Epilogue
This short epilogue restates and emphasizes the importance of an anthropological approach to contested presence in state-led development efforts with reference to the post-protest Olympic campaigns in Rebgong, as well as the renewed military crackdown on Tibetans’ self-immolation protests, in the summer of 2008 and beyond. The author does this by looking at Rebgong Tibetans’ counter-uses of the new Drolma Square in front of Rongbo Monastery that was planned and built in 2006 by the prefecture party secretary to attract tourists. Tibetans however transformed it into a pilgrimage site, which set the stage for its most tragic transformation in 2012, as the site of Tibetans’ self-immolation protests in the wake of new state-led efforts at cultural and linguistic repression, land expropriation and resource extraction.