It’s not very easy to find eye witness accounts or reports from anyone on the ground in Lhåsa. Not only is physical access to Tîbet now being tightly controlled, but the Chinese Net Nanny is on the rampage, blocking foreign websites and deleting content on local servers.
In addition, it is worth noting these lines from writer Wang Lixiong, husband of Tibetan writer Woeser, as translated by ESWN:
Today, information on Tîbet is duopolized by two different political propaganda machines. One machine is located in Beijing, and the other in Dhåramsala. Since Tibet is to a large extent still under a state of blockade, other individuals or organizations find it very difficult to obtain independent information (especially at the macroscopic level). Like it or not, people who are concerned about Tîbet are getting most of their information from these two propaganda machines.
The bad thing is that the information from these two sources is almost surely conflicting with and even completely opposite to each other. Faced with this absurd situation, the solution is to choose your position first and decide which side you want to stand with, and then you treat the information from that side as true and everything from the other side as false.
Below is a summary of the best English language sources of information and one Chinese blog worth watching. If you’re in China, you’ll need a proxy server or other Nanny-avoidance technology for most of these links.
ESWN: March 14, 2008, Lhåsa (translation from Chinese blog post)
Mutant Palm: Chinese Tweet Updates (translations of Chinese microblogs about the situation; see also Engaging Chinese Netizens: Fanfou)
Global Voices: Fire on the streets of Lhåsa (translations from Chinese language blogs and BBS postings)
The Economist: Fire of the roof of the world (eye witness account from the only accredited foreign journalist currently in Lhasa)
China Digital Times: Netizens Find Space to Comment on Lhåsa Riots
Tim Johnson: Struggling to report on Tibetans (he is currently in western Sichuan, trying to get into Tîbet)
Shanghaiist: Huge directory of links about Tîbet
Woeser: The invisible Tîbet (Chinese language blog of Woeser mentioned above, includes photos)
Zola (self-described Chinese citizen journalist): Photos of demonstrations In Gånsu and Tîbet (text in Chinese)
Finally, for perspective, it’s worth reading this 1999 article by Peter Hessler in The Atlantic: Tîbet through Chinese eyes.