At approximately 7:40am on April 14th 2010, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake followed by
a number of powerful aftershocks struck in Kyegundo སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ།
(spoken as Jyekundo) in Kham, eastern Tibet (Ch: Jieguduo or Yushu
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province). At least 600 people
are reported dead and more than 10,000 injured by Chinese & Western
media, but Tibetans with contacts in the area have heard the death toll
may be as high as 4,000. We will continue to post updates on SFT's facebook page and twitter feed.
All of us at SFT send our heartfelt condolences to the families who
have lost loved ones in the earthquake. Our thoughts and prayers are
with everyone in Kyegundo and the surrounding area.
How you can help:
1) Donate to organizations working in the region and help support
emergency relief efforts:
Read and share a moving blog post about the
earthquake with reactions from Tibetans in Tibet on High Peaks Pure
Earth
Read and share the statement issued by the
five leading Tibetans exile organizations in Dharamsala (including SFT
India).
Write to the editor of your local newspaper to educate
him/her that the earthquake struck Chinese occupied Tibet, which is at a
minimum disputed territory. Kyegundo is in the Tibetan province of
Kham, annexed into China's present day Qinghai Province..
From High Peaks Pure Earth: Chinese media refers to
the affected area as the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu (玉树) in
Qinghai province, Western media has been calling it Western or South
Western China inhabited by "ethnic Tibetans" or part of the "Tibetan
plateau".
In fact, the area known in Tibetan as Kyegundo (སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ། skye
rgu mdo) is considered by Tibetans to traditionally be part of Kham,
eastern Tibet. Although spelled Kyegundo, when spoken it sounds more like
Jyekundo. Here is the link to the map on the website
of Tibetan and Himalayan Library, an excellent resource
site.
Fears over potential dam burst:
The BBC has reported that a massive dam at the headwaters of three
rivers in the area has been damaged and that people have fled for higher
ground in fear that the dam might burst. A crack in the dam wall has
prompted Chinese officials to drain the reservoir. The Chinese
government has plans to build several more dams in this earthquake prone
area. View a map posted on the Tibetan Plateau blog: http://tibetanplateau.blogspot.com/2010/02/dams-on-upper-reaches-of-yangtze-mekong.html
Also, according to an NPR report 85% of the buildings in the town have
collapsed and the Red Cross is reporting that 70% of schools have been
destroyed. The area is home to Tibetan nomads and farmers who
traditionally live on the grasslands of the plateau. A Newsweek blog post from April 14th documents the
Chinese government's massive push to forcibly settle Tibetan nomads into
concrete housing projects like the kind we see lining the streets of
Kyegundo. China plans to settle all of the nomads in Qinghai Province
within 5 years.
The media is reporting that relief efforts by the Chinese army are
underway, but we're also hearing that many people in the surrounding
areas are without food and water. A Tibetan was able to send word out
that: people as far away as Denma (5-6 hrs drive from jyeku)
sleeping outside right now. People don't have food and troops are
apparently only going in by road, so it could take 2-3 days for relief
to get here.
Please check back for updates and more ways that you can help the
people of Kyegundo.
At approximately 7:40am on April 14th 2010, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake followed by
a number of powerful aftershocks struck in Kyegundo སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ།
(spoken as Jyekundo) in Kham, eastern Tibet (Ch: Jieguduo or Yushu
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province). At least 600 people
are reported dead and more than 10,000 injured by Chinese & Western
media, but Tibetans with contacts in the area have heard the death toll
may be as high as 4,000. We will continue to post updates on 
