Ancient Tibetan monasteries and precious frescoes will be submerged. The police attacked protesters with water cannons, pepper spray, and tasers.
by Lopsang Gurung


On February 19, “Bitter Winter” was among the first media outlets to report about the unprecedented protests in Derge (Ch. Gengqing), the county seat of Dêgê County, in the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a part of Kham, one of the areas of historical Tibet that the Chinese did not include in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) but added to another province, in this case Sichuan.
Tibetans in the county are protesting the constructions of the Gangtuo Power Plant as part of a 25-dams system on the Drichu (Ch. Jingsa) River, i.e., the upper stretches of the Yangtze River. Several other media picked up the news.
More importantly, the protests continued and in the last few days several Buddhist monks and villagers have been arrested (numbers in different reports vary from 100 to more than 1,000). A number of Tibetans were injured and hospitalized during the arrests, where the police used water cannons, pepper spray, and tasers. A network blockade has been imposed on the area, with the police forcibly confiscating cell phones from the Tibetans. However, some blurred images of the protest managed to appear on social media.
The dam project in Sichuan province has been controversial since it was proposed in 2003. The project would generate hydroelectric power, but it would also submerge Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and 50 villages, displacing about 100,000 people. The Tibetan monasteries at risk of destructions are Wonto (Wangdui), Tashi, Gonsar, Yena (Yinnan), Rabten and Khardho.


The Wonto (Wangdui) and Yinnan Temple survived the Cultural Revolution and today host some 300 monks. The ancient murals in Wangdui date back to the 14th-15th century and are a precious part of the Tibetan cultural heritage in Kham. They are now at risk of being submerged as well.




The roads leading to the monasteries have also been blocked by the authorities to prevent protesters from gathering there.




The arrests continue, and it is reported that those going to the police stations asking to set free detained relatives and monks are in turn arrested themselves.