“I didn’t care. What they were doing was wrong, like what was done to those poor people in Heilongjiang Province was wrong, and what they were doing at the Valley of the Gods was wrong. I had to find new places for my classes, but the new Committee always knew and disrupted them no matter where I went, saying they were too crowded, or my classroom had no inspection certificate, or my students were not officially registered. One night when we were gone, they leveled the building I had used that day. The next night, when I was giving a class under the moon, they leveled my home. Then Xun and Jiao came to me and ordered me to leave. I said what they were doing at Larung Gar and the Five Claws was illegal, and that if they persisted I would hold a press conference to announce that none of the proper tests for the new Five Claws dam had been done. We thought putting a spotlight on the dam gave us leverage, that it could be an indirect weapon against them. They backed off for a few days. We formed our own committee, separate from the abbot and managers of the school, who could not risk polarizing their Chinese overseers. We staged sit-ins, surrounding the demolition equipment with hundreds of monks and nuns reciting mantras. We held a prayer vigil with over a thousand people, blocking a key crossroads for forty-eight hours. Metok brought in workers from nearby hotels to join us, shutting down the hotels.”

A chill crept down Shan’s spine. “Metok? But Metok was here, at the Five Claws.”

“Not until eight months ago. He had been working on a highway project west of Lhasa that was abruptly suspended, so he was assigned as engineer for the Committee of Reconstruction and Safety at Larung Gar. He was Jiao’s man, or Jiao thought he was. But he changed at Larung Gar. He would come sit with us at prayers. One night he declared that he wanted to help. Tara said he could make maps for us, for retreats and hiding places in the mountains. He became a great friend, and even saved some of our buildings from the bulldozers.”

Shan’s mind raced. He had to rip apart the puzzle pieces he had thought he had assembled and start over. “But why would Jiao bring him to this valley?”

“Jiao got him the job. A big promotion. But it was because Jiao wanted to keep a close eye on him. I think now it was because Jiao meant to find a way to eliminate him.”

“For sympathizing with fellow Tibetans?”

“For seeing Jiao and his accomplices murder my niece Tara.”

Shan could not speak for a moment. “You mean she was lost in the demolition of one of the buildings?”