It is over and it has not even started. This years trek to the holy mountain to Mt. Kailash is over and has not even started. The original planning were that by today we drive up to Bhaktapur, stay there a night to be early at the border to Tibet by tomorrow. But things have changed. We got rolled over by the news. Just a view days ago it happened that the protests by Tibetean monks at the Kirti Monastery happened, which ended up by locking down about 2.000 monks by Chinese military. Now, it seems that the protests have spreaded. The decision by Chinese government as of yesterday evening is to lockdown Tibet completely. Any existing Visa is being waived effective immediately, any foreigners are forced out by military effective immediately. Chinese government has closed Tibet again. They are doing whatever they want behind closed doors. Anybody doing business with China should remember that.
Tibet is a rich country. Rich by it’s tradition. Tibet is country held hostage for over 100 years now and the countries leader still has to live in exile. The people of Tibet are very open and friendly people; they are the soul of the country. I mean this in a very good sense. Even as they are infiltrated by the Chinese they haven’t lost there soul. I was looking forward to meet again my friends from last year. But it’s not only that it is also an economic pressure for the people there. Because they need the tourists. They make their living from the tourist industry, because it’s the only industry they have. Lockdown of Tibet means no income for the Tibetans.
