Woeser, the Beijing-based Tibetan writer, has made a desperate appeal to save the ancient Tibetan capital city Lhasa from what she calls ‘frightful modernisation’, constituting an’ unpardonable and incalculable crime against the ancient city of Lhasa’s landscape, human culture, and environment’. Woeser appealed to UNESCO for help, with a petition signed by 1000 people demanding that Lhasa is saved from ‘willful destruction by the Chinese’.