At approximately 7:40am on Wednesday, April 14th a 6.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a number of powerful aftershocks struck in Kyegundo སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ། (spoken: Jyekundo) in Kham, eastern Tibet (Ch: Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province). Media are reporting nearly 600 people killed and more than 10,000 injured. 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 Students for a Free Tibet 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 to help support emergency relief efforts:
Tibetan Village Project: http://www.tibetanvillageproject.org/
Tibetan Relief Fund: http://www.tibetrelieffund.co.uk/
Machik: http://www.machik.org/index.ph
Tibet Foundation: http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/urgent emergency_appeal-kyekudo_yushu_earthquake/
Tibet Fund: http://www.tibetfund.org
Thrangu Rinpoche Trust: http://www.thranguemergency.org/
2) Help spread the word that this awful tragedy occurred in Tibet not in Western China as the media is reporting:
- Change your Facebook status and tweet: Quake in Tibet. Please help. Donate here: http://tibetanvillageproject.org/ (Please RT)
- 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 and ask that he/she acknowledge that the earthquake struck in occupied (or the disputed region of) Tibet.
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”.
Although spelled Kyegundo, when spoken it sounds more like Jyekundo. This Google map shows the position of Kyegundo in relation both to Lhasa and also to the provincial capitals of Qinghai and Gansu, Xining and Lanzhou, to the north east. 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 a 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 re-settle Tibetan nomads into concrete housing projects like the kind we see lining the streets of Kyegundo.
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) are sleeping outside right now [out of fear of after shocks]. 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.
Keep checking back for updates and ways that you can take action to help Tibetans in Kyegundo.
Read more:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama sends his condolences to the earthquake victims: http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/520-his-holiness-offers-his-condolences-to-the-victims-of-the-earthquake-in-kyigudo
Statement by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1629
Free Tibet (UK based Tibet Support Group): http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/earthquake-eastern-tibet
International Campaign for Tibet (Washington, D.C. based Tibet Support Group): http://savetibet.org/
World News Blog (The sensitivity behind the latest Chinese earthquake): http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/04/14/the-sensitivity-behind-the-latest-chinese-earthquake/
BBC (China earthquake kills hundreds in Qinghai): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8619593.stm
NPR (Earthquake In China Kills 400; Thousands Injured): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125930694
New York Times (Strong Quake Kills Hundreds in Western China): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/world/asia/15quake.html
