Shiho Fukada for the New York Times
It feels like last year all over again.
News from Tibet says that there are protests here and there. All of us on the outside are scrambling to find out the details. We call Dharamsala, New York, London, Beijing, trying to work out what exactly happened. Once we piece together the story we take it to the world.
Again there are so few images. And so far, no moving images. No video. Nothing to show on TV.
But it is happening and everyone knows. We know. 6 million Tibetans and hundreds of thousands of Chinese police, soldiers and officials know.
Just like last year, and the year before that, and fifty years before that, there is a heroic battle raging at the highest point of the earth. It is a test of wills between a people with nothing but faith and a State without a soul.
I know the people will win. They always do when they have this kind of feeling.
Yesterday Tape may have killed himself. But it wasn’t suicide. It certainly wasn’t selfish. He did it for his people and his nation. But it’s still so sad. So very, very sad.
It kind of feels like last year all over again.
Except now everything is different.
Because this year there is No Losar, the beginning of a new movement.