Tibetans

At least 81 people have been detained in Tibet before the 50th anniversary in March of the failed uprising that saw the Dalai Lama flee into exile, China's state news media said. The report didn't say whether the people detained were Tibetan. China has been preparing for the possibility of more unrest in Tibet since last March, when deadly rioting in the capital, Lhasa, sparked the biggest anti-government protests among Tibetans in decades. China claims that Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans assert that their Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries.

China marked 50 years of direct control over Tibet, observing a new political holiday honoring what it calls the liberation of slaves from brutal feudal rule. Testimonials about the misery of life in old Tibet kicked off the short ceremony -- televised live from in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa -- recognizing the end of the Dalai Lama's rule in Tibet. The Tibetan government-in-exile said on its website that the new holiday, called Serfs Liberation Day, would be a day of mourning.

A court handed down death sentences to two Tibetans accused of starting deadly fires in last year's anti-government riots in Tibet. It was the first report of death sentences in the March 2008 violence in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which Chinese officials say killed 22 people. The violence led to the most sustained uprising against Chinese rule in decades. The official New China News Agency said one man was sentenced to die for burning two clothing shops, killing a shop owner. A second man was given the death penalty for his role in the burning of a motorcycle shop that killed five people, it said.

Re "Volcano in the Himalayas," Opinion, March 23 I am in sympathy with the Tibetans in their fight for home rule but find fault with some of the details in Joshua Kurlantzick's Op-Ed. Barbershops with girls offering sexual services in back rooms are ubiquitous in the major cities throughout China and are not solely symbolic of oppression and poverty in Lhasa and Tibet. It is as if to say that Americans are impoverished and oppressed because an occasional massage parlor offers sexual services.

Re "Last of the Tibetans," Opinion, March 26 Ian Buruma has many good points about the dangers Tibetan culture faces from Chinese modernization, but his opening sentences that describe American Indians as "doomed" and "reduced to peddling cheap mementos" call into question his ability to make such an assessment. Indeed, American Indians are going through a cultural renaissance wherein more of our youth are learning their languages, practicing their traditions and attaining more educational success than ever before.

Indian police detained 27 Tibetan protesters and deployed 5,000 police officers ahead of Thursday's New Delhi leg of the Olympic torch relay, hoping to avoid chaotic protests by Tibet supporters, police said. Police held the Tibetans after they marched along the path the torch is scheduled to take, local police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said. Protesters lighted a torch and chanted "No Olympics in China!" and "Freedom for Tibet!" Bhagat said the detainees were not charged and probably would be freed soon.

The riot began with a customer's complaint about her dinner. "Waitress, there's a tooth in my soup," a Tibetan woman said indignantly. Before long, a curious crowd of Tibetans gathered around the soup bowl. Restaurant owner Yun Sha came out of the kitchen and insisted that the offending item was just a chip off a lamb bone. "Let's trash this restaurant," Yun heard somebody scream, and the crowd proceeded to do just that. Tables, chairs, a television flew through the air.

Scores of people were arrested in a traditionally Tibetan area of western China after public calls for the return of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reports said. China also moved to tighten its control over Tibetan Buddhism by asserting the communist government's sole right to recognize Buddhist reincarnations of the lamas that form the backbone of the religion's clergy.

The gifts of greeting were simple but heartfelt and traditional -- white scarves, a bowl of milk and a handful of barley. Children offered up songs and dances. Nearly all of Southern California's estimated 250 Tibetans and many of its Mongolians gathered at the Westin Pasadena hotel Monday to welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as he arrived for four days of teaching.

REGARDING "Lhasa Layer by Layer" [Oct. 9]: I landed in Lhasa at the end of a monthlong trip through China, on the day Beijing admitted its SARS outbreak in April 2003. The first thing we noticed was the heavy military presence. Tibet is an occupied territory that is subject of intense Chinese colonialism. Despite this, the Tibetans were warm and generous. At the Ganden Monastery, a Tibetan family invited me to partake in a matrimonial ritual. A student gave me a free tour by city bus of western Lhasa.