By Khedroob Thondup

When a glacier avalanche struck Tibet recently, the devastation was immediate and profound. Entire communities were left in shock, families torn apart, and countless lives disrupted. Yet what stands out most is not the natural disaster itself, but the deafening silence from the Chinese authorities. No official tally of the missing, no acknowledgment of the dead — only a void filled with rumour, grief, and suspicion.

Why the Numbers Matter. Disasters demand transparency. In any society, the first responsibility of the state is to inform its citizens of the scale of tragedy. Numbers are not just statistics; they are the names, faces, and stories of human beings. By withholding this information, Beijing reduces Tibetan lives to abstractions, erasing their suffering from public record. This is not incompetence — it is deliberate policy.

The Pattern of Coverups. The refusal to announce casualties is not an ...