Tibets second uprising

March has always been a tense time in Tibet. This year, however, what could have been just another demonstration by a group of monks in Lhasa on 10 March 2008 instead metamorphosed into a pan-Tibet assertion of rights. At press time the situation is yet to stabilise, and there is no indication that the Chinese authorities are looking to take the situation in a positive direction. From available information, there is little doubt that the underlying cause of the current unrest is ultimately the misplaced policy initiatives that the Chinese government has undertaken in Tibet over the past several decades. The anger that has boiled over this time, however, dwarfs any public frustration vented during the period. Indeed, in terms of significance, the March 2008 demonstrations are comparable less to the widely discussed incidents of 1987 or 1989, than to the first Uprising Day, which took place in Tibet in March 1959, as the Dalai Lama fled into India.

There are three elements that need to be recognised regarding the size and nature of the recent protests in Tibet. First, although the demonstrations began in Lhasa, the domino effect was seen not only in different parts of the Tibet Autonomous Region, but more significantly in the Tibetan areas in present-day Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. This signified, for the first time since 1959, an essentially pan-Tibetan uprising, focused on Chinese rule and calling widely for the return of the Dalai Lama.