路交叉的路口时，发现已经有带有钢盔、手持盾牌的军警严阵以待了。在离娘热路口以西50米远的康昂多路口，也就是布达拉广场的东侧，更有许多武装军警，路边还停着几辆军车，也有重型装甲车。并且，也有不断从西面驶来的多辆军车、装甲车至康昂多路口时南行开往江苏路方向。但主要路段上只有军车和装甲车在调动，根本不见救护车和消防车，而此时东面已经有多处起火，也有一些汉人受伤了。娘热路口至布达拉广场之间有中国银行、农业银行、邮政大厦等银行邮政通信机构，也有拉萨最大的商场，而布达拉广场就挨西藏自治区政府，把警力、军力布防在此的原因也是显而易见的。到了下午三点多，远远向东望去，骚乱人群还没过青年路，但是在娘热路口的军警开始把路边观望的人群不断向西赶，退到了布达拉广场以西，途中军警不断制止观望人群用手机、相机等的拍照行为。在布达拉广场西侧向东望去，隐约可见骚乱已过了青年路。这时是下午4点左右，北京中路布达拉广场以东被完全封闭。到了下午5点多的时候，骚乱经过林廓北路已经向林廓中路蔓延，除了最先开始的小昭寺区域、冲赛康区域和帕廓街区域，已经向北蔓延到团结新村一带，向东到蔓延到嘎玛贡桑一带，这些区域也基本上是拉萨城被骚乱波及的全部区域。

整个骚乱期间，在白天的时候，基本没出现藏人与军警的大规模冲突，不然不可能有那么大的范围。白天骚乱发生很长时间后，街上还有西方游客看热闹，军警当然不可能在人家眼皮底下屠杀的，到了夜里才开始枪声大作。不过，虽然入夜以前，在北京路上几乎没听到多少枪声，因为这是各国游人在拉萨最集中的一带，但是在帕廓街里、在林廓路上均有藏人被军警枪杀。在林廓路上，有人看到至少有四五个藏人被军警杀死，其中有一人就在电视台附近，那时是5点多以后。下午，有一个尼姑在帕廓街一带被军警开枪打死，她在帕廓街住的亲人把她的尸体搬回家，但是到了晚上便有军警上门来抢走尸体。

夜里，平时总是很热闹的拉萨新城，即布达拉广场以西也就是拉萨人口中的西郊也变得静悄悄的，出租车只开到德吉路就再也不往东开了。过了德吉路，街上几乎看不到行人，布达拉广场的东侧依旧有着大批的军警在拦路布防。北京东路上，在距娘热路口50米以东的路北侧，沿街商铺损毁严重；但路南侧却安然无恙，而娘热路上沿路商铺则无损失，看来骚乱人群只是过了青年路向西没走多远便又退回青年路了，并没有与早已布防在娘热路口的军警发生正面冲突。这一小段路上偶尔可见几处血迹，但以血迹大小来看，出血量不大。在这一小段路上，有着后来在电视上反复播放死了5个女孩子的“以纯服装店”。青年路口处的商店也被损毁地颇为惨烈，路口人行道上有一辆被烧损的白色小轿车。青年路南段通往宇拓路方向损失不大，而青年路北段则损毁严重，这其中也有后来电视中反复播放的彭姓汉人的商铺。青年路口东侧便是下午骚乱爆发的中心区域，这段的北京东路上已经开始有了枪声和偶尔的惨叫声。这时，是14日夜里不到12点。

14日的夜里，在拉萨的老城，藏人聚集区域里枪声不断。15日一早，便发现外面已是全城戒严了，至少老城是全面戒严，普通人不管是有无证件都不得出入。白天在老城区域时有黑烟冒起，也会听到不时传来的枪声。16号，情况依然没变。这两日的拉萨城除了能听到枪声外一片死寂。警方的110电话和很多政府机构的电话都无人接听。老城里偶尔有人因为戒严不能出门，家里没有吃的了想出门买吃的，同样被军警拦回，而且对手拿手机的人也要检查手机防止拍照。任何人、任何种族无一例外，16号那天青年路上有几个店被砸的汉人想出去买点吃的，明显可以看出他们只是当地生活的普通汉人，但是军警坚决不让他们出去，而且其中有个男人手里拿着手机，也被军警查看手机里是否拍了照片。这两日，军警联合当地派出所民警到藏人居住区内进行大规模的搜捕行动，到各家各户搜索可疑人员并且搜查藏人家中是否供有达赖喇嘛的照片。一次，在一户藏人家中搜出达赖喇嘛的照片，军警让这个藏人把照片扔到地上用脚踩，但是他说什么也不这样做，结果手被军警给打断。不少家里有小孩的藏人家庭都流着泪把达赖喇嘛的照片烧了，不然小孩子难保不说漏嘴。比起白天偶尔出现的枪声，这两日夜里的枪声更加密集。夜间的枪杀及抓捕行动，加上完全的封城戒严，让人难以得知这当中到底死伤了多少藏人。16日下午，老城的主要街道上出现了多辆的小公共汽车，车上装满了带铁锨和大扫帚的人，看来是政府召集单位的人来清扫混乱不堪的街道了，因为已经通知17日要解除戒严开始正常工作，学生可以去学校上学了。

