Fears and tears in holy plateau city
Updated: 2008-03-17 06:36
Saved by Tibetan folks
In response the regional government imposed traffic bans and increased the police presence to ensure social security.
For the many ethnic Hans who were lucky enough to survive the disaster, they said it was the Tibetan folks who saved them.
Sun Pingjiang, an ethnic Han and owner of a Titan-styled accessories store near the Ramogia monastery, said he owed his life to an elderly Tibetan woman who saved him from bleeding to death.
"I was attacked by more than 30 people about my age when I was running from my store to my friend's. The mobs beat and stabbed me," said the 26-year-old.
"When I finally managed to run away, I stumbled along and knocked at every door I could for help. A Tibetan woman in a chessboard game room came to my rescue," he said. "She took me in and called the emergency number 120 when the streets calmed down," he said.
Sun is being treated for leg and back injuries at the General Hospital of Tibet Military Command.
During Friday's riot, many local Tibetans came to the help of ethnic Hans.
Ma Ruixia, a Han woman who owns clothes and souvenir shops on Barkor Street in the downtown, said her establishments were attacked twice by the mob. She survived with the help of her Tibetan landlord and neighbors.
"Around 2 pm, Friday, I heard people shouting in the yard that rioters were coming and we needed to take shelter," she recalled.
"My Tibetan neighbors faced up to the mob and pleaded with them not to ravage my stores," she said. "I really didn't know what was going on out there. It was horrible."
Ye, who came to Lhasa 15 years ago from coastal Zhejiang province, said she would stay on in Lhasa, because she took this place as her second hometown.
"I wish the government would properly handle the incident and make Lhasa a safe place again," she said.
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