Tsering Woeser is a Tibetan writer, activist, blogger, poet and essayist.
Woeser in her Beijing apartment in 2009 in front of her Tibetan Buddhist altar
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also referred to as the 2008 Tibetan uprising in Tibetan media, was a series of protests and demonstrations over the Chinese government's treatment and persecution of Tibetans. Protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, by monks and nuns on 10 March have been viewed as the start of the demonstrations. Numerous protests and demonstrations were held to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising Day, when the 14th Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet. The protests and demonstrations spread spontaneously to a number of monasteries and throughout the Tibetan plateau, including into counties located outside the designated Tibet Autonomous Region. The arrest of monks at Labrang Monastery increased the tension of the situation. Clashes occurred between Tibetans and Chinese Han and Hui residents, resulting in Han and Hui stores and buildings being destroyed and numerous Chinese civilians being injured or killed.
Tibetan monks in Chinese custody, April 2008
Tibetans arrested by Chinese authorities. The signs list their crime and their name.
Protest in San Francisco
A Free Tibet rally outside the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, California, on March 17, 2008