Society
China Tibetans pray for peace on riot anniversary
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-14 15:06
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LHASA - Sogyal began his pilgrimage to the Jokhang Temple in downtown Lhasa at 8 am, praying for peace and health for his family.
"I'm certainly not an early bird," said Sogyal, a 20-something Tibetan from Aba Prefecture in southwest China's Sichuan Province. "Some people arrived at 5 am."
Sogyal and his family, including his parents, brothers and sisters, traveled to Lhasa by train and had made pilgrimages to all major monasteries in Lhasa in two weeks.
Sunday, the 29th day of the Tibetan New Year, is not a particular occasion for mass pilgrimages -- which happen on the eighth, 15th and 30th days of every month.
But pilgrims are constantly seen, holding prayer wheels and walking clockwise around the Potala Palace and the Porgor Street, two major pilgrim routes in Lhasa's city center. Young parents carry babies on their back and some elderly people make the pilgrimage on wheelchairs.
Exactly two years after the deadly riots, with charred shops refurbished and a new travel peak a few weeks away, many people say they cherish the peaceful life the holy city has regained.
The police officers and People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers who are standing guard on every downtown street are probably the only reminder of the violence.
A spokesman of Tibet's regional public security bureau said last week they had sent extra police force to patrol Lhasa's streets ahead of the riot anniversary to "prevent crime and maintain social stability".
On Porgor and several other busy streets, the officers on duty have set up booths providing tea and newspapers to the pedestrians for free.
Sixty-year-old Tashi said he did not mind the tightened security.
"When you are getting on in years, you'd feel safe to see policemen around," Tashi said as he sat down for tea and snacks at a Tibetan eatery on Porgor Street after a three-hour pilgrimage.
In the square outside the 1,350-year-old Jokhang Temple, Pasang, 45, crawled on the ground and kowtowed to make long prayers.
Pasang, a Tibetan woman from Garze, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Sichuan, said she made at least 1,000 long prayers every day to express her gratitude for every happiness in life.
For more than a decade, Pasang and her husband have been running a curio business in Lhasa and made a fortune. They have three daughters, aged from eight to 18.
"My eldest daughter studies in Chengdu and will enter college this fall," she said. "She's a straight-A student."
About half of the stores on Porgor Street opened before 10 am Sunday.
"Business is good," said Phurjung, a woman from Gyangze County in Xigaze who sells tsampa, Tibetans' major staple food. Her turnover averages 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a day even on the quiet days. "In the buying spree before the Tibetan New Year in mid February, it hit 10,000 yuan a day."
Business is not as good, however, for Drugyal Khara from the Tibetan Xiahe County in the northwestern Gansu Province, who sells souvenirs such as prayer beads allegedly made of yak bone.
"The local people never buy these," he said in Tibetan dialect as he tapped the cash he just earned on his commodity, a silent prayer for more business. "I have to wait for the next tourist rush."
Like many other businesspeople in Tibet, Drugyal Khara is expecting the regional economy to recover soon.
"We're still recovering from the riots and the international financial crisis," said Peng Xiangjun, president of Lhasa's biggest craftwork retailer that reportedly suffered 80 million yuan of economic losses in 2008.
"Last year, our business revenue was only 40 percent of the 2007 figure," he said. "And we were forced to cut jobs by nearly half."
Most of the 50 employees at Peng's store are Tibetans. "We used to hire nearly 100 people," he said.
Tibet's GDP grew by 12 percent to 43.7 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) last year. It would again target 12-percent GDP growth this year.