17日，仿佛是解禁了。不过老城里各个路口还是有军警把守，来往的人必须出示有效证件，出去上班的必须出示工作证。而对于藏人居住区来说，依然是严格戒严，从路口到居民区的小巷子内布满了层层防线，早晨藏人家长想出去送孩子上学都不行，只能让孩子自己背书包去。而且出入之人也要进行搜身及对随身物品的检查，甚至检查每个藏人的脖子，看是否会挂带达赖喇嘛的像章，只要查出来就会给抓走。但因检查脖子上是否挂带像章已是在入门进屋搜查之后的事，所以几乎不会再有藏人当时还敢在脖子上挂带达赖喇嘛的像章了。

从17日开始，电视广播等新闻媒体开始大量密集地政治宣传，电视中反复播放藏人殴打汉人的画面里，那汉人不是普通的汉人，他们实际上是便衣。不过在骚乱中也确实出现了藏人殴打汉人的情况，这也是事实，是无法否认的。而对于藏人打砸烧某些汉人的商铺也是事实。多年压抑着心中不满的藏人对一些无辜的汉人回人普通民众的商铺及人身进行攻击，确实是让人极其痛心的事，很多藏人在那个时候失去了理智，只想着发泄积累在心中多年的怨气。不过，中国官方媒体中更多的宣传却可以用“编造”和“污蔑”来形容！藏人会打砸烧汉人回人的店铺，但是藏人不会去偷也不会去抢的。他们会把一些店铺里的东西拿出来烧，但是决不会借机把别人店里的东西抢回家的！骚乱中如果有藏人发现别人这样做，也会坚决制止，并且这种行为会遭到所有人唾弃的。当然，也不会出现把普通汉人殴打致死的现象。中国政府把骚乱的藏人定性为“暴徒”，自然在一般人的概念中，所谓暴徒出现这样的行为是合理的，但是在绝大多数藏人心中，以上两种行为是完全超越了做人的根本底线，即使有人出现这样的行为，也会被周围人严格制止的。

看着电视上被损毁严重的商铺，让人心里不断涌出许多疑问。怎么可能？！怎么可能会这么严重？！下午一点多骚乱人群只是到策墨林一带，而到了下午三点还没过青年路呢，而当时青年路上有警察，不远处的下一个路口大批的武装军警已布防妥当，怎么这里会损毁得如此严重呢？就算军警不想与骚乱人群发生暴力冲突，但是难道不能使用催泪弹和消防水枪来驱散人群和救火么？另外，冲赛康那边有些藏人的民宅也起火了，这也很奇怪，因为藏人在砸那些商铺的时候，一排商铺只有那么几家藏人商铺都能给挑出来越过去不砸，怎么可能放火烧藏人自己的民宅呢？还有，电视报纸网络上经常会有的那个持刀藏人的画面，他穿的是安多风格的藏装，但是他的脸不是一张安多藏人的脸，而且手里的刀根本不是藏刀，很明显就可以看出不是藏刀。其实当时，骚乱人群手里没有拿着大刀的，只是砸商店，用刀子又不能砸店还伤刀呢，刀子最多就是用来砍人，但是一般藏人对一些汉人无非就是踹几脚打几拳，用刀子杀伤性太大，没人愿意把人打死的。

