China: Several Tibetan Language Blog Sites Shut Down

Dechen Pemba — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:31:01 +0000

Against the backdrop of a stream of self-immolations in Tibet in protest against Chinese rule, unrest in eastern Tibet with protestors shot by police and a severely increased military presence, several of the most popular independently-run Tibetan language blog sites hosted in China have gone offline as of today.

The blog section of the website AmdoTibet has been closed (the rest of the site is functioning) and the following notice can be seen:

The notice in Chinese reads: “Due to some of the blog users not publishing in accordance with the goal of this site, the blog has temporarily been shut down, we hope that blog users will have understanding!”

Another very popular blog site Sangdhor.com is also offline, without any explanation. In October 2011, Sangdhor boldly published a poem titled “Mourning” that was about the self-immolations in Tibet. The poem was quickly taken offline. An English translation of the poem was published on High Peaks Pure Earth.

Below are two screenshots of Sangdhor.com, the top screenshot shows Sangdhor in its functioning state and the bottom screenshot was taken earlier today:

Finally the blog site Rangdrol.net is also offline and contains an interesting notice in Tibetan. In October 2011, Rangdrol published a poem titled “The Truth of Flames on the Thorny Path” which carried many references to fire and flames; the poem was taken offline (read the English translation on High Peaks Pure Earth).

Below is a screenshot of Rangdrol taken earlier, the English text “Site off-line” suggests that the administrators have removed the site, and the Tibetan text underneath reads: ”For the sake of life, we are mourning and crying”.

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.

Global Voices Advocacy » Dechen Pemba

China: Several Tibetan Language Blog Sites Shut Down