On March 14th, 2008, during protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa, Tibet, nearly 100 monks were held and beaten by police. Subsequently, protests also took place in ethnically-Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Gansu. The authorities sent a large number of soldiers into cities to suppress the protests; soldiers used tear gas and fired guns. They also sealed off some areas and imposed curfews that same night.
The meaning of March 10th dated back to 1959, when the Tibetan people had attempted to revolt against Chinese rule; March 10th, 2008 was thus the 49th Tibetan Uprising Day. The protests in 2008 were also the largest Tibetan protest since 1989. During a peaceful demonstration in Lhasa, about 300 lamas were rounded up and arrested. The next day, monks protested and demanded the release of those arrested, even shouting slogans such as "Tibetan Independence", "Long Live the Dalai Lama", and "Give Us Back Our Freedom of Religion". The regime increased police presence to disperse the crowds.
After the incident, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially claimed that 10 innocent people were burned to death or killed, but the Tibetan government-in-exile had heard reports that "at least 120 Tibetans were massacred, more than 6,500 were arrested, and 190 were sentenced during the peaceful protests of 2008". Later, the exiled monk Chapel Tseten Puntsok, who was wanted by the authorities, recalled the scene of the incident; he said that the special police forces were on a war footing, while the monks were only wearing their kasaya (monks' robes) and were completely unarmed. An ethnically Chinese Thai person who was in Lhasa at the time also claimed to have witnessed police officers dressing up as Tibetans, grabbing knives, and then joining the protests.
The CCP, on the other hand, continued to condemn the Dalai Lama (Tibet's spiritual leader) for staging the protests. However, the Dalai Lama denied this, stating that he had always insisted on peaceful negotiations. He also called on the international community to investigate the truth of the incident.
References: ; [德國之聲("Deutsche Welle")(Chinese)] (https://www.dw.com/zh/流亡僧人回顾314事件/a-15807740); [藏人行政中央("Central Tibetan Administration")(Chinese)] (https://xizang-zhiye.org/中共機密文件證明：2008年3月中共在拉薩屠殺藏人/); [〈拉薩314事件之評述〉 ("The Comment on '14 March Issues in Lhasa'") (Chinese)] (https://www.mjib.gov.tw/FileUploads/eBooks/a54ec82832d94d17b862d667df519594/Section_file/b90892282a534076a67c0402fe5e6b0a.pdf); [BBC中文網("BBC News Chinese Edition")(Chinese)] (https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2010/03/100313_tibet_heavy_security_bristow)
