In remote China, Tibetans break silence

[babsbunny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_on_re_as/on_the_tibetan_plateau

1 hour, 51 minutes ago
CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer

TONGREN, China - A Tibetan monk crouched in the quiet courtyard of a nearly deserted monastery and bitterly recalled the words he and his fellow monks have been forced to recite every year at government-organized classes: "I love this country."
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The "patriotic education classes" have been imposed on the monks for the past decade, but the young monk in the centuries-old Rongwo monastery still can speak his own mind to a journalist.

"We want freedom," he said. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back to his land."

The monastery is located in the valley town of Tongren, in Qinghai province, about 600 miles north of Lhasa, where anti-government protests last week were put down by riot police. The town is a mix of Tibetans and ethnic Chinese.

Just inside the monastery's main entrance, Tibetan pilgrims walked in quick circles around a prayer room that displays, among sacred objects, a large photo of the Dalai Lama. Outside, unmarked police vans were parked in a vast gravel lot.
TONGREN, China - A Tibetan monk crouched in the quiet courtyard of a nearly deserted monastery and bitterly recalled the words he and his fellow monks have been forced to recite every year at government-organized classes: "I love this country."
ADVERTISEMENT

The "patriotic education classes" have been imposed on the monks for the past decade, but the young monk in the centuries-old Rongwo monastery still can speak his own mind to a journalist.

"We want freedom," he said. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back to his land."

The monastery is located in the valley town of Tongren, in Qinghai province, about 600 miles north of Lhasa, where anti-government protests last week were put down by riot police. The town is a mix of Tibetans and ethnic Chinese.

Just inside the monastery's main entrance, Tibetan pilgrims walked in quick circles around a prayer room that displays, among sacred objects, a large photo of the Dalai Lama. Outside, unmarked police vans were parked in a vast gravel lot.