In China’s west, life goes on after Tibet riots

"We can't talk about this," said a 20-year-old monk as he sipped tea at a restaurant.

The abbots are being more strict, forcing monks to adhere to an 8:30 p.m. curfew, and fewer are going to local Internet cafes, he said.

TV stations constantly play a report chronicling the explosion of riots across western China. Footage shows scene after scene of monks overturning cars, storming government buildings, tearing down signs and toppling brick walls as the narrator lists the names of the towns and how much damage was incurred.

The "beating, smashing, looting and burning incidents" were masterminded by the Dalai Lama and his supporters, the reports say, echoing the government's line about the unrest — the broadest protest campaign by Tibetans against Chinese rule in almost two decades.

"I've seen this already," the 20-year-old monk said as he watched a segment showing shouting monks swarming the streets of Maqu, a town south of Xiahe.

He said about 20 of his friends asked him to march with them last month in Xiahe but he declined because he was afraid of what would happen. In the end, he said, about four or five monks from Labrang were taken away by security agents.

Authorities deny arrests of monks
Officials with Xiahe's police and government offices denied any arrests of monks, calling them rumors, but an official in the local government's executive office said investigations were under way.

The heavy security and harsh criticism of the Dalai Lama offend a clergy that has come to see itself as a protector of Tibetan values.

"The impression they are giving of the Dalai Lama is wrong," said a 22-year-old monk in the 700-year-old Rongwo monastery in Tongren, a town in Qinghai province. "He is our supreme leader. ... There is a heaviness in my heart."

The monk and dozens of others staged a protest March 16, climbing a hill behind the monastery where they burned incense in a traditional Tibetan Buddhist ritual called "wei sang." That evening the rite became an act of defiance, he said, against authorities who had issued a directive not to gather in groups.

"It is our right, our ritual," the monk said with a stubborn set to his jaw. Nearby monks nodded in agreement. They said troops who had ringed the monastery were no longer there but plain clothes minders from the local government are keeping an eye on things.

In Rongwo's main hall, a picture of the Dalai Lama — an icon banned by the government — sits in a large frame. The hall is locked but a 52-year-old monk opened it to reporters.

"Hardly any tourists come here any more," he said. "I have been sad and angry since the disturbances. I have cried."

Further north, monks at three monasteries within a mile of each other said they have heard of recent unrest — but either would not talk about it or said they had been ordered not to.

"Life is fine," said a monk at one monastery, where a picture of the Dalai Lama sat on an altar, draped with white and gold silk scarves. "It's hard to say why all this happened, it's complicated."

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