(TibetanReview.net, Jan12’25) – Unofficial sources have been stated to suggest that at least 100 people have died in one township as a result of the devastating earthquake that hit Tibet’s Mt Everest county of Dingri in Shigatse City on Jan 7 morning, casting doubts on China’s official claim of a total of 126 known casualties thus far. The doubt is reinforced by China’s total ban on access to the affected region for everyone, including the independent media, except for government dispatched rescue groups.
Suggesting that at least 100 deaths had occurred in the county’s Dramtso township alone, which has ten villages – including Senga (Zingkar, the Township headquarter), Gurong (Guring), and Chajiang – the Tibetan service of rfa.org Jan 10 said, based on Tibetan sources, that it was among the worst affected. China’s official media had mentioned the epicentre Tsogo (with seven villages) and Chulho too among the worst affected townships in Dingri county.
Besides, China’s official globaltimes.cn Jan 12 cited Sakya, Lazi (Lhatse), Dingjie (Tingkye), and Dingri as “four hard-hit counties” in the earthquake. The report stated this in the context of the Tibet regional cultural heritage bureau’s dispatch on Jan 12 of an emergency cultural heritage team of 17 to Dingjie county to conduct inspections on the damage to cultural heritage sites.
China’s official report of 126 deaths and 337 injuries thus far has been based on the search and rescue operations focused on just 27 villages located around a 20 km radius of the earthquake’s epicentre.
While determining the exact death toll is currently very challenging, “everybody is sceptical of the official death toll, but we have no way to know the actual figures,” the rfa.org report cited a resident of Tibet’s capital Lhasa as saying.
The search was widened over other surrounding affected areas only from Jan 10, according to a Reuters report that day.
The rfa.org report said the earthquake had caused extensive structural damage, including to several century-old institutions such as the Dingri Dramtso Serkar, Gonta Phug, Tso-nga, Tso-go and Dewachen monasteries in Dingri’s Chulho Township.
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The report also cited an exile Tibetan with contacts in the affected areas as saying that following the earthquake, not only have local residents been restricted from traveling to neighbouring villages but also other Tibetans remained strictly prevented from travelling to the affected sites.
The report cited Tibetan sources as saying many remote villages in the earthquake-affected areas had yet to receive assistance, with no relief personnel having arrived there.
The available pictures of the disaster, which show rescue personnel actively helping victims, are mostly, if not all, those taken and released by China’s official media. This is because China is reported to prohibit individuals from taking pictures or videos, with police being deployed to monitor aid workers to ensure compliance. Independent media continues to remain banned from Tibet.
The report also said Tibetans from across the region attempting to rush assistance were being blocked at various newly set up checkpoints, with authorities requiring permits for entry. They are said to be required to hand over to Chinese authorities all aid materials for distribution, leaving volunteers unable to directly provide support to those in need. As a result, mountains of relief and aid materials donated for the earthquake victims are stated to be piled up at the government’s local disaster relief management centre in Dingri county.