As China clamps down, Tibet struggle grows radical

JIUHUANG FIRST VILLAGE, China — Police don't travel far to monitor the goings-on at the Gami Temple at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The police station sits inside the monastery, just outside the gates to the main prayer hall.

Smothering security has become a fact of life in China's Tibetan areas, from police stationed around monasteries to document checks at roadblocks. The heavy policing is driving some to radical acts to protest Chinese rule.

Most dramatically, at least 21 Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year. The immolations have set off a cycle of further repression that in turn has touched off large-scale protests in recent weeks. Some turned into deadly clashes between protesters and police.

Intense security is one reason Tibet's exiled government in India called on Tibetans this year to shun celebrations for their traditional new year, which started Wednesday. Instead, Tibetans are urged to pray for those living under Chinese rule.

"The threats and Chinese policies and Chinese military in Tibet are becoming more abusive," said Kanyag Tsering, a monk who left China 13 years ago for exile in India. He has become a channel for information from his home, Aba, a corner of Sichuan province where many of the immolations have occurred and which roadblocks and squads of riot and paramilitary police have effectively sealed off to foreigners.

One of the latest to self-immolate was an 18-year-old Buddhist monk in Aba whom Kanyag Tsering and another exiled monk said shouted blessings to their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, and "Freedom for Tibet" when he lit himself on fire on Sunday.

In Lhasa, the capital of Chinese-controlled Tibet, fears ran high in recent days with a bigger police presence and officials calling on individual Tibetan homes, said the International Campaign for Tibet. Hundreds of Tibetans returning home were detained after attending teachings by the Dalai Lama in India, adding to anxieties, the Washington-based lobbying group said.

Photos of Lhasa dated Saturday and posted Tuesday on the blog of Tibetan writer Woeser showed columns of marching troops, an armored personnel carrier and police checking passengers on a bus.

"The continuing attack on the Dalai Lama and separatist troublemakers, greater surveillance of monasteries and nunneries, heavy military and security presence — all these mean that China is prepared to rule Tibetans through force," said Dibyesh Anand of the University of Westminster in London. That determination, he said, is radicalizing Tibetans.