“Tibetan Culture” (www.tibetcul.com), a website run by the Xueyu Zangren (Snow country Tibetans) Cultural Exchange Co., Ltd. in China’s northwest Gansu Province, was closed on March 25, by the Internet Administration Department of the Public Security Bureau of Lanzhou. Tsewangnorbu, famous Tibetan writer and editor-in-chief of the web, has been out of contact since then. CIC correspondent tried for many times to contact the webmaster for confirmation, but both the office phone and Tsewangnorbu’s cell phone were busy or unavailable.
Established in April 20, 2004, the Tibetan Culture Web has done a great deal in displaying the spiritual lives and cultural charm of the Tibetans, and in voicing their ideas in the cyber world. In the past year, the site launched a campaign to stop a Chinese swimmer from swimming across the sacred Namtso Lake, held a series of discussion in the cyber community on the topic of “mother tongue and national culture”, collected donations for the tsunami victims in Southeastern Asia, and was invited to attend an International Conference on the Protection of National Culture in Internet Era. With an increasing number of visitors, the site has become more and more influential in and outside China.
Source suggested the close of the web and detention of the webmaster may be caused by some “sensitive” topics discussed in surfers’ community or articles posted by surfers on BBS the forum.
