(TibetanReview.net, Aug02’25) – China deployed armed forces equipped with live ammunition, established round-the-clock checkpoints, and conducted house-to-house searches, while banning religious observances, to prevent Tibetans across the Roof of the World from celebrating or otherwise marking the milestone 90th birthday on Jul 6 of their exile spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Cyberattacks were also intensified in the weeks leading up to the globally celebrated event, with threat actors impersonating genuine Tibetan exile websites, according to a new report released Aug 1 by London-based Tibet monitoring and research group Tibet Watch.
In capital Lhasa, video footage was stated to capture Chinese tourists photographing Tibetan pilgrims prostrating around the sacred Jokhang temple, only metres away from heavily armed Chinese special force units carrying implements designed to tackle self-immolations.
The extent of the militarization of Tibet was stated to be overwhelming, with an alarmed Chinese tourist comparing the atmosphere to the situation in war-torn Ukraine in a social media post, asking if the Chinese army was going to war.
The report said a coordinated security operation, which intensified in mid-June and peaked around Jul 6, was accompanied by comprehensive information control measures designed to create a media blackout. The idea was to keep both Tibetans and Chinese people in the dark about celebrations taking place in the outside world and related events including those that strongly criticized the atheist party-state’s meddling in the Dalai Lama reincarnation process.
The report said there were arrests too, and referred to the case of Tsuktay, also known as Asang, in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) county of Sichuan province, who was taken away in the week leading up to the Dalai Lama’s birthday. This happened after he made a live Kuaishou social media coverage of his performance of a song that paid tribute to the “Prince of Peace”, an allusion to the Dalai Lama. His fate or whereabouts have remained unknown ever since.
The report said the Chinese leadership views dealing with the future of the Dalai Lama institution as a “protracted war,” and sees controlling Tibet’s religious elite as crucial to maintaining its grip on the strategically vital region.
Celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday has not been permitted for years as the Party authorities seek to eliminate his influence in his homeland. The report noted that several monks were still in prison for organising picnics to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday in 2015. These include Drugdra, a 50 year old monk of Kirti Monastery in Ngaba, serving a 14-year jail sentence. Also sentenced with him was monk-scholar Lobsang Khedrub, jailed for 13 years, after he had been released from an earlier sentence in 2011.
Before that, in 2013, some 14 Tibetans sustained serious gunshot wounds in Tawu county of Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) prefecture, also in Sichuan, after Chinese police opened fire on a peaceful gathering marking the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday.
For the full report, see: https://tibetwatch.org/download/the-dalai-lamas-90th-birthday-in-tibet/