(TibetanReview.net, Feb28’26) – Chinese authorities in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have issued a slew of restrictions on local Tibetans in government employment, banning them from a number of religious and other activities, including attending ceremonies or making offerings for their deceased family members, according to the Tibetan-language tibettimes.net Feb 27, citing sources in Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
While Chinese authorities in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, issue additional security measures ahead of the Tibetan New Year, or Losar, each year, including with deployment of additional troops, these have ben more stringent this time, the report said.
The traditional visit of Tibetans to the Tsuglakhang (or Jokhang) and the Potala Palace on Losar was strictly controlled and monitored. In Particular, those in government employment were permitted to visit these sites and other temples only for sight-seeing purposes, while being strictly banned from offering prayers, making offerings, and exhibiting other forms of religious devotion. They were warned that such displays of religious devotion would be violation of Party rules, the report said.
Government employees were not only banned from engaging in any kind of religious activity, they were also prohibited from being present at the last rites, the weekly prayer services, and cremation events for their deceased family members, the report cited a Lhasa-resident as saying.
Among the many social media postings of prayers for the New Year by Tibetans on their personal accounts was stated to be one with a picture of the Dalai Lama with his hands folded together, and an offering of prayers for the spark of the Tibetan language spreading across the world, and for the long-life of the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet. Another posting showed a large Tibetan crowd on the Potala square and a text say “may there be happiness in our homeland.”
Like in the year 2023, this year too, additional troops were deployed in the Tibetan capital and great many new surveillance cameras installed at numerous strategic locations, including in the Bharkor circuit, while the movement of the Tibetan people were closely monitored. Tibetans were frequently called over to be questioned and their belongings, including mobile phones, searched for evidences of wrong-doing, the report said.
In the name of cracking down on illegal transportation with a view ostensibly to improve public safety, civilization, and orderly traffic discipline for the residents of Lhasa, a Lhasa City Integrated Traffic Law Enforcement Team was stated to have carried out inspectiona of a total of 593 motor vehicles and collected fines totalling more than 320,000 yuan.
Also enforced in Tibet, like in China, in conjunction with the 2026 New Year, was stated to be a set of eight prohibited activities for Communist Party officials issued by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China. These prohibited the use of public money or properties for a wide-range of personal pleasure or benefits, and soliciting gifts and other forms of personal benefits as well as barred party members from reunions of old friends, schoolmates, and comrades.