China’s state media says that all cultural relics and the main building in Lhasa are intact, but many Tibetans doubt it.
On February 17 — one day after the Tibetan New Year or Losar, the most important traditional festival for Tibetans — a fire broke out in Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple, one of the holiest and most politically sensitive sites in Tibet.
A number of netizens immediately posted pictures and videos as well as prayers on their social media platforms. Some of those video clips showed flames burning above the golden roof of the holy temple, while several firefighters climbed high on the wall of the temple to extinguish the blaze and people in the background shouted or cried.
These posts were soon wiped from Chinese social media by censors.
The same report in Chinese revealed more detail than the English version.