不过被媒体大肆宣传的烧死人的那几起事件却让我震惊又不解。其中出现烧死人的地方，分别位于青年路北段和青年路口以西的北京东路上，这两段路在发生骚乱开始的时候已经有警察把守，而且军队的布防就在不远处，而且从大家得知骚乱发生、到骚乱蔓延至该路段有两个多小时的时间，就算爬也能爬走了，怎么还能被烧死呢？？？这两段路在当时很长一段时间内即使是汉人都是安全的，是畅通无阻的，怎么就能出不来呢？！而其中的“以纯服装店”距离军警的布防只有100多米的距离。至于说起藏人烧毁学校更是污蔑。学校里的火势是从学校隔壁的商店蔓延过去的，藏人根本不会去攻击和烧毁学校的。而且明显可以看出学校只是一部分二楼的房间有被火烧的迹象，哪有从二楼开始而不动一楼的纵火行为呀？！而且被采访的很多说藏语的藏人，当时说的话跟字幕上的汉语翻译也是不符的。又如宇拓路上也有一个很奇怪的现象，宇拓路靠近青年路南段的三分之一处的汉人商店和几个政府事业单位损毁严重，而另三分之二通往区政府那段却安然无恙，整个这一大段路并没有大型十字路口，竟然也施行了分段把守布防。而青年路南段（地图上叫朵森格路）以南更是安然无恙，因为那里有国防宾馆（以前是西藏军区第二招待所），里面大院里驻扎着大量的军车和军警。整个骚乱从开始到蔓延开来是经过了很长一段时间，而拉萨历来都是有着大量军警的驻防，尤其是“3•10”以来，拉萨更是处于严防当中，但在整个骚乱事件中，保持观望的军警不但是不作为，甚至更在其中推波助澜，真不知到底是谁“有预谋、有计划、有组织”的了！

接下来的日子中，拉萨貌似“恢复稳定”，“人民生活生产恢复正常秩序”，其实戒严一时也没有放松过，藏人的居住区内依然有大量的军警把守，抓捕行动也由最早开始的公开转为秘密进行，对藏人挨家挨户的清洗也在持续进行中。有大量藏人被陆陆续续的抓捕，即使有切实证据证明没有参与骚乱暴力行动，被抓捕的人还是会遭到殴打。据一名被抓捕又因有明显证据证明其清白的而被释放的藏人说，在看守所里的绝大部分藏人都是坚强乐观的，里面有些被抓的藏族年轻女孩子，整天唱着歌鼓励着大家。而他被释放的时候，脸已经被打得肿得很高了。有个藏人被抓时是健康无恙的，但是过了几天被放出来后已经无法走路神智也不清了，回到家过了两天就死了。警察方面对被抓捕的藏人也不断的进行威逼利诱，每揭发一个人给予2000元的奖励。也有人因此而揭发举报了别人，不过这样做的人很少。后来，自治区公安厅还给每个手机用户发短信，让举报被通缉的人，奖金是2万元。从3月19日起，除了境外媒体和外国外交官来访时中断了几天，其他日子，每个晚上都在电视上播放通缉者的照片，让拉萨城里的藏人人人自危。到底有多少藏人被抓，有多少藏人死在看守所，现在没有人知道确切的数字，以后也很难统计出确实的数目。

3月27日，境外记者团进入拉萨采访，已经变得冷冷清清的布达拉广场前突然出现了大批转经的人。这是因为前一日，藏人的几个居住区的居委会被要求要派人雇人出去转经，每人给的佣金是200元。大家听到这件事，也就跟听笑话一样。政府用尽办法来粉饰“和谐稳定”的拉萨城，但是拉萨的普通百姓却变得有些风声鹤唳草木皆兵的味道。在拉萨3月29日又起了小规模的骚乱，据称当时有3人被打死，但此消息一直无法证实。半小时后，整个北京东路直至北京中路东段的沿街店铺已全部关门，拉萨百姓的反应与敏感度比3•14那天提高了数倍。除此之外，街上只是多了些制服警察，整个街上看不出发生骚乱的迹象，政府的处理手法完全不同于3•14期间了。这些天的拉萨又比前一阵子多了些军警，无人知道什么时候能完全解除戒严，对于藏人的解禁更不知是什么时候。很长一段时间内，藏人出门都要带着身份证，而且还要带着自3•14以后被要求办理的暂住证，而外地的藏人不知要到何时才能到拉萨来朝拜寺院。

“我们是被你们在49年前杀死的人的灵魂！我们不怕死！你们现在杀了我们，我们还会再回来的！”——这是在这次拉萨事件中藏人们呼喊的口号。听到这个口号的藏人眼睛在流泪，心里在淌血。在藏地，能够转世的不仅是活佛，每个具有强大信念支撑的灵魂都会转世，而在这里，这种信念就是——自由！

2008-4-4，拉萨、某地

Lhasa Witness, March 2008

By Ahshn

【译者是普林斯顿大学教授林培瑞（Perry Link）和耶鲁大学讲师康正果】

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.