Hundreds of Tibetans mark start of Tibetan New Year with protest at sensitive monastery

The news was reported by the Emergency Coordination Committee of Kirti Monastery in India which is in contact with Kirti monastery in Ngaba county.

According to the exile Tibetan sources in India, around 400 Tibetans gathered in the main market square of Ngaba county. The Tibetans wore plain clothes  and ate dry Tsampa in a symbolic act to demonstrate that, instead of celebrating Losar in the traditional ceremonial way, they were marking the Tibetan New Year by mourning and prayers for those Tibetans killed in Ngaba county in March 2008.

On  March 16 2008 Free Tibet reported that up to 13 unarmed Tibetan protesters were shot dead that day  by Chinese security forces following a protest against Chinese rule in Ngaba county.

According to the exile source, the Tibetans that protested this year at the start of the Losar festival were quickly surrounded by armed Chinese troops. The source reported that senior monks at Kirti Monastery attempted to persuade the protesters to disperse but many of the protesters refused to do so. The Chinese armed troops responded by confiscating mobile phones from the protesters in an apparent attempt to prevent images from the protest being sent to contacts outside Tibet, according to the source.

A history of Tibetan protest and violent Chinese crackdown in Ngaba county

Tensions have remained especially high in Ngaba county since protests, and a violent Chinese crackdown, inflamed the area in March 2008.

The area has been sealed completely to foreign visitors and journalists since March 2008, despite repeated attempts by journalists to travel to the troubled area.

In August 2008 Free Tibet reported a huge increase in troop numbers in Ngaba as the Chinese authorities there attempted to prevent further protest in the run up to the Beijing Olympics. Two Tibetan women were shot at, according to reliable reports received by Free Tibet at the time.

And in September 2008, Free Tibet reported that up to 50 monks at the local Kirti monastery were attacked by Chinese police with rifle butts and meat choppers after one of the monks was alleged to have trespassed beyond a security perimeter surrounding the monastery. Monks had been forbidden to move beyond the perimeter. The attacks were also reported by The Times newspaper.

Tensions were raised again during the Losar Festival in 2009 when monks at the monastery were forbidden from saying prayers to mark the beginning of the New Year. Free Tibet reported that one monk from Kirti was shot at by Chinese troops and driven away to an undisclosed location after he had set himself alight in protest at the prayer restrictions. The incident was widely reported in the international press.