And on the subject of the wonderful Tibetan people...

Tibetan Refugees Reportedly Killed By China Border Guards
Dow Jones Commodities Service

KATMANDU, Nepal, Oct 05, 2006 (DJCS via Comtex) --

A Tibetan exile group said Thursday that Chinese border guards opened fire on dozens of refugees, killing two and wounding several more as they tried to sneak into Nepal from Tibet over the weekend.

The Tibetan refugees were crossing the Nangpa La pass, near Mount Everest on China's side of the border, when Chinese soldiers opened fire, said Lhundup Dorjee of the Tibet Refugee Center in Katmandu.

"Around 42 of them managed to escape and cross in to Nepal, but we don't know what happened to the rest of them," Dorjee said.

Neither Chinese nor Nepali officials were immediately available for comment on the reported shootings, which allegedly took place on Sept. 30 at the 5,800-meter pass just west of Mount Everest.

Every year, hundreds of Tibetan refugees trek for days through the mountains to escape Chinese rule in Tibet, braving high altitudes, fierce weather and Chinese border troops.

While refugees have been shot at along the border in the past, Dorjee said this was the first time in recent years that troops had killed any.

He said he had been in touch with the group of refugees involved in the latest incident, and that they had crossed into a remote part of Nepal and were still about a week away from reaching Katmandu.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans have fled Tibet since a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese forces, which occupied the Himalayan region eight years earlier.

Among them is the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' spiritual leader and 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who lives in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, where his government-in-exile is based.

I recently talked with a boy who crossed over few years ago. He said that even being caught is only 15 days of retaining. Surprised by this incident.

beautiful photos mike!

just a photography tip for ya in bright light conditions (i'm assuming you are using a point and shoot here) put your sunglasses in front of your lens to act as a polariser so the sky will look bluer, there will be less glare in your photos and people's skin tones will look warmer. the sunglasses act like a polarising filter on SLR cameras.

the only downside to all this is you look goofy while shooting photographs!:P

keep up the great photography!

Yeah, as soon as I'm rich I'm gonna buy a Nikon D80 or some sweet DSLR along those lines... until then I'm using the Nikon Coolpix S1, which is great as a teeny-tiny point and shoot but doesn't quite cut it in the big leagues.

hi bo0g,
I'm thinkN that with a prize winning blogsite and heart as big as yours, there must be some grant donor out there that would love to contribute $5000 or so to support your photographic efforts. What do you say, blogReaders? Can I get a "hell yeah"?
Love,
Dad

I've been reading your site for a while--even before I became friends with a girl who works in Korla :). These photos are great! I especially love the composition of the first one--and the pose of the subject in the third.

Oh, and are these on flickr at all?

I only use Flickr for my mobile phone photos, but I have my own gallery of travels in China (and other places) here: http://china.notspecial.org/gallery/. My photos from Tibet, including the portraits above, will be uploaded to the gallery in the next day or two.

It's striking how much some of the folks in these fotos look like Indians in the Andes

Did you see the latest on this today? They shot the refugees in self defense....sigh...

China says border guards killed a fleeing refugee in self-defense
The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006

BEIJING: China said Thursday that soldiers posted near its border with Nepal clashed with some 70 people attempting to flee the country, killing one person on the spot and injuring two others, including one who died later of altitude sickness.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the clash occurred on Sept. 30 — the same day that foreign climbers and human rights groups allege that Chinese border guards opened fire on dozens of unarmed Tibetan refugees as they tried to flee Chinese-ruled Tibet, killing at least one. The different accounts appeared to be about the same incident.

The Xinhua report said that the people trying to cross the border attacked the soldiers, who were then "forced to defend themselves." It did not say if the people trying to cross the border were Tibetan, whether they were armed, or give other details.

Accounts of the incident by rights groups drew a protest Thursday from the U.S. government. U.S. Ambassador to China, Clark Randt, went to the Chinese Foreign Ministry Thursday to "protest China's treatment of the refugees" in the incident, embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao had earlier Thursday denied knowledge of the shootings, but said that if the news reports about it were true, Chinese authorities would investigate.

Initial accounts of the shooting came from Western mountaineers climbing the Himalayan peak Cho Oyu from the Chinese side. Those accounts, posted on mountaineering Web sites, said they saw border guards open fire on Tibetans trying to cross the 5,700-meter (18,750-foot) Nanga La pass into Nepal on Sept. 30.

A Nepal-based Tibetan exile group, the Tibet Refugee Center, said last week that two Tibetans were killed and several wounded, citing accounts from some of the 42 who made the crossing. Another group, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, said that one person was killed and that Chinese soldiers later took 10 to 12 Tibetan children from the group into custody.

Every year, hundreds of Tibetan refugees trek for days through forbidding terrain to leave Chinese-ruled Tibet. Some leave to make pilgrimages to see the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who lives in exile in India. Others leave to obtain a proper monastic education, something increasingly difficult as China has tightened control over religion.

While refugees have been shot at along the border in the past, a spokesman for the Tibet Refugee Center, Lhundup Dorjee, said last week this was the first time in recent years that troops had killed any.

great pictures, michael ...