It is unclear whether China is embarking on a renovation project to preserve Lhasa’s historical district or whether it is engaging in commercially driven construction that is “destroying Lhasa”, as some have described it. What is certain is that a billion-Yuan building project is being carried out in the Barkhor district of the ancient Tibetan city.

“We just came back in this March. The river is still so beautiful,” says Wang Yongzhen, talking to Tibet in Review from Beijing about Gyalmo Ngulchu, the river that is called in Chinese Nu River (Angry River.) But she is worried that that beauty might not last for too long after she saw the dam construction on the “last natural river,” has already begun. In 2004 then China’s prime minister Wen Jiabao postponed a large number of planed dam projects that included 13 dams in Gyalmo Ngulchu. But Ms. Wang and her team of journalists and environmentalist witnessed the base work of construction for a dam project in Yunnan Province is already carried out shortly before Wen Jiabao’s retirement. In January, China’s State Council announced there will be five dams constructed on the Gyalmo Ngyulchu, one in Tibetan Autonomous Region and four in Yunnan Province. Ms. Wang argues China should leave one “natural river” for the next generation. But for Katy Yan of the International Rivers, the issue of leaving the river alone is not just for the China’s next generations’ welfare, but the lives of people in the downstream rivers today. “The value of keeping the river largely free flowing has concrete implications for the downstream communities in Burma and Thailand,” Katy Yan says. “They need this free flowing to support their livelihoods.” Wang Yongzhen, a former senior reporter of China’s National Radio, started Green Earth Volunteers, an NGO based in Chinese capital that advocates to project the “angry river.”

Like the workers in China, Tibetan employees in the public sector get equal three-day-holiday to celebrate the May 1st. However, some experts suggest that this is perhaps the only equality they get in the realm of work. Official Chinese reports say there 500,000 urban employees in TAR, but observers believe that the majority of them are Chinese migrants. Andrew Fischer, the only experts in the West who regularly publishes about the labor situation in Tibet says 50 percent of farmers and nomads have left their traditional work. However, observers like Rinchen Tashi believes many of them can’t find works in urban job sector. The majority jobs in TAR are, according to Mr. Fischer’s study, heavily relied on the government subsidy.

Six days before the Ya’an earthquake took place in Sichuan Province of China, Kyerku Town of Yushu Prefecture marked the third anniversary of the deadly earthquake that killed at least 2698 people and left at least 60,000 homeless in 2010. But some exiled Tibetans with direct connection in the area say just days before the anniversary government officials forcefully bulldozed nearly three hundred privately built homes in three suburban areas of the Kyrku town, leaving hundreds of families homeless. The police have allegedly beat-up Tibetans, including children, who tried to protect their homes. A Dharamsala based researcher who is from the area and prefer to remain anonymous said some people, including a 50-year woman named Zeepa (Byis-pa), are still not fully recovered from the beating and remain in a hospital in Xining. The Chinese officials reportedly claimed that the houses didn’t meet safety standards. The source said the destroyed houses are built recently by the people who moved in the area from different counties in Yushu Prefecture.

Observers say the March 29 landslide in Zibug valley that has buried 83 workers alive has raised questions of job discrimination, negligence of workers safety and government credibility. In this program, Tibet in Review looks at each of these issues through the views of a various experts who have been closely observing the situation.

Interview with experts who speculate the possible causes of landslide in Tashi Gang mining camp

In a little restaurant near Kathmendu, Duptse, 25 and had arrived in Nepal on January 17, approached to a Western woman and told her that Tibet is a beautiful country and that he loved it very much. Within minutes, he set himself on fire just outside that restaurant. Hours later he died in a hospital, on February 13th. Judging from the number of Tibetans from all walk of lives have self-immolated recently, his wealth and social status as a son of a wealthy lama may not raise questions about why he set himself on fire. But what remains mysterious is why he decided to come outside Tibet to self-immolate. The stories suggest his first plan was to do it in India on that day. The reason, some analysts say, might be to avoid potential risk for his family and friends.

March 5th marked 25 years since Lobsang Tenzin, a Tibetan student from Lhasa University, was arrested at a demonstration lead by Ganden monks in Lhasa. His reduced prison sentence supposed to end in 2012, but no confirmation about his release has been made yet. Only some rumors suggest that the 47-year-old man might have been released a few months ago. One of his former prison-mates and some other observers believe that Chinese authorities are pressuring his family not to utter anything about his status, including to his sister in India. Lobsang Tenzin was accused of killing a Chinese soldier during the protest, but his prison mates who are outside Tibet say he had nothing to do with the death of the soldier.

At the time of many foreign aids organizations have long been kicked out and foreign tourists are often restricted, Guardian reported last week that hundreds of foreign missionaries are working in Tibetan areas, tying to convert Tibetans. This raises a question about Chinese government’s motivation behind allowing them to be in Tibet. Robbie Barnett of Columbia University, who has worked in Tibet for six years, says the foreign missionaries are committed to change the faith of Tibetan Buddhists.

After 2008 protests on the Tibetan Plateau and since self-immolations began, the Tibetan New Year celebration has often been avoided in many areas or by many individuals in Tibet. Seven Tibetans who came from different regions of Tibet tells Tibet in Review that the year of Water-Snake, too, began with a sign of mourning in many areas. However, the Chinese official news CCTV tried to portrait a celebrative atmosphere in the Tibetan capital Lhasa by showing a mini Beijing-Olympic-opening style of celebration held in a hall.

