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As the Olympic torch stalls on its ascent of Mt Everest, an ATC supporter reflects on the changes in Tibet that could be seen over the space of one year - October 2006 to October 2007 - including the militarisation of the Mt Everest base camp area.
Everest Base Camp
The road to Everest was being improved. This road goes right up to Base Camp and has been there since the 1960s. Again, the Beijing Olympics will mean an increased number of tourists, indeed there are plans to take the Olympic Flame to the summit of Everest itself, so the road was being ‘improved’. The surface was having more gravel added and the crash barrier posts were simply sunk into the ground without the aid of cement!
 Everest Base Camp 2006
We reached the Rongbuk monastery – another reminder of previous destruction with some degree of rebuilding. However, at this point one is focused on the view at the end of the valley of the magnificent north face of Everest. We set off walking the nine kilometers up to base camp in light snow. What a surprise awaited us there! Base camp is a small area of grass surrounded by grey glacial debris. In 1996 there was a small temporary town of Tibetan tents. However, since last year, these had been moved further down the valley and the Chinese had seen fit to build a military barracks there in lurid red and blue. This seems to be a direct result of the protest in April 2007 when a ‘Free Tibet’ banner was unfurled and the video posted on the internet.
 Everest Base Camp 2007 - Note military barracks
We were told that it was forbidden to photograph this facility and we were not allowed to climb up the hillside immediately behind it. Indeed we saw some Chinese tourists being chased by troops and forcibly brought down from just above base camp when they had apparently climbed higher to get a better view of Everest.
 Everest Base Camp 2007 The road to the border with Nepal descends down the valley of the Sun Khosi. There was a vast amount of activity going on compared to a year before. There seemed to be an army of workers encamped by the side of the very narrow cliff-hugging road. Almost half were female and plenty of children seemed happy playing between road and cliff within inches of the heavy traffic. The rain was incessant and erosion obvious. We wondered if the roadworks could keep up with the speed at which it seemed to be washed away. We speculated as to whether this sea of workers was there under duress, or as a punishment, or if, in the new China, it was relatively well paid work.
Arriving in Lhasa - October 2007
Flying in to the Lhasa Airport was a little different second time around. In 2006 we’d walked onto the tarmac then felt breathless walking up the stairs into the terminal. The uniformed and invariably scowling officials at immigration were in stark contrast to the smiling welcome from our Tibetan guides once outside. In 2007 the atmosphere had changed. Could it be that the officials were making an effort to be pleasant? Gone were the scowls and serious looks. They were smiling and talking. My friends thought that this was a direct result of the imminent Olympics. China must be seen to be welcoming the expected influx of tourists. The order had been sent down and the effort was being made.
Central Lhasa, the Barkhor and Jhokang were unchanged. Always busy with its endless current of devout Tibetans eddying in clockwise fashion round the pilgrim route. It was a pleasure to be there again and to be part of the culture and spirituality of the place. There did seem to be more Chinese tourists in Lhasa generally and this has been borne out by the statistics which show a 64% increase in tourism in one year – attributed to the new railway.
My second visit to Drepung monastery, just to the north-west of Lhasa, was revealing. I enjoyed looking once again in the kitchen which had once catered for 10,000 monks – now there are only a few hundred.
We were told a story of the high lama, possibly the abbot, who showed dissent and was not only confined to his rooms but locked into the toilet there until he starved to death several weeks later. In his quarters there was a shrine with his photograph. We were shown the door of his ‘bathroom’ in which he’d died. We were shocked to hear that this happened only three years ago! (Once I got back to Australia I tried to get details on the internet but could find nothing. The story was confirmed to us by another person, an ex-monk from a different monastery, when we were travelling across the plateau).
A conversation with a Tibetan in Lhasa revealed how he’d escaped to India as a child and lived at an orphanage in Dharamsala. Some years back an official letter from the Chinese authorities claimed to have found his real father who was seriously ill. He had never met his father so hurried to Lhasa where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for four months. His arm was broken during interrogation. All they wanted to know was ‘what had the Dalai Lama said to him?’ I asked if things were better now. He said “No. They still watch me”. Of course he never met the apparently fictitious father.
Gyantse
We hit the road and spent a day at one of my favourite places, Gyantse. Here is a slice of Tibet as we ‘westerners’ imagine it. An old town overlooked by the magnificent fortified Dzong. An ancient monastery which contains a multitude of iconic statues and paintings. In the grounds of the monastery, the Kumbum – the largest stupa in Tibet, of unique geometric design representing a mandala in three dimensions. In 2006 I adored the place. In 2007 it again lived up to expectations. However, this time, as I looked down on the monastery from the peak of the Dzong, I had pointed out to me the single remaining dormitory on the enclosed hillside above the temple. This was the only dormitory remaining of 14 which had been here until the Chinese guns arrived. I was able to find an old photograph of Gyantse monastery with its buildings intact and it is a sobering sight to see these days.
 Gyantse Kumbum Monastery and remaining dormitory
Shigatse
Shigatse in 2006 came across as a very modern place. The town is large and the older Tibetan part next to the Tashilunpo monastery is relatively much smaller. The monastery is spectacular with its enormous Buddha statue and the stupas of several dead Panchen Lamas. As we were ending our tour it was clear that a ceremony was about to begin as several hundred monks gathered in one of the main buildings. A large white car pulled up and under a parasol, Gyaincain Norbu the ‘official’ Panchen Lama emerged. I was aware that this was not the Panchen Lama recognised by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima who was identified in May 1995 at the age of 6 had not been seen for the last 12 years. I asked a Tibetan what the Tibetans thought of the young man who had been forced upon them. He said “we feel for him. He is in a very difficult position.” I had been expecting some condemnation, but I was glad to receive a lesson in compassion. The Tibetans show him respect because they have no choice and they understand the truth behind his presence. He is not merely tolerated but has a degree of sympathy.
 A public appearance by the Chinese government appointed ‘official’ Panchen Lama
We circumambulated the Tashilunpo complex – a route with hundreds of prayer wheels – and as we turned a corner we were able to see the scaffolding on the Shigatse Dzong. The Chinese authorities were in the process of restoring that which they had destroyed. A year later I was able to view the end result. A building which looks brand new but is in an ancient style, it’s lines a little too clean, a bit too uncluttered. I asked our guide what he thought – expecting a positive view. He said “It’s no good. It has no wood!” He went on to explain that it is a concrete shell containing Chinese offices. Tibetans and tourists are not allowed in. It is soulless.
 Shigatse Dzong 2006
 Shigatse Dzong 2007
Nangpa La Pass
It was only after returning home in late 2006 that I realised that we’d driven past the Cho Oyu base camp, on the Tingri Road, about 24 hours after Tibetan nun Kelsang Yamtso was shot dead by Chinese troops on the Nangpa La pass on 30th September 2006.
 Mt Cho Oyu near the Nangpa La Pass (2006)
On that day we’d had a beautiful day gazing at the mountains, lunch in Tingri, then on towards Nyalam. We’d seen no unusual activity or increased army presence so, like our previous days in Lhasa, Gyantse and Shigatse, we were unaware of anything other than the tourist scene.
One year later, almost to the day, I was being driven along the same route past Cho Oyu. This time the cloud was low and nothing could be seen of Everest, Gyachung Kang, Cho Oyu or the Nangpa La. There was no indicator or memorial to the death of Kelsang Yamtso or the hundreds of others who have perished in recent years trying to make the journey from their lost homeland to a life in exile. I felt that although there is much to see, there remains much that couldn’t be seen as a tourist in modern Tibet.
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Travel 
Australia Tibet Council (ATC) works to promote the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people. 
