Lhasans were used to hearing the bells and the horns that normally rang out from the temples of the Potala just after dawn, calling the monks to prayer. They heard nothing that morning except the chatter of birds. The monks who normally worked the bell ropes were hurrying to the storage rooms of the Potala and other secret places where caches of old British rifles were waiting, or carrying boxes of ammunition to Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries for distribution to the rebels. As he drove through the streets of Lhasa, the Chinese diarist Shan Chao saw not monks but rebels on Chakpori, the mountain on the edge of Lhasa, building fortifications. “It looks as if there is going to be fighting soon,” he wrote. “We cannot sit by and wait.” The guerrillas upped the ante, sending a telegram to their compatriots in Kalimpong: “The independent country of Tibet was formed on the first day of the second month of the Tibet calendar [March 10]. Please announce this to all.” With the Chinese withdrawn behind their walls and only emerging in heavily armed patrols, Tibetans were caught up in an almost revolutionary fervor.
What do You think about Escape From The Land Of Snows?
