I remember Lhasa.july 2007. Even then I saw it coming.Because everything was so quiet and so abnormally normal.
The Barkhor Square is the Tibetan heartland .It has the holiest temple for the Buddhists – The Jokhang. A man was playing a traditional instrument. A large crowd was gathered around him.The police came and shooed him away.They were afraid of crowds. But the man seemed used to being shooed away and the police and him laughed .
The Tibetans selling gorgeous handicrafts and jewellery would ensure me that I was buying the best ”Tibeti, no Chinese’they’d say.They’d smile a lot.
They’d say they loved India, were grateful to India.
But below the surface, anger and resentment was brewing and now, before the olympics is the best time to let it all out.
A problem is an important international issue only when it is not politically dangerous. And nobody wants to displease big bad China.
