Mads Nissen’s snapshots of the “Tibetan unrest”

Though reporters and foreigners were denied access, Danish photojournalist Mads Nissen managed to get into the town of Tongren, Gansu province and its Tibetan Monastery, and takes photos.

Mads Nissen is a Danish photojournalist who was an eyewitness of what happened in Tibet during a massive unrest that began on March 10, 2008. On that day, a series of demonstrations began in Lhasa to mark the 49th anniversary of an unsuccessful Tibetan uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959. Many Tibetan groups observe it as the Tibetan Uprising Day.
As the incidents unfurled, reporters and foreigners were denied access. However, Mads Nissen managed to get into the town of Tongren, Gansu province and its Tibetan Monastery. With the sensitivity of an artiste, Nissen captured those moments from the Tibetan history.
According to Nissen, the protests began peacefully with hundreds of monks demanding the release of other monks detained previously. Soon after, political demand also surfaced and the protest escalated into Tibet's most violent unrest in nearly two decades. Monks were beaten, tear-gassed and arrested by the local military and police. Vehicles were overturned, shops set on fire, and Tibetans attacked non-Tibetan ethnic groups. Rioting, burning and looting began consequently. One of Nissen's photographs shows a glum young monk inside the monastery in Tongren.
Nissen's camera didn't fail to frame the military patrol either. The photographer says that the Chinese government was desperate to get everything under control, as there was less than half a year to the Beijing Olympics. Martial law was promptly imposed in all Tibetan areas. The government adopted a rigid strategy to quell the revolt, resulting more violence only. Check posts, surveillance and a massive presence of Police surrounded the monastery.
A photograph showing a monk speaking on a cell phone reveals that despite the attempt to restrain the protest, the surge rapidly spread to other Tibetan areas with the help of modern technology. One of the images also shows how the monks revere the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader, braving a ban against posters of him.
Nissen was in Tibet on an assignment for the reputed Newsweek magazine. The photographs were published under the title "Tibetan Unrest" in the magazine. These images were on display at an exhibition at National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy as part of Chobi Mela V.
Chobi Mela, one of the largest photography festivals in the world, ended yesterday.