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Sonam Tashi refuses to let her son inherit the same fear.
Was active in the Free Tibet movement at one time KathmanduHe found himself silent. Unable to secure identity cards for his son, he left this year for the Tibetan capital in exile in India, where his son would begin an education he could not do at home.
There he joined a rare protest in a city reminiscent of what Kathmandu once was – where monks roam freely and the Dalai Lama’s portrait poses no risk.
This came to light in an investigation by the Associated Press Sugar Technology used to monitor Tibetans Nepal Originally came from American companies. Despite warnings that Chinese companies were copying or stealing their designs, these companies built, adapted, and expanded China’s surveillance apparatus over the past quarter-century.
Born in Nepal to Tibetan refugees, Tashi has worked on the front lines of protests for years and made regular appearances outside the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. In the early days, arrests were brief – only a day or two – but by 2015, police were holding protesters for weeks. The crowd reduced. After all, Tashi was one of the last to appear.
Surveillance followed them ahead of the protests.
Police Started showing up hours before any meeting started, demanding answers to questions they weren’t supposed to ask: What are you doing tomorrow? Where are you going?
Cameras multiplied – around Tibetan settlements, in temples, even near private homes. At Boudha, one found the solace of resting under the all-seeing eyes of the stupa.
Now 49-year-old Tashi’s focus is on his 10-year-old son. Once an organizer, he is now a father trying to get his son out – before the net tightens. On a winding bus journey towards the Indian border, Sonam looked out the window as terraced hills gave way to forest, wondering what would happen next.
“There are cameras everywhere,” he said. “There is no future.”
This surveillance has helped quell Nepal’s once vibrant “Free Tibet” movement. Thousands of Tibetans once fled to Nepal each year, but that number dropped to single digits last year, according to Tibetan officials in Nepal.
Around the world, Washington D.C. In, Namki’s eyes reflect the loneliness that haunts exiled Tibetans.
Arrested at the age of 15 for protesting Chinese rule and sentenced to three years in prison, Namaki traveled to America to tell her story of what it means to lose home.
Dressed in black, with two small pins – Tibetan and American – pinned to her coat, she describes how, under surveillance, silence has become survival for Nepal’s dwindling Tibetan community.
“They know they are being watched,” she said.
His eyes shine, not with certainty, but with the fragile hope that what he heard might one day matter.
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This is a documentary photo story curated by AP Photo editors.