“No foreigners are allowed in,” said Jampa, the deputy head of Garze county’s foreign affairs office, before ordering the journalist taken by car to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, a 10-hour drive away, where he was released.[…] As word of the bloodshed spread, demonstrations erupted across the Tibetan plateau. One day, they came to Drago county, which borders Garze on the plateau’s eastern reaches in Sichuan.[…] Kesang Lamdark, a Tibetan artist living in Switzerland and the son of a renowned monk from Garze, said the dream of a free Tibet crashes against the reality of the Chinese police state.[…] Jampa of the Garze county foreign affairs office said he had not heard of the demolitions, and denied any restrictions on faith. Religious freedoms are protected by the Chinese constitution, he said, “like in America.”]
