Opinion | Stop "modernising" Lhasa, pleads Tibetan writer

When Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser protested online this week against a commercial development in her hometown of  Lhasa, thousands supported her by reposting her message and sharing their own thoughts on Tibet.

Most of the supporters said they had visited Tibet as tourists. Others said they had seen it only in pictures and movies. But few probably knew how difficult it has become for Woeser and other relocated Tibetans to go home to the autonomous region in western China.

When Woeser, who lives in Beijing, went back to visit her mother in October, she had to go to Jilin - where her hukou, or residential permit - is registered to get a travel document from local police. Only after police issued a letter stating Woeser had no crime history and a form was signed by an authority and stamped by the local precinct could she set off.

She could tolerate the procedures, but not what she saw at home.

Once home, Woeser said she was astonished by both the scale and the nature of commercial developments going on in the ancient part of the Tibetan capital.