Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported a major clash between Chinese authorities and hundreds of Tibetans gathered for the annual Monlam prayer festival, with almost 200 Tibetan monks detained.

Sources in the Amdo region of eastern Tibet said that Chinese authorities in Rebkong [in Chinese, Tongren] county, in China’s remote northwestern Qinghai province, ordered the prayer festival stopped and sent in three truckloads of armed police after a clash erupted on February 21.

“They used tear gas, and most of the 200 Tibetans who were detained were monks from the area,” one source told RFA’s Tibetan service.

“Many of the monks who were detained were participating in a masked dance performance, so they couldn’t perform the dance, which is a major event in the Monlam festival,” which was to conclude Feb. 22, the source said.

   Many … were severely beaten and tortured. Two of them who were really serious were taken away to Xining for treatment.

Other protests erupt
When police tried to question one man, other Tibetans gathered around him, and a group of Tibetans outside a restaurant began shouting slogans and attacking police with sticks and stones, witnesses said.

Other protests erupted around the same time, and the crowds damaged seven Chinese government vehicles, they said. Authorities sent in more police, and around 200 people — mostly monks — were detained. Most have since been released, they said.

“During the clash and protests, many Tibetans raised slogans for the independence of Tibet and prayed for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So the Tibetan demonstrations went on until about 10 pm,” one source said.

“When police detained some monks and took them away, [the people] protested more intensely. Under the pressure of a massive Tibetan demonstration, the local government had to release all those who were arrested on the first day of protest. Many of them were severely beaten and tortured. Two of them who were really serious were taken away to Xining for treatment,” the source said.

Official announcement
“Such torture further enraged Tibetan demonstrators, and they refused to stop. Finally the head lama of Rebkong Monastery intervened, and only then the demonstration came to an end. So at the end even the traditional mask dance was also performed.”

Rebkong police declined to comment when reached by telephone. But the local government posted a statement in the town saying: “Local Tibetans gathered for the Monlam festival protested when police interrogated a Tibetan. Those Tibetan youths who were involved in the protests were interrogated and those who were slightly injured were handed over to their parents for advice and guidance. So the county is peaceful as before.”

The incident follows months of escalating tensions in traditionally Tibetan areas of what is now western China, with Chinese authorities taking a tougher line against what they regard as ethnic “splittism”, or resistance to Chinese rule in the region.

Centre of 2006 fur fracas
Rebkong county was at the centre of the campaign two years ago to discourage Tibetans from wearing fur. The Dalai Lama urged Tibetans to stop wearing traditional furs and protect endangered animals.

Residents began burning tiger, leopard, and sea otter skins publicly against the wishes of Chinese authorities, who responded by ordering Tibetan broadcasts to wear furs on the air.

In recent years, China has stepped up propaganda aimed at Qinghai’s Tibetans, launching a new channel broadcasting 17.5 hours of programs daily in the Amdo dialect, including news broadcasts, dubbed movies, and drama series.

More than half of the five million Tibetans in China speak the Amdo Tibetan dialect. The station had previously broadcast in the mutually unintelligible Lhasa dialect. Amdo speakers can be found in Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces.