(TibetanReview.net, Jul09, 2014) –Despite severe restrictions to enforce a ban, including with cutting off of communication lines, Tibetans in several parts of Chinese ruled Tibet marked the Dalai Lama’s 79th birthday on Jul 6, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Jul 7. China condemns the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, as a dangerous separatist, although the latter has been calling only for an autonomous Tibet under Chinese rule and reiterating it for around the past three decades.
In Tsolho (Chinese: Hainan) Prefecture of Qinghai province, Tibetans put up new prayer flags, went for picnics, held horse races, and conducted incense burning ceremonies on sacred mountain sites, the report said. “Engaging in any cheerful activity is the most viable way of covertly marking the occasion,” given China’s ban on open celebrations, the report quoted a local source as saying. Offerings were reported to have been placed discreetly before images of the Dalai Lama, the report added.
In the Tibetan areas of Sichuan province, China had tightened restrictions by issuing a ban on public gatherings of more than three families, deploying security forces in market areas, blocking access to the popular online social network site WeChat, and even disrupting telephone lines.
Nevertheless, Tibetans in Tawu (Daofu) County marked the occasion by discreetly placing offerings before an image of the Dalai Lama, to pay their obeisance, according to the exile Tibetan administration at Dharamshala on its Tibet.net website Jul 8.