Day 52 Update from the March

The marchers left Moradabad at 6am and walked 25 kilometers. They camped on a big ground located near Bawabpur stadium. The owner of the ground, Mr Gulzar Khan, a timber merchant from Rampur, generously provided electricity and water for the marchers to take showers and to do their laundry.

The marchers had an active day in the afternoon playing soccer, cricket and badminton in the stadium, despite the heat.

Everest “like a war zone”

MountEverest.net is an amazing site that aggregates all the climbing news of the Himalaya region. With one of the many olympic torches at the Northside (Tibetan side that is!) basecamp, the site is abuzz with updates and news from the area… well, at least what news can get out, due to a basically complete blackout of phones, and an increased presence of armed soldiers.

View selected updates from the last two days below…

12:46 pm EDT Apr 29, 2008
- “There is a small police post at 6400m (ed: camp 2) on Everest and the one armed soldier does the rounds each day, with conspicuous sniper rifle, however they mostly give a friendly Namaste,” is the latest report to ExWeb from Everest south side.

- On Everest south side, BBC (expelled yesterday) reported that a tourism ministry official there, Prabodh Dhakal, said that climbers were not allowed to hold even informal chats with media, in fact, if any mountaineer talked to the BBC, he or she would be expelled. “We are doing this for our friend, China,” Dhakal said.

09:58 am EDT Apr 30, 2008
- International journalists invited by the Chinese Government to Everest’s Tibetan BC are ungrateful campers. Tired and sick from too rapid altitude gain; they’ve come to find a new 90km black-top road and a media center in Rongbuk – but no news to report, or any word on the torch’s whereabouts.

- In any case, most climbers are headed down after acclimatizing in C2 where at 6400m; a huge banner alerts everyone not to proceed beyond this point. A post with armed soldiers guards the spot.

- Everest is like a war zone; expeditions’ websites report little about their members’ movements between C2 and BC, and avoid making other comments. “Due to restrictions on Everest this spring, we apologize for the lack of in-depth reports from the team,” posted Jagged Globe yesterday. “We hope that this will change soon.” Also Brazilians Rodrigo and Eduardo, just back from C2, mentioned they can only use the phone with a soldier listening in.

- The doctor also said he had already treated many members of the military who had fallen sick because of the altitude. Meanwhile, a dozen more soldiers were reportedly on their way to BC yesterday.

Also interesting… there is a special hotline setup for anonymous reports from the mountain:
The “Climbers Without Borders” Everest 2008 hotline allows climbers, their relatives and friends to report anonymously from the mountain as long as the caller is known to ExWeb. Pls call (1) 206-666-2407 (from a sat phone pls dial 001-206-666-2407). State your name and message (your name will be withheld).

read more news from the Himalayas…

Nurturing the Embers of Rangzen

People inside Tibet had, in unimaginably lonely and secretive ways, faithfully nurtured the embers of Rangzen for all these many years. In spite of decades of propaganda, “political re-education”, surveillance by informers, spies, and agents, and (once in a while) brutal interrogation by trained and experienced torturers, they had managed to hide and protect this faith in the deepest recesses of their hearts.

Help SFT ‘Torch Coke’s Torch’ on YouTube

Do you think its ludicrous that an international brand with the prestige and recognition of Coca Cola is sponsoring the Olympic torch run through Tibet at a time when Tibetans are protesting and dying and the Chinese government is putting the entire nation on lockdown? So do we. Show us exactly how you feel. SFT is offering up a “Team Tibet Champion Package” (Team Tibet track jacket, Team Tibet logo patch, stickers, buttons, and other Team Tibet gear) to whoever spoofs Coke’s ridiculous relay sponsorship the best. Jam their slogans, post a quick animation, create a simple video or graphic that shows the world exactly how reprehensible it is that Coke would endanger lives and run the torch through a region where it will need to be secured with curfews, arrests, imprisonment, tanks and guns.

view the full instructions here…. and keep an eye on the official youtube page in the coming days!

Here are some ideas found online…

more to come…

Exiled Tibetans marchers reach Uttar Pradesh

Moradabad, Apr 30 (ANI): Exiled Tibetans, who are on their return march to Tibet, reached Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday.

The marchers had resumed their peaceful march to Tibet on April 19 from New Delhi.

After the successful conduct of the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi on April 17, they set out on foot towards Tibet to support their brethren facing alleged oppression under the Chinese regime.

Holding placards with captions like ‘March to Tibet’, the marchers stopped over for a brief halt at Moradabad.

The marchers said they were following the path of non-violence and peace propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. (more…)