A sit in protest by around 400 Tibetans on the first day of the Tibetan New Year led to a standoff between the Tibetan protesters and Chinese security forces in Ngaba County.

The monks and laypeople said prayers and threw Tsampa in the air to mourn the killings of several Tibetans in the 2008 protests all over Tibet. The monks sitting at the protest are from Ngaba Kirti Monastery and Sey Monastery.
As tension escalated, Duedul Trulku of Kirti monastery’s religious affairs body arrived at the protest site and urged everyone to return home to avoid any untoward incidents but his requests fell on deaf ears. Later, they asked the monks of Kirti monastery to return to their quarters but monks of other monasteries and laypeople joined the protests.

The Chinese soldiers confiscated mobile phones of people who took video and pictures of the protest.
Now the army had blockaded the routes to the square to prevent Tibetans from outside to join the protests.