Dharamshala — Local Tibetans from the Ralung area in Gyangze County, Shigatse, Tibet, described their fear and terror when the Chinese artist's toxic fireworks were set off on the snow-covered, pristine mountain in their region. They said: “When the fireworks were set off, I felt like there was an earthquake, my whole body was shaking. The smell in the air was extremely acrid and my eyes were burning.”
Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang collaborated with outdoor sports brand Arc'teryx launched a large fireworks display entitled “Rising Dragon” on a mountain called Chaqiong Gangri (查琼岗日) in the Ralung region of Gyangze County, Shigatse, Tibet, on September 19, 2025. This action sparked thousands of online criticisms from Tibetans living in Tibet and in exile, as well as from Chinese people. All criticised these reckless and thoughtless actions that led to the destruction of Tibet's pristine snow-capped mountains and fragile environment.
The more than 50 minutes of fireworks set off in the mountains of the Ralung region frightened and terrified the Tibetans and animals living there. The Tibetans expressed their deep fear and the negative impact during and after these colorful and toxic fireworks, which lasted for an hour in the mountains. Tibetans present at the scene and in the surrounding area said, “When the fireworks went off, it felt like an earthquake, my whole body was shaking. The smell in the air was extremely acrid and my eyes were burning.”
The Tibetans explained the situation and said, “They set them off about every ten minutes, four or five times in total. The noise and shaking were terrible.”
“That piece of land may never grow grass again. What are the herders supposed to do?” “The tremors were unbearable even for people; the animals must have fled in terror.” “It severely disturbed small animals and may even have caused deaths,” they added.
A man wrote an article about the recent destructive fireworks on the mountain in Tibet, article states, “Arc’teryx blew up a mountain — and the preliminary data is out. First of all, Arc’teryx and Cai Guo-Qiang lied. They claimed that after the fireworks they cleaned up the site. But the facts prove this was a blatant lie. In reality, the site was littered with copper scraps, wires, plastic barrels, and garbage everywhere. Right now, local villagers and drones are being mobilized to slowly haul the garbage down piece by piece.”
The article claims that if Tibetans and Chinese had not criticized their reckless and thoughtless actions, they would not have cleaned up the mountain. The article says: "One can imagine that without the public outcry, this trash might have remained there forever. Faced with condemnation, they offer hypocritical and insincere apologies on the one hand, while brazenly lying on the other. And this is what they call an ‘artist’?"
“To fix the fireworks in place, they had to dig holes, each the size of a fist, all over the alpine meadow, riddling the entire mountainside with holes. Wherever the fireworks were placed, these holes followed. And countless workers, trampling to set up the fireworks, trod the meadow until it was unrecognizable. Alpine meadows take centuries to form — and they casually dug them up and destroyed them," it added.
The article concluded by saying, “This mountain-blasting show lasted 52 seconds (in reality, it went on for more than 50 minutes), with 1,050 sets of fireworks ignited, in four rounds, from the creek all the way up to the mountaintop. The firing site was at 4,500 meters elevation, primarily alpine meadow, just 30 meters from the nearest water source and 6 kilometers from the nearest glacier.”
