i Lhasa overwhelmed with military presence | Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Lhasa overwhelmed with military presence

Dec. 6 (HighPeaksPureEarth/by Woeser): One afternoon, I saw around 1,000 sentries, patrolling armed police, special police forces, public security guards, bouncers, plainclothes police and so on everywhere. Walking from Tsemonling Road to Shonnu Road one would also face over 30 armed soldiers patrolling the streets. Yet, this was still much less than in March when one was confronted with an enormous amount of soldiers. 

Around the Potala Palace area the scenery is entirely different, Lhasa people jokingly call it the “Han Chinese area”. The sacred Lukhang has already been turned into something like a Han Chinese park; the layers of prayer flags hanging above the lake had already disappeared a long time ago and instead one finds nine dragon screen walls erected at the main entrance, Han architecture is dominant everywhere.

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