TRAVEL | GEO-POLITICS

The Rape of Tibet

How I Learned of China’s Stranglehold on Tibet’s Legacy

Anna Jim Lequenne
Digital Global Traveler
9 min readJun 2, 2024

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One of the many sacred lakes of Tibet. Instead of dealing with their own polluted waters, China is routing Tibetan water to the north of China to supply the needs of over 300 million people — Photo by author

Communism.

That was the first word that entered my head when my train finally pulled into the austere concrete station at Lhasa.

The station was cavernous. I felt like a tiny ant in a massive mausoleum as I made my way out towards the concourse. Vast concrete sheets loomed above us, the high ceiling and walls reverberating with the excited chatter and laughter of my fellow passengers. These were the next wave of Chinese migrants relocating to the TAR (the Tibetan Autonomous Region), adding to the 3.6 million who have already moved here.

I was excited, too, but for different reasons and for a different purpose.

If you followed my last Tibetan story, you’ll know that my brother-in-law Ed tragically took his own life, unable to bear the demons that lurked in his head. With a photo of Ed nestled between the pages of my Dalaï Lama book, I was in Tibet to ‘lay him’ to rest at the ‘Roof of the World’, the closest place to Heaven I could think of.

I knew spiritual books like this, referencing the Dalai Lama, were strictly forbidden in China. If I got caught, who knows what would happen to me? Imprisonment? But it had to be worth the risk – I…

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Anna Jim Lequenne
Digital Global Traveler

Daydreamer, hopeless romantic - juggling roles as a travel addict & aspiring writer, while navigating real life in my job as a designer