The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) received a confirmed information from reliable sources that local Tibetans in Kardze County refused to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year (February 25-28, 2009) despite exhortation by the local Chinese authorities. The refusal to celebrate the Tibetan New Year was observed in the memory of those Tibetans died in the largest Pan Tibet protests in 2008.
Sources told TCHRD that about 20 days prior to the Tibetan New Year, which fell on 25 February 2009, Tibetans in Kardze County held meritorious religious prayers such as reciting Mani and Tara mantras as a gesture of sincere grief and mourning for those Tibetans who gave up their lives for human rights, freedom and justice in Tibet. In most parts of Tibet, the Tibetan New Year was not celebrated in the customary fashion. The meritorious prayers and rituals were intended to help and guide the deceased Tibetans for their safe and happy passage into their future re-births in accordance with the Tibetan Buddhist beliefs.