While the mining, melting of glaciers and damming on the rivers on Tibetan Plateau continue to dominate Tibetan environmental news, Tibet in Review has learned from local Tibetans that the wildlife in many parts of Tibetan areas is silently coming back. This is the result of conservation efforts made in the past two decades, which has a strong local participation.Conservationist George Schaller has spent 30 years in the Tibetan Plateau, working with local nomads to protect Tibetan wildlife. In this program Tibet in Review has exclusively interviewed the 80-year-old conservationist about the current wildlife situation on the plateau. He says that there are now about 150,000 Tibetan antelopes. In 2003 World Conservation Union listed the animal as an endangered species. At the time, the number was estimated about 75,000.

While the mining, melting of glaciers and damming on the rivers on Tibetan Plateau continue to dominate Tibetan environmental news, Tibet in Review has learnt from local Tibetans that the wildlife in many parts of Tibetan areas is silently coming back. This is the result of conservation efforts made in the past two decades, which has a strong local participation. Conservationist George Schaller has spent 30 years in the Tibetan Plateau, working with local nomads to protect Tibetan wildlife. In this program Tibet in Review has exclusively interviewed the 80 year old conservationist about the current wildlife situation in the Plateau. He says that there are now about 150,000 Tibetan antelopes. In 2003 World Conservation Union listed the animal as an endangered species. At the time, the number was estimated about 75,000.

Seemingly to be a response to the call of self-immolators, Malho Prefecture Propaganda Office in Qinghai Province published a book on December 11, 2012 that accuses the Dalai Lama not being sincere in giving up Tibetan independency. In a long list of asserted reasons that the Dalai Lama and exile government failed to meet China’s “effort to have the Dalai Lama return to the Motherland”, the document that is published in Tibetan language accused the second and third delegations of the Dalai Lama for “wrongly interpreting” China’s minority policies and “scolding” at Chinese government for its policy on Tibet after their return to India. The delegates visited Tibet in 1980s. Almost all of the 99 self-immolators in Tibet have reportedly called for the return of the Dalai Lama as well as freedom for Tibetan people. Rebkong has become one of the latest flashpoints of self-immolations in Tibet, which falls under the Malho Prefecture jurisdiction.

Earlier reports of new Chinese security leader Meng Jainzhu announcing to end their Reeducation Through Labor system has been withdrawn from websites. However, the subject has continued raising questions about China’s notorious labor camps. Human rights activists and former political prisoners are not so optimistic and Harry Wu, the head of Laogai Foundation, believes Laogai system stays as long as the Chinese communist party remains in power. At the same time, as Meing’s statement appeared at the time of China’s leadership change, the curiosity of scholars keeps the debate about whether the Laogai will end or not continues.

Earlier reports of new Chinese security leader Meng Jainzhu announcing to end their Reeducation Through Labor system has been withdrawn from websites. However, the subject has continued raising questions about China’s notorious labor camps. Human rights activists and former political prisoners are not so optimistic and Harry Wu, the head of Laogai Foundation, believes Laogai system stays as long as the Chinese communist party remains in power. At the same time, as Meing’s statement appeared at the time of China’s leadership change, the curiosity of scholars keeps the debate about whether the Laogai will end or not continues.

Lhasa started operating natural gas heating pilot units in “Lhasa Economic and Technological Development Zone” just days before a Chinese academy from the Central Party School sharply criticized the way the aid projects are carried out in Tibet. While the heating system can benefit the residents in Lhasa during the cold winter reason, some observers question the motivation behind such projects and appropriateness of it. Dr. Andrew Fischer, a senior lecturer on Population and Social Policy at the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam in Netherlands argues that there are other needed areas that the money could have been spent on. “They could direct it primarily towards education and health,” says Dr. Fischer. In its article published on December 18, Caixin said that Jin Wei, the director of ethnic religious studies at the Central Party School, complained that many of the programs in Tibet “failed to factor in cultural contexts and relied on government-oriented measures.” She said that instead of helping Tibetan Autonomous Region become economically independent, it today heavily relies on the central government aids even more. Dr. Fischer said the 90 percent of Tibetans, who were farmers and nomads, were completely independent from government subsidies in 1960s. Today, he says, their dependency on the central government have increased and the number of farmers and nomads have dropped down to about 50 percent.

Driru, a county that is made of Nagshod and half of Gyeshod (two of historical 18-Shods of Kham region), has been known for being giving birth to China’s communist party leaders like Ragdi and Tenzin. However, since 2006, this semi-nomadic county of Tibet has reminded people that it is also a home of brave Tibetan freedom fighters. After 1959 battle of Chagra Palbar led by the head lama of Driru Monastery, people from this county attacked a Chinese garrison in 1969 and fought until almost all men from Gyalsod area died. “Almost all men were killed in this area,” says a Tibetan man in exile who doesn’t want to be identified. “Following many years, women had to do the man’s jobs and plough their barley-fields.” Today this county became an island of protest in the tightly controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Driru, a county that is made of Nagshod and half of Gyeshod (two of historical 18-Shods of Kham region), has been known for being giving birth to China’s communist party leaders like Ragdi and Tenzin. However, since 2006, this semi-nomadic county of Tibet has reminded people that it is also a home of brave Tibetan freedom fighters. After 1959 battle of Chagra Palbar led by the head lama of Driru Monastery, people from this county attacked a Chinese garrison in 1969 and fought until almost all men from Gyalsod area died. “Almost all men were killed in this area,” says a Tibetan man in exile who doesn’t want to be identified. “Following many years, women had to do the man’s jobs and plough their barley-fields.” Today this county became an island of protest in the tightly controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region.