80. Happy Losar!

Its Losar, the Tibetan New Year.  Its being celebrated quietly this year in deference to the dreadful situation inside Tibet, and all the self-immolations, which have now reached 99.

Everybody went to the Temple yesterday morning for a ceremony.  The place looked gorgeous, as did everybody - Tibetans certainly know how to dress and looked just wonderful.  Its so good to see people wearing their national dress with such pride, and adapting it to still look good in a modern world.  All the Tibetan businesses have closed for 3 days so the Indians are happy!  No Tibetan competition for the business of fleecing tourists!  My hotel is strangely quiet, the shutters down over the front window, meals are room service only.

In the temple, it was prayers and protests (to quote Phayul - if you would like to follow up on what is happening in Tibet you can't do better than www.phayul.com) - around 40 students did a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with Tibetan self-immolators and protesting about China’s repressive policies in Tibet. Covering their mouths with black cloth, the students also wrote in their own blood the name ‘Lobsang Konchok,’ a Tibetan monk who was recently sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve after being charged with indulging in ‘illegal’ activities such as carrying portraits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Dorjee Lhundup (Lobsang's  nephew and a self-immolator) during a non-violent procession when monks and lay Tibetans carried the ashes of Dorjee Lhundup to his home village.

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