PHOTO ESSAY: Under watch by Chinese tech, the Tibetan community in Nepal is slowly suffocating

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — In Nepal, the unseen eye has changed Tibetan life.

The cameras are not just machines perched on the thick bundles of wires that twist through narrow lanes of Kathmandu in Nepal. They are a presence, an unseen watcher that Tibetans have learned to fear.

In the city's refugee settlements, once a haven for the community, every lens is a warning. Men draw their curtains before speaking. Prayer rooms remain locked, their devotions muted behind wood and cloth. The flags that once fluttered freely now cling in tatters to barbed wire.

Nepal is one of at least 150 countries where Chinese companies now sell surveillance tools. These systems that have become central to Beijing’s global push by offering cash-strapped governments, like the Himalayan kingdom, a cheap but intrusive form of policing that uses cameras, algorithms, and data as a force multiplier for control, an Associated Press investigation found.

In Nepal, the technology is also used to watch and deter pro-independence activities from Tibetans.

Near Nepal's border with Tibet, the road is choked with snow, winding past villages where locals say Chinese officials have pressured them to remove photographs of the Dalai Lama. In Lo Manthang, long a sanctuary for those trying to slip across the mountains, a towering surveillance installation on the Chinese side now overlooks the mountain paths below.

The message is unmistakable: The Himalayas no longer offer cover.

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This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.

Torn Buddhist prayer flags are seen stuck on barbed wire that surrounds the Tibetan camp territory in Mustang, Nepal, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

An elderly Tibetan exile walks near a monastery inside a Tibetan refugee camp in Mustang, Nepal, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Communist graffiti is seen on the wall of a small building along a highway in Mustang district, Nepal, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Chinese police officer patrols near a Nepali tourist posing for a photograph at the Korola border between Nepal and China in Mustang district, Nepal, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A watchtower with a CCTV camera is seen at the Korola border between Nepal and China in Mustang district, Nepal, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A vehicle carrying domestic tourists is seen approaching the Korola border crossing with China, in Mustang district, Nepal, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Tibetan exile offers a prayer, seen through the door of a monastery, at a Tibetan refugee camp in Mustang, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Nepalese Buddhist women walk back to their homes after an evening walk through monasteries in Lo Manthang village, Mustang, Nepal, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Hikvision camera monitors crowds circling the Boudhanath, a holy Tibetan Buddhist stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Dake Kang)

A surveillance camera in China is seen atop a hill in the background, as a Buddhist monk stands at a monastery, in the ancient ethnic Tibetan city of Mustang, Nepal, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

The ancient Tibetan Buddhist walled city of Lo Manthang sits at the feet of the Himalayan mountains in Nepal near the Chinese border, April 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)

A Nepal Telecom cell tower wired with Chinese equipment stands near Sree Muktinath temple in the remote Himalayan town of Ranipauwa, Nepal, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)

A map of Tibet hangs on the steel wardrobe at a camp in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Tibetan living in exile shares his story during an interview in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Dahua surveillance cameras monitor the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)

A photo of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is kept alongside various national currencies, including Chinese currency, at a monastery in Mustang, Nepal, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Tibetan living in exile gets emotional as he shares his story during an interview in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Tibetan living in exile pulls the curtain before he gives an interview in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Buddhist monk walks in an alley as a CCTV camera mounted on a pole watches over the area in the ancient ethnic Tibetan city of Mustang, Nepal, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Maxim Kilderov works among reminders of death — scorched metal, torn fabric, and the personal debris of lives cut short by war.

In a basement near Kyiv’s Maidan Square, the Ukrainian street artist has assembled a grim collection of battlefield relics which together form an unofficial record of Russia’s invasion.

Rocket launch tubes sit beside the diary of a Russian intelligence officer; captured Russian uniforms hang from darkened walls; thousands of military patches — symbols of unit pride, defiance and dark humor — cover display boards in a riot of color.

For Kilderov, who endured 55 days under Russian occupation in Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine, the objects are evidence of a war he insists must not be defined by official narratives alone.

Currently an invitation-only exhibition, he plans to turn the site into a museum conveying the gravity of war.

“I don’t want this to feel like a typical museum where you walk through five halls with similar collections,” he said. “I want one hall that concentrates everything — so people feel emotion when they suddenly find themselves surrounded by these items.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Kilderov has gathered artifacts through military contacts, trades and personal recoveries following nightly air attacks on Ukrainian cities.

What began in his home grew into a dense collection of captured Russian documents and passports, helmets, weapons fragments, knives, grenades and night-vision gear. Overhead hangs a Shahed decoy drone made of Styrofoam.

Among the most personal items are a smartphone pierced by shrapnel that saved a soldier’s life, military unit flags commemorating Black Sea operations, soldiers’ drawings and half-filled packets of cigarettes.

Kilderov’s visual style — doodle-like calligraphy concealing symbols and messages of resistance — runs throughout the space.

A 5-meter painting, titled “55,” is a maze of colored lines and symbols representing the number of days he spent under occupation. During that time, he helped organize underground aid networks, livestreamed life under Russian control and spray-painted abandoned Russian vehicles with his symbols in acts of defiance.

“From day one, we began sharing information with people inside the city and with the outside world,” he recalled. “By the 55th day, I managed to escape.”

After fleeing west, Kilderov staged exhibitions of his work, often using blown-up QR codes linking to videos he recorded in 2022. He designs military patches, creates art on battlefield debris and sells rocket tubes converted into Bluetooth speakers, donating most of the proceeds to military units.

As Ukraine endures its fourth winter of war, he says he is troubled by the return of inequality and division in a society once bound by urgency and shared purpose.

As he spoke to The Associated Press, he wore a red MAGA hat — a gesture he described as deliberate irony, reflecting the vulnerability of a country reliant on foreign aid that can be paused or withdrawn without warning.

In Kyiv, his rented basement has become a gathering point for soldiers who bring new artefacts and stories, expanding a collection he sees as a raw record of Ukraine’s lived reality — and of a solidarity he fears could fade.

“When Russia attacked Kyiv, people picked up rifles and went to fight,” he said. “I hope we return to that unity.”

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Volodymyr Yurchuk and Dan Bashakov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kilderov stands with a collection of battlefield artifacts documenting Russia's invasion of Ukraine in his private museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kilderov shows rocket tubes and military patches in his private museum that displays a collection of battlefield artifacts documenting Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Knives, grenades and smoke canisters are on display at a private collection of battlefield items kept by the Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kilderov in Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kilderov stands by his painting containing symbols and messages of resistance in his private museum that displays a collection of battlefield artifacts documenting Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian street artist Maxim Kilderov stands amid a collection of battlefield artifacts documenting Russia's invasion of Ukraine in his private museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)