Khampa Girls By The Jokhang

Khampa girls by the Jokhang in Lhasa during Martial Law in March 1989. Lhasa was known as the Forbidden City when Heinrich Harrer reached it in 1944, 2 years after he arrived in Tibet, although it had been previously visited by a British Military Expedition to Tibet led by Col Francis Younghusband Expedition in 1904. For both of them after very arduous journeys through the Western Himalayas from India. The Dalai Lama left Lhasa in 1959 and has never been back. Martial Law was declared in Lhasa on 7th March 1989 after a day of rioting by Tibetans, who were demonstrating against Chinese rule. All foreigners and travellers that were in the city at the time were expelled from Lhasa, before Martial Law started on March 9th. They were given the choice of 3 destinations outside Tibet, or to stay in the country if their Chinese visas allowed it. All foreigners did leave Lhasa by the deadline, with only 8 people staying in Tibet. Many hundreds, if not thousands of Tibetans were arrested in the following months and many were re-educated in prison, as was the way in China at the time. This came just 6 weeks before Chinese Students began to assemble in Tiananmen Square. Communism was crumbling in China, Russia and Eastern Europe and Chinese and Tibetan people wanted this to move more quickly, than their Government did.The Autonomous Region of Tibet, China - 2nd April 1989. (Photo by Richard Manning/Getty Images)