"There Is No Losar"

Writing from somewhere in the Tibetan plateau, Edward Wong of the New York Times describes this year's Losar observance.

An informal grass-roots boycott is under way. Tibetans are forsaking dancing and dinner parties for vigils with yak-butter candles and the chanting of prayers. The Losar campaign signifies the discontent that many of China’s six million Tibetans still feel toward domination by the ethnic Han Chinese. They are resisting pressure by Chinese officials to celebrate and forget.

“There is no Losar,” one monks said.

Edward Wong reviews what life has been like for monks in Tibet since the March 2008 violence. Surveillance cameras have been installed throughout monasteries, and monks say some security officers dress as monks to patrol alleys. Photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, banned in Tibet, have been smashed but also replaced. It's an informative article, well worth reading.

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