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LHASA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The world's highest highway tunnel was open to traffic on Friday at an altitude of over 4,750 meters above sea level in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The two-way tunnel is over 5.7 km long, which is a part of the 400-km highway linking the regional capital of Lhasa with Nyingchi in the southeast of Tibet. Construction of the tunnel started in 2015 on the 5,018-meter-high Mila Mountain, and it was completed on Monday, helping shorten the 18-km distance over the mountain to 5.7 km. Gong Bin, project manager of Mila Mountain Tunnel of the...

It's a bit like our Lassi Festival. Ok, so we don't have a Lassi Festival, but the lines of people winding their way up to the Drepung monastery to celebrate Shoton, the Tibetan Yogurt Festival, have all the signs of a Kumbh. Most of those walking from Lhasa in the 6.20 am darkness are pilgrims to In Tibet, only Lonely Planet carries a statutory warning Drepung, some 20 minutes by road from central Lhasa. The remainder are like Confucian me are curious folks getting a glimpse into the heart of Tibetan culture in Tibet. The climb up the steps, not...

Thugs vs. Peacekeepers or Fighters vs. oppressors; Mob vs. Protectors or Martyrs vs. killers? Before I could judge, please allow me to present some recounts of the Tibet unrest from the commons there. (As most western media had sided with Tibetans, I basically pick quotes from common Hans for balance.) http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/03/21/china-commons-in-violence-and-conflict/

Updates on Tibet Demonstrations - 29 March Saturday, 29 March 2008, 6:13 p.m. Update for Saturday, March 29, 2008, last updated 2pm (IST) Re: Tibet demonstrations 29th March, 2008 Lhasa - Massive protests erupt again after many days of suppression. Around 2 PM (local time) in the afternoon, Tibetans gathered for a protest in front of Ramoche Monastery, Lhasa. Also, nearby, in front of Tsuglag-khang (Jokhang) temple and Beijing East road, protests were started, and thousands joined into the protests within no time. These protests are happening after many days of intense suppression, where we witnessed Chinese armoured vehicles and...

LHASA, China—Police closed off Lhasa's Muslim quarter on Friday, two weeks after Tibetan rioters burned down the city's mosque amid the largest anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades. Officers blockaded streets into the area, allowing in only residents and worshippers observing the Muslim day of prayer. A heavy security presense lingered in other parts of Lhasa's old city as clean-up crews waded through the destruction inflicted when days of initially peaceful protests turned deadly on March 14. It was not clear why the area was cordoned off, although rioters had prominently targeted businesses belonging to Chinese Muslim migrants known as...

Tibet monks disrupt China media event By Geoff Dyer in Lhasa Published: March 27 2008 12:27 | Last updated: March 27 2008 12:39 The simmering political tensions in Tibet burst into the open on Thursday in one of Lhasa’s most important temples when a group of 30 young Buddhist monks interrupted a government-organised visit by journalists with shouts about the lack of freedom in Tibet and in support of the Dalai Lama. The monks were clearly agitated and several wept openly as they accused the authorities of lying to the visiting journalists and promised further demonstrations. “We want a free...

CHINA is ramping up its security presence in and around Tibet following deadly violence there, with witnesses saying today they had seen hundreds of military trucks pouring into the region. Georg Blume, a journalist with German newspaper Die Zeit and one of the latest foreign reporters to be expelled from Lhasa, described a large troop presence in the Tibetan capital. "I have seen one convoy of at least 200 trucks with 30 military personnel on top of each, so that was around 6,000 troops there which I could see moving on one day,'' Blume told the BBC shortly before leaving...

China says Tibet rioters trying to wreck Olympics By Chris Buckley and Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating riots in Tibet in which dozens may have died and said his followers were trying to "incite sabotage" of Beijing's August Olympic Games. And a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman went as far as saying the Dalai Lama should face trial. Premier Wen defended the crackdown on Lhasa, capital of the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region, after last week's protests, and on neighboring Chinese provinces where copycat rioting by Tibetans erupted over the weekend. "There is...

One of the largest markets in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, is in flames and at least one police car has been burnt as angry monks and Tibetans clash with police today. The surge of violence follows almost a week of demonstrations by lamas from monasteries around the Tibetan capital, who have been demanding greater freedom of religion before the Olympic Games as well as independence for the deeply Buddhist Himalayan region.

Secret negotiations between China and the Dalai Lama will resume next month, amid growing signs that Tibet's spiritual leader is preparing to cut a historic deal allowing him to return to Tibet after almost half a century in exile. Several of his senior envoys will travel to Beijing next month, the Guardian has learned. The delegation from Tibet's India-based government is expected to discuss the circumstances under which the Chinese government would allow the Dalai Lama to visit Lhasa, Tibet's capital. Since he fled Tibet in 1959, the Dalai Lama has been regularly denounced by Beijing as a "splittist"...